1943 final battles of Tunisian campaign
Operation Vulcan (22 April – 6 May 1943) and Operation Strike (6–12 May 1943) were the final ground attacks by the Allied forces against the Italian and German forces in Tunis, Cape Bon, and Bizerte, the last Axis bridgeheads in North Africa, during the Tunisian campaign of the Second World War.
Background.
Allied forces had landed in French North Africa in July 1942 and since November 1942 the British Eighth Army had pushed Axis forces away from Egypt and across Libya leaving only Tunisia under Axis control. "Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel believed that the Axis position in Tunisia was untenable, and he had recommended the evacuation of all German troops to Italy, where he believed they could be more useful. His advice was rejected by Adolf Hitler. The Allied air force's Operation Flax cut off Axis supplies to North Africa and gained control of the air. With the naval Operation Retribution successful, control of air and sea would prevent any mass evacuation of Axis troops to Italy.
Allied offensive.
Operation Vulcan.
The fighting was costly against German units in well-prepared and dug-in defences. In the advance on Tunis, the British 4th Infantry Division in IX Corps, was opposed by German "Fallschirmjager" (paratroops) of the elite Division 'Hermann Göring'. At Cactus Farm, the British infantry was faced by extensive defensive fire from well-concealed German paratroopers. Churchill tanks of the 12th Royal Tank Regiment (21st Tank Brigade), advanced without infantry support and the tanks were attacked with Molotov cocktails and sticky Teller anti-tank mines. Twelve tanks were destroyed and in some cases, their crews were rescued by the Germans.
Operation Strike.
On 30 April it was realized that a revision was necessary to achieve success. The revised final phase of the assault on Tunis was codenamed Strike and launched six days later. For the battle IX Corps was reinforced with veteran units of the British Eighth Army – 7th Armoured Division (commanded by George Erskine), 4th Indian Division (Francis Tuker) and the 201st Guards Brigade.
The 4th Infantry Division and the 4th Indian Division were to attack the enemy defences on a narrow front and the 6th Armoured Division and 7th Armoured Division were to "dash through" the gap opened and capture the high ground west of the city. In support of this V Corps was to capture Djebel Bou Aoukaz to protect the left flank, the II US Corps was to capture the high ground east and west of Chouigui, the river crossings at Tebourba and Djedeida, and finally Bizerta, and XIX Corps was to take Zaghouan.
The operation began at 3:00 a.m. in the morning with troops moving up and artillery concentrations on enemy positions. Four hundred guns were available for the front. In two hours over 16,000 shells were fired in support of the 4th Infantry Division. At first light aerial support was available from the Northwest African Tactical Air Force with some medium bombers of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force. Between bombers, fighter bombers and fighters nearly 2,000 sorties were carried out in 24 hours.
In the morning of 7 May, the 6th Armoured Division and 7th Armoured Division "met only scattered resistance". The 26th Armoured Brigade was in sight of Tunis by the afternoon. Patrols of the 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry and 11th Hussars reached the centre of Tunis around 4:00 p.m.. The 6th Armoured Division was then ordered to stop enemy defensive positions being formed before the Cape Bon peninsula. On that day, the First Army (Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson), took Tunis and American troops reached Bizerte.
The II US Corps (Major-General Omar Bradley) surrounded the last defenders at Enfidaville, ending the Axis effort in North Africa.
The German commander, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, surrendered on 12 May. At the opposite Enfidaville, the remaining 80,000 troops of the 1st Army was still holding the Allied forces.
Aftermath.
On 13 May, all remaining Axis forces in Tunisia, under the command of Marshal Giovanni Messe, surrendered unconditionally. Messe had, with Mussolini's approval, tried to negotiate an "honourable surrender" the previous day, but this had been rejected. Earlier in the morning he was promoted to the rank of field marshal but the Allies would not accept anything but an unconditional surrender and threatened to resume their attacks, which had been halted the day before. At 12:20 hours Messe gave the orders. He and the remaining German commander, Kurt von Liebenstein, surrendered late in the day. By the close of the operation, nearly 240,000 German and Italian troops had been captured.
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