Operations Vulcan and Strike

Operations Vulcan and Strike
Part of the Tunisian campaign of the Second World War
British troops advance through Bizerte in the final offensive, 8 May 1943.
Date Vulcan: 22 April – 6 May 1943 Strike: 6–12 May 1943 Location Tunis, Cap Bon, and Bizerte, Tunisia 34°N 09°E / 34°N 9°E / 34; 9 Result Allied victory Axis forces expelled from North Africa
Belligerents
United Kingdom  United States	Italy  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Harold Alexander Kenneth Anderson Brian Horrocks Omar Bradley Arthur Coningham	Giovanni Messe  Hans-Jürgen von Arnim  Gustav von Vaerst
Casualties and losses
	240,000 captured

Operation Vulcan (22 April – 6 May 1943)^[1] and Operation Strike (6–12 May 1943)^[2] were the final ground attacks by the Allied forces against the Italian and German forces in Tunis,^[3] Cape Bon, and Bizerte, the last Axis toeholds in North Africa, during the Tunisian campaign of the Second World War.^[1]

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 large-scale evacuation of Axis troops to Italy.

The fighting was costly against German units in well-prepared and dug-in defences. In the advance on Tunis, the British 4th Infantry Division (part of British IX Corps, ^[a]) was opposed by German Fallschirmjager (paratroops) of the elite Division 'Hermann Göring'.^{[citation needed]} At Cactus Far, the British infantry was faced by extensive defensive fire from well-concealed German paratroopers.^{[citation needed]} Churchill tanks of the 12th Royal Tank Regiment (21st Tank Brigade), advanced without infantry support and the tanks were assaulted by the defenders using Molotov cocktails and sticky Teller anti-tank mines.^{[citation needed]} Twelve tanks were destroyed and in some cases, their crews were rescued from the burning wrecks by the Germans.^{[citation needed]}

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.

Horrocks was given command of IX Corps to make the breakthrough. 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 201st Guards Brigade.

The 4th British Division and the 4th Indian Division were to attack the enemy defences on a narrow front and the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions were to "dash through" the gap opened and capture the high ground six miles west of the city. In support of this V Corps was to capture Djebel Bou Aoukaz to protect the left flank, US II 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.^[4]

The operation began at 3am in the morning with troops moving up and artillery concentrations on enemy positions. Four hundred guns were available for the 3,000 yd (2.7 km) front. In two hours over 16,000 shells were fired in support of the 4th British Division.^[5]

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.^[6]

In the morning of 7 May, the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions "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 pm. 6th Armoured was then ordered to stop enemy defensive positions being formed before the Cape Bon peninsula.

On that day, the British First Army (Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson), took Tunis and American troops reached Bizerte.

U.S. II Corps, commanded by Major General Omar Bradley, surrounded the last defenders at Enfidaville, ending the Axis effort in North Africa.

The German commander, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, finally surrendered on 12 May.^[7] Meanwhile at the opposite Enfidaville, the remaining 80,000 troops of the Italian 1st Army was still holding the Allied forces.

On 13 May, all remaining Axis forces in Tunisia, under the command of Marshal Giovanni Messe, surrendered unconditionally. 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.^[8] By the close of the operation, nearly 240,000 German and Italian troops had been captured.

• North African campaign timeline