Contemporary diaries, letters, and reports show that in those last anxious days the morale of the front line soldier remained high. Colonel Wolff, describing the military situation in the Pont du Fahs area, finished one letter 'so we live in our little kingdom and only through the radio do we know what is happening in the outside world and in Tunisia. The flies pester us but we are happy.'
There was no breakdown in discipline even at the end and in 999th Penal Division the only case of military justice being exercised was in the execution of five men for trying to kill an NCO. The officers' letters are full of praise for the spirit of their men; 'As is to be expected the spirit of the men in the front line is excellent but that of rear echelon units is less so. In Tunis town there are many drunken soldiers to be seen and lack of proper salutes indicates a certain slackness.' But, if contemporary accounts stress the high morale, very few of the many acts of heroism were detailed — even fewer received recognition. It is to be hoped that some staff officer at army headquarters would have found time to accede to the request of one regimental officer who, proud of the way in which his company of military criminals had fought, made application that the men of 999th Division who had been active in the fighting should have their military honour restored to them before the campaign ended. In this he was asking for recognition which the bravery of some of the men of his unit had already gained for themselves in the award of Iron Crosses.
On 5 May an artillery and air bombardment of unparalleled ferocity crashed down upon the German positions. Breaches made in their lines were sealed by desperate attacks put in by the last remaining vehicles of 15th Panzer and by anti-tank units. One unnamed staff captain reported that one unit of his command in the Pichon area 'fired the anti-tank guns to the last round and were then rolled over by American tanks. The infantry fought their way out but on entering positions believed to be held by Italians found these to be occupied by Goums. By nightfall we had only 25 men left although stragglers have been coming in.' Through the breaches which the artillery and air bombardment had made, poured a flood of Allied armour and infantry whose long pent-up energy cast aside any counter-attacks which Army Group could still launch.
By the evening of 6 May, Massicault had fallen and the word was spread to commanders of German units that Tunis was to be evacuated by 17.00hrs on 7th. Early in the morning of that day the first evacuations began to take place although outwardly the city seemed calm and German soldiers still went about their usual business. Then in the drizzle which had set in towards 14.00hrs armoured cars of llth Hussars or the Derbyshire Yeomanry - the point is debated still - entered Tunis as the first British troops. In the north Bizerta fell to the Americans on the same day. Army Group Africa had been split in two and 5th Panzer Army swung back to the north while 1st Panzer Army sought to establish a firm line south-west of Tunis.
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