Give Them Some Steel! DTO (id:#66643)

(Internet: Steven Swann ID: SF-Rng5c)   [next]   [previous]

Djebel el Ank Pass, Gumtree Road, Tunisia 1943-03-21 (1 other)

Overview:

On the night of 20 March, Darby led the 1st Ranger Battalion and an attached 4.2-inch mortar company along a previously reconnoitered route to the plateau behind the Italian Centauro Armored Division. Shortly after 0600, the Rangers attacked. The Rangers had taken the unsuspecting Italians completely by surprise. With machine-gun and rifle fire, a Ranger support element sent the Italians on the south side of the pass scurrying for cover, while the rest of the Ranger battalion swarmed down on the stunned defenders of the north wall. With the sound of a bugle, the assault element jumped from rock to rock shouting Indian war cries and formed into skirmish lines to close with the Italians. They rushed forward firing their weapons, throwing grenades, and bayoneting as Darby repeatedly shouted, “Give them some steel!” The first twenty minutes of the battle all but broke enemy resistance on the north wall. Dead Italians sprawled next to their unfired weapons while many of the living frantically waved white flags from their dugouts and trenches. The Rangers gathered prisoners while their mortars fired on those Italians who were still fighting from the other side of the road. By 0830, the Rangers held the most important positions on north side of the pass.

Defender: Italian (131st Centauro Armored Division)  

Errata (source)