|
German Parachute Engineers had landed at Souk Ahras and secured the area on November 17th. They immediately went to work lay minefields, wire, and digging entrenchments throughout the area.
On the morning of the 18th, Allied forces were observed approaching from the direction of Guelma ready for battle.
A combined force of British and Americans entered the Souk Ahras area from the west and almost immediately encountered minefields. Undaunted, the British forces edged forward through and around the minefields managing to avoid any casualties.
On the southern flank, US recon units boldly charged forward looking for the enemy. They soon found a company of engineers hiding in a orchard and attempted to call artillery on the position. But communications links could not be established quickly enough and the recon unit was eliminated by a huge volume of small arms fire. A second recon unit approached a set of entrenchments but was lost immediately to another round of small arms fire from another area. A third recon unit found yet another company of engineers hiding in a nearby village, but managed to escape without serious damage.
A group of British recon carriers spotted another German company hunkered down in some entrenchments and with the help of some Crusaders began to duel the Germans. The combined firepower was too much for the Germans and they were eliminated in short order by massive automatic weapons and cannon fire.
Meanwhile, British armor support by armored recon and a small unit of infantry slowly pushed the center and northern flank of the German positions. As the armor pushed up the middle, the unit of Valentines came under fire from German recoilless guns using HC rounds. When the dust cleared, one platoon of Valentines was burning as the other two beat a quick retreat. The accompanying Crusaders returned the favor by destroying the recoilless unit and the HQ it was attached to.
The remaining two German companies hunkered down in a village and nearby orchard. They were soon surrounded as artillery fire rained in on their positions. Finding their escape routes cut off, the German forces offered surrender which was graciously accepted by the Allied forces.
Souk Ahras is now in control of the Allies. |
