Erwin Rommel—poised on the threshold of a complete tactical victory—turned from the battle to return to his eastward-facing defenses at the Mareth Line when he heard of the approach of Bernard Montgomery′s British 8th Army.
Rommel had planned for this eventuality, switching his line of supply to Tunis and intending to block the southern approach to Tunisia from Tripoli by occupying an extensive set of defensive works known as the Mareth Line, which the French had constructed in order to fend off an Italian attack from Libya.
In January 1943, the German-Italian Panzer Army (Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee) under command of Erwin Rommel (also known as Desert Fox) had retreated to the Mareth Line, originally a French line of defensive fortifications near the coastal town of Medenine in southern Tunisia.
Messe fought a defensive campaign against the advancing American and British forces and achieved a defensive victory at the Mareth Line.
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