The Battle of El Guettar was a battle fought during the Tunisian Campaign between the United States, Germany, and Italy during World War II.
On 31 January 1943 the US 34th Infantry Division and part of the US 1st Armored Division advanced toward Sened Station. The operation was intended to take them as far as Tunis, but Axis infantry and tanks, supported by aircraft, stopped the Americans on February 2.
At El Guettar a few battalions of well-entrenched Italian infantry again held up the US armoured-infantry columns, though the Americans did well in finally capturing Hills 290, 369 and 772 from the Italian Army.[1]
Sened Station[]
The first phase of the Allied offensive would require the securing of the Italian outpost at Sened Station. After being trucked to within striking distance, the 1st Rangers Battalion crossed their start-lines at 0510 hours on February 11, 1943 and almost reached the Italian outpost without being spotted.
As the three American rifle companies closed-in for the attack, the Headquarters Company took up positions behind the Italian defenders with the intention of cutting-off their escape route. While Headquarters Company was setting up positions the rifle companies were making their way towards their objective under heavy fire from a machine gun sangar which opened up soon after they crossed the start-lines. As the Rangers cleared the outpost, an anti-aircraft crew unexpectedly began to zero in and pound Darby's command team, who had silhouetted themselves against the skyline.[2]
Mortars were successful in knocking out this and other heavy weapons, but it took four hours and casualties from machine-gun fire and protecting rifle-teams, before Sened Station was taken some time after 1000 hours.[3]
In just a few hours, the Rangers were victorious. The Rangers had killed or wounded some 50 Italians and captured eleven more from the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment. The victory had cost the Rangers one man killed and another 20 wounded.[4]
Axis counterattack[]
On the morning of 23 March, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, having gathered 50 tanks from the 10th Panzer Division and motorized half-tracks and motorcycles with machine-gun mounted sidecars, launched a counterattack. The Axis assault met with initial success with the supporting 7th Bersaglieri Regiment overrunning the US 1st Battalion (under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert H. York) from the 18th Infantry Regiment (US 1st Infantry Division)[5]
Although von Arnim's force had succeeded in penetrating the valley between the US 1st and US 3rd Battalions and some of his tanks reached a position about six miles to the rear of the American forward lines, the soon got bogged down in minefields.
The Americans took advantage of this pause and hit back the tank columns with artillery and anti-tank gun screens. Thirty German tanks were reportedly destroyed and by midday the battle and ensuing mopping-up operations was effectively over and the Germans and Italians retreated from the valley.
The next day, Radio Rome was able to report the capture of 170 American soldiers in the Axis counterattack.[6]
El Guettar Heights[]
The 2nd Battalion (under Colonel Edwin H. Randle) from the US 39th Infantry Regiment first attacked the main Axis defence-line at El Guettar on the evening of 28 March, but ran into heavy fire from the alert Italians entrenched on Hill 290. The American lost several men killed and wounded and were forced to retreat back to their start-lines as a result.
On 30 March, at 10.00 hours the US 47th Infantry Regiment attacked again, this time supported by heavy softening up fire. This assault was more successful and over three-hundred-and-fifty Italian soldiers were captured.[7]
The fighting continued, but the American 2nd Battalion from the 47th Infantry Regiment made little progress in taking Hill 369 from the Italians. The ground gained in the night-fighting could not be held in the face of an Italian counterattack and heavy casualties forced the Americans to withdraw with Company E forced to surrender.[8]
During this period of the Allied stalemate, it was also admitted in the British press that the Italians facing the simultaneous advance of the Free French Division in support of the Americans, fought particularly well outdoing the elite German reinforcements sent to replace them on El Hamma Ridge:
"The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days. Next morning Rommel ... replaced the Italians with crack German troops ... but the enemy, finally fellback into the ravine...the morale of 20-year-old (German) prisoners fresh from the Russian front was low, they made no attempt to hide their satisfaction at being out of the war." [9]
Final Allied breakthrough[]
The Us 1st Infantry Division finally took their objective on 3 April, though the 9th Division was still engaged in a bitter fight for Hill 772.
The local Italian commander, General Giovanni Messe sent in reinforcements from the 21st Panzer Division. By 6 April, the American advance had stalled again with the US 1st Armoured Division reporting 304 killed in action, 1,265 wounded, 116 missing (captured) and forty tanks destroyed in its push to get to Tunis.
References[]
- ↑ "Fought in the rugged region south of Gafsa, the Battle of El Guettar was a bona fide victory that did show American mettle ... Infantrymen of the 9th Infantry Division were in the thick of the action in the mountainous region. Italians accounted for most of the enemy forces." I Was with Patton, D. A. Lande, p.50, Turner Zenith Imprint, 2002
- ↑ "Artillery began to zoom in and explode near Darby's command team, who had silhouetted themselves atop the ridge." Patton's First Victory: How General George Patton Turned the Tide in North Africa and Defeated the Afrika Korps at El Guettar, Leo Barron, p.33, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
- ↑ "Most of the Italians had surrendered, and all that remained was a nasty machine-gun nest and the last of the enemy reserves. However, the Rangers were pinned down and could not destroy the last enemy crew-served weapon. They had exhausted all their 60mm mortar ammunition, leaving them with only their rifles and light machine guns ... Around 1000 hours, the Ranger command post reported over the field phone ... 'Everything cleared up except a few machine gun nest'." Patton's First Victory: How General George Patton Turned the Tide in North Africa and Defeated the Afrika Korps at El Guettar, Leo Barron, pp.35-36, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
- ↑ 1st Ranger Battalion: 70 Years Since Sened Station
- ↑ "On March 23, Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. York commanded the 1st Battalion of an Infantry Regiment of the First Division, which was in position on the northeastern slopes of Djebel Berda, generally facing Hill 369, about seven miles east of El Guettar. At dawn that day, the German 10th Panzer Division and elements of the Italian 7th Bersaglieri Regiment attacked the 1st Division with at least two hundred vehicles. Colonel York's regiment, owing to its position, bore the brunt of the attack. The enemy tanks succeeded in penetrating the valley between the 3d and 1st Battalions which held the high ground on either side and some of the enemy tanks reached a position about six miles to the rear of the 1st Battalion before the attack was finally broken down." Infantry Journal, Volumes 54-55, p. 42, United States Infantry Association, 1944
- ↑ "The Italian High Command said today that 40 Allied tanks had been destroyed in fierce fighting, which was continuing in central and southern Tunisia, and said 170 Allied prisoners had been taken." Yankee Units Within Hour's Drive of Sea; Blast 30 Nazi Tanks, Reading Eagle, 24 March 1943
- ↑ "On Tuesday, March 30, our artillery pounded enemy positions, and was, in turn, strafed and bombed by enemy aircraft. Following another barrage at 1000 hours, the 47th again attacked in the face of heavy fire, and took all objectives, small heights to their front. Capt. Thomas Wilson of Love Company was killed in the drive. A total of 353 prisoners were taken during the day in the vicinity of Hill 290. Nearly all Italian soldiers with no previous fighting experience but under the command of veteran German officers and non-coms." History of 47th Infantry Regiment, United States Army Unit Histories, p. ?, Army Navy Publishing House, 1947
- ↑ "At H-Hour, 6 A.M. March 28th, the 47th was in position to take the day's objective, Hill 369. It fell quickly, but the darkness and poor maps had led the 47th astray to El Hamra Ridge ... The 2nd Battalion 47th had been sent on a flanking movement that might have done the job. But it was caught in a murderous crossfire decimating Company E. The Battalion C.O. and the Communications Officer were captured as were the commander of Company E and 175 of his men." The 9th Infantry Division: Old Reliables, John Sperry, p.11, Turner Publishing Company, 2000
- ↑ Fighting French Troops' Part in Advance on Gabes, The Glasgow Herald, 1 April 1943