Back on the line of the Medjerda river, at Medjez el Bab, the spearheads of British 36th Brigade were posing a threat to 3rd Battalion of Koch's regiment. Worried at the approach of the British and angered by the prevarication of the French, the German commander ordered an advance to the river to secure the vital crossings. As the German advanced guard moved towards the first houses on the eastern bank of the river they were met with fire from French troops in a bridgehead which they still held on the eastern side. To destroy this bridgehead and to attack the Allied armoured and motorised units which had now been identified and which had mixed with the French vehicles, a Stuka assault was ordered for 19 November. Under cover of this an attempt would be made to seize Medjez el Bab by coup de main and should this fail then the paratroops were to occupy and to hold the high ground, thereby preventing the British and the Americans from advancing eastwards towards Tunis.
Meanwhile another company of paratroops had taken over the aerodrome at Djedeida and had begun to prepare it for use as a forward air base by the Luftwaffe's fighters. With the small forces at their disposal the German commanders were achieving a great deal.
At 04.00hrs on the morning of 19th, along the line of the Medjerda river. German infantry and paratroops were in position, hidden in olive groves, ready to attack and to seize the crossroads behind the west bank. To secure the southern flank of the attack an anti-tank gun was positioned on the road going down to Goubellat, with orders to halt any Allied move northward. Contingency plans in the event of a pre-emptive move by the French were drawn up and any advance by them would lead to the bridge being blocked while a secondary move would thrust into the flank of their assault.
The dawn bombardment to open the attack did not materialise and not until 11.30hrs in the light of a bright, fine day did four ME 109s appear escorting a Stuka squadron; these machines swept down upon the French positions with sirens screaming. Under the noise of the bombardment, the crash of bombs, and the howling sirens, the ground assault began with fire from every available weapon. The sudden vicious attack broke the French and many rushed for shelter in the nearby houses. Those who remained were smashed aside by the German infantry, who fought their way into the houses on the eastern bank while the paratroops stormed towards the bridge. But there the advance halted for none could cross the structure in the face of the curtain of fire which the French artillery had laid around it. The German thrust was then moved to a flank and a storm troop detachment was sent across the river at a point to the left of the bridge and ordered to carry the attack forward by indirect assault. The small detachment waded through the icy waters firing their rifles and machine pistols as fast as they could reload them. They attained the western bank, took out a French defensive position, worked their way towards the bridge from which they drove the French defenders, and established a bridgehead. But losses had reduced, and were continuing to diminish, the group. When, finally, the numbers were down tc four men the survivors withdrew to their own units on the eastern bank.
Allies atack to Tunis
During the evening of 19 November Koch formed 10 assault groups, armec them with explosives, and set them tasks of destroying given targets inside Medjez el Bab: either a French defensive position, an artillery post, a depot, or some other installation. The first group melted into the November darkness at
midnight and others followed at intervals. By 01:00hrs the first explosions were destroying the targets and as the detonations continued and fires began to rage in the town a panic arose among the French and their troops fired wildly about them. Some of the assault detachments were engaged in street fighting when just before dawn the sound of tank tracks announced the arrival of Allied armour. A group of paratroops rushed the tanks, fixed hollow-charge grenades to their exteriors and blew them up. The remainder of the column withdrew towards Oued Zarga. Medjez el Bab, the gateway to Tunis and the lynch pin of the defence, was in German hands.
Without halting, the paratroops took the advance westward gaining ground up to Oued Zarga and meeting only medium opposition until they struck British paratroop columns ranging in the area. In the afternoon of 20th, Koch was forced to halt the advance, for his front was over-extended and his point unit was in danger of being cut off. Back in Medjez the Germans consolidated their gains and occupied a farm at Smidia to form the right flank of their thinly held perimeter. French counter-attacks came in during the night of 21st — Spahi horsemen mounted on Arab stallions — but these were driven off by machine gun and mortar fire. The area then entered upon a period of calm. The central region of the front, like the northern and the southern flanks, was sealed and behind the thin line of paratroops Nehring could form the army which would be able, given the supplies it needed, to hold the Tunisian bridgehead for some time.
The German commanding general was still deeply concerned with the weakness of his lodgement area and, to strengthen the Tunis bridgehead, divided it into a northern and a southern zone. An Italian force, under Loren-zelli, took over the southern part and Colonel Stolz, withdrawn from the Bizerta bridgehead, took over Tunis north. His command on the Bizerta front passed to Colonel Barenthin. Djedeida had by this time been established as the advanced air base and -Mateur as the sector from which German motorised patrols either probed the Allied front or guarded their own exposed and weak southern flank.
Although the machines of the Luftwaffe's transport command were still ferrying men and supplies across the Mediterranean, the slow-flying JU 52s had become the prey of Allied fighters. But sufficient men were arriving to thicken the perimeters and in Koch's regiment the supply of reinforcements brought the strength of 3rd Battalion to nearly 2000 men. By this time the 1st Battalion of the regiment had begun to arrive in the bridgehead and was posted southwards to take up positions near Pont du Fahs. During the night of 21st the advance parties of 10th Panzer arrived from southern France and took over paratroop positions in the Tebourba area and at Djedeida, leaving the paras free to reinforce their comrades in position around Medjez and at El Aroussa. The first thrust by American tank units in the El Aroussa sector came in during the afternoon of 21st and, although they seized the little village, their advance further eastwards ran into a strong defence manned by men of a motorised company from 104th Infantry, a flak detachment, and paratroops. The United States thrust was beaten back with heavy loss.
The first major, Allied offensive which was intended to capture the objectives of Tunis and Bizerta and thus fulfil the terms of reference for Operation Torch began on 25 November. The first target was Tunis, considered by the Allies to be the less important of the two perimeters. With the fall of that city the whole weight of Allied power could be directed to the capture of Bizerta.
The British plan foresaw that the main thrusts would be an advance to the line Mateur—Tebourba by the two infantry brigades of 78th Division supported by the mobile and mainly armoured Blade Force. To divert German attention from these main thrusts there were to be diversionary operations; the one a commando assault from the sea and the other an air drop on the southern flank.
The 36th Brigade of 78th Division was to advance from Djebel Abiod towards Mateur and then press onwards to seize a junction on the Mateur-Bizerta road. Possession of this would cut the" route between those towns and would form a base line for the final advance northwards to Bizerta. The 11th Brigade assault was to move upon and through Medjez el Bab and then strike north-eastwards towards Tebourba. Blade Force would be the mobile centre column protecting the left flank of 11th Brigade and be advancing upon Sid: Nsir. At that place it would turn due east, seize the Chouigui pass, debouch on to the plain at El Bathan and the aerodrome at Djedeida. Once Mateur and Tebourba had been taken the advance upon Tunis could begin.