“What are they doing down there? By God, they want Tebessa! But they will split their army in two if they go there.”
That city was 85 Kilometers to his southeast, and his was the only division in this sector. He could not hold where he was and still stop Patton’s move to Tebessa, and he immediately got on the telephone to von Arnim at Souk Ahras.
“The Americans are moving southeast to Tebessa, and we have nothing there but some flak units and a few Grenzwacht Kompanies. Now I’m charged with holding a front line of over 140 kilometers, and we’ll be outnumbered five to one.”
“Then you will have to fight for time,” said von Arnim. “I have Pfeiffer’s Group south of Constantine, but there’s no movement there. I’ll have to give them the city, but I can hold in the mountain passes beyond with one regiment of the 15th Infantry. Move the bulk of your division south, but you must hold Ain Beida, and leave one good Kampfgruppe north of there to stop them from flanking you. Kesselring has promised me another infantry division, and the 334th is landing at Tunis today.”
“The 334th?”
“A new division. One regiment is composed of mountain troops. I’ll try to motorize the other two and send them directly to Tebessa by rail. That will anchor your defense in the south”
“What about the Hermann Goring Brigade?”
“I can’t touch that. It’s the only mechanized force backstopping our defense north along the coast. The 334th will have to do. They’re green, but if you put some panzers at their backside, they’ll fight.”
Peiffer had an ad hoc regiment composed of KG Luder, the Hansen 190th Panzer Battalion backed by some para pioneers that had been withdrawing east to Tunis, and a third motorized infantry battalion, KG Hudel. He left those in the fortified airfield of El Bey south of Constantine, but ordered the others south along the road and rail that would lead through El Beida to Tebessa. They went up over a high mountain pass and descended to find the first battalions of the 9th Infantry deploying to attack Ain Fakrour.
Hauptmann Hansen had 69 tanks, mostly Pz IV-F2s, but also four tigers that had been stolen from the 501st before it went to Rommel. He attacked immediately, catching 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment in the open. Upon placing a company of AT guns on the road to watch his flank, they ran into a second German battalion there, and so now the word was sent back that they had at last found the enemy. General Eddy decided to double down and send up the 30th RCT, which was next in line of march. He spent all morning on the 8th of January to make these deployments, but by mid-day he was ready to attack through the old ruins near the railway station southwest of Ain Fakrour.
The Panzergrenadiers were in the sturdy warehouse and rail car buildings at the station, their MGs barking as the us infantry began to advance. There, on a feeder rail spur at the station, the was a damaged boxcar, its rusty metal sides pot marked by bullets. A German MG team was inside, lying prone, and pinning down a lot of infantry that had to go to ground in the open approaches to the station. The Americans tried to hit the rail car with a mortar, but kept missing. Then, an enterprising Corporal got on the radio to his air support liaison and asked for some help. Apparently Patton’s complaints had been taken to heart, for ten minutes later a flight of three P-38s came roaring in and shot that rail car to pieces with their Hispano 20mm cannon.
Further south, the bulk of the US 9th Division was deploying to attack Ain Beida, but the Germans received support from a regiment of the promised 334th Infantry Division. The trains had labored all night long to get them there from Tunis, and the 754th Regiment arrived just in time to join a counterattack being staged by Fischer’s 69th Pz Grenadiers. But the German defense was like an archipelago of islands stretched out along that rail line. They had kampfgruppes at Ain Fakrour, Ain Beida, and at Meskiana to the south west of that hub, where Fischer had sent his 7th Panzer Regiment. They were about to make the acquaintance of the revitalized 1st Armored Division.
Taking the lead in Patton’s drive East, ‘Old Ironsides’ was out to start working on its reputation. CCA under Colonel Robinette had pushed due east towards Tebessa, but CCB took the road up to Meskiana. A-Company of the 13th Armored regiment attacked with a battalion of armored engineers, pushing right for the town, and C-Company joined on the right. But Brigadier General Oliver sent all the rest of his command east of the town, just bypassing it completely. They were driving to cut the second rail line to Tebessa that came down from the north, and by so doing, isolate Patton’s main objective from further reinforcement. Patton had told them to flow east like water, engaging resistance, but flowing around it wherever possible.
There the Germans met and fought the new American M3 Sherman, with the 75mm gun. It was a far better tank than those they had faced earlier, but no match for the Panzer IV-F2, let alone the Lions whenever they were present. They ripped apart a good number of those American tanks.
While Oliver’s CCB locked horns with those panzers, Colonel Robinette’s CCA had been moving east along a secondary road that joined the main road northwest of Tebessa. They were therefore headed away from the fight, for the Americans had boldly divided their 1st Armored Division, thinking they had no more than a regiment to contend with at Meskiana. The problem was that this was a full Panzer Regiment, and they were now learning renewed respect for the German tankers. So when Patton heard Oliver had a hot fight on his hands, he quickly redirected the entire 2nd Armored Division up the road towards Meskiana. They began arriving in the thick of that fight, deploying their SPGs to begin pouring on supporting fire against the German tanks.
While Oliver’s command had mostly M5 Stuarts, just a few of the newer US tanks, 2nd Armored had been completely re-equipped. They brought up two full medium battalions, and went right after the German panzers in the village of Meskiana. On the defense, the Germans usually enjoyed a good range advantage on their enemies, but in those close quarters, with the tanks in and through the adobe like buildings, the action came to point blank range at times. Had the German panzers been supported with good infantry and artillery, it would have been a real mess for Oliver’s command. But an order was soon to come that would end this initial duel. The threat to Tebessa was growing more serious by the hour, and a small raiding force under Colonel Semms was about to garner a most distinctive honor.
Since high mountains screened Tebessa to the west and south, The path taken by Colonel Robinette’s CCA was the only clear avenue of attack. Yet Patton had also sent a fast moving force under Colonel Semms, the old “Blade Force” from the real history, only minus the British contingent. It had three companies of M5 Stuarts, some artillery, flak, and an engineer platoon, and they scouted south of those mountains to try and reach the road as it ran southeast from Tebessa to Thelepte.
So it was that on the 8th of January, A-Company, of 66th Armored Cav, was the first Allied unit to cross the border and enter Tunisia. Even though the German 755th Regiment of the 334th had arrived by rail to reinforce Tebessa, the Germans simply did not have enough troops to defend that southern approach. When they found it largely undefended, Semms got on the radio and informed Patton that the ‘way around the right’ was wide open.
“Good,” said Patton. “Now I want you to go right for Thelepte along that road. I’ll send up the 1st Infantry to take the position you’re holding now.”
Patton was demonstrating remarkable flexibility as he advanced. He had kept Terry Allen’s Division in the basket behind his armor, and he was parceling out that infantry wherever it was needed, in effect, building Kampfgruppes on the spot as the Germans might have done. This kind of flexibility was not yet endemic to the US forces, but it was to Patton. Where he took personal charge of the battle, results followed. Brigadier Roosevelt’s 26th RCT got orders to move out at once. And the sheer audacity of Patton’s ‘broken field running’ was about to unhinge the entire German defense.