430320_01a: Flanking the Mareth Line [HTH] - PzC 20 Tunisia 43

Medenine, March 20th 1943: By late March, Montgomery had built up sufficient supplies to launch a strike at the Mareth Line. This was a system of fortifications built by the French between the towns of Medenine and Gabès in southern Tunisia, prior to World War II. It was designed to defend against attacks from the Italians in Libya but, following the Fall of France and Operation Torch, it fell into Axis hands and was used by the Italians and Germans to defend against the British instead. Monty's 8th Army began Operation Pugilist on March 20th with the objective of destroying the enemy now opposing Eighth Army in the Mareth position, and then to advance and capture Sfax. Pugilist itself was indecisive and failed to make a decisive breakthrough. It did, however, establish an alternative route of attack and thus laid the ground for Supercharge II, an outflanking manoeuvre via the Tebaga Gap. Here Monty sent a reinforced Command centered on Freyberg's New Zealand Division in an end around run on the old Fortified position. The New Zealanders engaged the enemy in the Tebaga Gap on March 21st, but progress over the next four days against the determined defence of German 164th Light and 21st Panzer Divisions was very slow, although the entrance to the gap was secured. [Size, large] Designer Note: This scenario has been designed for HTH.