Battle of Kasserine Pass
The Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia (18-22 February 1943) was won by Axis German and Italian forces led by field marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) against a combined Allied army of British, French, and US troops. The last fling of the famed Afrika Korps, Kasserine proved to be an inconsequential victory as the Allies rallied in force and definitively pushed the Axis armies out of North Africa just a few months later.
Grant Tank, Kasserine Pass
US Signal Corps Photograph Collection (Public Domain)
Operation Torch
The Allies (the United States and Britain and its empire) were keen to open a second front in Europe against Germany and Italy but first had to secure North Africa, which could provide a platform for an invasion of Italy. The Western Desert Campaigns had been swinging back and forth across the desert since 1940. Finally, the pendulum was ceasing to swing, beginning with the success of the British Eight Army at the Second Battle of El Alamein (October-November 1942) and followed up a few days later by Operation Torch, a massive amphibious and air operation, which landed three Allied armies in French Morocco and Algeria. As the British Eighth Army led by General Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976) moved in from the east and the Allied army (US, British, and French forces) of Torch commanded by Lieutenant-General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) moved from the west, the Axis armies were reduced to holding a pocket in northern Tunisia. Without sufficient supplies, the Axis field marshal Erwin Rommel recommended to the leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who was then wholly preoccupied with the Russian Front, that North Africa be abandoned. Rommel's advice was ignored, and he was ordered to continue the desert campaign as best he could. Aid did arrive in the form of 17,000 fresh Axis troops, who landed via Tunis through November. These reinforcements and an increase in the power of the German air force in the region, allowed the Axis armies to successfully defend their position in Tunisia at Longstop Hill (22-25 December).
The progress of the Allies was being seriously hampered by poor weather and the logistical problem of supplying the Eighth Army through the extensive minefields at El Alamein. Montgomery, too, was particularly careful to ensure the enemy could not push his army back at any point as it slowly advanced. In any case, as time pressed on and 1943 began, the Allies were only growing stronger in troop numbers and material as these poured into the multiple ports they controlled. The Axis army was gaining in strength, too, but was far from equal to that of the Allies. Allied air and sea superiority continued to ensure Axis supplies to North Africa were continuously in peril. In January 1943, 31 of the 51 Axis supply ships destined for Tunisia were sunk or damaged. Through January and February, the Axis powers lost 200,000 tons of shipping destined for Tunis.
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