EIGHTH ARMY

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 2, 31 January 1944, Page 23

EIGHTH ARMY

It is less than fifteen months since the Eighth Army, after repulsing attacks on the night of November 1-2, 1942, launched a strong offensive on a 4,000yards front west of El Alamein. This was the beginning of the final advance

which enabled G.H.Q. to announce, on the evening of November 4, that “ the Axis forces in the Western Desert, after twelve days and nights of ceaseless attacks by our land and sea forces, are now in full retreat.”

This break-through .emains the most spectacular achievement of

the Eighth Army while commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, who is now commander of the British group of armies under General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the British and United States forces in the west for the liberation of Europe, but the Eighth Army has taken a leading part in every important phase of the Mediterranean war since then. The New Zealand forces in the Middle East were a part of the Eighth Army in its drive from El Alamein through Tripolitania and Tunisia. They were not with the Army when it landed in Sicily and southern Italy, but they have since rejoined it and are assisting in the drive up the Italian Adriatic coast. Telling the story of the Eighth Army’s advance, the military correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald remarked that military history could produce few cases of such spectacular and continuously successful progress under so varied circumstances. In the space of a single year General Montgomery’s men had to fight under almost every conceivable set of conditions, except those of a tropical jungle.

Losses and other factors have led to inevitable changes and replacements. The Ninth Australian Division, which played so big a part in cracking the El Alamein Line, had not, for example, the satisfaction of participating. in the victorious advance, owing to its recall home. But the 51st Highland Division, which was re-formed after the Battle of France, and joined the Eighth Army shortly before El Alamein, where, in Mr. Churchill’s words, it “ bore the brunt ” of much of the fighting, has been in the

forefront of every major engagement since. The 50th (Northumbrian) Division, the 44th (Home Counties) Division, and the Fourth Indian Division have similarly gone through the whole campaign, as have also certain armoured units.

After their defeat at El Alamein, Rommel’s twelve divisions were driven rapidly westwards. By November n, following the capture of Sidi Barrani

by the 60th Rifles, forward elements of the Eighth Army had bitten deep into Cvrenaica on the heels of the fleeing Afrika Korps. General Pienaar’s South Africans marched into Tobruk on November 13, and avenged Rommel’s capture of the Second South African Division there some months previously. In three weeks the Eighth Army had pushed onwards for 300 miles, and, although slowed up by winter rains, occupied Benghasi on November 20.

After a regrouping in front of El Agheila, where Rommel had prepared a trap, but wisely decided in the event not to stand and fight, progress along the Tripolitanian coastal road was resumed. The first fortnight in January was given up to new preparations for an assault against the Wadi Zemzem positions, launched on January 15. Success here opened the way to Tripoli, which General Montgomery entered on the morning of January 23, after pushing the enemy back 1,350 miles in eighty days.

From this moment the story of the Eighth Army merges with that of the British and American forces advancing from Algeria in the battle for Tunisia, General Sir Harold Alexander, now commander of the Allied forces in Italy, assuming command of both converging army groups. Armoured cars of General Montgomery’s advance guard crossed from Libya into Tunisia six days after the fall of Tripoli, and the Eighth Army prepared to force the Mareth Line.

Once again its leader began that period of careful consolidation without which he has never attacked. Rommel's counter-offensive early in March was beaten back, and on the night of March 20-21, the Eighth Army launched a fullscale assault on the Mareth Line from Medenine to the sea. A bridgehead was established after thirty-six hours of “ fighting more intense than anything in the Battle of Egypt,” and the Mareth Line was ultimately broken, after an immortal stand by the 50th (Northumbrian) Division against the whole weight of the Fifteenth Panzers.

A savage fight was necessary before the Seaforths and the Camerons carried the Wadi Akarit positions at the point

of the bayonet, and made possible the junction with the Amercan 2nd Corps on April 7, midway between Gafsa and Gabes. Troops from the Home Counties showed up especially well in this phase of the fighting towards Sfax, which fell on the morning of April 10, after an advance of 75 miles from the Wadi Akarit in four days. It was here that General Montgomery issued his famous Order of the Day, “ Forward to Tunis and drive the enemy into the sea 1 ” but heavy fighting was to take place before the Enfidaville Line was smashed.

The nature of the coastal gap and the massing of strong German forces in front of the Eighth Army prevented it from reaching Tunis in the vanguard, but in the wider strategical picture the German expectation that the main attack would come from General Montgomery, enabled General Alexander to make dispositions which facilitated the occupation of Tunis and Bizerta. Even so, the surrender of the 15th Panzers was made to their old adversaries of the 7th Armoured Division, and the Eighth Army played a prominent part until the last • day’s fighting in the Cape Bon Peninsula on May 12. Since the crossing of the Tunisian border, the Army had suffered 11,500 casualties.

The Eighth Army’s next exploit was to participate in the initial invasion of Sicily. On July io the trained troops undertook a new type of operation by landing from the sea and swiftly occupying Syracuse. This time the Eighth Army included not only the Northumbrian and Highland divisions, but the British sth Division and nine Canadian regiments. After rapidly pushing on. to the Monte Lauro massif overlooking the plain of Catania they encountered the crack Hermann Goering and Fifteenth Panzer divisions above Augusta. Bitter fighting slowed up progress towards Catania, and the town did not fall until August 5. The task of the Eighth Army was to hold and extend the Catalanian hinge against the best German troops while other Allied forces swept across the northern part of the island. On August 9 General Montgomery’s men linked up with the American

Seventh Army, and proceeded to force the difficult coastal road. The Eighth Army was near Taormina when the fall of Randazzo made an enemy retreat into the north-eastern tip of the island inevitable, and it was only eight miles south of Messina when the American Third Division hammered a way into the town on August 16. Some idea of the heavy fighting in the thirty-seven days of the Sicilian campaign may be gauged from the fact that the British and Canadians had 31,158 casualties.

After resting and consolidating his forces, General Montgomery informed his troops on the night of September 2 that, To the Eighth Army has been given the great honour of being the first troops of the Allied armies to land on the mainland of the Continent of Europe.” The same night the veterans of the desert moved across the Straits to the Calabrian peninsula.

Seven days later other Eighth Army units landed at Taranto and swept over

the heel of Italy. In the face of little opposition, they hastened to link up with General Clark’s hard pressed Fifth Army at Salerno, while other detachments took the east coast route to the Foggia plain.

By storming Potenza on September 22 the Eighth Army was able to change the entire situation on the right flank of the Fifth Army, while the occupation of Foggia six days later made possible a continuous line across the peninsula.

General Montgomery had given Berlin as the final destination of his troops, and, in his message on May 14, on the conclusion of the African campaign, said simply : “ Together, you and I, we will see this thing through to the end.” But Mr. Churchill, as usual, has spoken the ultimate word. Speaking at Tripoli in February, he told the veterans : “It will be a great honour to be able to say in the years to come, ‘ I marched and fought with the Eighth Army.’ ”