Thanks.
JamesL - http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=1162321#p1162321 wrote:10th and 21st Panzer Divisions
Slaughter of American POW's at Sidi Bou Zid, Tunisia
The US 168th Infantry Regiment (Iowa National Guard) was engaged in battle with elements of the German 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions at Sidi Bou Zid. The Americans were surrounded and captured by the Germans. Below are some excerpts from "Account of Operations 168th Infantry, 34th Division, from 24 December 1942 to 17 February 1943.
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"Finally a German armored car bearing a white flag came dashing into the American circle. Col Drake ordered his men to wave the car away. German tanks came in following that vehicle without any negotiations for surrender. The Germans had used the white flag as subterfuge to come inside the circle of defense without drawing fire. The tanks closed in from all directions cutting Drake’s forces into small groups. The men who did not surrender were killed by the Germans.
"Colonel Drake was taken to General Schmidt, Group Commander of the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions. The German Commander promised Colonel Drake that all the American wounded would be cared for and that he could leave American medical personnel to properly look after them, but immediately upon Colonel Drake leaving the field, the American medical personnel was carried off as prisoners and the American dead and wounded left to the ravages of the Arabs who proceeded to immediately strip the dead and wounded and to beat insensible those wounded who protested to the stripping of their clothes.
The American prisoners were assembled in a group and under guard marched back that afternoon and night along the road to DJ LESSOUDA. Those Americans who were slightly wounded or who became ill because of fatigue, lack of food and water and could not keep up with the column were ruthlessly bayoneted or shot.
The men had been left to the systematic robbery of the German soldiers and some junior officers. During this time pockets and kits were thoroughly searched …while watches, rings, pocketbooks, pens and all valuables were ruthlessly seized.
All day they marched through desert sands with unrelieved thirst almost unbearable. Colonel Drake appealed to the German Commander in the name of common humanity to give the men a drink of water, but was met with the statement, “We only have enough for our troops.” Near midnight …. The men were herded into a circle in the open desert and there practically froze in the piercing cold of the African night.
The men burrowed into the ground for warmth, scooping out the sand with their hands. No means whatsoever was provided for ordinary sanitation. Officers and men thrown in like pigs.
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The report continues with descriptions of the troops being locked in railroad box cars for days and torture during interrogations by German troops.
The entire report can be seen at the 34th Division website.
http://www.34infdiv.org/history/168inf/ ... akeRpt.pdf
The battle is also discussed in
US Army in World War II: Mediterranean Theater of Operatioins: Northwest Africa - Seizing the Initiative in the West.
The specific discussion on whether Stauffenberg was involved in this already have their own dedicated thread at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=135272
/Marcus