Italian Forces

Kasserine - Gafsa battle

Last Italian tanks in Tunisia attacking in Kasserine - Gafsa sector under enemy fire. February 1943. About Kasserine battle a US historician wrote: "This unit [the attacking unit] was a typical ad hock formation of the time for the Axis, composed of 53 panzers from the DAK 15th Panzer Division, 23 M-14 tanks from Centauro, 2 Italian artillery battalions, the three light infantry battalions of the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment, and a group of attached Italian Semoventi assault guns. On February 19, 1943 this Axis formation was ordered to capture Kasserine Pass from elements of the U.S. 1st Armored Division. On February 20th, during the opening attack on the key American position of the town of Djebel, the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment made a frontal assault on the U.S. positions that lasted most of the morning and finally carried the position, loosing the Regimental commander in the process. This action cracked open the Allied defenses, opening the road to Thala and Tebessa. By midday the accompanying Axis armored units poured through the pass, routing U.S. forces into one of the worst U.S. defeats of the Tunisian Champaign. The 5th Bersaglieri Regiment was complimented for their élan by General Bulowius, commander of the DAK Assault Group, who sighted their actions as the instrumental event of the Axis victory."