Kasserine Pass Timeline

German General Erwin Rommel suffered a defeat against British General Bernard Law Montgomery at the Battle of El Alamein. The Allies were boosted by the arriving American forces through Operation Torch and all seemed lost for Rommel and his Afrika Corps. Plans were drawn up for a new offensive to hold the Allies in North Africa and Hitler approved by sending in a flood of new men and equipment.

The Allies were made of Montgomery's 8th Army, French forces and the inexperienced Americans. Rommel enacted Operation Spring Breeze in mid-February of 1943 in an attempt to wipe the Allied forces clean off North Africa.

As expected, the French proved no challenge and retreated battle after battle. The Germans then manhandled the American forces and drove them into a retreat of confusion and disarray that was made worst by the influx of relocating civilian refuges. General Rommel's forces met up with General von Arnim at Kasserine on February 18th and forged on to Kasserine Pass, which they took from the Americans by February 20th. Once there, Rommel paused his advance to await the Allied counter-attack that would not come.

It was not until the arrival of British General Harold Alexander, along with reinforcements from the British 6th Armored Division and the American 34th Infantry Division, that order was restored to the American ranks.

As the situation for the Allies began to stabilize and more reinforcements flooded the region, Rommel reeled in his offensive and called off his attack in full. The German objectives were not met though, at the end of it all, the Allies lost some 10,000 souls to the Axis 2,000. Furthermore, Kasserine was now back in Allied hands.

Rommel now turned his attention towards Montgomery in the East who was now firmly engaged - and making progress - against the Germans at the Mareth Line.