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Hoping to still capture Tebesa before the offensive petered out, Rommel ordered the 10th Panzer to attack once again on the 20th. Salvoes from German rocket launchers and artillery pieces rained down on the Americans as Germany panzer grenadiers mounted numerous attacks against the Allied positions. Fierce fighting ensued, but by mid-afternoon the Allied line has collapsed and the Panzers had broken through. The British had lost their last tank and the U.S. engineers supporting Stark had taken heavy casualties (14). The Germans, after smashing the Anglo-American defenders, found no Allied forces in their immediate vicinity save the bloodied and broken remnants of Task Force Stark. They had inflicted two crushing defeats, Sidi Bou Zid and Kasserine, on the Allies within the short span of one week.

Though they had triumphed tactically, the overall attitude in the Axis camp was dismal, with the sole exception being Kesselring. Rommel, remembering no doubt his previous experiences in North Africa, saw that his flanks were exposed and his supply lines stretched thin (15). Worse, he realized that his 10th Panzer Division had only defeated a fraction of the U.S. II Corps, and feared both a counterattack by the Americans and an offensive against the Mareth Line by Monty. Moreover, he has seen how amazingly well-equipped the Americans had been and noted how stubborn their defense of the pass had been: a handful of American battalions had held off an entire German Panzer division for two days (16). Von Arnim, meanwhile, had been planning an offensive of his own farther north, and Rommel suddenly realized exactly why von Arnim had withheld important troops from him, some of which had been brand new Tiger I tanks (17). Therefore, after continuing his drive towards Tebesa for only two more days, during which his forces encountered stiff Allied resistance, Rommel reluctantly called off the attack and pulled his forces back to face Monty and his Eighth Army (18).

The Battle of Kasserine Pass, though depicted in Patton and elsewhere as a serious debacle for the Americans, can actually be looked at as an American victory, although Pyrrhic in nature. At a high cost in men, material, and supplies, assets which were relatively easy to replace for the U.S., Task Force Stark and the American II Corps had successfully blunted Rommel’s audacious plan to slice through the Americans and take Tebesa, and action which might have had serious reverberations for the Allied campaign in Tunisia. For the price of a few infantry brigades and a handful of British tanks, Task Force Stark had managed to pull off something of a Stonewall Jackson after all. Though they had not stood as firm as Jackson had at Manasses Junction, the Americans, through their stubborn defense and brave sacrifices, had played a key role in the defeat of Rommel’s offensive. The Battle of Kasserine Pass, considered by some as a disgraceful setback for the Americans, can really be deemed a strategic victory for the Allies. Within a month of the battle, Rommel was in Germany, never to return to North Africa, and the Allies, hitting the Germans from both the south and west, were finally beginning to make substantial gains in Tunisia. The wily Desert Fox had been defeated once again.

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