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attack while the remainder of the division enveloped Djebel Cheniti.
The operation was entirely successful, and by 7 May the enemy was
in full retreat to Bizerte. His north flank had collapsed. Units of
the 9th Division entered Bizerte during the afternoon of the 7th and
that night occupied the city's airport.
The attack by the 1st Armored Division struck the German line
where two roads lead into the Tunis plain—one from Mateur through
Ferryville to the Tunis-Bizerte highway and the other due east from
Mateur. General Harmon ordered Combat Command A to attack
toward Ferryville and Combat Command B to push eastward along
the Mateur-Protville road. On 6 May Combat Command A made
initial gains into the hills south of Ferryville, but lost them during
the night as a result of determined German counterattacks. The
next day an attack was launched that completely routed the Germans
along the Mateur-Ferryville road. By noon armored units of Combat Command A had entered Ferryville, where they found the enemy
in full retreat to the east. The advance was continued on the 8th,
and at dawn on the 9th the main Tunis-Bizerte highway was cut.
While Combat Command A was engaged in these operations, Combat Command B moved due east toward the Tunis-Bizerte highway.
It reached Protville on the 9th, where contact was made with the
British 7th Armored Division. Following this, a part of the combat
command turned north on the Bizerte road and then swung northeast to occupy Porto Farina.
German forces in the II Corps zone were in a hopeless situation
as a result of the American operations from 6 to 9 May. The offensive actions conducted by the 9th Division and Combat Command A
of the 1st Armored Division left only minor enemy groups to be
mopped up. When Combat Command B met the British 7th Armored Division at Protville, a large group of disorganized Germans
was caught stranded in the Tebourba area. Pressed from the west
by the 1st and 34th Infantry Divisions and their retreat eastward
cut off by American and British armored troops, the German command in the II Corps area asked for terms of surrender on 9 May.
General Bradley's terms of unconditional surrender were accepted.
During the final phase of the campaign the II Corps took 42,000
prisoners, among whom were the commanding generals of the Fifth
Panzer Army, the 15th Panzer Division, and two German infantry
divisions. The artillery commander of the Afrika Korps and the
commanding general of the air forces at Bizerte were also captured.
In the meantime the final roundup of enemy forces still holding
out in the Cape Bon Peninsula was being effected. Mobile British
detachments raced up each side of the peninsula and completed the
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