Side by Side

The Allied landings on the coast of North Africa caught the Germans by surprise. The ensuing days found Feldmarschall Kesselring scrambling to put men in Tunisia. Lead elements of the 5th Fallschirmjager Regiment landed in Tunisia and were ordered to secure a bridgehead around Tunis. The key to Tunis was …

1942-11-19

OA25

The Allied landings on the coast of North Africa caught the Germans by surprise. The ensuing days found Feldmarschall Kesselring scrambling to put men in Tunisia. Lead elements of the 5th Fallschirmjager Regiment landed in Tunisia and were ordered to secure a bridgehead around Tunis. The key to Tunis was Medjez el Bab (“Key to The Gate”). Hauptmann Knoche’s 3rd Battalion arrived at “the Gate” on the 18th and tried to talk the Vichy forces that held the city into allowing him to occupy Medjez el Bab. The French knew the British were only miles away and kept stalling for time. Knoche couldn’t allow the British to take Medjez el Bab and ordered an attack to take the town the next morning.

Medjez-El-Bab, Tunisia

The Run for Tunis was part of the Tunisia Campaign which took place during November and December 1942 during the Second World War. Once French opposition to the Allied Operation Torch landings had ceased in mid-November, the Allies made a rapid advance by a division-sized force east from Algeria, to capture Tunis and forestall an Axis build up in Tunisia and narrowly failed. Some Allied troops were fewer than 20 miles (32 km) short of Tunis by late November but the defenders counter-attacked and pushed them back nearly 20 miles (32 km), to positions which had stabilised by the end of the year.

German

Allied

Scenario Type = Standard