When Tunis fell there were many who made long and difficult journeys from an airfield to a port and back to another airfield hoping to find a ship or aircraft which would take them from the dying front and enable them to escape to continue fighting in another theatre of operations. One subaltern officer spent the last hours before the fall of Tunis in negotiations with pilots of JU 52 transport aircraft to fly back to Sicily a divisional staff which had reached Africa only 48 hours before. His successful negotiations earned him a place in the machine but it was shot down and, slightly concussed, he had to swim from the machine and back to shore. Five hours after the first British troops had entered the city the last of the JU 52s took off and the same officer managed to squeeze himself with three others and the pilot into a single-seater fighter and to land unharmed in Sicily.
Resistance was still being offered outside the cities. In the north American and French troops crossed the Chouigui pass and cut off much of 334th Division and the flak batteries to the south-west of the city fired to such good effect that they destroyed 20 tanks of one American spearhead. Other short-lived and purely local successes were scored by German units whose vehicles no longer had fuel to move them and whose crews fought and died where they stood.
The 15th Panzer, which still had some fuel, carried out one last counterattack north of Djebel Kechabta and during this battle fired its last ammunition. The last shots by the last German tanks were fired on 9 May to cover the removal of 5th Panzer Army's tactical headquarters and then the vehicles were blown up. With them died the 5th Panzer Army.
The line now held by the remnants of Army Group Africa was based on Hamman Lif and the Cap Bon peninsula but however much deployment and redistribution of troops might take place, the fighting was akin to the dying struggles of a Titan. When the British came in along the line from Creteville to Zaghouan the last German units, in obedience to the Fuhrer Befehl to fight to the last round, defended their positions until the ammunition ran out and then destroyed their vehicles and weapons before surrendering. The 10th Panzer Division, as an example, dug in its last seven panzers which were completely without fuel to serve as pill boxes and carried on fighting around these for as long as there was ammunition. On 11 May the wireless waves were alive with sound as unit after unit, having obeyed Hitler's order to the last round went off the air and into captivity.
On the morning of 12 May von Arnim, conscious that Army Group Africa could no longer offer any organised resistance, asked for surrender terms and on the following day 164th Division — the last unit of the Axis armies in Africa — marched out and into prisoner-of-war compounds, fully aware that it, like the rest of Army Group Africa, had done its duty.
Chronology
12 November 1940:OKW issues Instruction No 18 that a force be raised to support the Italians in North Africa for an autumn attack upon Egypt.
16 January 1941:According to Hitler the purpose of German intervention in Libya is to prevent the collapse of the Italians. A blocking force is to be raised and sent.
6 February 1941:Erwin Rommel named as commander of German Troops in Africa and arrives in Tripoli.
12 February 1941:The first German air raid on Benghasi.
19 February 1941:The German force in Africa is named 'German Africa Corps'.
22 March 1941:The Africa Corps advances and captures El Agheila.
2 April 1941:The Africa Corps goes on to seize Agedabia.
8 April 1941 The battle of Mechili.
12 April 1941:The first assaults upon Tobruk. The capture of Bardia and Sollum on the Egyptian frontier forms an eastern outpost for the Axis army.
15 June 1941:The tank battle at Sollum defeats Wavell's attempt to capture Halfaya.
5 August 1941:Panzer Group Africa is formed.
18 November 1941:Operation Crusader, an attempt to raise the siege of Tobruk, opens.
23 November 1941:The battle of Sidi Rezegh smashes 7th Armoured Division
2 December 1941:Operation Crusader ends with a German tactical victory.
7 December 1941:Faced with the resumption of a. new British offensive the Axis forces are withdrawn to the Gazala position.
17 January 1942:The Axis garrison at Halfaya surrenders.
21 January 1942:Rommel's counter-offensive to recapture Cyrenaica opens.
28 January 1942:Rommel recaptures Benghasi.
30 January 1942:Panzer Army Africa (the German/Italian Panzer Army) is formed
February 1942:The air offensive against Malta begins.
26 May 1942:Rommel's offensive against the Gazala position opens.
2 June 1942:The siege of Bir Hachim at the southern end of the Gazala line begins.
20 June 1942:Having destroyed 8th Army's armoured force, Rommel's force goes on to capture Tobruk.
22 June 1942:The advance begins across Egypt towards the Suez canal.
29 June 1942:Mersa Matruh falls to the Axis Troops.
1 July 1942:The first battle of El Alamein begins.
9 July 1942:The battle of Alam Haifa opens.
30 August 1942:The German armour breaks through at El Alamein but is unable to force a decision.
2 September 1942:The German offensive at El Alamein is broken off.
23 October 1942:Montgomery's offensive at El Alamein begins.
2 November 1942:The 8th Army breaks through the El Alamein front.
4 November 1942:The Axis forces retreat to the Fuka line.
8 November 1942:Operation Torch begins; the landing of the British and Americans in French North Africa.
19 November 1942:German paratroops occupy Gabes aerodrome and other detachments launch an offensive against Medjez el Bab.
20 November 1942:In the second stage of their withdrawal the Axis forces reach the Marsa el Bregha position.
6 December 1942:The offensive by 10th Panzer Division in Tunisia drives back the Allied armour in Blade Force
8 December 1942:The 5th Panzer Army is formed in Tunisia.
24 December 1942:The British assault against the Buerat Line.In the Medjez el Bab sector the Germans capture Longstop Hill.
22 January 1943:The last German units evacuate Tripolitania and cross into Tunisia.
12 February 1943:The desert army and 5th Panzer Army link up in Tunisia. Rommel reaches the Mareth position and prepares for the forthcoming battle.
15 February 1943:The Axis offensive against Gafsa and Sidi bou Zid begins.
20 February 1943:Initial successes at Gafsa and Sidi bou Zid having been scored by the Axis forces, the advance upon Thala and Le Kef is begun.
23 February 1943:Army Group Africa is formed.
6 March 1943:The last major German attack in Africa is made at Mareth and fails on the same day.
20 April 1943:The 8th Army reaches the Enfidaville position, the last ditch defences of the Army Group Africa before Tunis.
3 May 1943:The Allies break through at Mateur and capture it.
5 May 1943:The British offensive opens at Medjez el Bab.
7 May 1943:Tunis falls to the British and Bizerta to the United States forces.
13 May 1943:The Axis armies in Africa capitulate.
Tank Engagement at Sollum
Rommel alerted the Sollum Front on 14 June. The tanks of the 5. leichtc Afrika-Division were directed into tactical assembly areas from which they could easily move out against the Sollum Front, if needed.
On 15 June, the British started Operation "Battleaxe." The formations of the "Desert Rats" assaulted from the south. It was the first time they were to encounter Panzer-Regiment 8. Some of the British forces were armed with the Matilda, a heavy infantry tank. Its 80-millimeter-thick armor plate was impervious to all German tank main guns at the time. Only the 8.8-centimeter Flak was capable of knocking it out.