Operation Flax

Operation Flax was a Western Allied air operation executed during the Battle of Tunisia and North African Campaign of the Second World War. The operation was designed to cut the air supply lines between Italy and the Axis armies in Tunis, Tunisia, in April 1943. The parallel Allied naval effort was Operation Retribution. In November 1942, American and British forces landed in North Africa under Operation Torch. Allied thrusts overran Vichy French Morocco and Algeria and advanced into Tunisia. The danger for the Axis Powers was now apparent. The Allied forces advancing eastward and the British 8th Army advancing westward after the victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein, would trap and destroy the remaining Axis forces in North Africa. In response to the crisis, and the poor state of Axis forces, reinforcements for the German Afrika Korps, Italian Army and Luftwaffe were dispatched by sea and air. These reinforcements duly staved off an immediate defeat in Tunisia, the last region still in Axis hands. The poor state of the roads and rail lines in Algeria meant that Allied forces faced difficult logistic challenges which enabled the Axis to prolong a defence.