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Bardia to Enfidaville

Allied Counter-action

Allied Counter-action

Alexander took over command of Eighteenth Army Group just after Rommel's attack started, and was barely in the saddle when he was called on to restore a battlefront that had almost been shivered to pieces. Part of his defensive measures in the broadest sense called for action by Eighth Army, and on 21 February he ordered Montgomery to create a threat as powerful as possible against the enemy's southern army. But only two days later he was able to tell Montgomery that the crisis had passed and that he was not to prejudice his future plans, even though he was to keep up pressure. That ‘future’ included the strong possibility of an enemy attack before very long.

It will be remembered that 7 Armoured Division had followed the retreating enemy after the capture of Tripoli. Its advance was slow, owing to the thoroughness with which the coastal road had been mined and destroyed, and also to heavy rains which turned the salt flats near the coast into impassable obstacles. However Ben Gardane, the first village in Tunisia, was occupied on 15 page 132 February, and Medenine on 18 February, on which date 4 Light Armoured Brigade reached Foum Tatahouine, 30 miles to the south.

Medenine was important, first as a junction of many roads and tracks, secondly because it was a good assembly position for an attack against the Mareth Line, and thirdly because of a number of airfields in the area.

At this stage 2 NZ Division became aware of a force then known as the ‘Fighting French Column’, under its commander, General Leclerc. It had been formed in French Equatorial Africa, and was a mixed force—infantry, artillery and armoured cars, machine guns, oddments of transport and even a small air force. In late December 1942 it advanced north, captured all the Italian posts in southern Libya, and made contact with Eighth Army just after the capture of Tripoli. There Leclerc willingly agreed to serve under Montgomery, and his force was replenished as liberally as could be done. About the middle of February it reached Nalut, on the Tunisian frontier some 80 miles south of Ben Gardane. Its travels are not without interest, for the force served later under Freyberg's command.

In the first half of February 51 (Highland) Division was moving forward at measured speed, its leading brigade reaching Ben Gardane on 19 February. When Montgomery received Alexander's order of 21 February to intensify pressure, he was compelled to push 51 Division faster than he had intended. By 25 February the whole division was west of Medenine, and both 7 Armoured and 51 (H) Divisions were pressing against enemy defences east of the Mareth Line proper. For once, however, Montgomery was ‘off balance’, with not enough troops in the forward area, no developed defences, and no reserves between them and Tripoli 170 miles away—no ‘back-stop’ should the enemy attack and penetrate the forward line. He moved Leclerc's force forward to Ksar Rhilane (50 miles south-west of Medenine) as an additional threat to the enemy—a bold move—and took immediate steps to send forward additional forces from Tripoli, including armoured formations and 2 NZ Division. He has since recorded1 that from 28 February until 4 March he suffered his second period of great anxiety during this long advance, the first having been during the advance from Buerat to Tripoli.

By early March all enemy forces had fallen back into or behind the Mareth Line, which ran roughly from Zarat on the coast through Mareth to Toujane, where it swung to the north-west.