Give Them Some Steel*
*
*
Date: March 21, 1943*
*
Location: Djebel El Ank Pass, Tunisia*
*
Type: U.S. assault vs Italian defend*
*
Design: C. Berry*
*
With the capture of Gafsa and El Guettar, II Corps attack entered a
second phase. On 20 March, the 1st Infantry Division received a
warning order from corps to prepare to attack along the Gafsa-Gabes road
and to take the high ground east of El Guettar about eighteen miles southeast
of Gafsa. The Gafsa-Gabes road split into two branches less than a
mile east of El Guettar. The northern branch, dubbed Gumtree Road,
passed through Djebel el Ank Pass and south of Bou Hamran to Mahares
on the sea.*
*
Djebel el Ank Pass opened to the west like a funnel with rocky heights
on both sides, and the Italians had barred its entrance with mines, barbed
wire, and roadblocks and had covered its approaches with automatic weapons
and antitank guns. An unsupported frontal attack on the pass would
risk heavy casualties and a high likelihood of failure, but a frontal attack
combined with a surprise Ranger attack from the rear would be more likely
to succeed with fewer losses. The plan thus developed required the Rangers
to infiltrate enemy lines and attack the Italians defending the pass from
behind. With the start of the Ranger attack, the 26th Infantry would make
a frontal attack into the pass and, after securing it, continue on to Bou Hamran.*
*
The Rangers, under command of Colonel William O. Darby, remained in the Djebel el Ank area after locating
the enemy and conducted reconnaissance patrols against the Italian
positions. During these reconnaissances, the Rangers mapped a tortuous ten-mile-long
route among fissures, cliffs, and saddles to an unguarded rocky plateau
that overlooked the Italian positions from behind. The Italians, believing
themselves safe in their naturally strong position, had not established effective
local security.*
*
On the night of 20 March, Darby led the 1st Ranger Battalion and an
attached mortar section along the previously reconnoitered route
to the plateau behind the Italians. There, with their faces blackened with
camouflage, the Rangers awaited the dawn.  The mortar company, impeded
by the weight of its weapons and the ruggedness of the terrain, had fallen
behind and was still en route to the plateau.*
*
Shortly after 0600, as first light brightened the sky to the east, waiting
troops of the 26th Infantry heard the sound of battle burst forth suddenly
from the north wall of the pass. The Rangers had taken the unsuspecting
Italians completely by surprise.*
*
With machine-gun and rifle fire, a Ranger support element sent the
Italians on the south side of the pass scurrying for cover, while the rest of
the Ranger battalion swarmed down on the stunned defenders of the north
wall. With the sound of a bugle, the assault element jumped from rock to
rock shouting Indian war cries and formed into skirmish lines to close with
the Italians. They rushed forward firing their weapons, throwing grenades,
and bayoneting as Darby repeatedly shouted, "Give them some steel!"*
*
The first twenty minutes of the battle all but broke enemy resistance
on the north wall. Dead Italians sprawled next to their unfired weapons
while many of the living frantically waved white flags from their dugouts
and trenches. The Rangers gathered prisoners while their mortars fired on
those Italians who were still fighting from the other side of the road. By
0830, the Rangers held the most important positions on the pass.*
*
*
Source:*
 The Leavenworth Papers-Rangers: Selected Combat
Operations in World War 
by Dr. Michael J. King ;*
 Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General
Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027-6900., US Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC 20402.
Leavenworth Papers US tSSN 0195 3451