Battle of the Kasserine Pass

Battle of the Kasserine Pass
From Wikipedia,
Battle of the Kasserine Pass
Part of The Tunisia Campaign

The 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army marches through the Kasserine Pass and on to Kasserine and Farriana, Tunisia.
Date February 19–25, 1943
Location Kasserine Pass, Tunisia
Result Axis victory
Belligerents
United States
United Kingdom
France Germany
Flag of Italy Italy
Commanders
Flag of the United Kingdom Kenneth Anderson
Flag of the United States Lloyd Fredendall Flag of Nazi Germany Erwin Rommel
Strength
30,000 22,000
Casualties and losses
10,000 (including 6,500 Americans)
183 tanks
706 trucks[1] 2,000
34 tanks
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v • d • e
Tunisia Campaign
Run for Tunis – Sidi Bou Zid – Kasserine Pass – Capri – Pugilist – El Guettar – Vulcan – Flax – Retribution
Sketchmap of Tunisia during the 1942 - 1943 campaign

The Battle of the Kasserine Pass took place in World War II during the Tunisia Campaign. It was, in fact, a series of battles fought around Kasserine Pass, a two-mile (3 km) wide gap in the Grand Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains in west central Tunisia. The Axis forces involved were primarily from the German-Italian Panzer Army (the redesignated German Panzer Army Africa) led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and two Panzer divisions attached from the Fifth Panzer Army. The Allied forces involved came mostly from the U.S. Army's II Corps commanded by Major General Lloyd Fredendall, which was part of the British First Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson.

Significant as the first large-scale meeting of American and German forces in World War II, the untested and poorly-led American troops suffered heavy casualties and were pushed back over fifty miles (80 km) from their positions west of Faid Pass in a rout. In the aftermath, the U.S. Army instituted sweeping changes from unit-level organization to the replacing of commanders. When they next met, in some cases only weeks later, the U.S. forces were considerably more effective.