User:FOARP/Battle of Steamroller Farm

Battle of Steamroller Farm
Part of Operation Ochsenkopf
Date 27-28 February 1943 Location El Aroussa, Tunisia 39°27′17″N 9°30′31″E Result See Aftermath section
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Nelson Russell	Friedrich Weber Joseph Schmid

{{Campaignbox Tunisia}}

The Battle of Steamroller Farm took place during the Second World War between 27-28 February 1943, during the Tunisian campaign, in which the Western Allies defeated the Axis powers and ended the war in North Africa. The battle was the result of a German attempt to launch a attack against the advancing British First Army in order to buy time for an attack on the British Eight Army on the Mareth line. After two days of fighting along the road between El Aroussa and Medjez El-bab, primarily at a position known as "Steamroller Farm", the Germans withdrew.

Background

Further information: Run for Tunis

Following the defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert by British and Commonwealth forces at the battle of El Alamein in November 1942, and the successful occupation of Morrocco and Algeria by Anglo-American forces during the same month, Axis forces had moved in to and occupied the French colony of Tunisia to forestall Allied forces and provide an area for the Afrika Korps to retreat in to. Tunisia thus formed a final bridgehead for the Axis forces of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in North Africa.

Despite the long route from Algeria, Allied forces advancing from the west came within 20km of Tunis by late November 1942. However, these forces were then pushed back by arriving Axis forces and by the end of 1942 the front in western Tunisia had stabilised roughly along line running from a point on the coast approximately 40km to the west of Tunis southwards, through Medjez el Bab and El Aroussa. During the same period the British Eighth army under Montgomery had pursued the Afrika Korps through Libya, finally reaching the Mareth Line in south-eastern Tunisia by January 1943.

Tunisia and Operation Ochsenkopf

Further information: Tunisian Campaign

Upon his arrival in Tunisia in January 1943, the German commander of the Afrika Korps, Erwin Rommel, dismissing the possibility of a serious threat from the Eighth Army until they had properly cleared the harbour of Tripoli, planned a series of counter-attacks against Allied forces in the west in order to knock them back. In the first of these, at Faïd Pass on 30 January 1943, Free French and US forces had been driven from the pass. Two weeks later on 14 February at Sidi Bou Zid, US forces had suffered a serious reversal and the central Tunisian town of Sbeitla had been captured. On 19 February another Axis attack was launched at the Kasserine Pass, and in a five-day battle the Americans suffered another reversal.

Kampfgruppe Schmid

Main article: Operation Ochsenkopf

On 20 February 1943 the German general Hans-Jürgen von Arnim assumed command of the 5th Panzer Army, itself under Panzer Army Africa headed by Rommel. Without consulting Rommel, but with Kesselring's permission, von Arnim decided to launch a series counter-attack at three points in the west against the V Corps of the British First Army. The forces that would be used for this were Korpsgruppe Weber a battlegroup comprising a mixture of the German 334th Infantry Division, elements of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring Division, and elements of the 10th Panzer Division, under the command of Friedrich Weber. This attack was code-named Ochsenkopf (Ox-head). Together with this, in an subsidiary attack code-named Ausladung, an armoured battlegroup under Hasso von Manteuffel was to attack along the coast at Sejenane.

The southernmost of these attacks was to be carried out by Kampfgruppe Schmid, consisting of two battalions of German Fallschirmjäger and a company of 11 tanks from the 7th Panzer Regiment under German Luftwaffe general Joseph Schmid. Kampfgruppe Schmid was tasked with seizing the pass at Bir el Krima and then advancing to El Aroussa to capture the road-junction there. This sector was held by roughly 250 men of 6 Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Mills-Roberts, equipped only with light arms.

Battle

Advance

Starting their advance before dawn on 26 February, the attack of Kampfgruppe Schmid enjoyed intial success. With a company of Fallschirmjäger riding on the tanks and the rest following in lorries, the lightly-armed troop of 6 Commando at the pass were quickly overrun.

Aftermath

External links

{{Tunisian campaign}}