The Battle of Medenine
On the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Medenine, my father and I commemorate the battle, in tribute to the heroic defenders who fought that day.
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the battle of Medenine on the 6th March 1943, during the North Africa campaign of WW2.
German forces had been speedily pushed back towards the Tunisian coast, in the wake of the Allied forces’ successful encounter, at the well known Battle of El Alamein; the German commander, Rommel, however, devised a plan for a counter attack. Meeting with success, partially achieved by surprise, at the Battle of Kasserine, he hoped to repeat this success by changing the direction of his assault.
Thanks partly to the effort of the Ultra codebreakers, the Allied forces were warned of this likely strategic manoeuvre and were able to lay out a significant and well deployed defensive force at Medenine to counter this assault.
The defence consisted largely of a well thought layout of mutually supporting anti tank guns and infantry, with armoured (tank) units held in reserve. The principal defence actions on the day were borne by 131 Queens Brigade, 201 Guards Brigade and 5 New Zealand Brigade.
By the end of the day of the battle, Rommel’s forces withdrew, having lost 70 tanks and 640 men in the attempted attack. It was the last desperate attempt to halt the Allied Desert advance and 2 months later, the Axis forces in North Africa had surrendered.
A major point of interest in the battle was the remarkable action of a small group of 6 pounder guns deployed as part of 131 Queens Brigade; these held up one of the main thrusts of the German advance for a large proportion of the day, inflicting significant damage to the attackers.
The actions of just two guns in particular, under the brave command of Sgt Andrew and Sgt Crangles, were to have a most significant effect on the outcome of the battle.
Over a period lasting around 9-10 hours, their gun positions bore the brunt of a repeating series of attacks from around 60 enemy tanks trying to advance down two desert valleys. During the combat, remarkably, these two guns were to knockout at least 23 of the attacking tanks between them, despite facing fierce return fire, artillery bombardment of their positions and some attempts at dive bombing attacks on them too.
At one point, Sgt Andrew’s gun was under such heavy return fire, and the position taking such damage, that he ordered his crew to take cover and remained at the position himself, continuing to load and fire the gun on his own.
After around 8-9 hours of engagement, Sgt Crangles’s gun was knocked out of action by a direct hit from enemy fire; at this point Sgt Crangles then took over use of the Bren (machine) gun to continue to defend the position and ordered his crew to fix bayonets. His position was however overrun and he, his crew and the supporting platoon of infantry around it were taken prisoner.
Shortly afterwards though, having made little progress in the attack, and having suffered such high losses, the remaining attack here was ordered to withdraw, a defence success in no small part attributable to these two brave Sergeants and their crews.
Both Crangles and Andrew were recommended for VCs for their actions by their unit commanders, but both were awarded DCMs; Crangles receiving his after his repatriation from being a POW, at the end of the war.
The battle is not a very well known one, and rather aside from my usual subject matter, but I have gained a strong interest in it through the work of my father, David Rowland, who in the course of his work, spent several years researching every part of the battle’s events in great detail.
I know he will be remembering the combat today and honouring it in his own special way, laying out a parade of appropriate elements to represent the units and anti-tank gun types involved, from his remarkable 1/60th scale model collection, which represents accurate portrayals of many units of the British Army. A collection which he started creating as a boy in 1944. Photos show parts of a similar parade that he set out for the 75th anniversary of the battle.
I created the painting for him around the time of the 75th anniversary too; it shows Sgt Crangles’s gun in action in the early phase of the combat.
Remarkably, the actual gun used by Sgt. Andrew was preserved. The story of its preservation is probably worthy of an account of its own, but a photo of it as a gate guardian at one of the Queen’s Regiment barracks, in the 1990’s, is included in lieu for now though!
German forces had been speedily pushed back towards the Tunisian coast, in the wake of the Allied forces’ successful encounter, at the well known Battle of El Alamein; the German commander, Rommel, however, devised a plan for a counter attack. Meeting with success, partially achieved by surprise, at the Battle of Kasserine, he hoped to repeat this success by changing the direction of his assault.
Thanks partly to the effort of the Ultra codebreakers, the Allied forces were warned of this likely strategic manoeuvre and were able to lay out a significant and well deployed defensive force at Medenine to counter this assault.
The defence consisted largely of a well thought layout of mutually supporting anti tank guns and infantry, with armoured (tank) units held in reserve. The principal defence actions on the day were borne by 131 Queens Brigade, 201 Guards Brigade and 5 New Zealand Brigade.
By the end of the day of the battle, Rommel’s forces withdrew, having lost 70 tanks and 640 men in the attempted attack. It was the last desperate attempt to halt the Allied Desert advance and 2 months later, the Axis forces in North Africa had surrendered.
A major point of interest in the battle was the remarkable action of a small group of 6 pounder guns deployed as part of 131 Queens Brigade; these held up one of the main thrusts of the German advance for a large proportion of the day, inflicting significant damage to the attackers.
The actions of just two guns in particular, under the brave command of Sgt Andrew and Sgt Crangles, were to have a most significant effect on the outcome of the battle.
Over a period lasting around 9-10 hours, their gun positions bore the brunt of a repeating series of attacks from around 60 enemy tanks trying to advance down two desert valleys. During the combat, remarkably, these two guns were to knockout at least 23 of the attacking tanks between them, despite facing fierce return fire, artillery bombardment of their positions and some attempts at dive bombing attacks on them too.
At one point, Sgt Andrew’s gun was under such heavy return fire, and the position taking such damage, that he ordered his crew to take cover and remained at the position himself, continuing to load and fire the gun on his own.
After around 8-9 hours of engagement, Sgt Crangles’s gun was knocked out of action by a direct hit from enemy fire; at this point Sgt Crangles then took over use of the Bren (machine) gun to continue to defend the position and ordered his crew to fix bayonets. His position was however overrun and he, his crew and the supporting platoon of infantry around it were taken prisoner.
Shortly afterwards though, having made little progress in the attack, and having suffered such high losses, the remaining attack here was ordered to withdraw, a defence success in no small part attributable to these two brave Sergeants and their crews.
Both Crangles and Andrew were recommended for VCs for their actions by their unit commanders, but both were awarded DCMs; Crangles receiving his after his repatriation from being a POW, at the end of the war.
The battle is not a very well known one, and rather aside from my usual subject matter, but I have gained a strong interest in it through the work of my father, David Rowland, who in the course of his work, spent several years researching every part of the battle’s events in great detail.
I know he will be remembering the combat today and honouring it in his own special way, laying out a parade of appropriate elements to represent the units and anti-tank gun types involved, from his remarkable 1/60th scale model collection, which represents accurate portrayals of many units of the British Army. A collection which he started creating as a boy in 1944. Photos show parts of a similar parade that he set out for the 75th anniversary of the battle.
I created the painting for him around the time of the 75th anniversary too; it shows Sgt Crangles’s gun in action in the early phase of the combat.
Remarkably, the actual gun used by Sgt. Andrew was preserved. The story of its preservation is probably worthy of an account of its own, but a photo of it as a gate guardian at one of the Queen’s Regiment barracks, in the 1990’s, is included in lieu for now though!