Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis

On April 11, 100,000 Americans headed north to join in taking the last Axis stronghold in Tunisia. The plan was to have all 300,000 Allied troops attack in three separate thrusts: Bradley from the west, Anderson from the southwest, and Montgomery from the south. Patton himself was phasing out of the African campaign to focus on the upcoming invasion of Italy.

Omar Bradley arrived at Beja to replace Patton on April 22. He already was showing a determination to think for himself that previous commanders had lacked. In fact, one of his first commanding acts was to ignore an order from Eisenhower to take a route to Bizerte that his group was certain was a trap. Bradley had already meticulously studied terrain maps from Beja to Bizerte and had even impressed some of the British with his foresight.

By this time, the air campaign had...