 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "18th Army Group" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| 18th Army Group | |
|---|---|
 Tunisia Front - Eighth Army at Enfidaville (Part of 18th Army Group) | |
| Active | February 20, 1943 to May 15, 1943 |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Type | Army group |
| Role | Army GroupHeadquarters |
| Size | 200,000 |
| Part of | Allied Force Headquarters |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Harold Alexander |
The18th Army Group was anAlliedformation in theSecond World War. It was formed on 20 February 1943 whenBritish Eighth Army advancing from the east andBritish First Army advancing into Tunisia from the west came close enough to require coordinated command during theTunisia Campaign.
The 18th Army Group was commanded byGeneralSir Harold Alexander and came underGeneralDwight D. Eisenhower, Commander-in-ChiefAllied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ).
Its principal formations were theBritish Eighth Army, underLieutenant-GeneralBernard Montgomery and theBritish First Army under Lieutenant-GeneralKenneth Anderson. Eighth Army had threeBritish Armycorps under its command which contained a variety of forces from theBritish Empire. They wereBritish X Corps,British XIII Corps andBritish XXX Corps. They had fought across virtually the whole North African shore to the east of Tunisia after winning a victory at theSecond Battle of El Alamein in November 1942. First Army had four corps under its command, but the corps themselves were far more varied in national origin. Two were of British origin;V Corps andIX Corps. The other corps wereU.S. II Corps andFrench XIX Corps. First Army controlled the forces that had landed inMorocco andAlgeria in November 1942 in the first of the great Allied amphibious assaults of the war,Operation Torch.[1]
18th Army Group was faced by twoGerman and oneItalian armies,Panzer Army Afrika underGeneralfeldmarschallErwin Rommel and5th Panzer Army underGeneraloberstHans-Jürgen von Arnim, while theItalian 1st Army under MarshalGiovanni Messe.[a] The two German commanders disliked each other, and so often strategy was not coordinated.
Both the First Army and Eighth Army had enjoyed very quick initial success in their campaigns after November 1942. Once theyreached Tunisia two things halted them. One was overextension of lines of communication and the other was the greater concentration ofGerman troops that the smaller defended area produced. First Army in particular received stinging blows from Rommel at theBattle of Kasserine Pass. Rommel's veteran formations slammed into II Corps and the green American troops did not perform well. It was only after reinforcements of more experienced troops and quantities of artillery had been rushed in that the situation was stabilised.
Following the Kasserine Pass engagement and anAllied consolidation, a fresh attack was launched. First Army led the main attack, with Eighth Army providing support along the eastern coast of Tunisia. That attack lead eventually in May 1943 to the surrender ofAxis forces in Africa. 250,000 men were takenprisoner, a number equal to that atStalingrad on theEastern Front earlier in the year.
General Alexander sent the message, "We are masters of the North African shore." 18th Army Group was disbanded in Tunisia on 15 May 1943.