What was Operation Ochsenkopf?
Operation Ochsenkopf (Ox Head) was a German offensive in northern Tunisia launched on 26 February 1943 by General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army against the British First Army. Its main thrust, with Tiger tanks, aimed through Sidi Nsir at the supply base of Béja. A battalion of the Hampshire Regiment and a field battery held Sidi Nsir for a day, and the German armor was then shot to pieces in the valley called Hunt's Gap. The offensive gained ground in the far north but missed every major objective.1
Ochsenkopf is the least known of the German offensives in Tunisia, overshadowed by Rommel's attack at Kasserine a week earlier. John Rickard of HistoryOfWar.org calls it a minor offensive carried out at the expense of Rommel's more promising plans, though he argues it had a clearer purpose than English-language histories usually allow.2
After Kasserine
By February 1943 the two Axis armies in North Africa were squeezed into Tunisia: von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army in the north, facing the British First Army, and Rommel's army in the south. After the battle of the Kasserine Pass ran out of steam, Rommel was given command of the new Army Group Africa, but von Arnim already had his own plans for the north. On 24 February, at a conference with Field Marshal Kesselring in Rome, a limited attack toward Medjez el Bab grew into a much wider one.3 › Erwin Rommel
Rickard explains the logic. The British front was dangerously close to Bizerte and Tunis, and the road from Djebel Abiod through Béja to Teboursouk was the first north-south road behind it. Cutting it anywhere could force the British back into the mountains, and Medjez el Bab, where five roads met, was the gateway to the Tunisian plain. The difficulty was the terrain: German columns would be strung out on single mountain roads, unable to support each other.4
Eight thrusts
The offensive opened early on 26 February. The Royal Hampshire Regiment's history describes eight separate thrusts, westward and southwestward, with more than half the enemy's strength committed. In the north the Manteuffel Division attacked along the coast road toward Djebel Abiod; in the center Kampfgruppe Lang, with 77 tanks, including Tigers of the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion and fifteen tanks borrowed from the 21st Panzer Division, struck at Sidi Nsir on the way to Béja; farther south other battle groups tried to envelop Medjez el Bab and reach Bou Arada.5
Sidi Nsir
Sidi Nsir was little more than a cluster of stone houses and a railway station some 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Béja. The 5th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment held it, about 12 miles in front of the rest of the 128th Brigade, as a buffer meant to buy time for the main position at Hunt's Gap to be reinforced. With it was 155 Battery of the Royal Artillery.6
At 6 a.m. on 26 February the outlying platoons reported heavy mortar fire and then tanks coming down the road from Mateur. Caught on a minefield, three tanks were knocked out by 155 Battery's field guns. By 10 a.m. the observation post on the Mateur road was overrun; HistoryOfWar.org dates the loss of Hill 609 to the same hour. Dive bombers hit the guns and ammunition trucks, the road to the battery was cut, and when the German tanks came again F Troop was wiped out. The defenders held until about 6 p.m.; that night about a hundred Hampshires made their way back to the 2/4th Battalion at Hunt's Gap.7
Hunt's Gap
The day bought at Sidi Nsir was enough. By the time the Germans reached the defile east of Ksar Mezouar that the British called Hunt's Gap, the position held five field batteries, an anti-tank battery and air support. On 27 February the German column, platoons of four tanks spread along a line of armored cars and lorried infantry, drove into an ambush and lost at least eleven tanks; many vehicles left behind in the confusion were destroyed by the British during the night. On 28 February the Germans tried again with tanks on the road and infantry on the hills, but Churchill tanks had arrived in hull-down positions and the armor made no progress. After four days the last five German tanks withdrew.8
A costly failure
Elsewhere the results were mixed. In the north the Germans took Sedjenane on 4 March and pushed to within two and a half miles of Djebel Abiod before running out of steam on 19 March, claiming 1,600 prisoners. The attacks on Medjez el Bab and Bou Arada made little headway, and a German parachute battle group that gained ground on 26 February was driven back the next day.9
The cost fell on the irreplaceable armor. By 3 March the Germans admitted losing 22 tanks, with 49 more out of action, and on 1 March Weber's forces facing Medjez and Bou Arada were down to six tanks. Rommel, furious that the Tigers he had not been given at Kasserine had been squandered in the north, ordered the offensive stopped. Most of the ground it had won was retaken by the Allies in local attacks before their final offensive in Tunisia began.10
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”; Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”; John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”; John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”; John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”; Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
- John Rickard, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”. ↩
Sources
- John Rickard, HistoryOfWar.org, “Operation Ochenskopf, 26 February to 19 March 1943”
- Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, “The Battle of Sidi Nsir, Tunisia 26th February 1943”
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