Operation Flax - Aftermath

Aftermath

The aerial operation had a considerable effect in strangling Axis logistics. The supplies reaching the island dwindled, and the Axis armies and air units remaining in Tunisia gradually ran out of fuel, ammunition and other supplies. Having lost most of its airbases, the Luftwaffe also evacuated most of its units. By early May 1943, only the Italian fighter units, and one German Gruppen (I. JG 77), remained as the Axis held on to a narrow strip of African coastline near Tunis. Allied air superiority was so overwhelming, that Luftwaffe personnel climbed into fighter fuselages, or squeezed into the cockpits of Bf 109s alongside the pilot rather than risk flying in transport aircraft. Most ground crew and pilots attempted to escape this way. Flying large numbers of personnel in one go and by transport was too dangerous; 16 personnel were killed in a crash on 29 or 30 April. The last transport missions were flown on 4 May, in which 117 tons of fuel and ammunition was brought in. Some supply drops were attempted (by II./Kampfgeschwader 1), but most of the remaining signals, FlaK, transport and administrative staff left were captured when the campaign ended on 13 May 1943.