8/8/2023 0 Comments Western tank force patton![]() ![]() As Eisenhower biographer Carlo D’Estes details, British soldiers began derisively referring to the Americans as “our Italians,” a reference to the Germans’ lightly-regarded ally.įor Eisenhower, his first battle turned out to be an embarrassing moment. performance earned scorn from the experienced British forces. The Germans, in comparison, suffered around 1,000 casualties, including 200 killed, 550 wounded and 250 missing, according to Blumenson. forces suffered more than 6,300 casualties, including more than 300 killed. While the Germans had been repulsed, the battle had been a costly one. ![]() The US army's Second Corps looking over a burnt out tank belonging to Rommel's Africa Corps following the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. That halted the German offensive, and Rommel-faced with overextended supply lines and Allied reinforcements rushing into the fray-ordered his forces to return to their starting positions. By the end, “their line had stiffened, and they were blasting the Germans with concentrated artillery fire,” Citino explains. To make matters worse, Fredendall had split up elements within divisions and assigned them separate individual tasks, so that they fought in an uncoordinated fashion.Įventually, in the last few days of the battle, the U.S. ![]() ![]() “The Germans were well-trained and highly experienced, and they caught a green U.S. “The American Army looked like all the other armies who fought the Germans for the first time,” Citino says. Lloyd Fredendall, did particularly badly. The inexperienced II Corps, commanded by Eisenhower subordinate Maj. He decided to launch a direct counterattack against the Allies through the Kasserine Pass, a gap in the mountains in central-western Tunisia.Įarly in the morning on February 19, the Germans struck, and over the next week or so, inflicted heavy punishment upon the Allies. In response, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel used two of his tank divisions to push back the Allied line. German military commander Erwin Rommel discussing plans with General Nehring in Tunisia in December 1942. Then the Allies crossed the Atlas mountains, with a plan to head toward the Mediterranean and split the German forces to the north and south. Bernard Montgomery taking Tripoli in late January. The Allied forces moved eastward, with the British forces under Gen. “If Eisenhower wasn’t ready for Kasserine, he also showed that he knew how to jump start things.” Rommel's German Troops Launch CounterattackĪs the National World War II Museum’s website details, in November 1942 Eisenhower led the American and British forces in Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-held North Africa. Army, the entire Allied force, was restructured from top to bottom after Kasserine,” Robert Citino, the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, explains. Instead, he was able to see what they did right in the battle, and to build upon those strengths. Just as important, Eisenhower didn’t lose faith in his men. He reorganized his forces to work together in a more cohesive fashion, shook up his intelligence operation and brought in the brash, aggressive Gen. But after figuring out what had gone wrong, Eisenhower made sweeping corrections. The loss was so devastating that British allies began to question Americans’ ability to fight. combat setback in World War II, with American forces suffering more than 6,000 casualties. The battle is regarded by some as the most humiliating U.S. When he first faced the Germans in Tunisia in February 1943, his forces took a brutal beating in the battle of the Kasserine Pass. Eisenhower is remembered as one of the most masterful military figures in history, the man behind the bold and superbly-executed Normandy invasion in June 1944 that led to Nazi Germany’s defeat less than a year later.īut before Eisenhower’s great military successes, there was a great failure. As the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the European theater, Gen. ![]()
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