"The Battle of El Guettar" Topic

"The Battle of El Guettar was a World War II battle that took place during the Tunisia Campaign, fought between elements of the Army Group Afrika under Jürgen von Arnim and U.S. II Corps under Major General George Patton in south-central Tunisia. It was the first battle in which U.S. forces were able to defeat the experienced German tank units, but the followup to the battle was inconclusive.

Background

U.S. II Corps had been badly mauled in their first encounter with the German-Italian forces in Tunisia in a series of battles that culminated in the disastrous Battle of the Kasserine Pass in late February 1943. Erwin Rommel, poised on the threshold of a complete tactical victory, turned from the battle to return to his eastward-facing defenses at the Mareth Line when he heard of the approach of Bernard Montgomery's British 8th Army. Thus the battle concluded with the U.S. forces still in the field, but having lost ground and men, and with little confidence in some key commanders.

The American command reacted to their failure against the German forces with a prompt and sweeping series of changes in command, discipline, and tactics. A major change was the adoption of more flexible artillery communications, allowing all batteries within range of a target to respond to a single call for fire. Previously each battery could fire only on the direct command of its dedicated observers, spread out over the lines and using different frequencies to communicate back to the battery. Also, large units were kept massed rather than being broken up into smaller, unsupported elements as had been done under Fredendall. Coordination with air support was improved but did not reach satisfactory levels until later in the war.

On 6 March 1943, George Patton took command of the U.S. II Corps from Lloyd Fredendall, who had been in command before and during the Kasserine engagement. His first move was to organize his U.S. II Corps for an offensive back toward the Eastern Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains. This, if successful, would threaten the right rear of the Axis forces defending the Mareth Line facing Montgomery's 8th Army and ultimately make their position untenable.

On 17 March the U.S. 1st Infantry Division moved forward into the almost abandoned plains, taking the town of Gafsa and starting to set it up as a forward supply base for further operations. On the 18th the 1st Ranger Battalion led by Colonel William O. Darby pushed ahead, and occupied the oasis of El Guettar, again meeting with little opposition. The Italian defenders instead retreated and took up positions in the hills overlooking the town, thereby closing the mountain pass (of the same name) leading south out of the interior plains to the coastal plain. Another operation by the Rangers took one of the Italian positions and 700 prisoners on the night of 20 March, after scaling a sheer cliff and passing ammunition and equipment up hand-over-hand. They were now in an excellent position for an offensive."
link

Tunisia has excellent possibilities for gaming – a variety of force – 1940 era French with colourful colonial units and horse drawn guns, etc. British with Indians, Gurkhas, 8th Army. Yanks with Lee medium tanks and 75GMCs, etc all Vs Italians and Germans.

There are loads of interesting battles, the SOTCW team just ran one big game at Gauntlet last weekend – link

Electric or acoustic?

Report on Operation conducted by 9th Infantry Division,Southern Tunisia 26 March-8 April 1943
PDF link

The attack on El Guettar
PDF link

I have those and many, many more – very good links though :)

An interesting pic too, any idea where it was taken? (and don`t say Tunisia)

I wonder if those are the company destroyed in the US air-attack as described in Divine`s "Road to Tunis"??

Sorry. I don't Richard.This is supposed to be another photo from the battle. Robert

Looks more like a scrap-yard photo to me :)

Divine`s book is very good, he travelled with a TD unit right from the Torch beaches until the Kasserine battles.

The scene where the Lightnings plastered the TD column was pretty well documented, the entire company was written off…. Though there were few actual casualties, just wrecked vehicles.

There is an "After the Battle" special on El Guettar, not bad history but very few photos and god-awful maps :(

Battle of El Guettar
23 Mar 1943 – 7 Apr 1943

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

On 17 Mar 1943, US 1st Infantry Division the minimally-defended town of Gafsa, Tunisia in preparation for a new offensive against Axis forces in Tunisia. On the following day, US 1st Ranger Battalion moved to the oasis town of El Guettar; the Italian defenders withdrew from the town quickly, but they were able to fortify themselves on hills overlooking the town and to block the El Guettar moutain pass to the south. In response, German General Jürgen von Arnim ordered German 10th Panzer Division to counterattack. The attack began at 0600 hours on 23 Mar, spearheaded by 50 tanks and followed by armored halftracks carrying infantry, supported by artillery. The American front lines were quickly overrun, but as the German vehicles slowed in a minefield behind the front lines, American artillery, anti-tank guns, and tank destroyers were able to damage or destroy 30 German tanks, forcing the Germans to withdraw by 0900 hours. At 1645 hours, a renewed offensive was launched, and it was similarly halted by the unexpected American firepower. Overnight, the Germans joined the Italian troops on the hills to the east, but the Axis forces would not be able to gain the momentum to strike again. Instead, over the following week, the Americans slowly pushed the front lines forward while building up forces at El Guettar.

On 30 Mar, 31 Mar, and 1 Apr, US 1st Infantry Division and US 9th Infantry Division, supported by about one third of the tanks of US 1st Armored Division, attacked Italian-held positions at Hill 369; some of the attacks were relatively successful, but ultimately the Italians were able to repulse every attack. On 2 Apr, US 9th Infantry Division was moved to attack Hill 772, leaving only US 1st Infantry Division to attack Hill 369, which was captured on 3 Apr. With tanks of German 21st Panzer Division arriving to reinforce Hill 772, the Battle of El Guettar grew into into a stalemate.

At about 1700 hours on 7 Apr 1943, British troops who had pushed Axis troops out of the Mareth Line in southeastern Tunisia linked up with American troops on the El Guettar-Gabès road. This battle showed that the Americans, though still inexperienced, were now able to hold ground against offensives conducted by experienced German forces.

Source: Wikipedia

American Troops Setting Up Camp after the Battle of El Guettar
link

link
link

Another great shot. Robert
link
"View of burning German armor abandoned during the desert fighting between American and German forces in the El Guettar Valley, Tunisia, early 1943."

link
An American soldier looking over German artillery captured or destroyed in the battle of El Guettar, 1943.
link

I'm sorry to say that "Life" has miscaptioned some photos that are not really from El Guettar.
Kaoschallenged; that photo of Americans climbing on top of a Mk.4…that is not from El Guettar. It's from the battle of Hunt's Gap, and it was a British victory.

It is worth noting that El Guettar was about the only time that US Army Tank Destroyers actually fought the type of battle that had been envisioned when the TD Command was established.

They were used as a concentrated force rather than being parceled out to the infantry commanders. They were not committed to battle as assault guns or scouts or mobile artillery, but held in reserve until the enemy armor was committed. Then they were given the independence to fight their anti-armor battle as they had been trained to do.

They performed pretty well, particularly if one takes into account the ad hoc nature of their equipment at that time. The 75mm Gun, Motor Carriage M3 was really a bit of a lash-up. But it gave as good as it got in the exchanges with Pz IIIs and IVs, effectively stopping the advance of Von Arnim's panzers before they were able to get into the 1st Infantry Division's positions. The very few M10s that arrived in time for the battle were well appreciated as a backstop, but did not make much of a contribution.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

We`ve found on a wargames table (at least) the French `75 – as fitted to the GMC75 SP is quite effective against German tanks. In one engagement French crewed GMC75s knocked out 2 x Pz IV, a Pz III and a sdkfz251 – be it I accept they fired from the flanks and cover, but that seems a good historic way to use them anyway :-)