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Mareth. This was to be a period of some anxiety to the Allied comï؟¾manders, for while the Eighth Army was making its preparations
and the remainder of the Allied forces were building up their
strength, the enemy troops in Tunisia were free to devote their full
attention to the British First Army and the American II Corps,
thinly stretched out over a wide front. With Rommel’s divisions
available, the total Axis strength in Tunisia had increased to approxiï؟¾mately 200,000 combat troops.
Battle of Kasserine Pass, 14-26 February 1943 (Map 5).—During
the first two weeks of February an extensive regrouping of Allied
forces took place. In the II Corps sector the 1st Armored Division,
less detachments, was assigned a front of about fifty miles from
Djebel Trozza, near Fondouk, to Djebel Ksaira, south of Faid Pass.
Combat Command B was attached to the British at Maktar. Comï؟¾bat Command A and the 168th Regimental Combat Team of the 34th
Division moved into the Sidi Bou Zid area, where the 168th was
placed in defensive positions on Djebel Ksaira and Djebel Lessouda
(positions that jvere not mutually supporting) to cover Faid Pass.
Combat Command C was concentrated at Hadjeb el Aioun, and the
remainder of the 1st Armored Division was at Sbeitla. The 26th
Regimental Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division was in the
Feriana area.
The Germans did not remain passive for long, for at dawn on
14 February they launched a determined attack from Faid in the
direction of Sbeitla-Kasserine and made a secondary attack from
Maknassy, in the south. The enemy forces involved in these initial
attacks were the entire 21st Panzer Division, which had been withï؟¾drawn from Rommel’s army in Tripolitania, and elements of the
10th Panzer Division, which had recently been re-equipped at Sfax.
The immediate objective of the main attack, which was supported
by artillery, motorized infantry, Stuka dive bombers, and fighter
planes, was the road junction about five miles north of Sidi Bou Zid.
The enemy first overran a battalion of armored artillery on the
slopes of Djebel Lessouda, near the road junction, and by 0715 hours
had occupied the road junction itself with a force that included some
twenty tanks. Allied forces on Djebels Lessouda and Ksaira were
threatened with complete encirclement. One battalion of tanks of
Combat Command A, supported by a battalion of artillery, launched
a counterattack against the enemy south of Djebel Lessouda while
the remainder of Combat Command A withdrew to the west to take
up a defensive position at a road junction about ten miles northwest
of Sidi Bou Zid.
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