41
In its simplest outline the Allied plan provided for a powerful
thrust in the center, heavily supported by armor, with secondary
attacks on the flanks to hold the enemy in position and to prevent
him from concentrating to meet the main attack. The principal
effort was to be made by the two corps of the British First Army
in the direction Medjez el Bab-Tunis. In their zone of attack lay
two natural corridors into the Tunis plain: the valleys of the Medï؟¾jerda and the Miliane. This was terrain where armored units could
best maneuver. The American II Corps, with the Corps Franc
d’Afrique * on its north flank, was to attack on the left of the First
Army, its principal objectives being the high ground southeast of
Mateur and the heights in the area north of Jefna and west of Lake
Achkel. It was expected that the American attack would endanger
the right flank and the rear of the enemy forces facing General
Anderson’s divisions. The British Eighth Army, on the eastern
end of the front, had the role of maintaining pressure on the Axis
forces facing it and of advancing against the enemy's route of escape
into the Cape Bon Peninsula. The gap between the First and Eighth
Armies was filled by the French XIX Corps, in the Pont du Fahs
area. For this final phase of the campaign General Alexander had
more than twenty divisions. The line of battle was about 140 miles
long.
As the Tunisian campaign developed, the attacks of the Strategic
Air Force were switched to the transportation facilities and ports
of Sicily and southern Italy. At the same time medium bombers
and fighters were striking at surface ships and air transports in
and over the Sicilian strait. The Tactical Air Force was prepared
to support the field armies by bombing and strafing enemy rear
installations, roads, and convoys. By the opening date of the battle,
22 April, the Allied air forces had won mastery of the air from the
Luftwaffe.
Early Operations.—The offensive was launched when the V Corps
commenced its drive on the night of 21-22 April. The initial attack
was directed at Longstop Hill, which was captured on the 26th after
a series of bloody assaults. South of the Medjerda River progress
was made in the direction of Djebel Bou Aoukaz.
The French XIX Corps did not take part in these attacks, but on
its left the British IX Corps pushed east from the Bou Aradaï؟¾Goubellat road in an effort to clear a passage for its 1st and 6th
Armored Divisions through the mountain gaps that lead to the
* A provisional force that consisted principally of two regiments of “Gowns,”
fierce Moroccan highlanders who were expert mountain and night fighters.
|