WW2's Tunisian campaign: the Stalingrad of Africa
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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. For the Allies, it was an enormous triumph, and for Nazi Germany, it was another Stalingrad. But eighty years on, the battle for Tunisia is barely mentioned in the popular accounts of the Second World War, having been totally eclipsed by the iconic clashes in Europe and the Pacific. In his new book Tunisgrad, the military historian Saul David aims to redress the balance, and speaking to Rob Attar for today's episode, he argues that this North African campaign was one of the three biggest turning points of the entire war. The battle for Tunisia has been compared to the mighty and more famous clash at Stalingrad.
So why therefore do you think that the battle for Tunisia isn't better known? Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? Not least because it takes place pretty much at the same time, Rob. I think the answer to that question is that it's always been considered to be peripheral. The strategy of the Allies at that time was
Let's defeat the Germans, let's defeat them as quickly as possible. And of course, most of the the American chiefs of staff felt that the simplest way to do that was simply to go across the Channel, which of course they are going to do in 1944, as we know, with the benefit of hindsight. But in 1942, there's no question it would have been a much tougher proposition. And Churchill was well aware of this, but he was also well aware of if we're going to assist the Russians, if we're going to keep the Russians, the Soviets, in the war, we're We need to do something this year.
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