Where is the mareth line

Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Mareth Line. Edit source History Talk 0. Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mareth Line. The Mareth Line had originally been built by the French to guard against an attack from the Italians in Libya.

It ran from the coast across a narrow coastal plain to the Matmata Hills, which ran from north-to-south for some distance. On 24 January , while Rommel was still retreating from Tripoli, von Arnim was ordered to protect the key area around Gabes and Mareth, to stop the Americans from reaching the coast between the two Axis armies. In order to help von Arnim, the 10 Panzer Division had been transferred from Rommel's force.

As his troops began to enter their new position, Rommel suggested that he could combine with von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army, then being built up in northern Tunisia, for an attack on the right flank of the Allied armies advancing into Tunisia from Algeria in the aftermath of Operation Torch.

Rommel was then given command of both forces for the final part of the offensive, an attack north through the Kasserine Pass February , but after some initial successes this attack ran out of steam, and on 22 February Rommel cancelled the offensive.

Despite the failure of the attack, this apparent revival in his offensive spirit convinced Kesselring to appoint Rommel as the new commander of Army Group Africa. His old army became the Italian First Army, under the Italian General Giovanni Messe a move that had first been proposed earlier in the year, but delayed until Rommel was ready to go. On 6 March Rommel launched his last attack in North Africa, a failed assault on the British at Medenine Rommel came up with the overall idea, but Messe was given the task of producing the detailed plan.

This failed attack cost Rommel 52 tanks, and also played a part in ending his time in North Africa. On 9 March he flew out of Tunisia to visit Hitler, with the aim of explaining the real situation in North Africa.

Rommel wasn't allowed to return to North Africa, and was told to take sick leave. His place was taken by General von Arnim. The Mareth Line was a fairly strong position. The Axis left was secured on the sea. Their right wasn't so strong — the line crossed the northern tip of the Matmata Hills then turned north-west to cross another area of flatter ground the Tebaga Gap before reaching more high ground at the Djabel Tebaga.

The area between the Matmata Hills and the Djebel Tebaga was known as the Dahar, a mix of desert and salt marshes. In the s the Matmata Hills had been seen as largely impassible to military transport and tanks, but by that was no longer the case.

The main position was protected by the Wadi Zigzaou, a steep sided valley, with sides up to 20 meters tall and water flowing along its base. Most of the French concrete fortifications covered the Wadi Zigzaou. A few miles further south was a smaller valley, the Wadi Zeuss. The area beween the two valleys was filled with minefields and wire, as well as anti-tank guns and other defensive positions.

The idea was that artillery in the hills north of Wadi Zigzaou could cover these positions. However Rommel was aware that there were similar hills to the south, from where Allied artillery could hit the new defensive positions. Rommel had lost at least 30, men, most of his tanks and almost all of his 88mm guns at El Alamein.

As his battered army retreated west, it gained some strength, collecting troops and weapons from various positions in Libya, and some new equipment arrived from Tunisia. It was also joined by two new Italian divisions, the La Spezia infantry division and the Pistoia motorised division. However he wasn't terribly impressed with the Mareth Line after inspecting it in more detail, and by early February was seriously considering a further retreat to the Wadi Akarit position, north of Gabes, where there was another narrow gap, this time protected on the inland side by the Chott el Fedjadj, a series of salt marshes.

Messe also had the Italian Saharan Group, a force of around 2, men made up of garrison troops from southern Libya. Messe posted a mix of Italian and German troops in the front line. On the left, nearest to the coast was the Young Fascist division, with the Trieste division to its right both part of XX Corps.

They were supported by the 88mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns of the Luftwaffe The centre of the line, across the main road to Gabes, was held by the German 90th Light Afrika Division. On the far right, where the line rose up into the hills, the German th Light Africa Division was posted.

On the right-rear, towards the Tebaga Gap, was the Saharan Group of nine infantry battalions and 1 batteries of guns. Messe had two lines of reserves. Finally 10 Panzer was posted to the north of Gabes, where it could intervene on the Mareth Line or against an American advance from the north-west.

As at El Alamein, too, it was preceded and accompanied by tremendous artillery and air bombardments. On Sunday evening it was stated at Allied Headquarters that the Eighth Army had captured all its preliminary objectives in the face of the most bitter resistance from the Africa Korps. On the next day the news continued to be good. The Eighth Army was reported to have smashed a gap in Rommel's first main defence line between the villages of Mareth and Zarat, and through the gap into the bridgehead that had been won General Montgomery was pouring tanks, guns and infantry, British, Dominion, and Indian, under cover of a terrific bombardment.

Yet on Wednesday morning, March 24, the Prime Minister found it incumbent upon him to utter a word of warning in the House of Commons. How had the bridgehead been lost? Let us go back to the opening of the story. Attacking by moonlight, British infantry of the 50th Northumbrian Division fought their way across the Wadi Zigzau, a formidable, deep ravine, wide and wet and very difficult for tracked or wheeled vehicles to cross. The Northumberland sappers, however, struggled across under terrific fire and put down a causeway of brushwood and boulders, over which a few tanks and more infantry were got into the bridgehead.

Torrents of rain falling during the previous nights turned the wadi into a morass, and the causeway, being under point-blank fire from the enemy's artillery, was continually being broken up. Efforts were made to construct a stronger causeway, so as to enable more tanks and anti-tank guns to be rushed into the bridgehead in readiness for the expected German counter-attack.

But before it could be built the 15th Panzers launched an assault on the afternoon of the second day Monday, March Fighting was magnificent courage and devotion, the men from Northumberland were gradually forced back across the ravine by sheer weight of numbers see page On the southern side were massed a great weight of tanks, guns and men, but these could do nothing to help.

That narrow defile, so slippery, so swept by enemy fire, lay in between. But as will be seen the men who died in that bloody ravine had not died in vain. When 30th Corps was thrown back, Montgomery reinforced the flanking attack, which eventually - on 26 March - forced a German withdrawal. The next German fallback position, at Wadi Akarit north of Mareth, was stormed by 30th Corps on the moonless night of 5 April. Again, German forces made an orderly withdrawal, perhaps assisted by Montgomery's deliberate approach.

Arnim now fell back to a defensive line covering Tunis. The final assault on Tunis was led by the 1st Army, heavily reinforced and supplemented by several 8th Army units.