Scenes from the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943

The Battle of Kasserine Pass took place from 18-24 February 1943 at Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide gap in the Grand Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains in west central Tunisia. It was a part of the Tunisian campaign of World War II.

The Axis forces, led by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, were primarily from the Afrika Korps Assault Group, the Italian Centauro Armored Division and two Panzer divisions detached from the 5th Panzer Army, while the Allied forces were from the U.S. II Corps (Major General Lloyd Fredendall), the British 6th Armoured Division (Major-General Charles Keightley) and other parts of the First Army (Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson).

The battle was the first major engagement between U.S. and Axis forces in Africa. The initial handful of American battalions were inexperienced and poorly led; they suffered many casualties and were successively pushed back over 50 miles from their original positions west of Faïd Pass, until they met an advancing brigade of the U.S. 1st Armored Division. British forces were also driven back, losing all eleven of their tanks in the process. After the initial defeat, Allied reinforcements with strong artillery support stopped the Axis advance, and recaptured the mountain passes in western Tunisia, defeating the Axis offensive. The Axis force was overextended and pinned down by the Allied artillery. Facing counterattacks and airstrikes, they withdrew from the Kasserine Pass by 24 February.

0:00 Panzer III Ausf. J armed with the 5cm KwK 39 L/60

0:03 Panzer IV Ausf. G armed with the 7.5cm KwK 40 L/43

0:13 Panzer III armed with the shorter 5cm KwK 38 L/42

0:30 Panzerbefehlswagen III command tank with extra radios

0:53 Panzer IV Ausf. G firing and a Sherman tank burning in the distance. With its long 75mm gun, this Panzer IV variant could defeat the Sherman's armor frontally inside of 500 meters, and out to over 2000 meters from the sides and rear.

1:14 Another Panzer IV Ausf. G strikes a distant target. With long fields of fire and little cover in the desert terrain, accuracy at long range was a crucial factor in tank combat.

1:27 Early M3 Stuart light tank still fitted with .30 cal machine guns in the sponsons burns after being hit. The tank's light armor was no match even for early 37mm tank and anti-tank guns.

1:35 Sd.Kfz. 251/8 "Krankenpanzerwagen" half-track battlefield ambulance.

1:44 Three men, presumably members of the Stuart's four-man crew, are treated by German personnel. One can imagine the eventuality of the fourth man being fatally injured and still inside the burning vehicle.

1:57 Burned out M4A1 Sherman tank that appears to have been shot through the transmission housing. Of note are the tracks without their rubber pads as the latter have burned off. The next shot shows a close up of a different Sherman tank with its right turret armor shattered. It's likely that a shell penetrated the left side of the turret and was destabilized by the impact, striking the inside of the turret at an angle, causing it to crack with a fragment breaking off. Subsequent shots show German personnel inspecting the M4A1 Sherman wrecks that litter the battlefield.

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