Battle of Tunis

The Battle Tunis (May 5–7 1943) was an engagement between Allied and Axis forces during the Tunisian Campaign. Tunis and its neighbouring town of Bizerta in Tunisia were two important sea ports and their capture would result in the defeat of the remaining Axis forces in North Africa.

Preceded on May 5 by a German attack to recover Jebel Bou Aoukas, the main Allied attack was delivered on the next day. The Allied infantry assault, preceded by heavy air attacks and artillery bombardment, broke through the last remaining Axis mountain stronghold and opened a gap for the supporting armour to advance through the open country. Delivered on a narrow front and aimed straight at Tunis through Massicault, it was a labelled a "blitzkrieg attack"[1] and in a matter of a few hours completely broke the whole German defence line.

## Fall of Tunis and Bizerta[edit]

The final Allied offensive began on May 5, with the 5th Corps gaining the hills which dominated the Tunis plain and the 9th Corps advancing in bright starlight on the morning of May 6. The German-held mountain overlooking Tunis and the village of Massicault, which had been prepared for hedgehog defence, fell without resistance.[2] By the afternoon their infantry had gained their objective, and the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions, swept forward and entered Tunis on May 7.

On the same day the U.S. 2nd Corps and Free French Corps d'Afrique took Bizerta, a fortress designed and equipped to stand a long siege .

By May 9, the 5th Panzer Armee in the northern pocket had surrendered, with 250 German tanks falling into Allied hands.[3] The divisions of the Allied 1st Army then turned to assist in the capture of the Italian 1st Army, which they achieved between May 11–13 but only after a hard fight.[4]

## Tunisgrad[edit]

The German civilians referred to this battle as "Tunisgrad".[5] At the first signs of retreat, U.S. and British armour, without hesitation or delay, started in fierce pursuit; and the Axis units never succeeded in rallying effectively in spite of the strong defences available. The heavy counter-attacks which von Arnim had delivered earlier on in defence of Longstop Hill and Hill 609 may explain the inability of the German forces to offer prolonged resistance. When the final Allied attacks came, General von Arnim's reserves were either exhausted or in the wrong place.

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ The Battle Fronts
2. ↑ Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commanding II Corps, had originally planned to have Truscott's 3rd Division relieve the battle-weary 1st ID. However, as Truscott was moving his division forward to effect that relief, Bradley contacted him on the night of the fifth and told him that General Harmon had requested additional infantry to support his division's attack on a strongly defended German position on the peninsula east of Bizerte, and directed that Truscott send an infantry regiment to the Ferryville area for attachment to the 1st AD. Bradley had also ordered that an infantry regiment from the 9th ID and additional field artillery and antiaircraft join Harmon's division for the attack. Truscott's regiment was to attack the following morning. Truscott joined Harmon at his commando post southeast of Ferryville early the next morning, and after breakfast the two set out on a reconnaissance mission to ascertain how far forward Truscott's force could assemble for the attack. As they traveled they found that Harmon's troopers and their tanks were already in possession of the entire peninsula excepting the high ridge overlooking the Mediterranean, from which there came no sounds of enemy fire. It was obvious to Harmon and Truscott that "the battle in Tunisia was all but done and that no large force would be required to clear the ridge." Dogface Soldier: The Life of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr, By Wilson A., Heefner, p. 101, University of Missouri Press, 2010
3. ↑ "More than 1,000 guns and 250 tanks were captured." The Perilous Road to Rome and beyond, Edward Grace, pg.47, Pen and Sword, 17 May 2007
4. ↑ "Not only should Tunisia have exploded the myth of Hitler's military acumen, it should have discredited the idea that Germans fought better than the Italians, since Messe's 1st Italian Army held out longer than Arnim's 5th German Army and the DAK, even both groups had about six divisions and faced roughly equal Anglo-American forces. Indeed, Hermann Goring division was the first to be scattered on 7 May, DAK the next to break and surrender on 9 May, with the Italian Spezia division closing the gap created by the German collapse and watching still combat-efficient German units march off into captivity on 11 May. Whether it is significant that the German 90th Light division was the first to collapse in Messe's 'Italian' Army, there is no doubt that the Italians fought well and held out longest in Tunisia." The Second World War: The German War 1939-1942, Jeremy Black, Page 265, Ashgate, 2007
5. ↑ "A total of 170,000 prisoners went into captivity, a disaster that some Germans referred to with grim humor as "Tunisgrad". In reality more Axis soldiers surrendered here than at Stalingrad." World War II, Michael J. Lyons, Routledge, 2016

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