Canadian war correspondent M.H. Halton reported from the Egyptian desert concerning "one of modern war's most dramatic spectacles - [a] battle of tanks in the dark." "The British have struck heavily at the Mareth Line in what both sides call the opening blow of the long-awaited big battle of Tunisia."
(The Mareth Line was a system of bunkers built by France in southern Tunisia during the late Thirties. The line was intended to protect Tunisia against an Italian invasion from its colony in Libya.) Three months into 1943, the Allied Command announced that the British 8th Army would soon be on the march alongside the newly arrived Americans:
"It will be a tough battle against the best of Hitler's fighting men and weapons, but there is no doubt among Allied militarists of the outcome. Even pessimists agree that the Axis will be driven into the sea. There is reason to believe that the Nazi command itself is resigned to the loss of its last foothold on the south shore of the Mediterranean." By the time this article appeared at the New York City newsstands, the British had chased Rommel's Afrika Korps out of Egypt, the Americans had suffered their first defeat at the Kasserine Pass and was in the process of walloping the Tenth Panzer at El Guettar. The anonymous general who penned this article took all that into consideration but believed there was much more fight left in the Germans than there actually was.
The U.S. 34th Division fought in Tunisia, click here to read about them.
Click here to read about the Rangers in North Africa.
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