Special Forces-Night Station DTO (id:#66642)

(Internet: Steven Swann ID: SF-Rng4c)   [next]   [previous]

Station de Sened, Tunisia 1943-02-11 (4 others)

No balance information available

Overview:

Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's North Africa theater HQ attached the 1st Ranger Battalion to Maj. Gen. Lloyd R. Fredendall's II Corps in Tunisia. Hoping to gather intelligence and mislead the enemy regarding Allied strength and intentions, Fredendall directed the Rangers to launch a series of raids against the Italo-German lines. The Rangers struck first against the Italian outpost at Station de Sened. On the night of 10-11 February three Ranger companies marched through eight miles of rugged Tunisian terrain to a chain of hills overlooking the position. After observing the outpost by day, the Rangers, about midnight, began a four-mile approach march, advancing to successive phase lines and using colored lights to maintain formation. At 200 yards the Italians spotted their advance and opened fire, but most of the shots passed harmlessly overhead. The Rangers waited until they were fifty yards away before launching a bayonet assault. Within twenty minutes, the Rangers had killed or wounded an estimated seventy-five Italians, destroyed one antitank gun and five machine guns, and captured eleven members of the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment at the cost of one of their own men killed and twenty wounded, before withdrawing to friendly lines. The attacking Rangers, had carried out a mission appropriate to their training and organization.

Defender: Italian (10th Bersaglieri Regiment)  

Errata (source)