Operations Vulcan and Strike
 | This article is missing information about participating units and their make-up in the infobox. (April 2025) |
| Operations Vulcan and Strike | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Tunisian campaign of the Second World War | |||||||
 British troops advance in the final offensive, 8 May 1943. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom United States Free France |
 Italy Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Harold Alexander Kenneth Anderson Brian Horrocks Arthur Coningham Omar Bradley |
Giovanni Messe  Hans-Jürgen von Arnim Gustav von Vaerst | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 240,000 captured | |||||||
Operation Vulcan (22 April – 6 May 1943) and Operation Strike (6–13 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.[1]
Background
[edit]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
[edit]Operation Vulcan
[edit]
British V Corps began with a preliminary attack on 21 April, aimed at retaking the heights of Djebel el Ahmera and Djebel Rhar, known as 'Longstop Hill', which had been lost to the Germans four months earlier.[2] The hill was defended by the reinforced 756th Mountain Regiment of the 334th Division. Infantry of the 78th Battleaxe Division and Churchill tanks of the North Irish Horse assaulted the position. Djebel Ahmera was seized on 24 April and Djebel Rhar two days later when Churchill tanks driving up the hill, surprised the defenders and took the hill with 600 prisoners taken.[3]
The main V Corps attack was made by the 1st and 4th Infantry Divisions, south of the Medjerda River. The fighting was costly against German units in well-prepared and dug-in defences. They were 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. Eventually the Germans withdrew from the farm to a new defensive position.[4]
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The US II Corps offensive began on 23 April, 34th Division was held up by a Fallschirmjäger Regiment Barenthin, which they held the key Hill 609, in the hills to the north of the Tine valley. Hill 525 was taken by the 1/16th Infantry on the night of 29/30 April, and Hills 531 and 609 were in American hands by 30 April. However Hill 525 fell to a German counterattack later that day. The Americans were able to hold onto Hills 531 and 609, and reinforced their position on 1 May.[2]
Anderson's First Army had dented the line but had not broken through and had lost some 252 tanks overall - a considerable portion of armour. Nevertheless from Ultra decrypts it was revealed that the Axis forces were at breaking point. Although Operation Vulcan hadn't made as much progress as hoped, it had, along with Operation Flax, played a major part in weakening the Axis position, [5]
Operation Strike
[edit]
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 6 mi (9.7 km) 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.[6]
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 3,000 yd (2,700 m) front. In two hours over 16,000 shells were fired in support of the 4th Infantry Division.[7] 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.[8]
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 British units to enter Tunis were the 11th Hussars and the Derbyshire Yeomanry.
The II US Corps meanwhile entered Bizerte and cut off the remains of 5th Panzer Army. With the British-American linkup at Protville, General von Vaerst unconditionally surrendered himself and his battered forces to US troops.[9] In the centre in the mountainous Zaghouan sector around 22,000 Germans also ceased fighting and surrendered with their equipment to the Free French.
The German commander, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, surrendered on 12 May to British forces.[10] Around Enfidaville, the remaining 80,000 troops of the 1st Army was still holding the Allied forces.
On 13 May, RAF and artillery continued their bombardment and around noon, all remaining Axis forces in Tunisia, under the command of Marshal Giovanni Messe, surrendered unconditionally to Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg. 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.[11] Later the same day First and Eighth Armies met at Bou Ficha completing the operation.
-
A beach near Porto Farina strewn with debris - a German SdKfz 11 half-track gun tractor lays in the water -
Wrecked Axis aircraft at Castel Nenito Airdrome. -
Italian Field Marshal Giovanni Messe surrenders to Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg -
Hans-Jürgen von Arnim in captivity leaving for England
Aftermath
[edit]By the close of the operation, nearly 240,000 German and Italian troops had been captured.
General Alexander sent the message to Winston Churchill, "Sir it is my duty to report that the Tunisan Campaign is over. All enemy resistance has ceased. We are masters of the North African shore." Joseph Goebbels meanwhile wrote that it was on the same scale as the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad; Tunisgrad was coined for the defeat.[12]
18th Army Group was disbanded on 15 May and a Victory March was held in Tunis on May 20. Units of the First and Eighth Armies and representative detachments of the American and French forces marched past, with bands playing and generals Eisenhower, Alexander and Giraud taking the salute.[13]
With North Africa in Allied hands, plans quickly turned to the invasion of Sicily and Italy.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Chant 1986, pp. 266–267, 326; Williams 1999, p. 105.
- ^ a b Messenger 1982, p. 105.
- ^ Forczyk 2023, pp. 288–89.
- ^ Messenger 1982, pp. 107.
- ^ Forczyk 2023, p. 290.
- ^ Playfair et al. 2004, p. 446.
- ^ Playfair et al. 2004, p. 449.
- ^ Playfair et al. 2004, pp. 450–451.
- ^ Rolf 2015, p. 274.
- ^ "I Was There! – How Von Arnim Surrendered at Last". The War Illustrated. Vol. 7, no. 156. 11 June 1943. p. 30. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
- ^ Rolf 2015, p. 279.
- ^ Atkinson 2004, p. 537.
- ^ Playfair 2004, p. 461.
Bibliography
[edit]- Atkinson, Rick (2004) [2002]. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943. Liberation Trilogy. Vol. I. London: Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11636-9.
- Chant, Christopher (1986). The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0-71-020718-0.
- Forczyk, Robert (2023). Desert Armour : Tank Warfare in North Africa: Gazala to Tunisia, 1942–43. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-47-285984-6.
- Messenger, Charles (1982). The Tunisian Campaign. Ian Allan. ISBN 9780711011922.
- Playfair, I. S. O.; Molony, C. J. C.; Flynn, F. C.; Gleave, T. P. (2004) [1966]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. IV (pbk. repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-1-84574-068-9 – via Archive Foundation.
- Rolf, David (2015). The Bloody Road to Tunis: Destruction of the Axis Forces in North Africa, November 1942 – May 1943. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84-832783-2.
- Williams, Mary. H (1999). Special Studies: Chronology 1941–1945 United States Army in World War II. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-16-001876-3.
