327. Tunisgrad: Part IV - Victory in Africa
Battleground
Goalhanger
4.5 • 820 Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
The final showdown in North Africa is here. In the final episode of our Tunisgrad series Saul and Roger discuss the climax of the campaign as Allied forces converge on the Axis in Tunisia.
Together they break down the pivotal battles that sealed the fate of the Axis, from Montgomery's breakthrough at the Mareth Line to the decisive pincer movement at Wadi Akarit. And the final, coordinated assault, Operation Strike, which leads to the fall of Tunis and a capitulation on a scale even greater than Stalingrad.
Discover the key factors behind the Allied victory: overwhelming logistical superiority, complete air supremacy, and a unified command structure that finally worked. Over 250,000 Axis troops surrender, marking the end of the African campaign and, as one historian notes, "the beginning of the end" for Hitler.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to Battleground with me, Roger Morehouse and Saul David. |
| 0:17.5 | We're now on part four of our mini-series on the North African campaign, which forms the |
| 0:23.3 | subject of Saul's new book, Tunis Grad, which is out at the moment, all good bookshops, etc. |
| 0:28.5 | Tremendous piece of work, so do get your hands on a copy. We've been through the origins of the |
| 0:33.7 | North African campaign, the arrival of the Africa Corps under Romul, and we're coming now to |
| 0:38.1 | part four, which is the Battle for Tunis, effectively, at the end of that Tunisian campaign. |
| 0:43.3 | We are doing another four-parter on my new book, which is Wolfpack inside Hitler's U-boat |
| 0:48.6 | War, which will start already next week. So do have a lookout for that when it's out. |
| 0:56.8 | So part four, Saul, we had the knife edge of those operations ending with the Battle of Medanine in March of 1943 that we closed |
| 1:03.5 | part three with. One significant change or arrival in this period is the arrival of Patton |
| 1:10.4 | into Allied ranks. What did he, as it |
| 1:13.2 | were, bring to allied abilities in North Africa? Well, he's been there from the start, but he's been |
| 1:18.0 | kept well away from the fighting in Tunisia. And you could ask the question why. He was given the |
| 1:23.3 | job of commanding one of the task forces for the torch landings, the Western task forces that |
| 1:28.9 | fought, you know, quite a tough battle, actually, in and around Casablanca. |
| 1:33.3 | Pat himself at the forefront of the action, he landed that day. |
| 1:37.0 | He's one of those classic commanders, relatively similar to Rommel, a very aggressive commander. |
| 1:43.7 | He was quite old by this point. It's interesting. I mean, he's |
| 1:46.1 | 57 years old. In 1918, he'd commanded an American light armored brigade at the Battle of |
| 1:52.8 | Samiel in the First World War. So he's someone who's got a lot of experience with armor, |
| 1:57.0 | and that's really the key to some of his success in the Second World War. But he's |
| 2:01.6 | completely green at this point. And he hasn't had any proper fighting apart from the landings |
... |
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