Allied assault through Fondouk, 1943

Dimitrii · Post by **Dimitrii** » 24 Feb 2007 21:45

Does anybody know which units took part in this push and when it ook place exactly? I believe it was part of the battle for Kasserine pass.

Jon G. · Post by **Jon G.** » 25 Feb 2007 15:35

An Army at Dawn, a book with its own website (!) offers a decent narrative of the battles for Fondouk Pass. The CARL website offers a good selection of wartime era US documents, including a good handful on Tunisia, all freely available for download.

Anyway, according to Adkinson's narrative, the US 34th Infantry Division was ordered to demonstrate towards Fondouk Pass in late March 1943. The main burden fell on the 168th Infantry Regiment, which took several hundred casualties. In early April, Fondouk was assaulted again - this time not just by the 34th Division, but also by parts of the British IX Corps with the 6th Armoured Division and French troops - alas, the name7s of participating French formations are not given in Adkinson's narrative, which otherwise emphasises problems of cooperation between British and American commanders.

Dimitrii · Post by **Dimitrii** » 25 Feb 2007 17:09

Great reply, thanks Jon. Regarding the second push through Fondouk in April of 1943, do you know anything about Allied armoured losses? Supposedly they were heavy but I doubt it.

Jon G. · Post by **Jon G.** » 25 Feb 2007 18:40

Adkinson's book gives 39 British (not Allied) tanks lost at Fondouk. 32 of those were lost by 17th/21st Lancers on April 9th.

Dimitrii · Post by **Dimitrii** » 25 Feb 2007 20:10

By whom were they taken out? The german infantry regiment holding the gap had no PAK so I wonder what caused these losses? I always expected the german account to have blown up the numbers, but 39 is dangerously close to their estimate (50).

UMachine · Post by **UMachine** » 28 Feb 2007 13:13

This site has info on an award the 34th received,as well as some interesting disagreements between the Brits and Americans.
http://www.34infdiv.org/award/34fondouk.html