Introduction
For those who read the citation of adjudant-chef HAHN for his actions during the battle of Loukanda in my previous post carefully will have noticed that it also addresses actions taken place during a counterattack of the German on the 6th of May.
He wrote in his diary about this the following:
I am speaking to Captain Joubert, who arrived the night before to take command of the Battalion, and whom I knew from Tadla (Rosette often played with his boys!!). Our conversation, while working on our hole, is only about the attack on the 4th and about our dead. I can only think of all those poor souls who leave behind a widow and children! And there are many this time: De la Sudrie, Lehurann, Slajer, Hamilton and so many others. A shell (among many) falls just 2m above my hole, which is not deep. This stimulates me. Evening arrives. We must move to a ravine, 150m to the East, it’s safer! I am just going there with my little things when the Germans start to get angry; they launch a violent counter-attack right in our sector, or more precisely at the boundary of our sector and the one on the right held by Tirailleurs!
The Tirailleurs are retreating without any reason, without any excuse! Finally, they are stopped and pushed back (I later learned that Captain X and Adjt Chief Y had shot down 2 NCO’s of the Tirailleurs – French – who were retreating!).
An intense gunfight breaks out. Artillery intervenes from both sides. It is becoming serious! The German infantry is trying to infiltrate! I run with Captain Joubert to look for the 8th Company, in reserve, which we only find later. Ammunition is scarce on the positions. We are organising ammunition resupplies again! We were close that night! Finally, late at night, everything returns to normal, but those were, along with 4 May, the 2 most violent bombings we have ever experienced!
II forgot that the night before, we were finally receiving our equipment (bedrolls and tent canvases), but as the ground near our site had been heavily mined by the Germans, the mule carrying our gear in the darkness stepped on a mine, blown several meters into the air. The muleteer was, as luck would have it, only seriously injured, but from our gear (waterproof capes — bedrolls etc.), only small unusable bits were found. Everything had been shredded!! Mines, by the way, are a special chapter. A constant, invisible danger, severe losses were caused by mines! (Cars passing over them are blown several metres into the air, killing, of course, the occupants!).
The Tirailleurs mentioned were the 7e RTM.
L’attaque finale dans le djebel Zaghouan, 4 au 13 mai 1943
La DMM est chargée de l’effort principal sur l’axe général d’attaque maison forestière de Loukanda, djebel Ech-Chama.
Le 4 mai à 05h00, après une préparation d’artillerie d’une demi-heure, la DMM débouche sur toute sa ligne.
Le 7e RTM a deux bataillons en première ligne : à gauche le 3/7e RTM appuyé par un escadron du 5e régiment de chasseurs d’Afrique (RCA) atteint la cote 458, à droite le 1/7e RTM atteint la cote 394 puis la cote 484 en faisant 120 prisonniers.
La progression initiale a été assez rapide mais la résistance s’est rapidement durcie et la progression est stoppée. Le terrain conquis est organisé. Le 7e RTM a eu 14 tués et 51 blessés.
Le 5 mai, l’attaque est suspendue en attendant un renforcement des moyens d’artillerie.
Le 6 mai, le Kef-el-Aziz est disputé par les deux parties. Le 3e Tabor a tenté pendant la nuit de s’emparer des cotes 510 et 676 mais a échoué. A la tombée du jour, l’artillerie allemande déclenche brusquement des tirs d’artillerie sur les positions du 7e RTM puis l’infanterie attaque les cotes 448 et 458. Elle s’empare de la cote 458 mais en est immédiatement chassée par une contre-attaque.
A gauche du régiment, le 29e RTA fait quelques progrés.