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→Second World War
The Bersaglieri fought again during the [[Battle of Kasserine Pass]] as the Axis spearhead, with the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments capturing around 2,450 British, American and French troops and covering Rommel's withdrawal. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had special words of praise for the Bersaglieri, with their senior commander, Colonel Luigi Bonfatti killed leading the attack.
The Bersaglieri fought again during the [[Battle of Kasserine Pass]] as the Axis spearhead, with the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments capturing around 2,450 British, American and French troops and covering Rommel's withdrawal. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had special words of praise for the Bersaglieri, with their senior commander, Colonel Luigi Bonfatti killed leading the attack.
On 3 March, the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment supported by 30 tanks attacked the British lines, hoping to repeat the success at Kasserine Pass.<ref>"On February 22— facing poor terrain for mobile operations, increased Alled resistance, and a lack of cooperation from Arnim— Rommel withdrew artfully to prepare for a similiar operation against General Bernard L. Montgomery's British Eighth Army on the Mareth Line to the east." George S. Patton, Earle Rice, pg. 78, Infobase Publishing, 2009</ref> According to Associated Press war correspondent Don Whitehead:{{cquote|Last night three companies of Italians followed by 30 tanks and lorried infantry attacked the Highlander's advance screen. The Jocks “mowed 'em down”—and didn't lose a man. The tanks and infantry scurried back to the safety of the hills. Half the Italians were killed.<ref>Combat Reporter: Don Whitehead's World War II Diary and Memoirs, pg. 125, Fordham Univ Press, 2006</ref>}}
The 5th Bersaglieri Regiment and 57th Bersaglieri Battalion from the ''Trieste'' Division fought in the [[Battle of El Guettar]] in March 1943, distinguishing itself near El Hamma–El Guettar, with several Bersaglieri eventually taken prisoner.<ref>"The Italian forces that managed to impress the GIs most were the Bersaglieri units. With a tradition going back to the old Piedmontese army, composed of carefully selected troops, and equipped with greater numbers of artillery and vehicles, these units sometimes exceeded the performance of the German forces in Africa. A soldier of the 4th Ranger Battalion who had battled against them at Senad Pass in Tunisia in 1943 remembered them as "big shots" while he was on his way to Sicily, and hoped that he would not encounter them again on the island. He did, however, and more bloody clashes with the Bersaglieri left him convinced that they were indeed "Italy's toughest troops." The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe during World War II, Peter Schrijvers, p. 52, Springer, 1998</ref><ref>"At El Guettar a few battalions of well-supported Bersaglieri held up the infantry columns, though the Americans did well in capturing Jebel Mcheltat." The Army Quarterly, p. 160, William Clowes & Sons, Limited, 1943</ref>
The 5th Bersaglieri Regiment and 57th Bersaglieri Battalion from the ''Trieste'' Division fought in the [[Battle of El Guettar]] in March 1943, distinguishing itself near El Hamma–El Guettar, with several Bersaglieri eventually taken prisoner.<ref>"The Italian forces that managed to impress the GIs most were the Bersaglieri units. With a tradition going back to the old Piedmontese army, composed of carefully selected troops, and equipped with greater numbers of artillery and vehicles, these units sometimes exceeded the performance of the German forces in Africa. A soldier of the 4th Ranger Battalion who had battled against them at Senad Pass in Tunisia in 1943 remembered them as "big shots" while he was on his way to Sicily, and hoped that he would not encounter them again on the island. He did, however, and more bloody clashes with the Bersaglieri left him convinced that they were indeed "Italy's toughest troops." The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe during World War II, Peter Schrijvers, p. 52, Springer, 1998</ref><ref>"At El Guettar a few battalions of well-supported Bersaglieri held up the infantry columns, though the Americans did well in capturing Jebel Mcheltat." The Army Quarterly, p. 160, William Clowes & Sons, Limited, 1943</ref>