The veteran troops defending the last Axis-held corner of North Africa jabbed out furiously last week and cracked the Allied ring. Panzer divisions, probably some of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, surged against inexperienced artillery and U.S. armored troops holding the westward end of Fai'd Pass (see map). Despite ceaseless rains which have impeded Allied operations, more than 100 Axis tanks with dive-bomber support broke the U.S. line, split into two columns and advanced northwest toward Sidi bou Zid and south toward Gafsa.
Rommel was improving a position in which he already held all the advantage. He and Colonel General Jürgin von Arnim,...
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