Word: thala
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Dates: during 1943-1943
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...great opportunist, like all good soldiers, Rommel was ready to exploit any gain. And he was a gambler. If he were lucky and could crack Thala, he would have access to the Kremamsa Plateau, could pour troops onto that flatland, could drive against the flank of the British First Army which sprawled across the top of Tunisia. Then the whole Allied strategy in North Africa would have to be recast. This was the crisis when the weary young men braced themselves and Allied reinforcements rushed up to give them...
...lumbering new Churchill tanks rolled up to block the pass at Sbiba. In the area of Tebessa-the Allied base for Central Tunisia-U.S. cannon and armor, supported by strong air units operating in dubious flying weather, pounded and slashed at the German onrush. In the critical Thala sector British armor, probably drawn from the First Army's reserves, and fresh U.S. artillery fought through the afternoon and into the night...
Watching the Thala battle, Drew Middleton of the New York Times wrote: "British [tank] units sustained the first shock, then counterattacked heavily. All this time the American guns in the hills were sounding a somber song of frustration for the enemy. Supported by infantry that had been heavily bombed on its way to the front, the Germans continued their efforts to break through until night fell. . . . "Broken guns and burned-out tanks were strewn across the sandy plain and the knobby hills. The ground was dotted with the bodies of men. . . . By this morning the fighting had died down...
...troops withdrew from their too-forward positions at Pichon, hurried back into the new Allied line. Weary U.S. troops tried to hold Kasserine Pass, but the cocky and persistent Germans kept jabbing at them. Despite a storm of U.S. artillery fire, they seized the pass, swept on through toward Thala. With Tébessa and the whole right flank of the British First Army in danger, Allied armor met Rommel's divisions this week in a climactic...