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Essay on Battle Kasserine Pass
The Battle Kasserine Pass was a battle in World War II fought between the German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel and the Americans under General George Patton in the Kasserine Pass (a 2 mile wide gap in the Dorsal Chain of the Atlas Mountains) in central Tunisia. It took place on February 20th, 1943.The American forces had landed in North Africa November 8, 1942, long before Bernard Montgomery's breakout in the east. At the time there was little organized defense in the western desert, but the Americans moved up very slowly to meet Rommel's rear flank.
Eisenhower would later write that the American operations violated every recognized principle of war. Nevertheless, confident Allied commanders planned for the conclusion of operations in North Africa.On January 23, 1943 Montgomery's 8th Army took Tripoli, thereby cutting off Rommel's main supply base. Rommel had planned for this eventuality, and had built up a force in Tunisia, protected on the west by the Atlas Mountains, and on the east by the Gulf of Sitre.The only direct line of approach for the 8th Army was from the south, where Rommel took over heavy defensive works known as the Mareth Line, originally constructed by the French to fend off an Italian attack from Libya. After the fall of Tripoli, Rommel's Afrika Korps made for the Mareth Line, with the American forces waiting just to the west.
The German forces reached the American lines on February 14, desperately short of supplies. Rommel decided that the best source of supplies, notably fuel, were two US supply dumps just west of the mountains. On the 19th he launched several probes, and decided that the Kasserine Pass would be the easiest place for an assault. The next day he personally led the attack from Faïd......
