History of French-era Tunisia - World War II

World War II

During World War II, French authorities in Tunisia initially supported the Vichy regime, which continued to govern the southern provinces of France after its capitulation to German forces in 1940. Many Tunisians had felt some satisfaction at France's defeat. In July, 1942, Moncef Bey acceded to the Husaynid throne. Immediately he took a nationalist position, asserting Tunisian rights against the new Resident General appointed by Vichy. He toured the country, dispensing with beylical protocol. Soon becoming very popular as the new voice of Tunisians, Moncef Bey had assumed the place of leaders of the effectively suppressed Destour and Neo-Destour parties.

In Africa east of Tunisia, after initial victories the German General Erwin Rommel, lacking supplies and reinforcements, in November 1942 lost the decisive battle of al-Alamein (near Alexandria, Egypt) to the newly replenished British General Bernard Montgomery, the fighting ending November 4, 1942. On November 7, the Allies began landing forces in Morocco (Operation Torch). The German Afrika Korps retreated from Egypt westward to Tunisia and set up defensive positions at the Mareth Line south of Gabès. The British following on its heels here. Rommel did have some success against the "green" American and Free French troops advancing from the west, enabling him to carry out operations against the British at the Mareth Line, which ultimately failed. The Allies broke through the Axis lines and the dire supply situation caused by an intensive Allied air campaign forced the Axis to surrender in Tunisia in May 1943. Tunisia became a staging area for operations in the invasion of Sicily later that year. General Dwight Eisenhower subsequently wrote of the occupation of Tunisia (evidently following an anti-colonial policy, yet one compromised) "far from governing a conquered country, we were attempting only to force a gradual widening of the base of government, with the final objective of turning all internal affairs over to popular control."

Following the Allied landings in Morocco in late 1942, Vichy France and Tunisia were taken over by the Axis, Tunisia being flooded with German forces. During this period (November 1942 to May 1943) Moncef Bey "judiciously refused to take sides". He did, however, use what leverage he could muster to appoint the first Tunisian government since 1881, which was inclusive of the then political landscape, containing some pro-Allied elements. Later, with the advent of Allied control, French colons began falsely denouncing Moncef Bey as a German collaborator and seeking his removal; they were appeased. "Late in 1943 Musif Bey was deposed by the French on the pretext that he had collaborated with the enemy."

Habib Bourguiba, the leading figure in the Neo-Destour party, had been taken to Rome from Vichy France by the Germans, and feted there to further Italian designs on Tunisia; then he was repatriated to his Axis-occupied homeland. But Bourguiba remained pro-Independence without being anti-French (his wife being French). In Tunisia, however, some pro-German Destour leaders had been willing to work with the Third Reich, despite Bourguiba's persistent warnings. After the war, Bourguiba's American connections managed to clear him of false charges that he was a collaborator. Then with Salah Ben Yusef he began to rebuild the Neo-Destour political organization.