Tunisia. WWII in North Africa: From Kasserine Pass to Victory Over the Africa Corps
In November 1942, American and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria with the goal of driving German and Italian soldiers out of North Africa. Pursued by the British Army, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had recently moved his Afrika Korps westward into Tunisia to join forces commanded by General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim. Hoping to capture supply depots in Algeria, Rommel launched a February 1943 attack on U.S. and British forces at Kasserine Pass, a narrow (1.2 kilometer) opening in the Atlas Mountains, 220 kilometers southwest of Tunis, Tunisia’s capital city. Code named Storm Tide, Rommel directed a three-prong attack against U.S. forces that were dispersed and not well dug-in. For untested and poorly led American troops, Kasserine was not an American victory. Along with loosing 180 tanks, more than 300 allied soldiers were killed and 3,000 wounded.
With the arrival of Allied reinforcements, Rommel redeployed east where his forces were mauled by British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Attempting to escape to the west in March 1943, the Afrika Korps lost its last major engagement against forces commanded by U.S. General George S. Patton in the Battle of El Guettar. Hoping to escape to Sicily, General von Arnim led his forces to the Cap Bon Peninsula but were cut off by a British air-sea blockade. Subsequently, more than 250,000 Germans and Italians surrendered including von Arnim.
My travel companion and I arranged for a car and driver to take us to Kasserine Pass. Enroute, we stopped at the town of Tabarka, along Tunisia’s northern coast. Visible on a rocky hill above the town is a 16th century fort, built by Genovese fishermen. Nearby, a small force of British and American soldiers fought a skirmish against German defenders in November 1942. A paved road took us through Kasserine Pass. Geographically part of the Tunisian High Steppe, the area’s rocky landscape of rolling hills is bisected by deep, irregular wadis covered with grass and sagebrush. Arid and lightly populated, I speculated that the landscape had changed little since the early 1940s. Having seen the 1970 movie Patton, I looked for telltale signs of conflict such as the rusting remains of tanks or other military equipment.
On our drive to the Cap Bon (meaning “good hope”) Peninsula, we stopped at the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Tunis which honors 2,841 American soldiers who died and 3,724 who went missing during the North African Campaign. Administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission, it is the largest, but not the only cemetery in Tunisia for American servicemen and women. We continued on to the Cap Bon Peninsula.
Today, the Cap Bon is covered by vineyards and lemon orchards. Along its coastline are pristine beaches, restaurants, and resorts. On the peninsula’s northern coast, we stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant in the town of Al Huwariyah. Nearby, we stood on a bluff above Grottos El Haouria, ancient tunnels dug by Carthaginians to reach sandstone used in building projects. Looking east, we could see the tip of the peninsula in the distance.
We continued to the east side of the Cap Bon and the ancient Phoenician City of Kerkouane. Abandoned during the First Punic War (circa 250 BC), Kerkouane had been a fishing town of 1,200 people. Today only foundations remain of houses, shops, temples, and public squares. Our final stop on the return to Tunis was Menzel Temime (aka Manzil Tamim). In the summer of 1943, this small farming town hosted a U.S. Army airfield for Mitchell B-25 bombers flying missions over Sicily. Temporary runways were built using pierced steel planking. One of the B-25 pilots stationed there was my uncle, 1st Lt. Edward G. Betts.
