Poor command ability

Rommel had asked General Ziegler to expand in the direction of spector as much as possible on the night of February 6th (5438+0943). But Ziegler said that he had to get Anim's approval before he could move forward-the Germans finally exposed the disunity of the command system for the first time. Rommel is no longer the supreme commander of the Axis forces in North Africa, but he is at the same level as Anim in action. Can't ultra vires command Anim's troops, and Anim himself is extremely disapproved of Rommel's attack, thinking that he is an adventure, but he is more willing to let his troops attack the north of Duke (where is the main force of the US military).

So, it was not until February of 17 that Ziegler's troops took two days to advance 25 miles and reached Spectra, where they were stubbornly resisted by the troops assembled by the US military.

It was not until the afternoon that the American troops began to retreat and the Germans entered spector. But so far, the 1st 10 armored division has stopped its trip to Kesselring Pass, which is close at hand. Anim completely opposed Rommel's adventurous attack and made every effort to recover his first 10 armored division.

Here, Rommel personally led the troops in the south to advance rapidly, occupied Gafsa at 15, left Colonel Muntong's 288 Special Forces (a famous African tank elite group) behind, and then advanced 50 miles at 17, passing Ferriana, and occupied the special Lepter airport of the US military.

Just before the first 10 armored division in the north occupied spector, Rommel's joint action should have officially started (the two armies attacked Kesselring Pass), but due to Anim's uncooperative action, the action was postponed again.

Then, an interesting episode appeared. Rommel decided to present his offensive suggestions to Mussolini, who was actually eager to win a victory to strengthen his already shaky dominance in China.

At the same time, Rommel's closest chief of staff, bayerlein, persuaded Tunisia Air Force Commander to agree to support the plan. However, it was not until midnight of 18 that Rome called for permission to continue the attack and handed over the command of 10 and 2 1 armored divisions to Rommel.

Ironically, however, this "continue to attack" order stipulates that we should attack Tara and Lekoff to the north, not to the northwest through Tebesa-in Long Shuai's words, "this is an amazing and incredible myopia"-such an attack is just the front of the enemy and will collide with the main force of the enemy. But at the same time, this absurd order is ambiguous, so that it has the opportunity to serve its own goals and drill loopholes. Occupy the mountain pass

But in any case, the troops must first take the important mountain pass-Kesselring Mountain Pass. 1943, 19 In February, although the mobilization of 10 armored division was repeatedly delayed by Anim, a few hours after Mussolini's attack order was issued, the Germans attacked the Kesselring Pass with three weak battalions.

The American troops defending the mountain pass are Colonel Stark's mixed forces. Due to the lack of coordination in defense, the Germans had infiltrated some places at dusk.

If 10 armored division can invest more troops, perhaps the combat effect will be better. However, by the end of that night, only 10 tank battalion, 2 infantry battalions and/kloc-0 locomotive battalion remained in the/kloc-0 armored division, and almost half of the remaining divisions, including 50 1 heavy Tan Ying battalion, were still detained by Anim.

It was not until the afternoon of 20th that Rommel launched a concentrated attack on Kesselring Pass-including an all-round assault by five battalions of an Italian battalion, and quickly broke through enemy positions. After being stubbornly resisted by less than one battalion (a tank company, an infantry company and a field artillery company), the British lost 1 1 tank and plunged into the depths of the valley. Finally, Kesselring Pass was successfully occupied.

Since then, Rommel sent a search party to Talai and Tebesa, in order to make it difficult for the allies to mobilize the reserves, and at the same time, he wanted to seize the huge supply warehouse of the American troops in Tebesa and force the American troops to retreat (this was his original plan).

At the same time, Brigadier General Charles Dunphy's 26th British Tank Brigade (two tank regiments and two infantry battalions) has moved south from Talai and set up a position about 10 miles away from Kesselring Pass. The allies never imagined that the Germans were actually much weaker than they thought.

End of activity

On the morning of February 2 1943, Rommel hesitated. He decided to stop moving forward. He predicted that on February 2 1 day, the allied forces would counterattack. However, this is a costly mistake. There was no counterattack that day. Coincidentally, the allied forces estimated that the number of Germans was very large, and reinforcements arrived within one day, which made the situation of the Germans, who were already at a disadvantage in number, even more difficult.

A dramatic turn has taken place. Starting from western Algeria, after four days and 800 miles of marching, the artillery battalion of the 9th Infantry Division of the United States appeared on the mainland leading to Talai, and spent the whole night preparing on 2 1.

In the early morning of the 22nd, when the German tanks began to advance towards Talai, they were hit by gunfire, which greatly boosted the morale of the allied forces and strengthened the determination of the British troops retreating northward led by Brigadier General Deng Fei.

More importantly, the heavy shelling convinced Long Shuai and General Fritz von Blue, who commanded the Terai assault force, that the main reinforcements of the Allied forces had arrived and the raid effect since 14 had been lost.

On the morning of the 22nd, the Germans launched their last attack on Talai, but it had little effect. On the contrary, the heavy losses have already overwhelmed them, and the American troops in this area are far stronger than them.

That afternoon, Rommel and Kesselring, who flew to the front to inspect, reached the same conclusion: it was unprofitable to continue attacking, and the African legion was weak and tired, and was in danger of being countered at any time. As a result, the African legion began to retreat in stages.

According to incomplete statistics, in the battle, the Germans killed, wounded or disappeared 6,300 soldiers of the Second Army of the United States and captured 4,026 people. Destroy allied tanks 183 vehicles, semi-tracked armored vehicles 194 vehicles and 5 12 vehicles of various types.

At this point, the six-day battle of Kesselring Yamaguchi ended.