When did the Tunisian campaign begin and end?
The Tunisian campaign ran from the 17th of November 1942 to the 13th of May 1943. It formed part of the broader North African campaign of the Second World War.
Questions about Tunisian campaign
Short answers, pulled from the story.
How many Axis prisoners were taken at the end of the Tunisian campaign?
Estimates vary across sources. The British official history recorded 238,243 unwounded prisoners; the American official historian put the total at 275,000 Axis soldiers captured. Historian Rick Atkinson considered a quarter of a million a reasonable estimate.
What was the Battle of Kasserine Pass in the Tunisian campaign?
The Battle of Kasserine Pass began on the 19th of February 1943, when Rommel launched an attack through the Kasserine and Sbiba passes using the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions and the Afrika Korps battlegroup. Allied defences collapsed on the afternoon of the 20th of February, but a devastating artillery barrage from 48 US guns that arrived after an 800-mile drive from Morocco halted the advance by the 22nd of February.
What was Operation Torch and how did it relate to the Tunisian campaign?
Operation Torch was the Allied amphibious landings on the 8th of November 1942 at Oran, Algiers, and Casablanca. Its aim was to secure Vichy North Africa and drive east to trap Axis forces retreating from Egypt. The Tunisian campaign followed directly from those landings as Allied and Axis forces raced to seize Tunisia.
Who commanded the final Allied assault on Tunis in 1943?
Operation Strike, the final assault launched at 3:30 a.m. on the 6th of May 1943, was commanded by Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks of IX Corps, who had taken over after Lieutenant-General John Crocker was wounded. British armour entered Tunis and American forces entered Bizerte on the 7th of May.
How significant was the Tunisian campaign compared to Stalingrad?
Joseph Goebbels wrote that the Tunisian defeat was on the same scale as Stalingrad, and the term "Tunisgrad" was coined for it. Historian Gerhard Schreiber wrote that in purely quantitative terms Tunisia was a second Stalingrad for the Axis invaders. Williamson Murray, writing in 1995, called the decision to reinforce Tunisia one of Hitler's worst blunders.