The first engagement between U.S. Army and German forces, the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Tunisia, during February 14-22, 1943, ended in humiliating defeat for the Americans.

In February 1943, Erwin Rommel's German-Italian Panzer Army and Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army counterattacked Dwight David Eisenhower's Allied forces to block their advance to the central Tunisian coast, an advance that would have split the Axis forces. Rommel and Arnim pushed Allied forces back to the Western Dorsale and dealt U.S. II Corps, under Lieutenant General Lloyd Fredendall, a sound defeat. Fredendall's leadership was poor, and the inexperienced troops performed badly.

The battle was also plagued by a misinterpretation of Ultra intercepts, which prompted British commander Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson to deploy the main body of Allied reserves too far north. This left the Kasserine Pass vulnerable to the Afrika Korps steamroller. Fredendall ordered Colonel Robert Stark's mixed force to "pull a Stonewall Jackson" and make an immovable stand. Stark tried, and he did succeed in holding off the German advance on February 19, the first day of the battle, but Rommel pushed through by the next day. At this point, Fredendall's system of command seems to have broken down. Fortunately for the Allies, Rommel and Arnim also fell into some disarray, and this led them to exploit the breakthrough at Kasserine in a poorly coordinated manner. Fighting was heavy on February 21, but incessant rain crippled Rommel's armor in the difficult terrain of the Kasserine region, and on February 22, he called off the offensive.

Kasserine was highly demoralizing to the Americans, and their British allies were gravely disappointed in the performance of II Corps, derisively referring to the U.S. Army as "our Italians." Nevertheless, the defeat could have been far worse had Rommel and Arnim more successfully exploited it. Moreover, the battle came as a wake-up call to Eisenhower, who had placed blind trust in Fredendall. Eisenhower replaced that commander with George S. Patton Jr., who rapidly rehabilitated II Corps and transformed it into a highly effective unit before turning over the command to Omar Bradley. . .

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