Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
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19431776 Club

British First Army drives into Tunisia on a front-wide assault; Axis armor ground to 69 tanks

Operation Vulcan stretches from Longstop Hill to Hill 609, battering a quarter-million trapped Axis troops whose fuel lines are already cut.

By late April 1943, a quarter-million Axis troops were compressed into a shrinking corner of northeastern Tunisia, their fuel nearly gone and their supply lines cut to ribbons by Allied air power. Beginning April 22, the British First Army launched Operation Vulcan — a coordinated assault across the full breadth of the front, from Longstop Hill in the north to Hill 609 in the south. The attack didn't break through as planned, but it ground the Axis down to 69 operational tanks by May 1, leaving the door open for Operation Strike to finish the job eleven days later…

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