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.
GeneralfeldmarschallErwin 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 large-scale evacuation of Axis troops to Italy.
Operations
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 (part of British IX Corps, ) was opposed by German Fallschirmjager (paratroops) of the elite Division 'Hermann Göring'. At Cactus Far, 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 assaulted by the defenders using Molotov cocktails and sticky Teller anti-tank mines. Twelve tanks were destroyed and in some cases, their crews were rescued from the burning wrecks by the Germans.
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.
The 4th British Division and the 4th Indian Division were to attack the enemy defences on a narrow front and the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions were to "dash through" the gap opened and capture the high ground six miles west of the city. In support of this V Corps was to capture Djebel Bou Aoukaz to protect the left flank, US II 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 3am in the morning with troops moving up and artillery concentrations on enemy positions. Four hundred guns were available for the 3,000 yd (2.7 km) front. In two hours over 16,000 shells were fired in support of the 4th British Division.
In the morning of 7 May, the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions "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 pm. 6th Armoured was then ordered to stop enemy defensive positions being formed before the Cape Bon peninsula.
The German commander, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, finally surrendered on 12 May. Meanwhile at the opposite Enfidaville, the remaining 80,000 troops of the Italian 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.
^IX Corps commander was John Crocker at the start of the operation, Lieutenant-general Brian Horrocks took over command on 29 April when Crocker was injured
Rolf, David (2015). The Bloody Road to Tunis: Destruction of the Axis Forces in North Africa, November 1942–May 1943. Frontline Books.
Williams, Mary. H (1999). Special Studies: Chronology 1941–1945 United States Army in World War II. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ISBN978-0-16-001876-3.
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