The Tunisian Campaign: The History of the Decisive Battles that Ended the Fighting in North Africa during World War II

The fighting in North Africa during World War II is commonly overlooked, aside from the famous battle at El Alamein that pitted the British under General Bernard Montgomery against the legendary “Desert Fox,” Erwin Rommel. But while the Second Battle of El Alamein would be the pivotal action in North Africa, the conflict in North Africa began all the way back in the summer of 1940 when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared Italy’s entrance into the war.  Dealing with the Italians was one thing, but the British faced an entirely different monster in North Africa when Erwin Rommel, a German general who had gained much fame for his role in the invasions of Poland and France, was sent to North Africa in February 1941. Rommel’s directives from the German headquarters were to maneuver in a way that would allow him to hide the fact that his ultimate goal was the capture of Cairo and the Suez Canal. The ultimate plan was that Rommel would not reveal the Germans’ true intentions in North Africa until after the Germans had made headway in their invasion of the Soviet Union.

ith the Axis forces trying to push through Egypt towards the Suez Canal and the British Mandate of Palestine, American forces landed to their west in North Africa, which ultimately compelled Rommel to try to break through before the Allies could build up and overwhelm them with superior numbers. Given that the combined Allied forces under Montgomery already had an advantage in manpower, Montgomery also wanted to be aggressive, and the fighting would start in late October 1942 with an Allied attack. 

The ensuing Tunisian Campaign was a complicated, last-ditch, cut-and-thrust effort on the part of the doomed Axis forces. The various Allied forces arriving from the west were heavily bloodied before U.S. and British airborne and commando units began to mop up key ports and landing facilities. Rommel and his army were clearly staring at defeat.