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Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, episode

562, The Race for Tunis. Last time, though messy, the French forces throughout North Africa

stopped resisting the Western allies.

In response, Hitler activated Case Anton, the German and Italian occupation of Metropolitan France and Corsica.

Though Berlin did not get all it wanted as the French troops at the naval base of Toulogne defied the Axis troops and destroyed

the vast majority of the French fleet, least it should fall into German hands. Meanwhile,

German infantry, fighters, bombers, and heavy guns were quickly being shipped to Tunisia,

as it would serve as the last access holdout in North Africa.

Thus, the stage was set, with the Americans and British driving from the west, while Monty's

8th Army moved closer from the southeast. The farmers of Tunisia had been planning their trade

since 4,000 BCE, and were the ancestors of today's Berber tribes.

The Phoenicians controlled the coast even before the farmers were there, and of course there had been

the great city of Carthage in the 9th century BCE. The ever-expanding Roman Empire would greatly

affect the area that would become known as Tunisia, but in time, this all fell to the great Arab-Muslim conquests of the 7th century AD.

Next to control the future Tunisia was the Ottoman Empire in 1534, but its hold would be shaky.

The local bay or ruler would have more autonomy over time,

and in the late 1800s, local attempts to modernize their way of life and economy, handled badly,

brought on debt, debt all out of proportion, which the French used as an excuse to invade in 1881.

But after 1940, the French that controlled Tunisia were Vichy and simply unable to stop Hitler when he decided to send reinforcements to this last holdout in November of 42.

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