Tunisia Campaign – 1942 – World War II

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RockSinCity
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The Tunisia Campaign was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces. The Allies consisted of British Imperial Forces, including Polish and Greek contingents, with American and French corps. The battle opened with initial success by the German and Italian forces, but the massive supply and numerical superiority of the Allies led to the Axis's complete defeat. Over 230,000 German and Italian troops were taken as prisoners of war, including most of the Afrika Korps.
Background
Western Desert
The first two years of the war in North Africa were characterised by a lack of supplies and an inability to provide any sort of consistent concentrated logistics support. The North African coast has few natural harbours and the main British supply head at Alexandria on the Nile delta was some 1,300 miles by road from the main Italian port at Tripoli. Smaller ports at Benghazi and Tobruk were respectively 650 miles and 400 miles west of Alexandria on the single road running along a narrow corridor along the coast. At the time the central Mediterranean was contested, and because the British and Italian navies were equally matched, their abilities to supply their garrisons via Alexandria and Tobruk were limited both by Italian and British actions, although the British were also able to supply Egypt via the very extended route around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Red Sea.
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