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Bou Arada, farther south. To the north, on the coastal road, von
Arnim met with some local success and after a fierce struggle forced
the V Corps to evacuate Sedjenane. He then made an unsuccessful
attempt to drive down the road to Beja. By 17 March these attacks
had forced back the British line in the sector northwest of that town,
but further advances were then definitely halted by the V Corps.
Battle of Mareth, 21-29 March 1943.—During the first week in
March the Axis command undoubtedly knew that General Montgomery’s Eighth Army would shortly stage a full-scale attack upon
Mareth. In order to disrupt the British preparations and postpone
the attack, Rommel took the initiative and on 6 March attacked from
the vicinity of Toujane (southwest of Mareth) toward Medenine.
This attack was delivered by a strong armored force—elements of
the 10th, 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions. The British were on the
alert and, having over 500 antitank guns in position around Medenine, knocked out fifty-two enemy tanks during the day while committing only one squadron of their own armor, which lost no tanks.
This unsuccessful engagement cost Rommel over half the armor in
his attacking force. He had thrown his armored troops against
defended localities without adequate reconnaissance and before the
supporting infantry had cleared a path. The time when even Rommel could lightly disregard basic principles had passed, and the
disaster that he courted was inevitable.
From the 6th until the 20th the Eighth Army continued to gain
strength as its rear units came up. By the latter date its main
components were as follows:
X Corps: 1st and 7th Armored Divisions and 4th Indian Division.
XXX Corps: 50th and 51st Infantry Divisions and one armored
brigade.
New Zealand Corps (especially formed for this operation) : 2d
New Zealand Division, an armored brigade, an armored car regiment, a medium artillery regiment,
and Leclerc’s French force.
At this time General Montgomery had 600 tanks to Rommel’s 140.
The Axis foot troops at Mareth were estimated at 120,000, and these
too were outnumbered by the British.
The original plan was for the XXX Corps to penetrate the left of
the enemy’s Mareth position and capture Gabes. The X Corps was
to be held in army reserve ready to exploit the anticipated breakthrough. Meanwhile the New Zealand Corps, screened by General
Leclerc’s French Desert Force, was to make a wide.swing around
the right flank of the position and was then to move north and east
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