General Bradley had again cautioned him, still worried about the concentration of German armor north of Eddy’s 9th Infantry. So to mollify him, Patton told Harmon to sit tight for the second straight day. This way he could also say that the bold movements he had ordered with Old Ironsides were nothing more than reconnaissance operations. After all, it was only a single combat command. The rest of Harmon’s division would not arrive for several days. He had to make amends with Eisenhower one day, but for now, he was feeling that saddle leather under him, still an old cavalryman at heart.
That same day, the recon battalion of 21st Panzer Division came up from Kasserine and scouted the road through the pass towards Tebessa. It reached the village of Chekir before it suddenly took small arms and mortar fire from well concealed enemy positions. They had run up on the Ranger battalion under Colonel Darby, which had scouted that area, operating well north of Blade Force. The Germans decided to flush out their enemy, and swept off the road with their armored cars and halftracks, moving into the attack. The rest of the division wasn’t far behind them, and within that hour, II Battalion, 125th Panzergrenadiers, came up in support. A flight of American P-40s swooped low for moral support, their machineguns strafing the road near the town.
When the Germans started also ranging in artillery from a battalion of mobile guns, Darby and his men had had enough. He knew he was up against much more than a recon force here. There was power on that road, and he could see dust in the air being kicked up in the pass to the southeast. So he got on the radio to Robinette, knowing that CCA was on this very same road and heading for his position.
Meanwhile, the 501st Schwerepanzer Battalion had been out in front with Rommel on the road to Ghafsa, which was almost a hundred kilometers south of Kasserine. They reached a defile at El Guettar, and rumbled on through. Just where the highway was about to meet the rail line that branched off to the phosphate mines and other destinations south, they ran into the head of the US 34th Infantry Division in a long column of march. General Ryder had been ordered to Ghafsa, but he had not sent out much in the way of recon. What happened next would give the American infantry a real taste of tank shock, to be sure.
The three companies of Tigers deployed abreast, one on the road flanked by two others on either side. Then they began a charge, like heavy cavalry thundering into the American column, those murderous long 88mm guns blasting away as they came. William Blake could have been writing about this very attack if he had been there to see it when he penned those now famous lines of poetry: Tiger, tiger, burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
3rd Battalion, 135th RCT was about to find out.
Seven trucks, some fully loaded with infantry, were blown to pieces as the Tigers started to fire at long range. Then they thundered on, and within ten minutes, they had completely overrun and destroyed A-Company of that battalion. Most of the US AT guns were still being towed, so it was just the infantry, leaping from burning trucks, still lucky to find themselves alive, and running for any cover they could find. A few Bazooka teams bravely tried to get into position to fire, and the troopers raked the heavy tanks with machineguns, but to no avail. One team took aim and put a bazooka round right onto one of the Tigers, but they might have been throwing mud balls. When nothing happened, they threw the bazooka down, turned tail, and ran like hell.
The 60mm rocket in the bazooka was supposed to be able to penetrate between 90 and 100mm of armor at a 90 degree angle, but in actual practice it rarely achieved that performance. As late as the Korean War, it was even found to be ineffective against the enemy T-34s. It wasn’t until later in the war, when the US developed the “Super Bazooka,” that the weapon really came into its own against tanks. That could penetrate 280mm of armor, more than enough to kill most anything it could hit out to 300 meters. But the 34th Division had no M20 Super Bazookas at hand, nor would they for at least 18 months.
The alarm raised, the remaining two battalions of the 135th RCT began to deploy out of road column and moved to either flank. They finally brought up their AT gun support, a company with nine 37mm guns that they also found to be completely useless against those German Tigers. The US infantry watched, aghast, as one gun put round after round on an advancing enemy tank, not impeding its advance in the least. Then it stopped, the infantry cheering with the thought that they had finally knocked it out. Seconds later, they saw that big armored turret turn slowly, and fire blazed from the muzzle of that long 88. The AT gunners simply turned and ran, the infantry following them soon after.
The encounter there that would come to be known as the battle of Sidi Bou Baker had not started well for the Americans. The whole of A-Company was lost, and elsewhere, Colonel Darby had also lost fully half his battalion by the time he beat a hasty retreat south into heavily wooded country, hoping to save the rest of his Rangers with stealth, where force of arms had failed. He reached a platoon of armored engineers from Blade Force, warning the sergeant there that the Germans might be right on his heels. They got on their radio and sent the word back to Colonel Semms, and as it happened, that task force Patton had sent down towards Thelepte came rattling up the road to the junction at Bou Chebka.
“I understand you fellas are having an argument with the Italians?” said the Lieutenant.
“What of it?” said the tough looking Sergeant. “We can hold ‘em. But our Rangers say there’s Germans right up that road. You better go have a look.”
The Lieutenant gave him a nod, then turned his column onto the smaller road north, which soon ran into those heavy woods. When he finally emerged, getting up round a spur from the hills to the south east, he saw the Germans massed near that hamlet where Colonel Darby had fought his battle and lost. At that same time, the rest of Robinette’s CCA came down the road to Kasserine and began to hit the town from that direction. It was as if the Americans had planned the ambush, and now the Lieutenant eagerly began to shake his column into some order for battle, and moved to join that attack on the flank.
The battle for Kasserine Pass had finally begun.
Bradley found Patton at his headquarters in Tebessa, coming down from 1st Infantry’s lines to the north. “George,” he said, with a tone in his voice that said ‘I told you so.’ “Both 3rd and 9th Infantry report a heavy attack underway up north. Von Arnim is throwing everything he has at them—two panzer divisions.”
“Well you’re just in time, Brad, because Rommel has finally made his appearance on the road to Kasserine. Robinette ran right into his 21st Panzer Division there. And Ryder down south says he’s also got a fight on his hands north of Ghafsa.”
“Ghafsa?” Bradley rushed over to the map table. “The Germans must have brought in another unit through the pass at El Guettar. George, this is damn serious. That makes four German Panzer Divisions, and now getting over that border into Tunisia isn’t the issue any longer. This is a major counteroffensive, and here we are strung out all the way from Ryder’s division to as far north as Ain Fakrour.”
“I’ve already spoken with Montgomery,” said Patton. “He says he can easily watch the passes near Constantine so we can reclaim Macon’s 7th Regiment for 3rd Division. I’ve already given him orders to support the front line north of Ain Beida.”
“I hope it will be enough,” said Bradley. “The reports I picked up on the way down here didn’t sound too encouraging. Thank God you left 2nd Armored where it was. At least we have something in hand to hit them back. What about Oliver with CCB?”