The Storming of Takrouna

Ahead, across 1,500 yards of moon-bright plain, lay the hill called Takrouna.

Men differed in describing Takrouna. Some of the Highlanders, staring at it through the moon-sifting mist that night, said that it looked like Edinburgh Castle. Other men said it looked like terrain on the moon. One man, looking at it through binoculars, said: "It is as though a great rectangular block of stone had been set down quite recently at the edge of the plain, and then another, smaller block on top of that. The height was held by some of the best Axis troops, for Takrouna was the beginning of the last natural wall before Tunis.

For 90 minutes, beginning at 9 p.m. the Eighth's guns winked at the enemy. Then infantry crept forward and began the awful climb.

"I have never known anything like it," said a young officer who was there. "The Germans came yelling like demons.

"Grenades seemed to be exploding everywhere. Machine-gun fire was deadly. It was raining heavily and all over the place bombs were bursting in the rain. We slipped and rolled in the mud. Some of our lads did terrific work with the machetes they had used to cut through the cactus hedges. They lopped down dozens of the enemy. Then we would dive on them and crash to the ground, arms locked, trying to find their throats or get our knives working.

"Some of our men are expert wrestlers. In the occasional flash of grenades you could see them whirling the bodies of Germans over their heads and flinging them over the cliffs on to the rocks below."

Takrouna was taken. The Eighth Army moved on toward its goal, Tunis.

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