Changes

It was noticed that the Italians fought particularly well, outdoing the Germans in line with them on El Hamma Ridge:{{cquote|The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days. Next morning Rommel ... replaced the Italians with crack German troops ... but the enemy, finally fellback into the ravine...the morale of 20-year-old [German] prisoners fresh from the Russian front was low, they made no attempt to hide their satisfaction at being out of the war.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19430401&id=zjRAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2804,4830439&hl=en Fighting French Troops' Part Advance in Advance on Gabes, The Glasgow Herald, 1 April 1943]</ref>}}

It was noticed that the Italians fought particularly well, outdoing the Germans in line with them on El Hamma Ridge:{{cquote|The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days. Next morning Rommel ... replaced the Italians with crack German troops ... but the enemy, finally fellback into the ravine...the morale of 20-year-old [German] prisoners fresh from the Russian front was low, they made no attempt to hide their satisfaction at being out of the war.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19430401&id=zjRAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2804,4830439&hl=en Fighting French Troops' Part Advance in Advance on Gabes, The Glasgow Herald, 1 April 1943]</ref>}}

The 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th Bersaglieri Regiments along with the Fascist Youth (''Giovani Fascisti'') Regiment fought as part of the 1st Italian Army around Hill 141 during the [[Battle of Tunis]], surrendering on 13 May after defeating all the attacks from the 2nd New Zealand Division,<ref>"On arrival at Enfidaville the 2/5th and 2/6th Queen’s had taken over reserve positions behind the 2nd New Zealand Division, who were holding the low ground on the right of the Takrouna feature, having handed over Takrouna to the 51st (Highland) Division. They were very tired and needed to be relieved. General Montgomery had accepted that to try to outflank the enemy through the hills to the west of Enfidaville was now an unrealistic option, and had decided to switch his efforts to attacking up the coast road towards Hammamet. However, he disappeared off to Cairo on the 23rd April in order to discuss the plans for the invasion of Sicily, leaving Lieut-General Brian Horrocks to ponder the problem." [http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/ww2/middle_east/qme025.shtml Enfidaville]</ref><ref>"The New Zealanders were very apologetic for their lack of success in securing these two features." [http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/ww2/middle_east/qme025.shtml Enfidaville]</ref><ref>"It was their last action for a while, as 25 and 26 Battalions were relieved that night by 169 Infantry Brigade of 56 (L) Division, and 24 Battalion by 152 Infantry Brigade of 51 (H) Division." [http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Bard-c15-1.html 2 NZ Division after Takrouna]</ref> British 56th ''Black Cat'' Division<ref>"The New Zealanders around Takrouna estimated that 20,000 enemy were still in front of them, so SRY supported the newly arrived 56 (Black Cat) Division fresh from Syria in an attack on the 11th/12th May. Alas there was no success and many casualties." (Monty's Marauders, Patrick Delaforce Pen and Sword, 2008)</ref> and 1st Free French Division,<ref>"On May 12th this Italian force was still resisting from positions just north of Enfidaville. A French division attacking their right was repulsed and then counterattacked. The Air Force, being called upon for aid, made a strong bombing attack at 1530, supported by all the artillery whose fire could be brought to bear." Finale in Tunisia, Colonel Conrad H. Lanza, Page. 488, The Field Artillery, July 1943</ref> a week after after the complete collapse of the Afrika Korps facing the US 1st Armoured and 3rd Infantry Divisions on 6 May,<ref>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</ref> and poor showing<ref>"Two remarkable features of this Axis debacle were, firstly, that in the end, when the battle had obviously gone against the Axis, the Italians fought better than the Germans. The German morale collapsed completely towards the close of the campaign. Well-armed German units with plenty of ammunition and provisions surrendered in strong defensive positions when they could have fought for many days (weeks or months) longer." The Conquest of Italy, Joseph Montague Kenworthy, p. 17, Hutchinson, 1944</ref> of the attached German 90th Light Infantry Division.<ref>"For an hour the positions held by the 90th Light Infantry were obscured by a pall of smoke. At the end of the bombardment they surrendered. General Von Sponeck ... told General Keightley when he surrendered to him that although only two men had been killed and three wounded during the bombardment the morale of his men had been shattered." Tunisian Battle, John D'Arcy-Dawson, p. 248, Macdonald & Company, Limited, 1943</ref>  

The 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th Bersaglieri Regiments along with the Fascist Youth (''Giovani Fascisti'') Regiment fought as part of the 1st Italian Army around Hill 141 during the [[Battle of Tunis]], surrendering on May 13th after defeating all the attacks from the 2nd New Zealand Division,<ref>"On arrival at Enfidaville the 2/5th and 2/6th Queen’s had taken over reserve positions behind the 2nd New Zealand Division, who were holding the low ground on the right of the Takrouna feature, having handed over Takrouna to the 51st (Highland) Division. They were very tired and needed to be relieved. General Montgomery had accepted that to try to outflank the enemy through the hills to the west of Enfidaville was now an unrealistic option, and had decided to switch his efforts to attacking up the coast road towards Hammamet. However, he disappeared off to Cairo on the 23rd April in order to discuss the plans for the invasion of Sicily, leaving Lieut-General Brian Horrocks to ponder the problem." [http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/ww2/middle_east/qme025.shtml Enfidaville]</ref><ref>"The New Zealanders were very apologetic for their lack of success in securing these two features." [http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/ww2/middle_east/qme025.shtml Enfidaville]</ref><ref>"It was their last action for a while, as 25 and 26 Battalions were relieved that night by 169 Infantry Brigade of 56 (L) Division, and 24 Battalion by 152 Infantry Brigade of 51 (H) Division." [http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Bard-c15-1.html 2 NZ Division after Takrouna]</ref> British 56th ''Black Cat'' Division<ref>"The New Zealanders around Takrouna estimated that 20,000 enemy were still in front of them, so SRY supported the newly arrived 56 (Black Cat) Division fresh from Syria in an attack on the 11th/12th May. Alas there was no success and many casualties." (Monty's Marauders, Patrick Delaforce Pen and Sword, 2008)</ref> and 1st Free French Division,<ref>"On May 12th this Italian force was still resisting from positions just north of Enfidaville. A French division attacking their right was repulsed and then counterattacked. The Air Force, being called upon for aid, made a strong bombing attack at 1530, supported by all the artillery whose fire could be brought to bear." Finale in Tunisia, Colonel Conrad H. Lanza, Page. 488, The Field Artillery, July 1943</ref> a week after after the complete collapse of the Afrika Korps facing the US 1st Armoured and 3rd Infantry Divisions on 6 May,<ref>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</ref> and poor showing<ref>"Two remarkable features of this Axis debacle were, firstly, that in the end, when the battle had obviously gone against the Axis, the Italians fought better than the Germans. The German morale collapsed completely towards the close of the campaign. Well-armed German units with plenty of ammunition and provisions surrendered in strong defensive positions when they could have fought for many days (weeks or months) longer." The Conquest of Italy, Joseph Montague Kenworthy, p. 17, Hutchinson, 1944</ref> of the attached German 90th Light Infantry Division.<ref>"For an hour the positions held by the 90th Light Infantry were obscured by a pall of smoke. At the end of the bombardment they surrendered. General Von Sponeck ... told General Keightley when he surrendered to him that although only two men had been killed and three wounded during the bombardment the morale of his men had been shattered." Tunisian Battle, John D'Arcy-Dawson, p. 248, Macdonald & Company, Limited, 1943</ref>  

In summarizing the experience of General Giovanni Messe's 1st Army, a military expert would write several decades later:{{cquote|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.<ref>The Second World War: The German war 1939-1942, Jeremy Black, Page 265, Ashgate, 2007</ref>}}

In summarizing the experience of General Giovanni Messe's 1st Army, a military expert would write several decades later:{{cquote|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.<ref>The Second World War: The German war 1939-1942, Jeremy Black, Page 265, Ashgate, 2007</ref>}}