MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · May 13 · 1943
ON THIS DAY · 13 MAY 1943
Tunis falls
13 May 1943 — 250,000 Axis troops surrender in Tunisia — a “Second Stalingrad” in the south.
THE MOMENT IN CONTEXT
Look at the map: November 1942 is the Axis high-water mark — from the Atlantic to the Volga, from Norway’s North Cape nearly to the Nile. It will never be this large again. Three battles in three weeks, thousands of kilometers apart, turn the tide together.
From Chapter 9 — The Hinge: Stalingrad and El Alamein of The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945 (NOV 1942).
OPEN THE INTERACTIVE MAP →TEACH THIS IN 5 MINUTES
- Why it happened — Oil, again. Case Blue’s real target was Caucasus oil — Germany’s war ran on a fraction of Allied fuel. Splitting the offensive between oil and Stalingrad’s…
- The turn — Operation Uranus, 19–23 November. The pincers meet at Kalach — aimed not at the Sixth Army but at the overstretched Romanian armies guarding its flanks. Attack the strong point’s…
- What it changed — The myth of invincibility dies. A complete German field army has been erased. Germany declares three days of mourning; occupied Europe takes note; Turkey, Spain and Sweden re-hedge…
Then ask the room: Why did Hitler forbid the Sixth Army to break out of the pocket while escape was still possible? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
THE ATLAS THAT SHOWS IT
THE DISPATCH
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