We continued our Tunisia campaign by playing the Battle of Chouigui Pass, fought during the afternoon of 26 November 1942 (which was Thanksgiving Day).
This was the first time that American and German tanks faced off in the Second World War. The American force consisted of the Stuart tanks and support weapons of the 1st Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, under the command of Lt. Col. John K. Waters (who happened to be Patton’s son-in-law). The German force was a column consisting of a company of Pz.III and Pz.IV tanks supported by Italian armored cars (one source says these were crewed by Germans) and a company of motorized Fallschirmjager (FJ) Pioneers. The Pz.IVs were a new model armed with the long 75mm gun, and this was the first time these new models were encountered in the Western Theater.
Our main sources for this scenario were Rick Atkinson’s “An Army at Dawn” and “Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West” by the US Army Center for Military History. This link is to the latter source:
This link provides additional background and a sketch map that shows the principal features of the battlefield:
The Chieftain’s Hatch: Chouïgui Pass
Terrain and Objectives: The battle took place in the Tine River Valley. Our 15 X 5 foot table depicted an area of roughly 6 X 2 miles and was set with the long axis running SW to NE. A paved road entered the table near the northern corner, then bent to the left and and exited via scrub-covered high ground in the eastern corner, heading up to the mountain pass which gave its name to this battle. At the bend of the paved road, it was intersected by a dirt road which ran the length of the table toward the SW, exiting near the western corner. The Tine River paralleled the dirt road at a distance, near the NW side of the table, with some tributary streams flowing into it from the SE. The river and the streams were shallow with overgrown banks, and were fordable by vehicles with a successful cross check. A line of scrub-covered low ridges paralleled the dirt road along the SE side of the table. Other than a few small orchards and vineyards, the majority of the terrain on the valley floor was open fields.
“Coxen’s Farm” (as it would later be named) was next to the paved road near the northern corner of the table; a small isolated farm was passed by the dirt road at the center of the table; the village of Eddikhila was on the SE baseline; and “St. Joseph’s Farm” was beside the dirt road at the SW end of the table. The two named farms at each end of the table were the objectives for the game.
Forces and Deployments:
Since the 1st Battalion had experienced some successful combat vs. Vichy French tanks in Algeria, all of the American units were rated Confident Trained. The Americans deployed mostly historically, with the battalion HQ staff and the HQ platoon of Stuarts at St. Joseph’s Farm, which was the German objective. Three Stuarts of A Company, along with three T30 Howitzer Motor Carriages, were deployed in Eddikhila. The remainder of A Company, with 9 Stuarts, along with three SP mortars in halftracks, was hidden behind a ridge between Edikkhila and the high ground to the east. B Company, with 15 Stuarts, was hidden behind high ground on the NE end of the table. C Company, with 16 Stuarts, was in the town of Chouigui, a few miles away off the table on the far side of the pass.
Because the intervening high ground blocked radio transmissions, a Stuart would have to exit the table and climb to the summit of the pass to relay any messages to C Company. Any response from C Company would be at the umpire’s discretion. All of these deployments were hidden from the German players, who would have to try to spot the American units, most of which were completely out of sight of the arriving Germans.
The Germans began the game with a platoon of FJ pioneers occupying Coxen’s Farm, which was the US objective. The German column entered the table via the paved road next to the farm, led by the armored cars followed by the tanks and the remainder of the FJ pioneer company. The FJ opted to dismount from their trucks and entered the table on foot, using the river and its tributaries as covered routes of approach. The Germans were very experienced, so their armored units were rated Confident Veteran and the FJ pioneers were Fearless Veterans.
Moves:
Not knowing where the Americans were, or in what strength, the Germans advanced cautiously during the first few turns. The armored cars proceeded down the paved road at tactical speed, then turned onto the dirt road. The leading platoon of four Pz.IVs pulled off the paved road and took up overwatch positions, while the second platoon of four Pz.IVs followed the armored cars at a distance. Two Pz.III command tanks followed the Pz.IVs. The third platoon of Pz.IVs turned off the road as soon as it entered the table, then crossed the river to begin a very long move along the NW side of the table toward the SW end of the table. Finally, a platoon of four Pz.IIIs at the rear of the column remained halted off the table. Given the copious amount of dust raised by the leading vehicles, we determined that the Americans would not be aware of the presence of the lurking Pz.III platoon until it entered the table.
The FJ pioneers began advancing along the scrub covered streams, with one platoon heading toward the high ground in the east, while the other moved toward the isolated farm at the center of the table. With nothing to see, all of the German spotting rolls failed (we never told the German commanders what number they had to roll, so they did not know that nothing was in their line of sight).
The Americans dispatched a Stuart to climb the pass to the east to make radio contact with C Company, but otherwise waited in their hidden positions. When the German column came into range, the SP mortars and howitzers tried to range in, but had no effect against the armored targets. (Later in the game, the US mortars and artillery would bombard the FJ platoon at the isolated farm, which kept the FJ pinned down there for the rest of the game.)
The serious fighting began when the Italian armored cars drew even with the isolated farm at the center of the table. The platoon of three Stuarts emerged from the village of Edikkhila and engaged the ACs, knocking out two of them. Soon after, the leading platoon of Pz.IVs, followed by the command Pz.IIIs, entered the kill zone of A Company. The 9 Stuarts gunned their engines and drove up and over the low ridge that had concealed them, then fired upon the German tanks at close range. Unfortunately for the American tanks, their movement into firing positions reduced their rate of fire, which, along with effect of the intervening cover, resulted in few hits to the veteran German tanks, and only one Pz.IV was knocked out by the ambush. This result was a grave disappointment to the A Company commander.
The Germans responded by pulling their tanks off the dirt road, moving them to the north and putting their backs to the river. From there, they shot back at the American tanks, and their superior gunnery soon began to take a toll on the thinly armored Stuarts. Unable to penetrate the front armor of the Panzers, the surviving Stuarts had no choice but to charge forward to try to get side and rear shots, and a swirling melee took place over the next few turns. When the dust settled, A Company was wiped out, while two of the Panzers were still operational.
While this fight was going on, B Company rose up from its ambush positions behind the high ground in the east, and attacked the Pz.IV platoon that was in overwatch near the paved road. With an advantage of 15 tanks to four, B Company was able to engage the Pz.IVs from the front, side and rear, and eliminated the German platoon for the loss of an equal number of Stuarts. However, as a result of their maneuver, two platoons of Stuarts were positioned with their rears pointing to the north. At that point, the platoon of Pz.IIIs that had been lurking off table entered near Coxen’s Farm, and swiftly dispatched the exposed Stuarts over the next few turns. The remaining Stuarts of B Company were busy assaulting one of the FJ pioneer platoons in the nearby stream, who were supported by the surviving Italian armored car. In the exchanges of fire and in the close combats, the Stuarts were eliminated, while the FJ were reduced to only their antitank team.
As these debacles were unfolding for the Americans, the umpire decided it was time for C Company to answer the American commander’s summons to join the battle, and released this company to the control of the American players. The 16 Stuarts entered the table from the east, driving down the paved road. Then, wary of the long range fire of the surviving German tanks, the Stuarts turned off the road to the south, moving behind the low ridge at the edge of the table and heading SW. This maneuver kept C Company out of the line of fire, but moving through the terrain was slow going, thus C Company had little impact on the battle, other than tying up the German tanks that remained along the road.
But the Germans had one more platoon of Panzers. The third Pz.IV platoon, which had crossed the river and moved all the way to the SW end of the table, crossed the river again and emerged in front of St. Joseph’s Farm. The other German tank commanders had been cursing the absence of this platoon while they were in the thick of the fighting, but now this platoon was in position to possibly win the game!
The four Stuarts of the HQ platoon were picked off at long range while the Pz.IVs advanced. However, lacking any infantry support, the Panzers had no way of assaulting the HQ personnel who were occupying the solidly built farm buildings. So the Pz.IVs parked a short distance away and began the slow process of eliminating the defenders with direct fire from their main guns. With C Company still too far away to intervene, it seemed inevitable that the Germans would eventually eliminate all resistance at the farm, but the game ended before this was accomplished.
Nevertheless, with the objective at Coxen’s Farm firmly in German control, and the objective at St. Joseph’s Farm being contested, the game resulted in an ahistorical German victory. In the actual battle, the American ambush also struggled to kill the German Panzers, but the Germans withdrew after losing eight Pz.IVs, with the Americans losing an equal number of Stuarts.
This was an action-packed and enjoyable game. The hidden US deployment put the Germans under a lot of pressure early in the game, and gave the overmatched Stuarts a fighting chance against the Panzers. The appearance of the reserve platoon of Pz.IIIs gave the Americans quite a shock, and left them wary of getting too close to Coxen’s Farm, not knowing what else the Germans might have coming down the road. These special rules and the disparity of the forces helped us to avoid the rather dull line-up-and-shoot-at-each-other type of game that tank vs. tank scenarios can become. Looking back, the actions that the players chose to take were mostly in line with the historical events, with several interesting twists.
- TJ