General Omar Bradley called it the worst performance in the history of the U.S. Army. This episode examines the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943, when green American forces met Rommel's veterans in the Atlas Mountains of Tunisia and were routed. We set the stage with Operation Torch, Montgomery's drive from El Alamein to Tripoli, the run for Tunis, and why Allied aircraft based 200 miles away on Malta could not stop Axis reinforcements crossing from Sicily.

From the French defenders firing World War I shrapnel rounds at Faid Pass to the American armor lured into a U-shaped valley lined with hidden 88mm guns, we break down the tactical lessons the U.S. had refused to learn from the British. We cover commanders directing units from maps in rear bunkers, infantry crushed in shallow shell scrapes by turning Panzers, the defeat at Sidi  ...