The Story of the 34th Infantry Division
Book I • Louisiana to Pisa

Chapter III • FIRST DAYS IN TUNISIA
Skirmishing [pp. 6-10]

   Their mission in Algiers completed, elements of the Eastern Assault Force were moved to Tunisia with the First British Army. On 15 November [1942] the 175th Field Artillery Battalion was detached from the Division and left Algiers for Tunisia. The Battalion was ordered to Medjez el Bab to support a French unit already fighting the German-Italian enemy, and went into action on 17 November, repelling an infantry-tank attack. Division troops attached to No. 1 and No. 6 Commando also went into action at the same time on another part of the Tunisian front. On 24 December the 2nd Battalion, 168th Infantry, was attached to the 12th Air Force in Tebessa while the Anti-Tank Company, 168th Infantry, was sent to Biskra, a French desert outpost. The 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry, was ordered to Constantine on 11 January to guard lines of communication and on 29 January the remainder of the Regiment was ordered to the Gafsa-Sbeitla area for operations under command of the 1st Armored Division. It will be seen at this time the 168th RCT was scattered into a number of small units while the rest of the Division was in an entirely different area.

   On 3 January 1943 those units of the 34th which had been left behind in the British Isles landed at Oran and after a short stay in an extremely muddy assembly area just south of the port, closed in at Tlemcen, an ancient city 90 miles southwest of Oran. The 3rd Battalion, 135th Infantry, moved from Algiers to rejoin the Division at Tlemcen, but to offset this the 2nd Battalion, 133rd Infantry was assigned to Allied Force Headquarters as guard troops. That portion of the Division in the Tlemcen area carried out a rigorous training program which culminated in the receipt of orders on 30 January to move to the area of Maktar, Tunisia, and to relieve elements of the 1st Infantry Division and French Troops under command of the French XIX Corps. While the majority of the 34th Infantry Division was getting ready for combat the 168th Infantry and 175th Field Artillery Battalion were already taking part in a kind of Indian warfare in Tunisia.

   An over-all picture of the Division at this time is virtually impossible to draw, so scattered had the formation become. It may be mentioned, however, that the capture of Sened Station in southern Tunisia on 31 January was the first important action for elements of the 168th Infantry. The Regiment did not regather all of its component units until the first week of February when, under command of the 1st Armored Division, the 168th took up positions in the vicinity of Sidi Bou Zid near Faid Pass. The Regiment was still in these positions when the main portion of the Division closed into Maktar and began the relief of French troops in the sector between Pichon and El Ala. The 133rd Infantry, last element of the Division to close into the Maktar area, had barely completed the relief of the French in the sector south from El Ala to the Fondouk highway, when the German breakthrough at Faid was reported. In the face of the enemy successes south of the Division we were ordered to withdraw 30 kilometers west to a new defense line.

   In the meantime the 168th Infantry, engulfed in the rush of German infantry and armor, was surrounded and cut to pieces with very heavy losses. Some of the troops managed to infiltrate through the enemy ring and make their way to Allied lines once more, but when the stragglers were brought together only about half of the Regiment remained; the others were killed or captured.

   On 18 February the main part of the 34th Division, with the 18th Regimental Combat Team (1st Infantry Division) attached, was defending a gap in the mountains leading to the Sbiba-Rohia highway. The Germans moved against this line with powerful armored and infantry forces but, although German tanks succeeded in infiltrating into our positions, all enemy efforts to occupy ground were neutralized by the massed fire of our artillery. However, the German attack which had overrun the 168th Infantry had made such progress through Kasserine Pass that it threatened to envelop the southern flank of the defense line which the 34th was holding. Accordingly, on the night 22-23 February the Division was ordered to readjust its lines.

   The enemy, to our surprise, did not exploit his advance and on the morning of 23 February our reconnaissance disclosed that the Germans had withdrawn.

   Consequently, a mobile group consisting of a battalion of the 135th Infantry, some French tanks and the Division Reconnaissance Troop, supported by field artillery, was ordered to make a reconnaissance south from Sbiba to Sbeitla while a portion of the force proceeded to the Arab village of El Ala. Both these objectives were approximately 40 kilometers away from the starting point - which gives a good idea of the open nature of the fighting of those days.

   Progress was slow. The 109th Engineer Battalion had risen magnificently to their first combat assignment when they made a 35-mile road in three days to assist our relief of the French. They now demonstrated their worth again in the large-scale mine-clearing operation necessary to permit our scouting forces to advance.

   On about 25 February a considerable reorganization of Allied forces in Tunisia was completed and the 34th Infantry Division passed in command to the American II Corps. During the next few days the 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion and the 751st Tank Battalion were attached, followed after a few days by the return of the 175th Field Artillery Battalion and the 168th Infantry. The latter had had a brief period for rest and refitting after their experience at Faid Pass, and the 34th Infantry Division was exceedingly lucky to have been able to draw upon trained soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division for replacements to bring our battered Regiment up to full fighting strength.

   Men who had left the Division in Scotland to fight in No. 1 and No. 6 Commando, after making a brilliant reputation in operations near Bizerte and around the notorious Green Hill and Bald Hill, also rejoined the Division at this time.

   The 34th Infantry Division was once again together to settle down to learn warfare from scratch and to build themselves up to where they could count upon beating the Germans wherever they were found. Strong reconnaissance was continued to Sbeitla and eastward through barren rocky country to the pass of Kef el Ahmar.

Chapter II ALGIERS Pretending	Chapter IV SBEITLA - HADJEB el AIOUN Scouting
Return to the beginning, The Story of the 34th Infantry Division Introduction, Foreword, Contents

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