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How the World War II American Army at Kasserine Pass Grew up in North Africa Christopher Eric Jacob Sherwood Sr

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How the World War II American Army at Kasserine Pass Grew up in North Africa Christopher Eric Jacob Sherwood Sr Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 Bloddied but Bruised: How the World War II American Army at Kasserine Pass Grew Up in North Africa Christopher Eric Jacob Sherwood Sr. Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BLOODIED BUT BRUISED: HOW THE WORLD WAR II AMERICAN ARMY AT KASSERINE PASS GREW UP IN NORTH AFRICA By CHRISTOPHER ERIC JACOB SHERWOOD, SR A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2013 © 2013 Christopher E. J. Sherwood, Sr. Christopher Sherwood defended this thesis on October 29, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: G. Kurt Piehler Professor Directing Thesis James Jones Committee Member Jonathan Grant Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my brothers and sisters in arms who never made it home!! iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to first thank my adviser, G. Kurt Piehler, for the intellectual guidance, encouragement, and moral support that helped to make this thesis possible. I am indebted to him for his infinite patience and support of my career as an Army officer and a scholar. I also thank him for his personal interest in my research and leadership within the field of military history. I thank Dr. Richard Sommers and Dr. Conrad Crane of the US Army Military Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania for their insightful comments and bibliographic help. In addition, I thank three archivists, Richard Baker, Shaun Kirkpatrick, and Tom Buffenbarger, also of MHI, who showed extraordinary patience and diligence throughout my research trip. I thank my parents, Jeff and Brenda Sherwood, for teaching me to become the person I am and for their continual support throughout my entire life. I would like to thank my fellow graduate students, Sean Klimek, Hillary Sebeny, Kyle Bracken, and Chis Juergens who proofread my thesis and provided thoughtful and insightful comments. Regardless of any help that I received, I take full responsibility for any errors. Finally, I could not have done this without the unconditional love and patience provided by my wife, Allyson. She is the backbone of our family that kept the household running smoothly even through my deployments, research trips, and long periods of writing. I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her devotion, sacrifice, and encouragement. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 2. UNPREPARED .....................................................................................................................20 3. TRAINING ............................................................................................................................80 4. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................134 APPENDICIES ............................................................................................................................142 A. CHRONOLOGY .................................................................................................................142 B. BATTLE ORDER ...............................................................................................................146 C. THE SONG OF THE FIGHTING 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION .........................................152 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................153 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................162 v LIST OF FIGURES 1 Tunisian Front, Mid-January 1943 ....................................................................................16 2 Battle of Sidi bou Zid, 14-15 February 1943 .....................................................................21 3 Delay and Withdrawal, Sbeitla, 16-17 February ...............................................................38 4 Citation of 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment following operations in Sbeitla area. LTC Gardiner is in the trench coat near the front of the M4 tank. ................................................47 5 Battles at Kasserine 19-22 February 1943 .........................................................................55 6 American tanks of the 1st Armored Division advance to strengthen Allied positions 20 February 1943 ................................................................................................................................64 7 The tactical solution for a protective front given to General Orlando Ward from the British ..........................................................................................................................................104 8 The War Department Pamphlet coving mine and booby-traps ........................................117 9 The War Department pamphlet displays enemy as devils and emplaces Nazi symbols to build hatred for the enemy. Examples of the cartoon type drawings to keep the attention of soldiers. ........................................................................................................................................119 10 A pictorial display showed the training cycle for the Infantry Replacement Training Center. As the needs of the army changed the training cycle was decreased in 1944 ................123 vi ABSTRACT The American Army’s first encounter during World War II with the German Army in North Africa at the Battle of Kasserine Pass resulted in a tactical defeat. Lloyd Fredendall, the II Corps commander, did not lead from the front and instead preferred to remain at a safe distance in his man-made command post cut into a mountain over one hundred miles from his forward positions. After the Wehrmacht launched its attack on 14 February 1943, the American positions quickly disintegrated and headquarters elements fled to the rear stranding entire infantry units on mountaintops. As the senior leaders were running for their lives, they ordered field grade officers to conduct counterattacks against a superior German armor force. These battalion commanders fought valiantly, but were overmatched and their units became combat ineffective. Finally, two days into the fight, British General Kenneth Anderson released a substantial reinforcement element to bolster the lines and slow down the German thrust enough to allow the American 9th Infantry Division artillery forces to be brought 735 miles to eventually stop Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s offensive. Following the defeat, General Dwight Eisenhower replaced senior generals who had made glaring tactical mistakes throughout the battle with capable leaders. The new commanders instilled discipline within the ranks which would play a critical role in future battles in North Africa. Eisenhower realized that the men under his command made mistakes throughout the battle and he was inspired to create changes in combat training. First, lessons had to be collected from the men at the frontlines. “Ike” issued training directives based on combined arms lessons to the units under his command, but he also had a bolder plan to influence the training cycles of basic training and unit predeployment training in the United States. Armed with combat experience, Eisenhower flooded the War Department with recommendations to intensify training vii to better prepare the units for war. The bureaucracy of the War Department prevented immediate modifications to existing training cycles, but by late summer 1943 training regiments were infused with battle lessons. The ability of the American Army to change training based on the lessons it received from the frontlines of North Africa was decisive to success in the North African, Mediterranean, and European theater of operations. viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The American defenses at Kasserine Pass began to collapse on the foggy morning of 20 February 1943 under a renewed German effort led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Afrika Korps commander. Throughout the morning the artillery observers fled their positions because they thought, “this place is too hot.”1 Around 1200, the Germans overran the 19th Engineers’ command post. Colonel Alexander Stark, ground commander, was determined to hold out, but by 1700 German grenades were detonating near his command post and he had to crawl out to save his life. Rommel captured Kasserine Pass, but the pass would not stay in the hands of the Germans for long. The baptism of fire for the United States Army in the European theater in World War II occurred fourteen months after Pearl Harbor during the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943. This should have been enough time for the army to train the American soldiers for their first battle against the Germans, but the American GIs were inexperienced. The German offensives Frühlingswind
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