The expected German assault was in an important front sector, which had to be held - what ever the price in terms of men and equipment. A victory in this area could be of great importance in pushing the German forces further north.
Support units came from Great Britain and consisted of 2 artillery regiments, 4 17-pounder anti-tank guns, 5 M10 17-pounder and 8 Typhoon IB fighter-bombers (345 men). Also a very large number of mines were made available for the Australian taskforce in their effort to hold the lines.
Every tank, anti-tank gun and mine had to be carefully placed to make the most use of the terrain and the limited force that was to counter the German onslaught. All guns had to hold their fire until the enemy was well within range and could be destroyed in order to avoid detection for as long as possible. The battle was without a doubt going to be a very hard one and a total loss had meant the break up of the entire taskforce, since there would have been no way to replace the losses suffered, since the resources hadn’t been sufficient to do so in such a short time.
Luckily for the Australian taskforce the careful planning had paid off and the battle, although bloody and costly in terms of men and equipment, ended victoriously for the Australians and a total defeat for the German attackers. It was mainly thanks to the massive artillery support and the Royal Air Force, since their barrage and air attacks meant that a lot of the enemy units were either pinned down or stopped in their tracks, and this bought the Australian taskforce valuable time to re-deploy and re-distribute their resources. Two massive German armoured assaults were shot to pieces by the concentration of tanks and anti-tank guns and the infantry in its tracks stopped by the artillery and fighter-bombers. For the first time all the ranks of the taskforce, including the artillery, suffered losses and equipment damage.
Maybe the greatest loss during the battle was the loss of the experienced company commander of the second tank company, killed along with his entire crew by a lucky hit fired from the sole surviving crew member of a damaged Panther tank, itself destroyed just a minute afterwards.
This battle took all the energy and fighting spirit the Australian taskforce could bring up, but in the end it paid off and ended in a decisive victory.
Losses:
-Germany: 183 tanks and armoured vehicles, 6 120 mm mortar positions, 3 anti-aircraft guns, 9 soft vehicles & almost 1.700 men in total
-Great Britain: 2 17-pounder anti-tank guns, 1 Typhoon IB and 89 men in total.
-Austraila:
--2/7th AR: 7 AC4 Sentinel, 2 AC3 Sentinel & 45 men in total
--112th AT-R: 3 6-pounder anti-tank gun, 1 Lloyd Carrier & 21 men in total
--67th AA-R: 1 anti-aircraft gun, 2 Lloyd Carrier & 15 men in total
--23rd/21st IR: 120 men in total
--16th FR: 8 men in total
The tanks were all destroyed by enemy tanks, but most of the other losses were mainly due to the enemy artillery.
Captured equipment:
-9 Panther G and 4 PzKpfw IV H could be captured intact by the Australian troops.
The captured Panther tanks were put into service with the 2/7th AR, 3 in each company. The captured PzKpfw IV tanks were “traded in” for more captured Panther tank ammunition and spare parts.
Replacements:
-2/7th AR: With the capture of the Panther tanks, given to the most experienced platoon commanders, the fleet of available AC4 tanks could be expanded, leading to the AC3’s being phased out in favour of the AC4, mainly due to its superior anti-tank assets. In the end all tank crews except for the 4 ones killed in action were replaced, leaving the regiment with 6 AC4 in reserve.
-112th AT-R: None of the anti-tank guns could be replaced at this time.
-67th AA-R: The destroyed anti-aircraft gun couldn’t be replaced at this time.
-23rd/21st IR: Most of the soldiers lost in combat were replaced, however none of the infantry companies were completely replaced with fresh troops. The machine guns were also replaced.
-16th FR: The artillery men lost in combat were completely replaced.
Cheers, Taskforce