Tunisian Campaign

The Tunisian Campaign consisted of a series of battles that took place between November 1942 and May 1943. The Axis forces, often called the German-Italian Panzer Armee, consisted of German and Italian units and were led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and General Giovanni Messe. The Allies consisted of American forces led by Generals Lloyd Fredendal and General George Patton, and British, New Zealand and Free French forces led by General (later Field Marshal) Bernard Montgomery.

In November, Operation Torch brought in 125,000 American and British forces from the Allied 1st Army (under General Kenneth Anderson) in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and joined the attack, with the aim of capturing Tunis and Bizerte before the Germans and Italians could send reinforcements into Tunisia. With the use of all available transport capacity the Regia Aeronautica managed to fly 72,000 ground troops and 5,000 tons of war material into Tunisia.

Initially, the Axis forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel succeeded in defeating the Allies quickly in the Tunisian Campaign, driving Allied forces back 50 miles through the Kasserine Pass and capturing close to 4,000 Allied soldiers^[1] in the attack lead by the Italian Littorio Armoured Division.

From the start of May the Luftwaffe had been flying men and machines out of Tunisia to save what it could. With the 9th and 12th Air Forces in the battle, the Allies drove the Germans and Italians back into a pocket around Bizerte and Tunis, where the 5th Panzer Armee surrendered on 9 May.

By May 11, the German forces in the northern pocket had been completely mopped up, while the divisions of the Allied 1st Army then turned to assist in the encirclement of the 1st Italian Army, which they achieved between May 11–13.

On May 13, over 250,000 Axis prisoners were in Allied custody, thus bringing and end to the Tunisian Campaign. Thus Tunisia became available for launching Operation Husky, an Allied invasion on Sicily as a preliminary to an assault on mainland Italy.

Maknassy Pass[edit]

At the end of January, German forces attacked the French, who were defending Faid Pass. General Fredendall faced an immediate choice between seizing Maknassy or reinforcing Faid Pass. The US 1st Armoured Division had been preparing operations against Maknassy Pass since early January and Fredendall decided to seize Maknassy, since it would protect the Faid Pass and threaten the Axis defences.

On January 24 1943, despite coming under heavy anti-aircraft fire, the 14th Bersaglieri Battalion dug-in and around Djebel Rihana defeat the initial attacks from the US 26th Regimental Combat Team and 443rd Anti-Aircraft Battalion.

On January 30, the Centauro Armoured Division and German units from from the two German panzer divisions, attacked through Maknassy Pass. The Axis attack came as a complete surprise to the US 2nd Army Corps. The US 1st Armored Division, which had established itself in the saddle of the Faid Pass, was overrun. Gafsa was also abandoned.

On January 31, the US 34th Division and part of the US 1st Armored Division advanced toward Sened Station. The operation was intended to take them as far as Maknassy, but German and Italian tanks, supported by anti-tanki guns, stopped the Americans on February 2.

On March 22, The Americans at Gafsa pushed on steadily along the road to Maknassy, while a second American force, supported by a Free French force, advanced through El Guettar to Gabès. More important still, the 2nd New Zealand Division under General Bernard Freyberg, was developing a threat against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's right flank at El Hamma.

At Maknassy and Faid, the Germans and Italians held until the night of April 8/9, with the northward retreat of Axis units controlled by General Cramer's Afrika Korps headquarters.

Kasserine Pass[edit]

on February 14, elements of the 10th and 21st Panzer divisions (under the overall command of General Heinz Ziegler) launched an attack through Faid and Maizila passes. The German attack overran the American defenders and reached the Djebel Lessouda hill. While half the German force reached Djebel Lessouda, the other half headed for Djebel Ksaira and Bir el Hafey. By the end of the day, most of the American fighting vehicles had been driven west or destroyed, leaving isolated pockets of US infantrymen in the hills of Djebel Lessouda, Djebel Ksaira, and Djebel Garet Hadid with no support.

On February 19, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel attacked the US 2nd Army Corps in the Battle of Kasserine Pass. The plan was for the German-Italian Panzer Armee to get to Tebessa and Thala. Rommel sent the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments as the Axis spearhead into the pass to clear Colonel Anderson Moore's US 19th Combat Engineer Regiment, US 168th Regimental Combat Team (under Colonel Thomas Drake) and US 2nd/1st Armoured Cavalry Regiment (under Lieutenant Colonel Louis Hightower) defending the pass. General Karl Bülowius's DAK Battlegroup and the 21st Panzer Division (under Colonel Hans-Georg Hildebrandt) were not able to advance through the Sbiba Pass^[2] in the face of fierce resistance from the US 34th Division and British Guards Brigade, but the Germans managed to exploit the Italian success^[3][4] achieved at Kassarine Pass. German battlegroups tried to press on to Thala and Tebessa but were stopped in fierce fighting. On February 22, Rommel was satisfied that he had managed to cause a significant amount of damage and casualties to the Allied forces, so he decided to withdraw his troops back to their start-lines, covered by the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment. The damage done to the Allies was disastrous, but this was not a complete Axis victory for the Germans were unable to reach Thala and Tebessa.

Close to 30,000 American soldiers took part in the fighting for Kasserine Pass. Around 300 were killed, 3,000 wounded and close to 4,000 American soldiers were captured^[5][6]with 2,540 Allied defenders falling into Italian hands.^[7]

After the battle, General Dwight Eisenhower would send Fredendall back to the United States for a training command. His replacement, General George Patton, would confirm that there was nothing wrong with combat morale in the U.S. 2nd Army Corps that good leadership couldn't fix.

Mareth Line[edit]

The Mareth Line in eastern Tunisia was a natural defensive position comparable to El Alamein; a front 35 km (22 miles) long extended from the coast to the mountains inland.

On March 3, the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment supported by 30 tanks attacked the British lines, hoping to repeat the Italian success at Kasserine Pass.^[8] According to Associated Press war correspondent Don Whitehead:

“

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.[9]

”

On March General Bernard Montgomery defeated four more counterattacks from the German divisions, destroying 52 panzers.

On March 17, the Gurkhas stormed Hangman's Hill and for seven days beat off all the ensuing German counterattacks.

In mid-March the Allies went back on the offensive. General Montgomery's 8th Army hit the Axis southern flank around Mareth with several divisions, breaking the Mareth Line on March 20. When the 30th Corps was thrown back, Montgomery reinforced the flanking attack, which eventually - on March 26 - forced a German withdrawal. When the bridgehead at Wadi Zigzau had to be abandoned on March 23, General Montgomery decided to switch the main attack from the Mareth Line to the flank where the New Zealanders were making much progress. So reinforcements and supplies were rushed to Gemera; General Bermard Freyberg's 2nd New Zealand Division. It was during this battle that Second Lieutenant Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu of the 28th Maori Battalion won a posthumous VC defending Point 209.

On Sunday March 28, the 8th Army captured Mareth, Toujane and Matmata, taking several thousands of prisoners. British tanks pursued the retreating Axis forces, but were stopped by anti-tank defences at Wadi el Assuib.

The next Axis fallback position, at Wadi Akarit north of Mareth, was stormed by the 30th Corps on the night of April 5. Again, the German and Italian forces made an orderly withdrawal, perhaps assisted by Montgomery's deliberate approach. General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim now fell back to a defensive line covering the Tunisian capital.

In a month-long series of battles, the British, hampered by heavy rains, pushed Axis units over 150 miles north to within 47 miles of Tunis.

El Guettar[edit]

While the 8th Army rolled up the German southern flank, General George Patton's revitalized 2nd Corps drove east into their flank, drawing Axis reinforcments from the south, thereby weakening the opposition to General Bernard Montgomery's push.

During the Battle of El Guettar, the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment and supporting German and Italian tanks held up the US 2nd Army Corps, though the Americans did well in capturing in Jebel Mcheltat in fierce hand-to-hand combat, a 1,500-foot hill.

On March 23, the 10th Panzer Division and supporting 7th Bersaglieri Regiment attacked the US 1st Division on the slopes of Djebel Berda^[10], advancing six miles behind American lines with the Italian Supreme Command reporting 170 Allied soldiers captured.^[11]

On March 28, the US 47th Regiment captured Hill 369 from the Italian defenders, but its 2nd Battalion was soon overrun in the ensuing Italian counterattack and the battalion commander, two officers and 175 men from Echo Company were captured.^[12]

On 28 March, the Free French Forces finally seized El Hamma Ridge from the Italian defenders with the Axis forces forced to abandon Gabès. The Raggruppamento Sahariano (under General Alberto Mannerini) had fought stubbornly for several days to hold the strongpoint only to lose the position when the Germans took over:

“

The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days ... Rommel, in a last desperate effort replaced the Italians with crack German troops. Hand-to-hand fighting followed, but the enemy, finally fell back into the ravine, leaving many dead behind.[13]

”

By early April, the US 1st Armored Division's losses since the recapture of Sened Station would reach 304 killed, 1,265 wounded, 116 missing or captured, and forty tanks destroyed.

According to German military historian Franz Kurowski, the Centauro Armored Division had fought bravely at Guettar against a two-fold superiority.^[14]

Wadi Akarit[edit]

On April 6, the Italian 3rd Tobruk Battalion from the San Marcos Marine Regiment, well dug in at Wadi Akarit and plentifully supplied with automatic weapons and grenades, is practically destroyed in fierce hand-to-hand combat fighting alongside the 39th Bersaglieri Regiment, with the attacking British suffering crippling losses in the form of 126 killed from the 6th Green Howards.^[15][16]

That next day, the 1st/2nd Gurkhas, 1st/9th Gurkhas and 1st Battalion from the Royal Sussex Regiment secured the mountain pass at the foot of Djebel Fatnassa, with the Gurkhas reportedly losing fifty killed but defeating two Italian divisions and German reserves entrusted with its defence.^[17] During the desperate fighting, the 200th Panzer Grenadier Regiment counterattacked the Gurkhas while the 361st Panzer Grenadier Regiment and supporting Italian infantry from the Pistoia Division attempted to capture Djebel Zouai.^[18]

General von Arnim later confirmed the valiant stand of the Italian Marines and 39th Bersaglieri Regiment, claiming that they were "the best soldiers I ever commanded".^[19]Private Eric Anderson, of the East Yorkshire Regiment, won a posthumous Victoria Cross at Wadi Akarit for his efforts in rescuing four British wounded under enemy fire.

Enfidaville[edit]

During April 20-22, General Giuseppe Falugi, commander of the Pistoia Division delivered fierce counterattacks, but they were met with equally fierce resistance, with the British succeeding in holding the village of Enfidaville.^[20]

Takrouna village, a stone outcrop nearly 1,000 feet high and Point 141 proved to be very difficult objective in the fighting. On the night of April 19, the 2nd New Zealand Division attacked under the cover of heavy artillery fire, but the 28th Maori Battalion suffered heavy casualties in the failed attack, especially among the officers. The Italian defenders in the form of the remnants of the Folgore, Trieste and Giovani Fascisti Divisions, put up a fierce defence for another day and night before superior numbers in the form of two New Zealand brigades (with extra artillery support) finally captured Takrouna and surrounding positions. An Allied war correspondent reported that only 326 defenders were captured and that the Italians had fought very hard:

“

The fight atop the 600-foot peak finally ended at 8 p.m. last night. At that hour the first real Italian defenders the British had met surrendered in a body, 326 of them. They gave up only because their ammunition gave out. These Italians were tough, trained killers who didn't feel faint when stout British troopers flung their comrades over the cliffs to clear the road up the side of the steep peak and reach the village atop it. They stood, fired and fought back and when they gave up they said the allies wouldn't get to Tunis. They holed up in caves and crevices of the slopes and had to be dragged out before their machine guns and mortars were silenced.[21]

”

After three days fierce fighting, the Takrouna stronghold was captured by the New Zealanders from the 23rd and 28th Battalions, but Hill 141 remained in Italian hands. Over 500 men in General Freyberg's 2nd Division were killed or wounded seizing the Takrouna and surrounding ground. As a consequence, Takrouna would be the last battle fought by the New Zealand Division during the Tunisian Campaign with the British 56th Black Cat Division taking over the advance and General Freyberg recalled to Cairo. ^[22] Sergeants Haane Manahi Walter Smith received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their part in the battle.

During the fighting in April, it was observed by General Harold Alexander in a despatch to Winston Churchill that "...the Italians fought particularly well, outdoing the Germans in line with them".^[23]

American infantrymen also won much praise for their determination and experience in the fighting on April 23–24, when the 2nd Battalion from the 18th Infantry, attacked a German stronghold three times before the defenders finally quit. After nightfall May 1 the Germans withdrew into Mateur. But two days later American armour drove the German defenders out of the town

By May 2, both sides had fought themselves to exhaustion; but whereas von Arnim had expended his armoured reserves, General Alexander had still strong tank forces in hand, including those of the 8th Army which was still uncommitted to a major attack.

Tunis[edit]

The 1st Army's drive towards Tebourba was heavily contested, with several German counter-attacks. The Allied attackers, however made good progress, taking Longstop Hill, Jebel Bou Aoukas, threatening to encircle Pont du Fahs. The attacks convinced von Arnim that the Allied main effort would be made in the south and that he had little to fear from the north.

The final Allied offensive, the Battle of Tunis began on May 5 with the 5th Corps gaining the hills which dominated the Tunis plain and the 9th Corps advancing on the morning of May 6. The village of Massicault, which had been prepared for hedgehog defence, fell without resistance. By the afternoon the US 1st Infantry Division had gained their objective, and the British 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions, swept forward and entered Tunis on May 7.^[24] On the same day the US 2nd Corps and Free French Corps d'Afrique took Bizerte.

As the US 2nd Corps units pushed on to cut the Bizerte-Tunis road, they found surrendering Afrika Korps units clogging the roads, impeding further advance. Several German commanders had already been flown out, and entire Germans divisions began surrendering on May 9,^[25][26]including 30,000 German POWs that surrendered to a sole British armoured car squadron.^[27]

The Hermann Göring Division was the first Axis unit to collapse on May 7, the 5th Panzer Army was the next to dissolve and surrender on May 9, with the Italian Spezia Division closing the gap created by the sudden and unexpected German collapse. The German 90th Light Division was also the first to collapse in the Italian sector after a brief bombardment^[28], with Messe's 1st Italian Army fighting a week longer than their German comrades in the final confrontations in Tunisia.^[29]

The British 56th Black Cat Division and 1st Free French Division took several of the Italian-held hills in the region of Takrouna during the period May 6-13 1943, but not before suffering a number of setbacks and heavy losses.^{[30] [31] [32]}

Losses[edit]

Allied casualties during the Tunisian Campaign were around 76,020, with U.S. Army casualties of 18,221, including 2,715 dead, 8,978 wounded and 6,528 captured or missing. British Commonwealth losses amounted to 38,360 men, with 6,233 killed, 21,528 wounded and 10,599 captured or missing. French casualties totaled 19,439 with 2,150 killed, 10,276 wounded and 7,007 captured or missing.

The Allied commanders also reported in the final battles, the capture of 250 panzers, 1,000 guns and more than 500 aircraft, many of them in good condition.^[33][34]

Notes[edit]