No Normal Battle
Longstop Hill in Tunisia had to be taken if there was any hope of victory in North Africa, and in April 1943 the British attacked. It would be the courageous action of one officer which led to the capture of this vital hill.
In an opening paragraph of a report for the Daily Herald, War Correspondent Alexander Berry Austin wrote: “Machine-gun rattle went on and on, like a boy drumming a stick on an endless iron fence. The blue, grey, and brown smoke of the mortar bursts foamed over all this side of the hill, almost blotting it out from time to time.”
Austin was with the Eighth Army, pushing towards Tunis and driving out Axis forces until enemy reinforcements were flown in and re-organised under General Walther Kurt Josef Nehring. Then, with Luftwaffe air superiority, and firepower of the 10th Panzer Division, Nehring counterattacked forcing the Allies to withdraw six miles to Djebel el Ahmera, known to the British as Longstop Hill.
This position could easily be outflanked, so a further withdrawal was ordered with the troops falling back westwards as Nehring settled his forces on the banks of the River Merjerda and the Allies set about building up for their offensive. However, rain had turned roads to mud and wadis to raging rivers. All hope of taking Tunis had to be abandoned until drier weather.
The pause gave Axis forces time to continue a buildup in the north of Tunisia as supplies, weapons, and men flowed in while the Allies waited. Then, in April, it was decided to start the offensive against Tunis, a key objective being the 900-foot-high Longstop Hill to achieve Allied control of the Merjerda river corridor.
On the night of 21 April 1943, the 5th Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent
Regiment), the 6th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment, and 8th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, of the 36th Infantry Brigade, began moving into ground around Chassart Teffaha, two miles south-west of Longstop Hill.
After an artillery barrage from 25-pounders and the guns of 48 Churchill tanks, the infantry emerged from their sheltered positions at 22.45 hours. The assault on Longstop had begun.
The first phase was taking surrounding ground to enable the second phase – the push for the summit – to be carried out under cover of darkness. The attack went well at first, but on the right the West Kents were pinned down.
It was evident the assault on the summit would now have to be in
daylight, and although the advantage of darkness was lost, the changed situation meant the infantry could be supported by the Churchills of the North Irish Horse. The task of taking the summit was handed to the 8th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, with the 1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment supporting.
The battalion, like so many involved in the fighting in Tunisia, had been considerably depleted, the assault force totaling only about 200, but led by Lieutenant Colonel Colin McNabb, the Argylls moved off at 10.30 hours, and by 11.30 hours had married up with their tank support and approached Longstop Hill.
PURE PANDEMONIUM
With a creeping barrage from 25-pounders thundering ahead, the Argylls moved towards the slopes on a two-company frontage, the battalion HQ group between the front two and rear two companies. Passing through a cornfield, they were well spread out to minimise casualties. The North Irish Horse followed, searching for targets on the hillside.
Halfway across the cornfield, enemy artillery and mortars opened fire, the battalion’s command group being all but wiped out before reaching the foot of the hill - McNabb amongst the many men who were killed.
At last, the remnants reached Longstop and began the assault. Austin wrote:
“It was not a normal battle. On Longstop, there was no safe place. A battalion HQ was just as liable to be blown to pieces as a forward platoon. Men fell so fast that colonels, captains, lieutenants, and NCOs had to be ready to do any job at any moment. They were all being thinned out. The question was, how could they hold on? It was not only machine gun and mortar fire. It was the exhaustion of struggling up these heavy tangled slopes.”
The sun added heatstroke to the battle casualties, shredding the ranks of the Highlanders as they pressed on with the tanks of the North Irish Horse creeping forward, their tracks scratching at the rocks for traction. The attack was described by Sergeant Duncan MacMillan:
“At the start line, the Campbelltown boys met, had a dram o’ whisky and a chat. We got shelled at the assembly area and had casualties before we even started. We had a mile to go through corn fields in broad daylight. Bullets like bees buzzing past you all the time, fellows getting killed, mortars firing and the whole place was blue with smoke and cordite. Close to the defences, the enemy continued to fire, so there was not much mercy when we managed to get there.
“After about 2pm I was ordered to stick to Jack Anderson. I had filled my water bottles with rum, and we all had a sip and off we went again, it was pure pandemonium. If your pal dropped, you had to leave him and carry on to the top of the hill. On and on we went, and eventually got to the top.”
Bullets like bees buzzing past you all the time, fellows getting killed, mortars firing and the whole place was blue with smoke and cordite. ”Sergeant Duncan MacMillan
The man MacMillan mentioned was Major John Anderson who also left an account of the battle:
“We were told that we were going to make an attack on Longstop Hill in daylight. The Battalion advanced in the form of a box, the attack was put in behind a heavy artillery barge and supported by fire from Churchill tanks. To reach the bottom of the hill, the battalion had to pass through a strip of corn, it was about halfway across the corn that the enemy mortar and artillery shells started to fall among the men. Further on, machine gun fire was opened from Longstop and from a hill on the left flank. At the base of the hill, the fire was at its worst and casualties were heavy. I got scraped in the leg by one of these. I was told the Colonel had been hit; I made my way to the front of the battalion to lead the men on.
“The men were in great heart, and I could see that Longstop was going to be taken by the 8th Argylls. I ran into three positions on the first rise, in each I gave the occupants a full Tommy gun magazine. Up to the top of the hill we kept up behind the barrage. But on the high ground I stopped, I found that only a handful of men were up with me. The barrage went on without us. Gradually more men arrived, and, in the end, I collected about 30 men. Casualties had been so heavy that it seemed unlikely that many more would materialise. So, we advanced to the last height.
“I came upon a mortar position and we all loosed off at a group in the dug outs. They put their hands up and others flooded from various holes and corners. Later we captured a 75mm anti-tank gun after a brush with the crew.
“The final assault was uneventful. Generally speaking, the Boche stayed put and fired until we were right upon their positions. They then packed in and tried to surrender, but the Jocks were very angry, and, in most cases, they died pretty rapidly.”
However, Jack Anderson underplayed his part in the assault. Austin remarked:
“You could see his red, cheerful face everywhere, and hear him shouting all over the hill. He was wounded in
one leg, and there were bullet holes in his clothing, but he never stopped. He rallied his men and urged them on when they were so tired they could hardly walk, rushing on and killing Germans himself to show the way.”
Indeed, it was only because Anderson gathered his men and led them up the final yards of the hill that the position was taken.
The final casualty count of the Argylls revealed that in addition to losses in the command group, the rifle companies had one officer killed and six wounded, 25 other ranks killed, 66 wounded and 16 missing.
SUDDEN ANGER
With the hill taken, Austin climbed its slopes to see the ground over which the men had fought:
“I climbed up on to Longstop Hill through the choking dust of the track that led up to it, and over the dusty juniper and rosemary. On the second ride was a zig-zag line of German trenches. In them, the East Surreys were sitting, their Cockney spirits just beginning to rise now the storm had died. One was playing a mouth organ, and another shouted ‘Don’t show yourself on that skyline’...
“On the next ridge were the Argylls. They were quieter, as is their way. I could see that they were very pleased with themselves, but very tired.”
Austin then came across Anderson coming down the hill, blinking in the sunlight. The correspondent asked what had given him that extra spurt of energy enabling a final rush to the summit. He answered:
“I think we got a kind of sudden anger at the hill. It was as if every man had said at the same moment: ‘Oh, hell – let’s finish this bloody thing.’ Then we all ran shouting and yelling at them together. The Germans on the top didn’t fight back or even throw up their hands when we were on them. They just cowered back with their arms over their eyes.”
The Pipe-Major of the Argylls was amongst the dead. Having taken his pipes with him, he intended to play them on the summit. Now, the only music heard on the hillside was the mournful lament of a Cockney mouth organ.
With Longstop in Allied hands, troops, guns, and tanks could move freely northwards and the attack on Tunis could continue. Austin summed up the significance of the capture of Djebel el Ahmera:
“If final victory comes sooner than we hope, we owe it to the men who stormed Longstop Hill and burst through to Tunis.”
They were not just Austin’s last words on the Battle of Longstop Hill, but also some of the very last words he wrote. He was killed in Italy when the Eighth Army invaded Hitler’s Europe. So too was Jack Anderson VC.