Tunisia 1943
Five M4A1s and five crews who have never heard a shot: 1st Platoon, Company B, 3d Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment, of the 1st Armored Division. The campaign runs from 14 to 25 February 1943. It opens at first light on the 14th at Sidi Bou Zid, in haze, with the panzers coming down the Faïd road: division’s estimate of what is in front of you is wrong, and the objective has to be taken and held before they close. Twice in the days after, the platoon holds the screen line in front of Faïd and keeps the road behind it open. The rest are days in camp: mending, burying, and waiting for the depot.
The enemy you meet in February 1943 is the 21st Panzer Division’s Panzer III and Panzer IV, the towed 50 mm Pak 38 dug in on the ridges, and riflemen among them. The theater’s order of battle in the Reference carries more, the Tiger and the 88 among them, and green crews call any big tank a Tiger whether or not one is there.
The platoon’s tanks are Bad Penny, Brute, Bulldog, Blackjack and Boomerang, with Bandit and Bonecrusher in the park as spares. When the last day closes with you alive, the camp’s one button reads Move on.
- M4A1 Sherman
Side elevationPanzer IV G
Five M4A1s and five crews who have never heard a shot. Sidi Bou Zid at first light on 14 February, the screen line in front of Faïd, and the days in camp between.
Panzer III L50 mm KwK 39 L/60
50 mm Pak 38towed