Aspects of the event
Description
German forces captured Tebourba on 4 December 1942, with the British forces escaping along the banks of the Medjerda river, concealed by foliage.
Two days later, according to "Tigers in Combat 1", a German armoured group including 3 Tigers moved from Jedeida to Al Battan, just south of Tebourba. They "put enemy forces to flight without firing a shot". At the time there were only three Tigers at the front in Africa: numbers 11, 112 and 132 of s.Pz.Abt.501. The other tanks of the group were undoubtedly Pz.3 belonging to that battalion. The retreat of the "enemy forces" may be explained by the Allies' decision to fall back to defensive lines some 5km to the west.
The German tank group apparently continued this advance along the road leading northwest from Al Battan, because we have a set of photographs showing German tanks 3km beyond the town. In fact they are at the German front line, according to the U.S. official history, and there are Allied positions only 2500m ahead.
Although the photos are uncaptioned, we can find their location thanks to the hills in the distance. They are easily identifiable as the hills west of Chouigoui and they look like this only from within a small area. The thick foliage in the photo can then only mark the banks of the Medjerda. It's not clear whether the tanks are still on the road from Al Battan, but they are near it. (In modern times, this whole area has been redeveloped so I cannot place the photos precisely.) It's certain that the tanks are from s.Pz.Abt.501, whose only visit to this area was on 6 December 1942.