Valentine Tank - friend or foe

[Kieron Hill]

The story gets interesting and all from one picture

On the 19th of February 1943, the Germans launched a counter attack into the Kasserine Pass towards Thala. The Brigade was tasked with stopping the German advance. By dawn on the 21st, the Regiment was in a position blocking the road from Thala to Kasserine. All that day it fought a difficult delaying action in which fourteen tanks were lost. At dusk the Regiment retired into a leaguer. After a short time the sound of tanks moving on the road was heard; the enemy had resumed his advance in the dark and led the attack with a Valentine tank which had been abandoned by the Regiment at Tebourba in December. This ruse completely deceived the infantry in front of the regimental leaguer. It was not until the Germans opened fired that anyone realised what had happened. The first person to react was the Adjutant, Captain Ponsonby, who firing the gun of his own tank, destroyed four German tanks in quick succession. Soon the other tanks joined in and three more tanks were destroyed. The German attack dissolved; although the Regiment remained in the area for the next three days, the Germans did not renew it, but retired eastwards.


Great story

Cheers Kieron