Dr Jonathan Fennell discusses the Tunisian Campaign of the Second World War 75 years on.
The victory in Tunisia was of immense significance. Barely a year after the catastrophic defeats of the summer of 1942, the shores of North Africa were in Allied hands.
At the same time as this military change happened, the soldiers of the British Army in Africa became more politicised. The desire for social change, as expressed in the Beveridge Report, spread quickly among the troops in Tunisia. This political awakening influenced the soldiers’ vote in Labour’s electoral success at the end of the war.
The Second World War (1939-45) was the bloodiest conflict in human history. It split the world's nations into two opposing military alliances - the Allies and the Axis Powers.
The grim struggle that rolled back and forth across the North African desert from 1940 to 1943 resulted in the first major Allied victory of the Second World War.