German–Italian Panzer Army (Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee/Armata Corazzata Italo-Tedesca) [1943]
Condition
Derelict
Site history
Built
1936 (1936)
Built by
French colonial administration of Tunisia and French Army
In use
March 1943 (March 1943)
Materials
reinforced concrete
Fate
Abandoned after 1943
Battles/wars
Battle of the Mareth Line
Garrison information
Past commanders
Giovanni Messe Erwin Rommel
Garrison
1943, east to west: 136th Infantry Division Giovani Fascisti, 101st Motorised Division Trieste, 90th Light Division, 80th Infantry Division La Spezia, 16th Motorised Division Pistoia, 164th Light Afrika Division 15th Panzer Division (32 operational tanks) Reserve: 21st Panzer Division, 10th Panzer Division (110 operational tanks); Djebel Tebaga to Djebel Melab: Raggruppamento Sahariano
The Mareth Line was a system of fortifications built by France in southern Tunisia in the late 1930s. The line was intended to protect Tunisia against an Italian invasion from its colony in Libya. The line occupied a point where the routes into Tunisia from the south converged, leading toward Mareth, with the Mediterranean Sea to the east and mountains and a sand sea to the west.
The line ran along the north side of Wadi Zigzaou for about 50 km (31 mi) south-westwards from the Gulf of Gabès to Cheguimi and the Djebel (mountain) Matmata on the Dahar plateau between the Grand Erg Oriental (Great Eastern Sand Sea) and the Matmata hills. The Tebaga Gap, between the Mareth line and the Great Eastern Sand Sea, a potential route by which an invader could outflank the Mareth line, was not surveyed until 1938.
After the French Armistice of 22 June 1940, the Mareth Line was demilitarised under the supervision of an Italo-German commission. Tunisia was occupied by Axis forces after Operation Torch in 1942 and the line was refurbished and extended by Axis engineers into a defensive position by building more defences between the line and Wadi Zeuss 3.5 mi (5.6 km) to the south but French-built anti-tank gun positions were too small for Axis anti-tank guns which had to be sited elsewhere.
The Battle of Medenine (6 March 1943) against the Eighth Army was a costly failure. At the Battle of the Mareth Line (16–31 March 1943) the Eighth Army was contained within the Mareth Line defences. An outflanking move west and north of the Mareth Line was followed by Operation Supercharge II which broke through the Axis defences of the Tebaga Gap and led them to retreat from the Mareth Line to Wadi Akarit. The Mareth Line is derelict and is commemorated at the Mareth Museum.
The MarethLine was a system of fortifications built by France in southern Tunisia in the late 1930s. The line was intended to protect Tunisia against...
The Battle of the MarethLine or the Battle of Mareth was an attack in the Second World War by the British Eighth Army (led by General Bernard Montgomery)...
Medenine, only a few kilometres from the MarethLine, he should call off the attack and withdraw to support the Mareth defences, hoping that the Kasserine...
operation was intended to delay an attack by the British Eighth Army on the MarethLine. The British had been forewarned by Ultra decrypts of German wireless...
victory—turned from the battle to return to his eastward-facing defenses at the MarethLine when he heard of the approach of Bernard Montgomery′s British 8th Army...
during its advance into Tunisia, and participated in the attack on the MarethLine. L Force was then transformed into the 2e Division Blindée, although...
This is an order of battle of the British 4th Armoured Brigade during the Second World War. Many units either served with or were briefly attached to the...
themselves in at the MarethLine, Lee was almost killed when the squadron's airfield was bombed. After breaking through the MarethLine, the squadron made...
February: Axis forces in Libya retreat to Tunisian border south of the MarethLine 14 February: Axis advance from Faïd to launch Battle of Sidi Bou Zid...
the Eighth Army was facing the Italian-German Panzer Army near the MarethLine and came under command of Alexander's 18th Army Group for the concluding...
switching his line of supply to Tunis with the goal of blocking the southern approach to Tunisia from Tripoli at Gabès. The MarethLine, which the French...
concentration of German armour in North Africa was successfully repulsed. At the MarethLine, 20 to 27 March, when Montgomery encountered fiercer frontal opposition...
overall. In World War II, Rommel maintained a central position on the MarethLine between allied forces in Tunisia and Libya. The tactic loses at least...
who had caught up with the Panzerarmee Afrika at last at the MarethLine. The MarethLine was a series of old French border defences against Italian forces...
Mareth museum is a military museum, in Mareth. Located between Gabes and Medenine, the Marethline museum deals with the Second World War history. In March...
planned to defend the Gabes Gap in Tunisia east of the French pre-war Marethline by holding the port of Buerat, while Army Group Africa (Generaloberst...
Battle of the MarethLine: Allied forces of the British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery launch an offensive against the MarethLine held by the...
Decauville wagon used in the construction of the wall Siegfried line Maginot lineMarethline The coast defence along the North Cape down to the Spanish border...
(Berger and Keach). The film climaxes in a recreation of the Battle of the MarethLine in Tunisia. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Wehrmacht officer Manfred...
temporary defensive success at the Battle of the MarethLine. After shattering the Axis defence on the MarethLine, the Allies squeezed Axis forces into a pocket...
Bou Zid: February 1943 Battle of Medenine: March 1943 Battle of the MarethLine: March 1943 Battle of El Guettar: March–April 1943 Operation Flax: April...
such as the French Maginot Line and MarethLine, the German Westwall (Siegfried Line to the Allies), and the Soviet Stalin Line. After the Korean War became...
Global Information