How artillery beat Rommel after Kasserine

FA Journal, May-August, 2002 by Robert C. Baldridge

Near their destination of Tebessa, the retreating II Corps troops and vehicles coming at them from the opposite direction slowed the column. With the help of a few MPs, the column sped up, forcing the retreats to stand aside. The retreating troops would often call out honestly, "But you are going in the wrong direction!" (7)

Did this affect the morale of the green 9th Artillerymen who knew little of what lay ahead as they moved toward their first battle? The results of the battle of Thala answer a definite, "No."

Among the iron men of the march were the vehicle drivers, especially those who drove the big GMC and Diamond-T trucks that pulled the 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers. They hardly got any sleep during the entire march. At the few short rest periods, their sergeants had to briskly jolt them awake in order to get them started again. Certain drivers later received Bronze Star medals for their determination along with maintenance mechanics who repaired breakdowns and road repair problems day and night. (8)

By the morning of 21 February, the column reached its crossroads destination town of Tebessa. It had nearby airfields and a huge supply depot for American and British ground and air corps personnel. At that point, the town was frantic with a hodgepodge of rumors flying, uncoordinated evacuation activities and roads crowded with ambulances, military equipment and vehicles.

When the column stopped at Tebessa, General Irwin found new orders awaiting him. He was to turn north immediately into Tunisia and head for the mountain pass behind Thala. (9) There, he was to take command of a mixed group of American and British Artillerymen who were desperately trying to stop, or at least slow, the fast-approaching panzers and infantry of the 10th Panzer Division. Elements of Brigadier Charles Dunphie's greatly outnumbered 26th British Brigade were doing what they could to slow the Germans. Some even were running along ridgelines firing their rifles to make the enemy think the Thala defenses were stronger than they actually were. (10)

The Battle. By dusk of 21 February, Irwin's column arrived behind Thala Pass, exhausted, cold and hungry. That night was spent preparing for action--digging in the guns, unloading and stacking the ammo, making night survey data, tying plots together, aligning gun barrels by use of aiming circles and stakes, and setting up radio and wire communications--doing all the things necessary for artillery to perform effectively.

Communications that night and early the next day were mostly out as many radios were damaged by the bumpy jolts of the march. Hand-laid wires kept getting knocked out by enemy shelling.

Gun-laying instruments were not properly declinated for this location. However, Brigadier H.J. Parham, the British First Army Artillery officer, was on the scene, supplying surveys, maps and suggested gun positions, all of which sped up accurate firing operations. (11)

The news of the arrival of the 9th Div Arty at Thala was a great boost to the morale of the Allied defenders there. They had just been consolidated under the command of Brigadier General Cameron Nicholson, Assistant Commander of the British 6th Armored Division. His small task force of infantry and armor could not be expected to stop the German panzer division just over the next ridgeline. But a small group of his "Nickforce" tanks heroically slowed the division down in time for Irwin's artillery to start blasting away at it at dawn on that cloudy morning of 22 February.