the field artillery journal - Fort Sill - U.S. Army

During the fighting around Tunis my battery was
detached from our battalion for a time, with the mission of
defending a compartment, down which ran a road, against
a possible enemy armored thrust between two of our
brigades with the object of cutting our supply line.
There were no friendly troops in the vicinity except a
company of French Senegalese, who placed themselves to
our rear; we therefore converted the battery into a tank
destroyer outfit.
The valley was about two miles wide, and to start with
we sited two guns on each side of it, well off the road, and
each with a .50-caliber machine gun in support. We then
ran liaison wire forward about two miles, set up one SCR-
194 set there, and sent another up the valley in a peep for
our warning service. All four guns commanded the road
and were in an arc formation converged on a common
point at a range of about 1200 yards.
We felt we were set to do business in the daytime, but
we were not so sure about night.
As soon as it was dark the two guns nearest the road
displaced to points about 100 yards from it on either side,
and about 500 yards from the common point. We laid these
guns directly, by referring them with a flashlight on the
point at which we wanted our fire converged.
Next we dug the "grand daddy" of all slit trenches about
50 yards off the road opposite this point, and strung a trip
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TUNISIAN
EXPERIMENT
By Capt. Norman J. Kinley, FA
wire to it. At the end of the wire we had 40 gallons of
gasoline in opened 5-gallon tins, and in the center of
the pile was snugly nestled an M-1 hand grenade in a
cradle of loose cordite.
Finally, in a line beyond this, perpendicular to the road
we dug a series of fox holes about 100 yards apart, each
containing a grenadier armed with plenty of antitank
power. We were all set.
We visualized our scheme to work out like this. The
forward peep, having warned the battery of the approach of
the enemy, would fade toward the hills. The radio-wire
station two miles forward would try to supplement the
warning with a definite identification, as it was fairly close
to the roadway. But the key to the plan was the stout
hearted man in the slit trench. He was to positively identify
the column as enemy and, letting motorcycles and light
escort vehicles through for the machine guns to deal with,
was to pull the trip wire so that the grenade would detonate
as the leading tank arrived at the point. The result would be
a column of burning gas about 20 feet high, and sufficient
disturbance to make the enemy tank commander halt long
enough for the two closer guns to drill into him with
armor-piercing shell, while the others blazed away at the
rest of column with HE, forcing them to deploy, and giving
the grenadiers a chance to go to work.
I regret to say that at this writing the scheme is still
theory, but we do know for certain that the burning
gasoline part of it is practical and will serve the purpose of
providing illumination and a means of concentrating fire.
We'll try to let you know how it works as soon as we can.
French officers in North Africa are greatly interested in our 105-how. These photos were made "a
Pecole d'artillerie de Btry 'B'." The American officers are Lt. Col. J. T. Dawson and Capt. David
Brooks.
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