May2009ThisMonthInHistory

May 1943 - Allied victory in North Africa:

By March of 1943 the North African Axis Army was doomed; trapped between two
powerful Anglo-American led armies. Moreover, Italian and German forces were reliant
on a logistical chain perpetually in crisis, as the Allies enjoyed overwhelming naval
superiority and new air bases in Algeria and Libya to launch attacks on Axis shipping. In
spite of the tenuousness of the Axis supply lines, they had maneuvered a quarter of a
million soldiers and huge stores of equipment and supplies into a Tunisian dead end.
The regional German commander, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, enthusiastically
believed his North African armies could hold out; testing his theories regarding defense
in depth. The problem for the Axis was that the Tunisian battlefield did not represent
the place to test Kesselring's defensive strategy - given Axis logistical weakness.
Kesselring would later only belatedly attempt to convince Hitler to order a withdrawal
from Tunisia - after the game was up.

Beginning late in March the Allies launched a series of powerful blows from east and
west; forcing the Axis armies back on Tunis. The Americans, led by General George S.
Patton, rapidly advanced and from March 23rd to the 24th carved to pieces the
counterattacking German 10th Panzer Division near El Guettar. Although the Germans
inflicted grievous losses on the American 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion and 899th
Tank Destroyer Battalions, both supporting the US 1st Infantry Division, the
beleaguered American tank destroyers fought hard and played an important role in
decimating the 10th Panzer; as did American artillery fire support. In particular,
American artillery support began to lay claim to what would become a world-class
reputation when it helped crush a late afternoon assault by German panzer grenadiers.
The Americans employed a combination of tactics, ranging from airbursts to skipping
shells off the ground in mangling the assaulting German infantry. Following its abortive
counterattack the 10th Panzer Division possessed only 26 tanks and for the first time
in the War, the Americans had stopped a full-scale attack delivered by a German
panzer division.

Although the Allied armies faced much difficult fighting in April, by the second week of
May the stiff Axis defensive effort had been defeated. Axis losses reached 238,243
soldiers. From late 1942 to early 1943, when the Axis situation already proved next to
hopeless, Germany endured 155,000 casualties in Tunisia, in addition to the
approximately 130,000 German prisoners of war taken when Tunisia fell. Axis shipping
and aircraft losses also represented numbers far out of proportion from what the Axis
achieved in the draining and useless North African campaign. For instance, just
between November 1, 1942 and May 1, 1943 the Luftwaffe lost 2,422 aircraft,
including 888 single engine fighters, 117 twin-engine fighters, 128 dive-bombers, 734
bombers, and 371 transport aircraft.

Hitler and Mussolini's North African armies had fought for three years and achieved
virtually nothing. In no small measure, the Axis campaign in North Africa seriously
undermined the more important war effort in the Soviet Union. During the North African
campaign, Axis losses totaled 620,000 men as casualties or prisoners of war - more
than Germany lost during the subsequent Italian campaign. Comparatively speaking the
Allies performed much better with total Allied losses at 260,000 casualties - 220,000
British, 20,000 French, and 20,000 American, with 70,000 allied casualties incurred in
the fighting lasting from Torch to the fall of Tunisia.

by Steven Douglas Mercatante

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