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. In November, Operation Torch brought in 125,000 American and British forces in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and joined the attack, with the aim of capturing Tunis and Bizerte before the Germans and Italians could send reinforcments into Tunisia. 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 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

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 4,000 Allied soldiersin the attack lead by the Italian Littorio Armoured Division.

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 Afrika surrendered on 9 May.

On May 13th, over 250,000 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.

Kasseerine Pass

n February 19th, Rommel attacked the U.S. 2nd Army Corps defending Kassarine Pass. The plan was for the German-Italian Panzer Armee to get to Tebessa and Thala. Rommel sent the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment Battalion into the pass to fight Colonel Anderson Moore's 19th Combat Engineer Regiment defending the pass. The Germans were not able to advance through the Sbiba Pass but did manage to exploit Italian success through Kassarine Pass. German battlegroups tried to press on to Thala and Tebessa but were stopped in fierce fighting. 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 startlines, covered by Bersaglieri. 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.

After the battle, Genral 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.

Gradually, after much hard fighting, the 1st Army advancing from the west and the 8th Army advancing from the south pushed the Axis forces into a pocket around Tunis.

Casualties

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.

Notes

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