Tebaga Gap

Tebaga Gap

Editing in Progress ;-)

 

Links

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/18851869/&q=Tebaga&o=relevance

Via Google: "Tebaga Gap" - Google Search

Google images: "Tebaga Gap" - Google Search

Wiki : Tebaga Gap - Wikipedia

March 1943 - Wikipedia

- The Royal Lancers Museum at Derby

Map showing dispositions at Tebaga gap between 21 and 29 March 1943 : https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22810117

"Born to Lead? Portraits of New Zealand Commanders" 2003 - Editors: Glyn Harper, Joel Hayward : Born to Lead?

 

Events

6th March 1943

Battle of Medenine - Wikipedia



9th March 1943

German field marshal Erwin Rommel was summoned back to Berlin and placed on medical leave, on orders of Adolf Hitler, following the failure of the German counterattack at Medenine.

12th March 1943

British destroyer HMS Lightning was sunk off Algeria by German motor torpedo boats.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943
IWM NA1106 : Object description - Guardsmen of the Scots Guards inspect a knocked-out German PzKpfw IV tank near Medenine, 12 March 1943.

13th March 1943

In a plot called Operation Spark, German officer Henning von Tresckow attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by arranging for an unwitting officer to hand Hitler a parcel thinking it contained a gift of liquor when it actually contained a bomb. All went according to plan and Hitler's plane took off from Smolensk to Rastenburg with the parcel aboard, but it failed to explode due to a faulty detonator.

19th March 1943

Battle of the Mareth Line - Wikipedia

20th March 1943

GENERAL MONTGOMERY VISITS UNITS OF THE EIGHTH ARMY PRIOR TO THE BATTLE OF THE MARETH LINE

IN THE TUNISIAN MOUNTAINS WITH THE EIGHTH ARMY

IN THE TUNISIAN MOUNTAINS WITH THE EIGHTH ARMY

21st March 1943

The second attempt on Hitler's life in the space of eight days was made, this time by Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, who had been given the opportunity to escort Hitler through an exhibition of captured Soviet war equipment at the Zeughaus in Berlin. Gersdorff, who had expected Hitler to spend at least thirty minutes by his side at the Zeughaus, set a ten-minute fuse on a time bomb and made plans to kill himself and Hitler in a suicide bombing. Instead, Hitler rushed through the viewing and left after two minutes; Gersdorff bid his goodbyes, then went into a restroom and defused the explosive.

SRY War diary
21 Mar 1943 - We started at first light to advance towards our objective PLUM, this being the Roman wall crossing the road running East and West between the Djebel Tabarga and Madjal. The Regt was moving on the right flank. The Crusader sqn moved well forward and the Regt had a good deal of success with indirect shooting by the Sherman sqns, the fire being observed and corrected by the Crusaders. We definitely accounted for one 25pr, a number of trucks and one 2pr gun mounted on a truck. Eventually the whole Bde was held up by a strongly-defended line stretching across the valley.
A patrol from The Buffs attached to the Regt was sent out and it was found that there were minefields and a number of inf posns. During the rest of the day these were engaged with a considerable amount of success by the Shermans, but no penetration was made through the fortified line. Lt Harvey of The Buffs patrol was lucky to get back, for he came under very heavy MG fire. Sgts Dring and Thwaites did excellent work with shooting during this day.
We withdrew into leaguer at last light, knowing that the New Zealanders were to launch an attack at Pt 201 in the centre of the enemy posn, with the object of forming a bridgehead through which the armd bdes would pass. This attack was a success.

BATTLE OF THE MARETH LINE
IWM NA1420 : Object description - Original wartime caption: Men of the Durham Light Infantry out skirmishing.

22nd March 1943

SRY War diary
22 Mar 1943 - At 0500hrs C Sqn moved out of leaguer and was passed through the gap in the minefield before first light, the remainder of the Regt following and in a posn on Pt 201 before sunrise. Here we came under very heavy shellfire, during which time two of the tanks, one being 'Little John', were put out of action.
Later in the day the Regt pushed round the North side of Pt 201 and succeeded in getting across the wadi during the morning. A large number of prisoners, mostly Italians, were captured (they could not stand the fire which the Shermans put down on their posns). When we got North of the wadi we came across a fairly intense screen of 50mm guns and it was fairly obvious that the high ground was held. During the afternoon we received reports that there were enemy tanks manoeuvring behind the high ground which was being held.
We were dive-bombed during the day on three occasions and we have heard the bad news that Col Kellett had been killed at Bde HQ.
Tank busters were very active, operating against enemy tanks which were lying in the valley beyond our view. During the day the tank busters claimed five tanks hit; we saw one definitely go up in flames. A point of interest is that the sqn ldr of the tank busters was, during one of these attacks (by mistake) on the same frequency as The Staffs and was thus able to give us a lot of more useful information about the enemy's location and number of tanks.
During the afternoon Lt Stockton stalked up and got a direct hit on a MkIV. Unfortunately the opposition retaliated and got one of our Crusaders, also a direct hit on a C Sqn tank with an 88mm. At last light some enemy tanks put in an attack, but this petered out, as they did not come on against our fire. We stayed on this posn until long after dark and during this time Lt Robin Taylor captured an Italian ration lorry which had got lost with the rations for over 1,000 men.

SRY - https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2182987/edward-orlando-kellett/

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943
IWM NA1344 : Object description - A wounded soldier from the Durham Light Infantry shares a cigarette with a wounded German prisoner during the Mareth line battle, 22-24 March 1943.

23rd March 1943

The British troopship RMS Windsor Castle was torpedoed and sunk off Algiers by a German Heinkel He 111 aircraft. With the aid of the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Whaddon, HMS Eggesford, and HMS Douglas, all but one of the 2,700 people on board were rescued before the ship sank.

SRY War diary
23 Mar 1943 - The Regt moved out at first light and was able to get onto the high ground which had previously been held by the enemy. The NZ cavalry had received orders to move round into the high ground on our left flank and we were in contact with them during the morning and afternoon.
In the evening we were ordered to attack the North ridge of Bj Tebegar. This ridge overlooked a plain some two miles broad over which we had to pass. The attack was put in late in the evening and, owing to the fact that there was a deep wadi in the middle of the valley in which we overturned one tank, and the enemy remained in their hull-down posns, nothing decisive was achieved.
It took a long time to RV the Regt and get them back into leaguer that night and no one got down to rest before 0200hrs.

Regimental-Histories_1936-1945 Bright_0180.jpg - The Royal Lancers Museum at Derby



VALENTINE MOUNTED SELF PROPELLED 25 POUNDERS
IWM NA1450 : Object description - Rear view of the tank-gun combination showing Gunners platform.

24th March 1943

SRY War diary
24 Mar 1943 - We moved out again at first light and into the same posns from which we had attacked the previous night and 3RTR were ordered to move round on our left flank with the object of attacking. They launched one attack at mid-day but were met by fire from a heavy A Tk gun screen and lost one tank and had to come back. The enemy posn appeared to be very strong and it was reported that there were between 30-40 tanks in the vicinity.
It was of considerable interest that during this day the enemy exposed the whole of their defended posns by the use of coloured smoke, which they put up when their own planes were attacking us.
At 1630hrs the tank busters, together with our arty, laid on a terrific blitz, behind which we and 3RTR again attacked this posn. We successfully got onto our objective.
We leaguered with 3RTR in a wadi during that night, within a few hundred yards of the enemy. While we were getting out our guards of The Buffs the enemy moved up and started machine-gunning these posts and then onwards for the next two hours we had a real slogging match in the dark, after which we moved the tanks out of the wadi. The situation caused the CO a certain amount of anxiety as the ground was unknown to him and there was a possibility of the enemy getting round onto the high ground on our left flank and shooting down the wadi. Had this occurred we might have been in an awful predicament. No one got down to sleep during the night, everyone remaining on the tanks and every gun being manned.
During the night the Germans carried out a good deal of recovery from the battlefield by the light of flares. It is probable that the enemy was considerably scared by this beating-up during the night, for he had withdrawn considerably by the morning. Capt McCraith did great work in navigating the Ech into the leaguer; this arrived just before first light.

Regimental-Histories_1936-1945 Bright_0180.jpg - The Royal Lancers Museum at Derby



25th March 1943

SRY War Diary
25 Mar 1943 - At first light we moved forward and remained on the ground until mid-day, when we were ordered to thin out as the ground was going to be taken over by the New Zealanders. By last light the whole Regt had been got out and during this night we moved and leaguered behind Pt 201, in preparation for the blitz which was being laid on for the following day. During this day we picked up a deserter from 433 Inf Regt, a poor specimen, but he gave an interesting account of our blitz of the previous day from their point-of-view. He also gave us some interesting information as regards tanks and guns. Having Maj Hildyard, who can interrogate these Germans, is of the greatest value and interest. We did not get bedded down until the early hours of the morning.

"DESERT VICTORY" SHOWN IN THE DESERT

26th March 1943



Ngarimu, Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa - TracesOfWar.com

SRY War diary
26 Mar 1943 - A horrible day, a khamseen blowing. The details of the forthcoming attack were given to the CO at 1100hrs and all tank comds were given details at 1400hrs. The plan was that the three armd regts would be drawn up in line behind the Roman wall which stretched across the valley, each regt to be supported by an inf regt of 5 and 6 NZ Inf Bdes. The tanks and inf were to advance under a barrage which was to move at the rate of 100yds/min for 100yds and 50yds/min for 2,000yds.
This attack was a real rough party for the tanks, moving within 100yds of the barrage and machine-gunning anything that moved in front of them. Apart from that, tank comds were, for their own safety, throwing hand grenades into any weapon pits as they went past; but even this did not prevent a certain number of casualties from sniping. B Sqn on the right flank, which was very broken country, met with heavy opposition from an A Tk gun screen and were held up, losing three heavy tanks.
28 Maori Inf Bn were behind the Regt and a number of them rode on the backs of the Crusader tanks, who formed a rear rank and travelled behind the Shermans at a distance of about 200yds.
The Regt accounted for six tanks, two 88mm guns and two 50mm guns. Maj Mitchell's tank knocked out two tanks, a MkIII and a MkIV, with a left and right, thereby saving the CO, who was at that time in a somewhat critical condition in a Crusader. Cpl Sanders showed great initiative during the day.
It was between 0200 and 0300hrs on the following morning before the Regt had been collected and formed into leaguer on the final objective, and then the leaguer was silhouetted most of the night by burning tanks round about. An engine was heard to be running all night, very close to the leaguer, and it was found the next morning to be a German MkIII, the crew of which were all dead.

27th March 1943

The U.S. Department of War released the news of a successful new weapon for the U.S. Army, the bazooka. In a statement, the War Department said that "It is revolutionary in design. It can be carted about in a jeep or a peep, or carried by two men at a dog trot. It hurls a high explosive projectile... It will shatter cast steel and such material as bridge girders and railroad rails and perform other seeming miracles. Before long, the 'bazooka' will be heard from on all fronts." The weapon had secretly been demonstrated to news reporters in December, on condition that it could not be written about at the time.

Horrocks, Brian Gwynne "Jorrocks" - TracesOfWar.com

Has... "Following the battle of Alem-el-Halfa, Horrocks was offered the post of commander of 10th Corps but he turned it down, arguing that he rated hinself no better than the incumbent commander, Herbert Lumsden and so he remained in command of 13th Corps. After the battle at El Alamein however, he was named commander of 10th Corps. During Operation Pugilist in the south of Tunisia, Horrocks executed one of his most successfull attacks of the war. Montgomery had planned an assault on the Mareth Line, a frontal attack in combination with a 200 mile deep flanking attack to the south. After the frontal attack had bogged down, Montgomery decided to re-inforce the troops moving south with, among others, Horrocks' men. March 27th, the Tebaga Gap was breached, rendering the defensive line untenable and forcing the Axis forces to abandon their positions."

Report on operations conducted by 9th Infantry Division, 26 March 1943 - 1 July 1944 - TracesOfWar.com

ELEMENTS OF THE EIGHTH ARMY ADVANCE ON GABES



9th Lancers : https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2183491/george-tipper/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2183368/charles-reginald-schofield/

28th March 1943

At Naples, the munitions ship Caterina Costa exploded in the harbor of the Italian city. Initial reports were that 72 people were killed and 1,179 injured, while later sources set the death toll at 600 or more. The fire on the ship had burned for hours, but no action was taken on fighting the blaze or towing the ship away from the harbor, because government approval could not be obtained to take action.

INCIDENTAL PICTURES TAKEN WITH THE EIGHTH ARMY DURING THEIR ATTACK AND CAPTUREOF THE MARETH LINE

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943
IWM NA1630 : Object description - A Universal carrier escorts a large contingent of Italian prisoners, captured at El Hamma, 28 March 1943.

29th March 1943

The New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division entered the Tunisian city of Gabès.

GABES FALLS : EIGHTH ARMY MARCHES ON
IWM NA1527 : Object description - Original wartime caption: At the spot where the enemy blew up the bridge on leaving the town, New Zealand troops are seen crossing the river to enter Gabes.

EIGHTH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

EL HAMMA TO GABES. 8TH ARMY ADVANCE THROUGH EL HAMMA TO GABES

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943
IWM NA1638 : Object description - Crusader tanks in El Hamma, 28/29 March 1943.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943

30th March 1943

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943

9th Lancers : https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2541459/norman-birks/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2541434/kenneth-charles-bentley/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/f...details/2541453/ernest-william-james-billett/

31st March 1943

In North Africa, Axis forces withdrew from Cap Serrat while 5th Corps of the 1st British Army captured El Aouana.

1st April 1943

THE BRITISH ARMY IN TUNISIA 1943

 

North Africa : c6m20s...





North Africa : c5m...



-- x --



-- x --

El Hamma etc at 54m...

 

I hope to visit El Hamma in March

 

El Hamma / Al-Hammah



Regimental-Histories_1936-1945 Bright_0185.jpg - The Royal Lancers Museum at Derby



-- x --