Chapter Ten
Just four days after Montgomery’s breakthrough at El Alamein on 8 November 1942 the American Army landed in Vichy-controlled French Algeria and Morocco, west of Rommel in Libya. Due to a lack of tank-landing craft, the Moroccan ports of Casablanca and Safi on the Atlantic coast and the Algerian ports of Oran and Algiers on the Mediterranean had to be secured as quickly as possible in order for the Americans to land their tanks over the quayside.
There were around 50,000 French and colonial troops in Algeria and 55,000 in Morocco (with another 15,000 in Tunisia), supported by up to 500 aircraft. The French and French colonial forces were largely infantry formations, equipped with 25mm and 37mm anti-tank guns. However, according to American intelligence, they were supported by around 250 armoured cars and tanks, which constituted a direct threat to the American landing forces. Armour in French North Africa included the tiny Renault FT-17, Renault R-35 and Hotchkiss H-35/39 light tanks.
General Ernest H. Harmon, commanding the American landings, found he was without armour despite planned support from the American 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions. Those light tanks that had been landed were inoperable due to faulty batteries or drowned engines. To make matters worse, the two ships carrying additional tanks suffered critical delays unloading their cargo owing to crane problems. When the Shermans of Task Force Blackstone finally landed near Safi they were too late to see any combat. Task Force Goalpost, assigned to capture the airport at Lyautey and Sale, included M5 light tanks of the 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division.
The 1st Armored Division comprised the 1st and 13th Armored Regiments, each equipped with one battalion of light tanks and two battalions of medium tanks. While the medium tanks were dry-landed at the portside, the light tanks were brought ashore via shallow-draft oil tankers and pontoon bridging. The M3 light tanks of the 13th Armored Reconnaissance Company, spearheading Red Task Force, seized Tafaraoui airfield. Green Task Force, including the M3s of the 1st Battalion plus elements of the 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, secured La Senia airfield. Luckily the American light tanks were more than a match for the elderly Renault tanks. It was only when the Sherman tanks were finally put ashore at Safi and Oran that the Allies were able to field any substantial quantity of medium armour, and by then the French had called for a ceasefire.
While elements of the US 2nd Armored Division took part in Operation Torch, only the US 1st Armored Division fought in Tunisia. Its sister division remained in French Morocco to help deter General Franco’s Spain from joining the Axis powers. During the winter of 1942/43 the 2nd Armored Division was cannibalised to provide equipment for the newly raised French 2nd Armoured Division and to flesh out the 1st Armored Division after its mauling at Kasserine.
If the French had cooperated, the Allies could have pushed into Tunisia within two days of the landings in Algeria. Instead, the Germans struck westwards from Tunis, successfully safeguarding the panzers’ escape from Libya into Tunisia. Under the French–Italian armistice, Mussolini had imposed a 50-mile demilitarised zone between Libya and Tunisia, but this now counted for nothing as German and Italian tanks were soon crossing to secure their exposed western flank. The French garrison in Tunisia chose to observe the ceasefire and join the Allies, as elements of the British First Army, after landing in eastern Algeria, moved into western Tunisia. Unfortunately, a quarter of the French garrison in Tunis remained loyal to Vichy France and did nothing to impede the arriving Germans. At Bizerte some Vichy French units even joined the Germans, who were moving to reinforce Tunisia.
The Allies’ inability to extend the landings eastwards into Tunisia was to prove a major failing of Operation Torch. Within days of the Allied landings, German aircraft were flying troops and equipment into Tunis and by the end of the month some 15,000 German and 9,000 Italian troops were in position to prevent the British 1st Army from cutting through Tunisia to link up with the Eighth Army advancing through Libya.
In the wake of the Torch landings, the French had to support the Allies’ forces in Tunisia, maintain their garrison forces and equip a new army to take part in the forthcoming liberation of Europe. This meant that ill-equipped existing units were rushed into battle before they were really combat ready. Initially the French 19 Corps, comprising some 13,000 men, moved to the front between the British 1st Army and the US 2 Corps. Crucially they lacked tanks. A similar number of Free French forces were also committed, and they were issued with Stuarts and Shermans.
Shortly after the German build-up in Tunisia, the Eighth Army rolled up to the Libyan border. During the second week of December Rommel decided to pull back from El Agheila, the Axis stop line during the two previous British advances. Instead, he chose to make a stand on the Mareth Line in Tunisia. Ironically this had been built by the French to keep the Italians out and was superior to the Alamein positions.
From Oran the US 1st Armored Division was rushed to Tunisia and came under the command of the British 1st Army for the drive on Tunis. The division’s 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, lost forty-two tanks to the panzers in fighting around Djedeiba and Tebourba. Despite receiving Sherman replacements, by the time of the Axis surrender the 1st Armored Division still had fifty-one M3s on its strength. These were handed over to the Free French forces for driver training. The M3 was then withdrawn from service in the Mediterranean and European theatres of operation.
By the end of January 1943 the Afrika Korps was in Tunisia, having abandoned Mussolini’s Libyan colony with the evacuation of Tripoli. With his front secured on the Mareth Line, Rommel knew that he would be granted a breathing space by Montgomery that would enable him to turn and face the American Army advancing on Tunisia. Rommel kept hoping that Hitler would send him reinforcements, but when they arrived they were too few and too late.
Rommel’s forces numbered about 30,000 Germans and 48,000 Italians. His 21st Panzer Division had been sent back to the Gabes-Sfax area, while the Italian Centauro Armoured Division had moved to guard the El Guettar defile facing the Americans at Gafsa. The German units, though, only had about one-third of their complement of tanks, a quarter of their anti-tank guns and a sixth of their artillery; of 130 panzers, less than half were combat-worthy.
Hitler, having starved Rommel of resources throughout 1941 and 1942, was now determined to hold on in Tunisia at all costs and by the beginning of February Axis forces had risen to a total of up to 100,000 Germans and an additional 26,000 Italians. The armoured forces were now almost entirely German and numbered 280 tanks, 110 with the 10th Panzer Division, ninety-one with the 21st Panzer Division, a dozen Tiger tanks and twenty-six tanks in a unit reinforcing the twenty-three surviving Italian tanks with the battered Centauro Division.
While Rommel was keen to strike before Montgomery gained the full benefit of the port of Tripoli, his chain of command was now complicated. His 21st Panzer Division was under General von Arnim’s Tunisian command. At the end of January the 21st Panzer Division gained a foothold at the Faid Pass, from where it could launch an attack on the Americans. Rommel and von Arnim must have secretly despaired of fighting a two-front war in Tunisia. At last, having received fresh armoured units (which included the Herman Goering Division and the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion equipped with Tiger tanks), Rommel chose to set about the Americans at Kasserine. Only at Kasserine Pass did the exhausted Germans enjoy any real success against the inexperienced American tank crews pressing on their western flank.
On 14 February 1943 Rommel’s veteran 21st and von Arnim’s 10th Panzer Divisions swept through the American positions. The raw American troops were no match for the battle-hardened panzers. The 21st Panzer Division set about the US 1st Armored Division at Sidi Bouzid, destroying numbers of Grant, Lee and Sherman tanks with ease. To the embarrassment of the American Army, they lost 150 tanks and 1,600 men captured in the heavy fighting. The Germans rolled on through Kasserine and Sbeitla. A week later the Germans captured another twenty tanks, thirty armoured personnel carriers and a similar number of anti-tank guns. However, American losses were swiftly and easily replaced.
Kasserine gave Rommel his last victory in Africa, but his lack of resources and high command interference meant his tactical victory never developed into a strategic success. Shortly afterwards, Rommel flew to Berlin to request an evacuation, but not only did Hitler refuse this request, he also cruelly refused Rommel permission to return to his men, who were facing final defeat.
American troops embarking on transport ships bound for French North Africa. Operation Torch, launched on 8 November 1942, was designed to trap Rommel, who was being driven out of Egypt following El Alamein. (US Army Signal Corps/NARA)
A French gunboat moored at Casablanca. Despite putting out feelers, the Allies were unsure how the Vichy colonial armed forces would react to the landings in French Morocco and Algeria. (Author’s Collection)
US troops in North Africa on 10 November 1942. Initially they had to rely on Stuart light tanks to provide armoured support against Vichy counter-attacks. (US Army/NARA)
Following the fall of France, quantities of equipment were hidden in North Africa, including half a dozen Hotchkiss tanks, such as these H-39s, twenty-five armoured cars and twenty-four tracked carriers. Additional tanks were then shipped from France to help counter the activities of the Free French. (Author’s Collection)
Fortunately for the Americans, most Vichy counter-attacks involving tanks utilised the ancient two-man Renault FT-17. These were no match for the 1st Armored Division’s M3 Stuarts, which moved to secure La Senia east of Or an. Between Lyautey and Rabat the 2nd Armored Division’s M5 light tanks helped thwart thirty-two French tanks, forcing the crews to abandon twenty-four of them. (Normandie Collection)
The French Chasseurs d’Afrique regiments were equipped with armoured cars and Renault R-35 tanks (as seen here) in North Africa. (Author’s Collection)
General Eisenhower’s inability to push his armoured units swiftly into Tunisia was to have serious ramifications. (US Army/NARA)
In French West Africa armoured units were armed with twenty-three Somua S-35 tanks; after Operation Torch, they were shipped north to take part in the fighting against the Axis forces in Tunisia. (Author’s Collection)
The 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, equipped with the M3 Grant/Lee, was the only medium tank battalion to take part in the initial landings in French North Africa. (US Army/NARA)
A 1st Armored Division M3 medium tank rumbles into Tunisia. The 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, came under the British First Army for the drive on Tunis. They got to within 11 miles of their objective before mounting German resistance brought them to a halt. When the unit was pulled out of the line on 10 December 1942, it had just twelve tanks left; the other forty-two had been lost in the fighting around Djedeiba and Tebourba. (US Army Signal Corps/NARA)
The Germans moved swiftly to secure Rommel’s rear by flying troops from Sicily into the key Tunisian towns of Bizerte, Gabes, Sfax and Tunis within days of Operation Torch. The Junkers Ju52 transport aircraft was instrumental in this airlift, but this air bridge came at a cost: on 18 April 1943 fifty-two aircraft from a force of about a hundred were shot down near Cape Bon. (Scott Pick Collection & Dr Peter Caddick-Adams)
Men of the American 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion pore over a map in front of the basic M2 half-track somewhere in Tunisia. Note the 75mm gun motor carriage M3 in the background. (US Army/NARA)
Members of the Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Armored Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, scan the sky for enemy aircraft over Tunisia on 24 February 1943. (US Army/NARA)
The Focke Wulf Fw190 served in North Africa from late 1942 until the German collapse in Tunisia the following year. It made its combat debut on 16 November 1942, providing ground support; over Tunisia it engaged American, British and French aircraft with its pilots achieving a high number of kills. (Author’s Collection)
Men of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, marching through the Kasserine Pass and on to Kasserine and Farriana on 26 February 1943. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
American GIs examining a knocked-out panzer; at first glance it looks like a Mk III, but the eight road wheels identify it as a Mk IV. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
The Tiger I deployed to North Africa in late 1942 with elements of the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion; appropriately the unit’s emblem was a stalking tiger. They were followed by a company of Tiger tanks from the 504th Heavy Tank Battalion in March 1943. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
US Army personnel inspect a captured M13/40. The Italians fought with great bravery to the last with their German allies in Tunisia. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
On the day of the Axis surrender in Tunisia, 12 May 1943, an American has stopped to look at smashed panzers on the roadside. The man is standing in front of the road wheels of a Tiger I, behind which is a Panzer IV. To the left is the hull of an upturned Tiger, while just in front of the speeding truck is another upturned Tiger. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
Judging by all the spent shells, this German 88mm gun gave a good account of itself defending Axis forces in Tunisia before it was knocked out by a Sherman. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
These GIs could not resist taking this captured and rebadged German hardware for a test drive. The tank on the left is a Panzer Mk II, while to the right they are examining a Sd Kfz 233 armoured car employed in the self-propelled gun role with a short 75mm gun. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
It’s all over for these German prisoners as they file into a field near Bizerte on 8 May 1943 under the watchful eye of their American guards. (US Signal Corps/NARA)
This follow-up shot makes it apparent just how many men have laid down their arms. (US Signal Corps/NARA)