US Army surprised at Sidi Bou Zid

14th February 1943: Complacent US Army frontline unravelled by surprise Wehrmacht attack towards the Kasserine Pass

37-Mm Antitank Gun (M3A1) and crew wait for the expected enemy column through Faïd Pass, 14 February 1943

SIDI BOU ZID, looking northeast.

Sooner or later, the raw U.S. forces that had arrived in North Africa with the Torch landings were going to come up against some of the most experienced fighting troops in the world.

The 21st Panzer Division had been in the Desert since March 1941, already veterans of the Blitzkrieg in Poland and France, and knew every tactical trick in the book and more. They also had some formidable weapons. They were long experienced in drawing the enemy onto well-dug-in 88mm guns. Now that gun, capable of penetrating the armour of a Sherman tank from over a mile away, was also mounted on their latest tank, the Tiger 1.

General Lloyd Fredendall. Regarded by US Army Chief of Staff George C Marshall as “one of the best” - on Marshall’s recommendation, Eisenhower gave him command of II Corps. General Omar Bradley was to describe his underground headquarters, carved out of solid rock, “as an embarrassment to every American soldier"

Eisenhower as a Major General, 1942. In February 1943, he had just been appointed a 4 Star General in command of all Allied Forces in the Mediterranean theatre when he had to intervene in Tunisia.