The Yanks Crash Through

The second phase of the final battle for Tunisia began this week.

To Axis and Allies alike, the outcome of the Tunisian campaign was certain: it could end now only in German defeat. The Germans themselves seemed to be sure of the outcome, for they literally burned their bridges as they fell back.

How long the final battle would last depended to a large extent on the shape of the second phase.

One Night, Twelve Miles. This phase began with a success for the Americans. They took Mateur.

While the Germans counterattacked along the rest of the line all last week, U.S. troops pounded their enemy in the cruel hills, marking their forward motion in yards. Then, suddenly and overnight, the enemy collapsed and the Americans lunged forward twelve miles to Mateur. The Corps Franc d'Afrique, to the north of the Americans, pressed forward on the coast to within 15 miles of Bizerte.

Mateur is 18 miles southwest of Bizerte and is the key to that city's western approaches. Two roads and a railroad branch out from Mateur to Bizerte. Two other roads run to Bizerte from Tunis, and one of them lies within artillery range of Mateur. With Mateur in Allied hands, Bizerte will be hard to hold.

A German Purchase. The sudden withdrawal in the north was the signal for Allied advances all along the line. These advances ended a week of German counter-attacks which had been successful to the extent that they had bought a commodity the Germans dearly want--time. Germans and Italians had hit back just as the Allies wound up the first, preparatory phase of the battle and paused for breath before undertaking the conclusive second phase.

The heaviest burden in the first phase fell on the British First Army, which had been assigned the job of clearing the rim of the plain of Tunis and running out on to the plain itself. The First had done most of this job. The height known as Long Stop Hill (TIME, May 3) was firmly in its hands. One last hill, Djebel bou Aoukaz, known to the troops as The Bou, remained before the open plain. The hill was British one day and German the next. At week's end the hill was German.

On the southern French sector and the Eighth Army's sector, the story was the same. First the Germans withdrew. They fell back all around Pont du Fahs. Then they counterattacked, and the Allies were stalled.

This was when the U.S. troops crashed through.

Hill 532. In its fighting last week, U.S. infantry fought fiercely, wisely and very well. Some units, notably those attached to Major General Terry Allen's 1st Infantry Division, had distinguished themselves throughout. The lessons of earlier setbacks experienced by other units had been assimilated. One American regiment lost the better part of its third battalion. One of the companies in this regiment had five commanding officers within twelve days--the first four were all wounded and sent to the rear. The fight for Hill 532 by that third battalion was typical of the awful week.

Hill 532 was a saddleback ridge just a mile east of the nearest American positions on Hill 428. A pleasant green wheat field about a half-mile wide lay in the valley between the two contested hills.

The Germans had sown the slopes and the ridge with mines, booby traps, concealed anti-tank guns, mortars, machine guns and riflemen. Three times before, the third battalion had tried to take 532 and each time they had been driven back with losses.

On Friday morning B Company made a dash for the nearest slope. The doughboys crossed the wheat field and started up the steep side. Then all hell broke loose.

The Germans opened up with everything they had--guns, machine guns, mortars and heavier artillery from the rear. In the hours which followed the hill was alive with explosions as American artillery fired at the Germans on the eastern side and the Germans fired on Company B.

The battalion commander, who had personally led the B Company attack, was a rugged and capable lieutenant colonel. He had lost a front tooth from a piece of .88 shrapnel at El Guettar. Now he decided it was better to die fighting. With two of his platoons he marched up the hill through the fire on that ridge and crossed over the ridge. Those two platoons and the colonel were not heard from again.

In due course, Hill 532 and others like it were taken, and the way to Mateur was opened.

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