Baptism of Fire: Kasserine Pass, 1943
by Eric Niderost
In the winter of 1942-43 the Allies had every reason to believe that they were on the verge of total victory in North Africa. It started that November, when Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika was decisively defeated by the British Eighth Army at the Second Battle of El Alamein. It wasn't merely a defeat, but a rout, and surviving German and Italian units were forced into a headlong retreat through Libya.
The Axis disaster at El Alamein coincided with Operation Torch, three Allied landings in French North Africa far to the west. The Torch landings were mainly an American effort, and though the troops were green they were confident of victory. Rommel seemed trapped between American forces advancing to block his retreat and British forces in hot pursuit to his rear.
Field Marshal Rommel had performed wonders in two years of desert warfare, earning him the respect and ultimately the admiration of friends and enemies alike. Allied air and naval forces often reduced his supplies to a trickle, and he was usually outnumbered by his British foes. Adolf Hitler was preoccupied with his ongoing Russian campaign and failed to appreciate the strategic significance of the North Africa. Many of Rommel's fellow officers were old-school aristocrats bred in the Prussian tradition, and to them he was a middle-class upstart.
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