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Operation Scipio - Action at Wadi Akarit
April 6-7th, 1943
The GOC Eighth Army had originally hoped to force the Gabes Gap 'on the run' following the capture of the Mareth Line. By the time 1st Armored Division and the New Zealand Division reached the Wadi Akarit position on 29 March, after a slow advance across very difficult terrain, it had been prepared for defense. This was another formidable, naturally strong, defensive line, partially running along the deep Wadi Akarit, with one flank resting on the Mediterranean coast and the other by impassable salt marshes and lakes of the Chort Djerid. Indeed, Rommel had wanted to make a stand here instead of the Mareth Line. It formed the last natural barrier preventing access to the coastal plain of Tunisia from the south and a junction between the Eighth Army and the other Allied forces in Tunisia.
The task fell on Von Arnim to stop the Eighth Army at Wadi Akarit. What occurred was some of the heaviest and bloodiest fighting next to El Alamein.
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