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losses in equipment, ninety-eight medium tanks, fifty-seven halfï؟¾tracks, twelve 155-mm. howitzers, and seventeen 105-mm. howitzers
having been lost. There was now no possibility of further counterï؟¾attacks to hold the four armored divisions * that the enemy was
employing, much less to restore the Allied strategic position.
Since this Axis drive endangered the position of the French XIX
Corps on the Eastern Dorsal, the First Army commander ordered
the withdrawal of all forces to the high ground of the Western Dor^
sal and the line Feriana-Kasserine-Sbeitla. A battalion of infantry
from the 1st Infantry Division and a regiment of combat engineers
were assigned the task of organizing a defensive position in Kasï؟¾serine Pass, about six miles northwest of the town of Kasserine.
On 16 February General Fredendall directed the 1st Armored
Division to hold Sbeitla at all costs until 1100 hours, 17 February,
in order to secure time to establish the position at Kasserine. In
compliance with this order the remnants of Combat Commands A
and C were disposed south and east of the town. They were attacked
by the enemy at 0900 hours on the 17th, but held their ground until
1500 houi^s, when Combat Command A moved north to the vicinity
of Sbiba and C withdrew along the Sbeitla-Kasserine road. Combat
Command B, having completed its movement from Maktar, covered
the withdrawal. The entire 1st Armored Division was now ordered
to concentrate about ten miles southeast of Tebessa as a reserve to
meet any enemy drive through the defenses of the passes in the
Western Dorsal—El Abiod, Dernia, and Kasserine.
By nightfall the Axis forces had occupied Sbeitla, Kasserine, and
the Thelepte airfield and had infiltrated into the hills toward Kasï؟¾serine Pass. The loss of the airfield was a serious blow to the Allies,
but they had managed to evacuate most of the planes and stores and
had destroyed what could not be moved.
By daylight of 18 February the American 34th Infantry Division
(less the 168th RCT) arrived at Sbiba to take over the defense of
that pass and relieve Combat Command A, which was to join the
rest of the 1st Armored Division southeast of Tebessa. Supported
by the 18th Regimental Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division
and a British Guards brigade, the 34th Division sustained attacks
by tanks and infantry during 18, 19, and 20 February in what was
actually a strong diversionary maneuver to prevent reinforcements
being sent south to Kasserine, where the enemy planned to make
his major attack.
* The 10th, 15th, and 21st Panzer Divisions and the Italian 131st Centauro
Division.
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