“Maknassy” – I can still hear Dad say the word, although he died in 2010. It wasn’t quite a snarl, but it was close. The battle, in March and April of 1943, was vicious. The Germans were slowly getting backed into a corner in Tunisia, and they knew it was either kill or be killed.
General Patton took over II Corps on March 6th, after the debacle at Kaserine Pass. On the 12th of March, Patton detached the 60th Combat Team, Dad’s unit, from the 9th Infantry Division and attached it to the First Armored Division. As a part of his upcoming operation at El Guettar, and the British Army actions under Montgomery to the south, the First was assigned a series of missions aimed at Maknassy Pass. Patton never liked to deploy armor without supporting infantry, and the 60th was given the task. Dad was a 19 year-old Sergeant, with 2 1/2 years in the army.
March 17th was the beginning of what became known in history books as the “Twenty Days of Maknassy”. According to Dad, the rain had poured for days turning the ground and roads into deep mire and mud. The Tanks were ineffective and couldn’t move. It would be up to the Infantry to get the battle started. They were directed to attack a small junction town, Station de Sened “The place everybody fought for, and nobody wanted”.
Dad explained “we started in the grass and mud to the front of the German positions. You couldn’t raise your head without getting shot, plus there were minefields in front of us. After darkness came, we moved”.
Move indeed. The 60th circled the town and climbed the backside of a steep hill, Djebel Goussa, that was to the side of Sened. Djebel Goussa was 600 feet above the valley floor and looked directly down onto Sened. They attacked on the night of the 19th. It was a brutal fight, with individuals, squads and platoons moving slowly up the hill until, by the afternoon of the 20th, they had displaced the Germans. As they now held the high ground, this also forced the enemy to evacuate Station de Sened.
The Germans retaliated with heavy shelling. Undaunted, the 60th moved and attacked again a day later, entering the town of Maknassy itself on the morning of the 22d. The Germans left sometime during the night, and the 60th entered without firing a shot. The New York Times headline back home featured a picture of the unit entering the town near the Railway Station. The easy part was over.
They now moved on Maknassy Pass, 5 miles past Maknassy, their ultimate objective. The Germans were dug in on hills in the pass, including Hill 322, which was guarded by Rommel’s personal Guard. The tanks couldn’t go through the pass with the Germans controlling the heights, so naturally, the task again fell to the Infantry.
The 60th attacked a series of hills on the nights of the 22d and 23d with mixed success. As dad explained “we always attacked at night, but the Germans were well dug in. And they had mines on many of the approaches. The Germans used mines everywhere. The going was very slow.” They did take several of the hills, particularly on the north side of the pass, but the Germans still controlled the south side. Hill 322 was attacked many times but never taken. The advance bogged down, but the US Forces acted forcefully enough to cause the Germans to deploy reserve units, keeping them from engaging with Montgomery and the British, further to the south. Dad said that from where they were, they could actually see the open land on the other side of the pass, even though the Germans still controlled the south side of the pass. That open ground was what the tanks needed.
The history books tell us that the battle fell into a stalemate, with the Germans occupying some of the hills, and the US the others for the next several days. On 31 March, the commander of the 1st Armored Division ordered the 60th into another attack. According to one source, “Most of the unit (the 60th), had defended their limited gains east and north of Maknassy against unremitting pressure from the Germans, for the last four days. They had little relief or rest, and many casualties, and their performance during the attack reflected their poor condition.” The attack failed.
Dad talked with me about those days as well. They were dug in on the side of mountains with deep foxholes. Deep because of the continual shelling from German artillery. You didn’t show yourself during the daytime because of snipers. The same went for the Germans, and they also generally stayed undercover. One day Dad was looking across the valley with binoculars and saw a German outside his foxhole improving his positions. Dad said “You son of a bitch…” and took aim and fired. The bullet hit a rock about 6 inches behind the German, and he jumped back in his foxhole. One of Dad’s buddies in a neighboring foxhole called out “You missed him, Bill….”
On the 2nd and 3rd of April, the 60th received over 240 replacements for the men who had been killed or wounded. This translates to roughly a 25-30% casualty rate over the preceding 2 weeks. The new recruits arrived none too soon, as the Germans mounted a massive attack on the night of the 4th. The attack lasted all night, but the 60th held and the Germans retreated in the early dawn hours.
On April 7th, although the men of the 60th didn’t know it yet, the enemy had withdrawn. It was quiet all day and then something happened. Dad and his foxhole mate, Boggs, saw something just outside the valley. It was a vehicle approaching from the south. Suddenly, the vehicle stopped. As dad watched through binoculars, two guys got out of the vehicle and…..started making tea. It was a British scout vehicle. The Brits, along with the rest of the US forces attacking at El Guettar had broken through and were driving north. Dad and Boggs came down from the hills and approached the Brits. They spoke together for a while and traded some cigarettes for biscuits. The Brits then packed up their kit, and headed north. It’s not recorded in any history book, but I believe that was the first link up between Montgomery’s Eighth Army coming from the south, and the US 1st Armored Division driving East from Maknassy. The Twenty Days of Maknassy were over.
I love it when small history is a part of big history. Dad told these stories of Maknassy, with the mud, the minefields, and the night attacks in piecemeal fashion. The stories of the “missed shot” and the Brits having tea were always shared with a laugh. I remember listening to Dad as a kid. He never told stories of either the heroics, or the butchery, of war. It was always more about the humor of the situation, or some particular hardship they went through. It was only later when I read the details of some of the battles, that I was able to overlay dad’s stories onto the actual events of the battle. Greatest Generation indeed.
Addendum:
1. If you ever watched the movie, “Patton”, the tank battle shown in Africa is at El Guettar, of which the actions at Maknassy were a part of. The movie projects it as a single day battle, but the actual events took place over nearly three weeks, and was in support of Montgomery’s attack coming from the south.
2. In addition to my conversations with Dad, I was able to piece together many of the larger details of the battle from three other sources: The New York Times (editions from March and April of 1943); the book “Eight Stars to Victory, a History of the Veterans Ninth U.S. Infantry Division” (published in 1948); and this site on line: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-NWA/USA-MTO-NWA-28.html – “Northwest Africa, Seizing the Initiative in the West”, by George F Howe.
3. Over the past couple of years, I’ve written several blogs about Dad’s time in the Army. They were never posted in any particular order. If you are interested in reading more about dad’s life during WWII, you can get some glimpses in the following blogs, listed here in chronological order:
Oct 1942. Last leave before shipping out to invade Africa. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/the-%EF%BB%BFlast-big-weekend-before-the-invasion/
Jan 1943. Dad, Roosevelt, and a Brush with History. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/247/
Mar 1943. The Twenty Days of Maknassy (This blog)
June 1943. Kicked out of a Walled City Twice. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/kicked-out-of-a-walled-city-twice/
August 1943. Wounded in Sicily. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/wounded-in-sicily/
June 1944. Dad and Pooch on D-Day. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/dad-and-pooch/
Late 1944. Dad, Deason, Boggs and Noble. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/17/dad-deason-boggs-and-noble/
…And this one in regard to Veterans Day…..
Aug 1942. A last visit home. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/veterans-day-a-blue-star-a-flag-and-a-letter/
Live Life Exuberantly 
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