Nickforce
A Vickers machine gun team of 10th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, training in Tunisia in 1943.
Nickforce was an improvised formation of the British First Army in the Tunisia Campaign during World War II. It was hastily formed from elements of the British 6th Armoured Division on 14 February 1943, for the defence of Thala, during the latter stages of the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. It took its name from the commanding officer, Brigadier Cameron Nicholson. In desperate fighting, the force successfully blocked a Kampfgruppe of 10th Panzer Division, under the direct control of Erwin Rommel, on 21 and 22 February.[1]
Order of Battle
On 14 February 1943
- 17th/21st Lancers
- 2nd Lothians and Border Horse
- 10th Rifle Brigade
- 1 Troop of "F" Battery 12th (Honourable Artillery Company) Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
- 1 Troop of 450th Battery 71st (West Riding) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Units subsequently attached:
- 2nd/5th Leicestershire Regiment
- 90th Bty 23rd Field Regiment RA
- 229 Bty 58th (Duke of Wellingtons) Anti-Tank Regt RA
- All of "F" Bty 12th (HAC) Regt RHA
- 4.2" Mortar Company RA
References
- ↑ Kasserine Pass 1943: Rommel's Last Victory By Steve Zaloga and Michaël Welply, Osprey Publishing Limited 2006, ISBN 1-84176-914-2 (pp.62-65)
- ↑ British Army & Commonwealth ad hoc 'Force' formations
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