Chapter 20 Chapter 19 Allied Clearance of North Africa

After Rommel captured Dobruk, he quickly pursued the retreating British army without stopping. On June 25, 1942, the 8th Army of the British Army retreated to the front line of Mersha Matruh. At night, Auchinrek rushed to the front and personally took over the command of the 8th Army. A battle was fought against Mersha Matruh because the terrain of Mersha Matruh was not favorable to the defender. On the evening of June 23, the forwards of the Afrika Korps crossed the Egyptian border and advanced more than 160 kilometers in one day and night. They cut off the troops of the Mersha Matruh British army who had no time to withdraw, and captured 6,000 people. On the evening of June 28, Rommel's armored spearhead captured Forka, and arrived at the Alamein line at the evening of the 30th, only 60 miles away from Alexandria. Rommel was already standing in front of the gate of Cairo.

At this moment, the strengths of Germany and Britain have undergone fundamental changes. There are only 44 tanks left in the African Army, and most of Kesselring’s planes have been withdrawn to Sicily. Intact brigades and 159 tanks, including 60 "Grant" tanks provided by the United States.More importantly, air supremacy was transferred to the hands of the British. In the two days of June 24th and 25th, the German attack did not meet the resistance of the British ground forces, but was violently attacked by the British Air Force. This situation has not happened in the past.The reason why the German army won the victory in Matt Harbor was firstly because both sides hadn’t realized it for the time being, and the winner and loser were still dominated by the inertia of the past. The blow was in the middle, causing the wings to retreat.It became clear later that the strength of the British army at that time was fully capable of annihilating the attacking German army, but the British commander was shrouded in the shadow of failure, not only lost the good opportunity to annihilate the adventurous German army, but also suffered a disastrous defeat. Marshal Foch's opinion: If you think you have lost the battle, you have lost the battle.

On June 30, Rommel drew up a plan to break through the Alamein defense line and occupied a position 16 kilometers southwest of Alamein Station.His decision to penetrate the rear of the British 13th Army, as he had done in the attack on the Matruh Line, caused the British army to collapse again.In fact, the German offensive was exhausted. There were only more than 2,000 forwards, and the main force was far behind.The German army no longer has the ability to fight fiercely, but it still has the ability to implement maneuvers. If the German army inserts into the rear of the British army, it is entirely possible to make another rout. On July 1, when the 90th Light Armored Division of the African Army attacked Dilsey Inn, the fighting momentum was completely thwarted, and the attempt to turn around the rear of the British army was shattered. On July 2, the German army and the British army fought a full-day war of attrition with the British army in the mountains of Rowaisarte. The 90th Light Armored Division was unable to break through the British army's positions, and the British Air Force firmly grasped the air supremacy of the battlefield. On July 3, Rommel changed his plan to break into the rear of the British 13th Army, and concentrated on the 90th Light Division of the African Army and the Italian "Rittorio Division" to attack the Alamein stronghold.But it turned out that the Afrika Korps, with only 26 tanks, could not achieve the goal.That night, Rommel sent a telegram to Kesselring, and he was forced to stop the attack.Ironically, at this time the British fleet was fleeing Alexandria.

On July 4, Auchinleck commanded the British 8th Army to counterattack, but was blocked by the Germans. At dawn on July 10, the British Australian 9th Division attacked again along the coastal road, but was stopped by the Germans after making some progress. On July 13, the German 21st Armored Division stormed the Alamein stronghold with air support and was repelled by the British 3rd South African Brigade.Afterwards, the two sides had offensives against each other. Rommel's summer offensive and the first battle of Alamein came to an end in August. In August 1942, on the North African battlefield, there was a stalemate between the Axis and Allied forces on the front line of Alamein. Both sides felt that without further supplements, no one could achieve a decisive victory in the near future.The situation on both sides is: the British base on the island of Malta has been restored, a submarine force and a long-range bomber force have been stationed on the island, and the German and Italian transport fleet has been sunk repeatedly since July. , the British army received 500,000 tons of supplies, and the German and Italian troops only received 10,000 tons of supplies.Rommel realized that there were only two options: Either withdraw from Egypt and return to Cyrenaica, hold on to Libya, and maintain a long-term stalemate in North Africa; or launch an offensive immediately and defeat the British army before it is too strong to be indestructible .Hitler in Berlin, of course, would never allow the North African territory to be given up in vain, and decided to continue the offensive.But Rommel's fuel was not enough to launch a decent offensive, so the Italian Chief of Staff Cavaliero assured him that when he launched the attack on the full moon on August 30, a few hours after the attack, a ship carrying 6,000 tons of gasoline The tankers will arrive in North Africa, and Kesselring has also assured him that after all efforts have failed, he will provide 700 tons of gasoline.Therefore, when Rommel launched the second battle (also known as the Alam Halfa battle), he said to his subordinates: "After the battle is launched, how far we can go will depend on logistics-fuel and ammunition."

The situation of the British army is just the opposite. The longer the time is delayed, the more favorable the balance of strength will be to them.Due to the collapse of Gachala's line of defense and the fall of Dobruk, Churchill was under great pressure. He needed a victory to deal with public opinion at home and abroad, and he kept urging Auchinlek to attack.But Auchinrek was determined to wait until everything was ready before attacking, so Churchill dismissed him, and General Alexander took over as the commander of the Middle East Army. General Gott, the former commander of the 13th Army of the Eighth Army, was promoted to the commander of the Army.But Gott died in a plane crash, so he was transferred to Lieutenant General Montgomery as the commander of the 8th Army.Montgomery, like Auchinrek, rejected Churchill's request to launch an offensive immediately. He had to wait until everything was ready and the conditions for victory were in place before launching an attack on the German army.As it turned out, this was Montgomery's usual style.

When Rommel launched the second battle of Alamein, the strength comparison between the two sides was: Rommel had 440 tanks, of which 200 of the Italian army were old-fashioned.Montgomery has 760 tanks, including 300 of the latest American "Grant tanks". The battlefield ratio of the British Air Force to the German Air Force is 5:1, an absolute advantage.The British artillery had a great advantage.In terms of numbers, Rommel was 96,000, and Montgomery was a little over 100,000.Because it is a desert tank battle, the victory or defeat is mainly determined by air supremacy, tanks, artillery, and the smooth flow of land and sea supply lines. There is a slight difference in the number of people, which is not enough to affect the overall situation.

Rommel's offensive plan was to deploy the German 164th Infantry Division, the Italian 21st Army, a German Paratrooper Brigade, and the "Briscia Division" of the Italian 10th Army from north to south, and launch a feint attack on the northern coast. And make a diversionary attack in the center; he personally led the 15th and 21st Armored Divisions of the African Army, the 90th Light Division, the 20th Italian Army (including the 2 Armored Divisions of Ariti and Littorio), and the Tusti Infantry Division , formed the main assault group, broke through the minefield at the southern end of the Alamein British defense zone, then went north to capture the Alamein Halfa Mountains, went straight to the rear of the Alamein British defense line, and wiped out the 8th Army there. Three Italian divisions remained in the general reserve in the areas of Mersa Matruh and Bar.

Rommel's plan was based on the three conditions of the German army's high tactical skills, the commander's flexibility and adaptability, and the British army's slow response.However, the British used the Enigma machine again and deciphered all the content of the German army's operations.Montgomery knew every detail of Rommel's offensive plan. He planted a large number of mines on the only way Rommel had to pass at the southern end of the line of defense, and then set traps around the Alam Halfa ridge. Tanks and mines are densely arranged. On the night of August 30th, Rommel took his "Assault Group" and started a huge gamble. His gasoline was only enough to break through the minefield and enter the rear of the British army on the coast road, so he was unable to do what he did in Gachara , bypassing the top of the Alamein defense line, but had to bite the bullet and break through a passage from the British minefield.He didn't know that the British army was ready for battle, and his "Assault Group" of the African Legion had been crucified.The German engineers were desperately clearing mines in front, the "Assault Group" huddled together in the minefield, the British flares illuminated the night like day, the bombers bombed indiscriminately over the heads of the Afrika Korps, a truck, an armored personnel carrier, and a tank One after another caught fire.

At 8 o'clock the next morning, Rommel drove to the front line and was shocked by the difficulty of the battle through the minefield, because according to the plan, the vanguard of the African Legion should pass through the minefield at night, and at dawn the next day, attack Lower Alam Halfa Mountains.At this moment, the chief of staff of the African Army, Colonel Beyer Rein, reported to him that the 15th and 21st Armored Divisions had just stepped out to the end of the minefield.The forward channel has been opened, but the schedule has been disrupted. Rommel is hesitant to continue the offensive. His chief of staff, Beil Rein, believes that since such a high price has been paid, he should continue to attack as planned without hesitation.So, Rommel categorically ordered to continue the attack.At 6 pm, Rommel's "Assault Group" arrived at the Alam Halfa Ridge and was already facing the 132 Heights.The "Assault Group" of the African Legion had crossed a soft sandy area before and consumed a lot of gasoline. Now his "Assault Group" can only travel 48 kilometers with the remaining gasoline. The rear of the Alam Halfa ridge forced the defenders to abandon their defensive plan and had to attack the British army in front.

Rommel's "Assault Group" was blocked in front of the Alam Halfa position. The British Air Force had complete control of the air and bombed day and night, putting Rommel in a dilemma.The 6,000 tons of gasoline that Cavaliero promised to provide were all sunk by the British at Dobrook on the 31st.The 700 tons of gasoline provided by Kesselring were also consumed by the convoy itself during transportation. On September 1, Rommel's "Assault Group" was not only stubbornly blocked by the British ground forces, but also indiscriminately bombed by the British Air Force, causing heavy losses. On the morning of September 2, Rommel decided to retreat, but the gasoline was exhausted. Cannot act on a large scale.His "assault group" could only be bombed on the spot for a day. On September 3, Rommel was desperate for fuel supplies, and was forced to throw away 50 tanks, 50 field guns and anti-tank guns, and 400 trucks, and retreated eastward with all his might.By September 6, Rommel fought and retreated, passing the minefield at the southern end of the British army when he originally set off.Due to Montgomery's excessive caution, he did not try his best to seal this "hole", otherwise it is very likely to trap Rommel's "assault group".

The Second Battle of Alamein ended with Rommel's defeat.It was a turning point in the North African battlefield in World War II. The German army marched into Cairo, crossed the Suez Canal, crossed the Middle East and joined the Caucasus with the Kleist Armored Corps in the Soviet Union.The myth of Rommel's invincibility was also shattered. After Montgomery won the second battle of Alamein, he was not in a hurry to launch an attack. He believed that his army's desert combat training was not enough, and the reserves of combat materials were not sufficient.During the period from September 9 to the end of October, Montgomery spent a lot of energy on these two aspects.In the German army, Rommel returned to China for vacation due to illness, and Stemm temporarily took command.In terms of supplies, due to the restoration of the British base in Malta, the German and Italian troops only received extremely poor supplies. The Mediterranean routes of the Axis countries were hit by unprecedented damage. One-third of the transport ships were sunk by the British Air Force and Navy. A considerable portion was forced to return.In the weeks leading up to the British offensive at the end of October, not a single tanker from the Axis powers reached North Africa, and the Afrika Korps had only 3 allotments of gasoline left, with the usual minimum stockpiling of 30 allotments (per An allotment travels 100 kilometers). On the eve of the third Alamein battle, the strength comparison of the two sides on the North African battlefield was as follows: 230,000 British troops, 1,229 tanks, another 1,000 for supplies, and more than 1,500 aircraft; German and Italian troops had more than 80,000 troops , including only 27,000 German troops and 540 tanks, including 280 old Italian tanks and 350 aircraft.Not only is the number of major weapons at an absolute disadvantage, but the German army is also at a disadvantage in terms of the quality of tanks and artillery.Only the new Type IV tanks of the German army are qualified to compete with the performance of the British "Sherman" and "Grant" tanks, but the strength comparison is 30:500.Rommel's original mobile artillery composed of flexible and powerful 88mm anti-aircraft guns could no longer penetrate the armor of "Sherman" and "Grant" tanks at medium and long distances.On the contrary, the artillery of these tanks can destroy Rommel's mobile artillery at a long distance, and the advantage of mobile artillery that the German army once had on the battlefield in the past has also been lost. At 10 o'clock in the evening on October 23, 1942, after more than 1,000 artillery pieces bombed in a hurricane style, Montgomery commanded the 8th Army of the British Army and launched a powerful offensive against the defense line of the Allamand Army.At the beginning of the battle, the acting commander of the Afrika Korps, General Steem, immediately drove to the front line, but was suddenly attacked by a group of British soldiers on the way. He died of a heart attack while running for his life alone.The German and Italian troops in North Africa were leaderless for a while. On October 24, Hitler directly called Rommel, who was recuperating in Austria, and urged him to fly back to Africa immediately to command operations. At dusk on October 25, he had already flown to the command headquarters of the African Army. The most troublesome thing for Rommel was the extreme lack of gasoline. When he was sure that the main force of the British army was in the north, he took great risks to transfer the reserve team, the 21st Armored Division and the main artillery force in the south to the north. There is no longer any fuel to transport them to other regions.Due to the accurate judgment, the British offensive was temporarily frustrated. On October 28, Montgomery launched another attack, which was stopped the next day.The ratio of British and German tank losses was 4:1, but the actual advantage of the British army increased to 11:1.Rommel had only 90 tanks left, while Montgomery had 800. On November 2, when Montgomery launched his third attack, Rommel was no longer able to fight. At noon on November 3, Rommel's radio monitoring department intercepted the British army's powerful tank unit preparing to turn around the rear of the African Army. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, he began to attack the Foka position without telling his superiors in Berlin and Rome. Full retreat.After Hitler heard the news, he immediately telegraphed Rommel to stick to the Alamein position, asking him to show his subordinates that there is no other way than victory or death. After receiving the call, Rommel ignored the further retreat order issued just 90 minutes ago, and immediately conveyed the order of the head of state to the troops.General Thomas, the commander of the African Army, requested a necessary tactical retreat, but Rommel refused.Unable to bear this ridiculous order, Thomas surrendered to the British army in a fit of anger (Montgomery invited Thomas to dinner at his headquarters that night).Due to the change of order, the German and Italian armies fell into chaos. When Rommel managed to hold his ground, he found that there were only two options: either obey the order of the head of state and wipe out the entire army; or rescue some troops but defy Hitler's order.Between personal disobedience and the destruction of the troops, Rommel chose the former. He immediately sent someone to personally state his interests to Hitler and demanded a retreat. At 3:30 pm on November 4th, the Italian 20th Army was completely annihilated, the Italian 10th Army was disintegrated, and the British army opened a 20-kilometer-wide breakthrough on the axis defense line, and tanks flooded in.At the moment when the entire army was about to be annihilated, Rommel resolutely ordered a retreat without waiting for Hitler's reply.The next day, Rommel received a call back from Hitler agreeing to retreat.As a result, Rommel took the remnants of his troops and began a large retreat of more than 2,250 kilometers (from Alamein to Tripoli).Since then, the Axis forces in North Africa have quickly slipped into the abyss of failure. When Rommel led the remnant troops back to Mersha Matruh, Montgomery's 8th Army also crossed Alamein's "Devil's Paradise" and began the pursuit.He rounded due east of Mersa Matruh, and Rommel slipped away first. This was the fourth time Montgomery missed.Because the British army was either slow in action or not deep enough every time they outflanked, they lost the opportunity to cut off the retreat of the remaining Axis forces.Only about 50,000 of Rommel's 80,000 people remained, and almost all of his heavy weapons were lost. The prestigious African Army only had a regiment of air left, and there were only more than 10 tanks left, and fuel was scarce.However, on the way of the British pursuit, he asked Bellowis, a landmine expert, to ingeniously set up a series of minefields, which made the pursuers suffer. In mid-November, Rommel ran out of fuel and was in a desperate situation where he could not move. Fortunately, Kesselring airlifted 80 tons of gasoline to him, and it happened to be heavy rain for two days. On November 21, he ran out of fuel and stalled again in Ajdabiya, Libya.At this time, thousands of boxes and oil barrels on the "Arp" oil tanker sunk by British torpedoes floated to the coast from Agra to Brega, and Rommel's African Army was rescued again. Rommel escaped from the dangerous situation of being surrounded by "leapfrog" continuously, and retreated to the western end of Cyrenaica, near Alagai, more than 1,120 kilometers away from Alamein, the starting point of the retreat.When Montgomery made another roundabout to the Alagai position, Rommel quickly retreated more than 300 kilometers, and did not stop until the Bouelat position. In mid-January 1943, the British army launched an attack on Boueirat. Rommel retreated more than 560 kilometers, retreated through Libya, and reached the Mares defense line in Tunisia.During the retreat, Rommel left the army without authorization and flew to the country to ask Hitler to retreat from North Africa and stick to Sicily, but was rejected by Hitler.The latter believed that the Axis powers should have a bridgehead in Africa, otherwise, southern Europe would soon be in danger of being invaded, and promised to reinforce Rommel in terms of personnel and materials. During the great rout of the Axis powers in North Africa, Britain and the United States began to implement the long-planned "torch" plan to land in North Africa. This action was partly due to Stalin's pressure to urge Britain and the United States to open up a second European front.On the landing site, Churchill, Roosevelt and the senior generals of the two countries debated for a long time before reaching an agreement. log in at the same time.General Eisenhower of the United States served as the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces, using more than 150 transport ships and 160 warships to escort.The troops heading for Oran and Algiers departed from Britain on October 22, 1942, entered the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, and landed at the above three locations on November 8.It was stipulated that on the second day of landing, all the Allied forces in Algeria would form the British 1st Army, under the unified command of British General Anderson. In order to win the cooperation of the local French army, Britain and the United States spent a lot of effort to find a Frenchman with appeal. De Gaulle of "Free France" was difficult to be accepted by the French officials of the Vichy government in North Africa. Darlan of the Vichy government was notorious for his cooperation with Nazi Germany. Neither of them seemed ideal. In the end, the Allies chose Germany General Girod, the former commander of the Ninth Army of the French Army who escaped from the prisoner camp.Girod put forward very high conditions to the Allies, requiring that once the Allies landed on French territory to fight, he must be the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Europe.He wanted to fight for the outcome of the French liberating the motherland by themselves with the aid of the allies, so as to have a decent account for future generations, but he failed to achieve his goal. On November 8, 1942, the Allied forces landed in Oran, Algiers, and Casablanca. Due to poor prior arrangements, the French army was in chaos. , with the assistance of some French troops.The Allies also found Girod's appeal extremely limited. On November 9th, General Clark, the deputy commander of the Allied forces who commanded the landing in North Africa, met with Darlan. Under Clark's pressure, after several repetitions, the French army in North Africa finally ceased fire and adopted a cooperative attitude.Almost at the same time, the mechanized units of the German army quickly occupied southern France controlled by the Vichy government. The Luftwaffe had already occupied the airport near Tunis and began to transport troops to North Africa on a large scale.Hitler's actions contributed to the complete surrender of the French colonial authorities in North Africa to the Allies. On November 13, Eisenhower arrived in North Africa and agreed that Darlan would be the High Commissioner for North Africa and Commander-in-Chief of the French Navy, and Girod would be the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. But at this time, something unexpected happened. Public opinion in Britain and the United States was angry at collaborating with Nazi accomplices and traitors like Darlan. President Roosevelt publicly stated that this was just a stopgap measure, and quoted an old Catholic adage in defense: we My children, in times of grave danger, allow you to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.These remarks aroused the anger of Darlan and his subordinates, who protested to the allies, but the problem that made the allies feel very difficult was quickly resolved, and a fanatical Gaullist youth assassinated Darlan. Beginning on November 12, Anderson commanded the British 1st Army to attack Tunisia simultaneously by land, sea and air. On the 15th, the Allied forces approached the port of Bizerte from the north and the bottleneck of the road from Tripoli to the south. Rommel's retreating army was rushing here from the east, preparing to join the German army that landed in Tunisia. On November 17, General Nehring, the former commander of the African Army, came to Tunisia. Without waiting for the concentration of troops to be completed, he commanded the 90th Army with a core of 3,000 people who had just arrived in Africa, attacked westward, and defeated the French army and reinforcements the next day. The British army occupied the important military site Mejaz Al Bab.In this way, Nehring expanded the positions of Tunisia and Bizerte into a huge bridgehead with less than one-tenth of the opponent's strength. On December 19, Hitler appointed General Arnim as the supreme commander of the Axis forces in Tunisia, taking over the command from Nehring, and the Tunisian troops were renamed the 5th Panzer Army.He set about building a 160-kilometre line of defense covering the Tunisian bridgehead from the coast, 32 kilometers west of Bizerte, to Enfedaveli on the east coast of the Gulf of Gabes. On December 24, Anderson's British 1st Army's offensive was frustrated. This gave Hitler and Mussolini an illusion that it would not be difficult to eliminate the Allied forces landing in North Africa, and decided to step up reinforcements.Soon, the total number of Axis troops in North Africa reached a peak of 250,000.Hitler made the same mistake in North Africa as Stalingrad, in adopting the worst military strategy for reasons of political influence, North African forces could have been used to hold Sicily, but were sent in large numbers to Tunisia, when the sea supply was cut off , The elite of these German troops could only lay down their weapons and walk into the Allied POW camps. By abandoning Tripoli, Rommel lost the confidence of his superiors in Berlin and Rome. On January 26, 1943, he was notified that due to his poor health, he was dismissed from the command of the African Army. After the Maris defensive position was consolidated, he was handed over, but the date of handover and departure was determined by Rommel himself It was decided, at the same time, that the African Legion be renamed the 1st Italian Legion.At this time, the German and Italian troops in North Africa were in the middle of the 8th Army of Montgomery in the east and the 1st Anderson Army in the west. The army adopts the tactics of defeating each other.Due to the shortening of the supply line, Rommel had received some replenishment. On the contrary, Montgomery had to deal with the trouble caused by the increasingly extended supply line, and the pursuit speed, which was not fast, was even slower.Therefore, Rommel took the inexperienced US Second Army as the first target.But Rommel's trouble was that he and Arnim did not restrain each other and could only negotiate command, and his main force, the 21st Armored Division, was assigned to Arnim's command, which brought him serious consequences. On the morning of February 14, 1943, the 10th Armored Division of the German Army jumped out of the Feid Pass and caught the vanguard of the American 1st Armored Division "A Battle Group". Buzid surrounded it.The U.S. "Battle Group A" was caught off guard, discarding 44 giant tanks, 59 half-track vehicles, and 26 cannons.The next day, the U.S. "Battle Group C" quickly counterattacked, fell into Rommel's trap, and lost 54 tanks, 57 half-track vehicles, and 29 cannons. On February 17, the U.S. army retreated across the board, and the rear fell into chaos. Rommel ordered his generals to pursue and fight fiercely. The 2nd Army retreated and gathered together to annihilate them.However, Arnim, who has always been jealous, took away the 10th Armored Division at a critical moment.Rommel had to rush to submit his plan to Mussolini, which delayed the crucial day. At midnight on the 18th, Mussolini agreed with Rommel's offensive plan, but revised the detour plan and changed his attack to Tara, which was close to the front. On the 19th, without waiting for the 10th Armored Division to arrive, Rommel re-launched the offensive. On February 20, Rommel's troops severely damaged the main force of the US 2nd Army in the Kesselring Pass and captured the pass. However, the attempt to occupy Tara failed. The British reinforcements forced the limited German troops to retreat. .Although the German army failed to achieve its final goal in this battle, it gave the US military a blow, which made Eisenhower feel ashamed. The British army jokingly called the US military "Italians on our side".The US 2nd Army had 300 killed and 4,000 captured. The Germans destroyed 200 tanks and captured 60. After the German offensive ended, Rommel was not only not dismissed, but was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the African Army Group, unified command of the German and Italian troops in Africa, and Arnim was his subordinate.At that time, the British 1st Army in the west was licking its wounds. Rommel decided to return to the Marais defense line in the east and inflict heavy damage on Montgomery before he could develop and grow.But two factors clouded his plan as a failure.First, Arnim launched a large and unreasonable attack westward on his own initiative. The tank group participating in the main attack fell into the "trap" of the British 5th Army and was almost wiped out. In this way, the armored forces in Rommel's hands appeared weak.What's more dangerous is that Montgomery once again learned Rommel's detailed attack plan through the Enigma cipher machine, including time and location. On March 5, 1943, the German 10th, 15th, and 21st Armored Divisions launched an attack on the British Medening position.After a day of fierce fighting, the German army lost 350 tanks, and Rommel was forced to cancel the offensive.The Battle of Medening ended in a disastrous defeat for the German army, and Rommel realized that the continued presence of Axis troops in North Africa would undoubtedly be tantamount to suicide. On March 9, he was ill and decided to return to China for treatment, and Arnim commanded the "Africa Group Army" on behalf of him.He intended to try his best to persuade Hitler to withdraw from Africa, but later he found that Mussolini and Hitler had completely lost their sense of reality in their judgments on the situation in Africa, and they simply ignored his suggestion to withdraw from Africa. After Montgomery's victory at Medening, he decided to launch an attack on the German Marais on March 20. On March 17, the U.S. Second Army under the command of Patton launched an offensive first to threaten the rear of the Marais line of defense.The American forces occupied Gafsa in one fell swoop, but their advance to the east coast was foiled one after another by the Germans, who depleted the main armored reserves in a counterattack against the American forces a few days later. On March 20, Montgomery launched an attack on the front of the Marais defense line. He invested about 160,000 troops in the 10th and 30th armies, 610 tanks, and 1,410 artillery pieces. People, 150 tanks, 680 artillery pieces.Allied aircraft also accounted for a 2:1 advantage.The Axis side's shortcoming is that the defense should be based on the Akarit Wadi position north of Gabes, which is a bottleneck zone with a width of only 22.5 kilometers, sandwiched between the coast and the salt marshes. Montgomery stormed for three days with no progress. On March 23, Montgomery realized that the offensive along the coast had no hope of success, and decided to shift the main attack direction to the inland flank. At dawn on March 27, the New Zealand army completed a large roundabout operation, passed through the dangerous "Plum" Canyon, and approached Ahama. The defenders of the Mares line of defense were in danger of being cut off.At the same time, the 4th Indian Division of the British 10th Army also detoured to the flank of the Marais line of defense.Seeing that the rear of the Mares line of defense had been shaken, Arnim ordered some troops to stop the New Zealand army advancing to the coast near Ahama, and the Mares defenders moved to the Akarite dry position. On April 5, the British 4th Indian Division, 50th Division, and 51st Division broke through the main defense line of Akalit without waiting for the Axis forces to build a strong offensive on the new line of defense. Constrained by the way of fighting, the armored forces of the 10th Army did not rapidly expand their results, thus losing a good opportunity to contribute to the total collapse of the German and Italian forces. Although Montgomery lost a chance to win a decisive victory, the Axis powers also lost the opportunity to hold on to the bottleneck position of Akarite, and retreated to the Enfedaviri line on April 11.The German 5th Army and the Italian 1st Army have joined together to jointly defend a 160-kilometer arc-shaped defense line from the west of Bizerte to the east coast. This is also the last line of defense for the German and Italian troops in Africa.The Axis powers had only 60,000 front-line combat troops and only about 100 tanks, of which only 45 were capable of fighting. The Allied powers had increased to 300,000 front-line combat troops, 1,400 tanks, and absolute air supremacy.Under normal circumstances, to maintain the Axis forces in North Africa, 140,000 tons of supplies were needed every month, but in February and March, a total of 52,000 tons were received, and only 2,000 tons were received in the first week of May.The Allies received 400,000 tons of supplies in March.By April 25, the ammunition of the German and Italian legions was only enough for another three days of fighting, and the remaining fuel was only enough for the tanks to travel 25 kilometers, and food was increasingly scarce.Arnim later admitted that even if the Allies did not attack again, they would have to surrender by June 1 at the latest because the troops had run out of food.All these should be attributed to the fact that the Allies had complete control over the sea and air in the Mediterranean Sea, which completely paralyzed the supply lines of the Axis countries in the Mediterranean Sea. On April 19, Montgomery's 8th Army invested 3 infantry divisions to attack Enfedaviri in an attempt to pass through the bottleneck area, take the city of Tunis, and prevent the Axis troops from retreating to the Cape Penninsula.Fighting continued until April 21, with heavy losses and no progress at Montgomery. On April 30, General Alexander, the deputy commander of the North African Allied Forces, discussed with Montgomery and decided to use the elite 4th Indian Division and 7th Armored Division of the 8th Army for the attack direction of the 9th Army of the British Army. Advance towards the city of Tunis, split the defense zone of German and Italian army into two, prompting its total collapse. On May 6, the 4th British Division and the 4th Indian Division successfully broke through the narrow front of the valley south of the Mejda River, and the 6th and 7th British Armored Divisions rushed in through the gap to expand their victories.The 21st Armored Division and the 10th Armored Division, the last reserves in Arnim, have only 60 tanks left. Due to the exhaustion of fuel, it is no longer possible to transfer this insignificant force to the breakthrough. On May 7, the 6th and 7th Armored Divisions of the British Army occupied the city of Tunisia and cut the German army into two sections.Then, the two armored divisions went north and south respectively.The 7th Armored Division marched north along the coast and reached the rear of the German army. Together with the 1st Armored Division of the US Army and other troops, they wiped out the German and Italian troops in the north on May 9.The 6th Armored Division turned around and went south. On May 11, it entered the back of the Enfedavili defense line facing Montgomery, cut off their retreat to the Pengjiao Peninsula, and forced them to surrender. On May 13, 1943, the North African Axis forces stopped all sporadic resistance. Except for more than 600 people who escaped from the sea, the number of prisoners was between 170,000 and 180,000.The Allied Forces have completely expelled the Axis Powers from Africa, creating conditions for returning to Europe. The next target of the Allied Forces is undoubtedly Sicily, Italy.