Tunisia Campaign with drawings by Carol Johnson by Richard Clarke - HTML preview

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Tunisian Campaign: Operation Flax

As of mid-March 1943, Germans were still able to deliver large quantities of supplies and ammunition to northern Tunisia. Allies tasked General James Doolittle, commander of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) to design Operation Flax to interfere with this supply operation.

While Operation Flax was a key element of the Tunisia Campaign it must also be understood in terms of what was called the “the Battle of the Mediterranean.”

One of Benito Mussolini’s main objectives for entering WW2 on the side of the Germans was to restore to Italy the glory days of the Roman Empire. This included control of the Mediterranean as a key objective. With the Italians move into North Africa in mid 1941, only one thing stood in the way: the British base in Malta.

The Siege of Malta

In 1940, in the early months of WW2. Malta started to come under pressure from the Italian forces. Malta, 95 square miles in area, smaller than London, found itself surrounded by enemy territory and bases.

Malta had been the centerpiece of Britain's strategic naval position in the Mediterranean for almost a century and a half. The map, above, shows Malta’s strategic position as a small island country, south of Sicily. Control of Malta went a long way towards English control of naval traffic in the Mediterranean Sea.

Malta was a key element in the Battle of the Mediterranean, a major WW2 naval theatre, where the Allies, mainly English, fought Italy and Germany from 1940 - 1945. Outside of the Pacific theatre, the Mediterranean saw the most naval warfare during the war. Malta sat in the middle of the Mediterranean, in between Sicily and Tunisia, the major Axis supply route for Rommel’s North African forces. The Axis recognized this and made great efforts to neutralize the island as a British base, by air attacks and starving it of supplies.

The English had to supply Malta by convoy. A number of Allied convoys were decimated by Axis air and sea power in 1941 and 1942. The turning point in the siege came in August 1942, when the British sent a very heavily defended convoy under the codename Operation Pedestal, which broke through, but with great losses.

For the British, it was a success, even though 35% of the merchant fleet was lost. The arrival of about 29,000 tons of cargo, together with gasoline, oil fuel, kerosene and diesel fuel, was enough to give the island about ten more weeks supply beyond the few weeks of supplies that remained. Royal Navy gunners and Fleet Air Arm fighters shot down 42 of about 330 Axis aircraft that flew against the convoy. And now they had ten weeks more fuel.

Operation Pedestal was a strategic victory, raising the morale of the people and garrison of Malta, averting famine and what would have been an inevitable surrender. In September and October, Malta was supplied by submarines (in what were called Magic Carpet runs) with ammunition, aviation fuel and torpedoes. Submarines made more Magic Carpet runs and the fast minelayer HMS Manxman made a dash from Gibraltar with more urgently- needed supplies. Malta was supplied.

Malta's air defense was repeatedly reinforced by Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters flown to the island from HMS Furious and other Allied aircraft carriers. The situation eased as Axis forces were diverted from North African for Germany’s attack of Russia, and eventually Malta could become an offensive base once again.

In September, with Malta supplied, Allied forces sank 100,000 tons of Axis shipping, including 24,000 tons of fuel destined for Rommel, leaving the Axis forces in Egypt consuming supplies faster than they received it, contributing to tactical paralysis during the Second Battle of El Alamein. The British victory of this battle was the biggest of the war in Europe up until that time, and Field Marshal Montgomery’s greatest triumph. Malta went on to play a strong role in later combat, including Operation Flax.

Operation Flax

Operation Flax was a furious series of air battles, and convoy and airbase attacks, from April 5 - 27, 1943. Using intercepts from the Italian version of Enigma coded communications, the outnumbered US forces were able to inflict great damage on the German forces.

With the heavy losses incurred on the German air transport fleet in April 1943, Hermann Göring ordered all transport runs to Tunisia to cease, continuing only after Albert Kesselring. Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief of Italy and North Africa complained. Transport runs continued, but at a much smaller scale, and only at night. This pretty much insured Rommel’s defeat; tank armies need fuel, and there was no longer an adequate supply.