After years of fierce fighting in North Africa during World War II, the final Axis surrender was notably placid. Many of the approximately 150,000 enemy prisoners taken by the Allies in the last battles of the campaign were destined for hastily constructed prison camps across the United States. North Africa, meanwhile, became the base for the Allied invasion of Italy two months later. An excerpt from The Post of May 13, 1943:
By Daniel De Luce
Associated Press Staff Writer
On Cap Bon Peninsula, Tunisia, May 11 (Delayed)- The German fighting spirit ebbed to nothingness and tens of thousands of Nazi soldiers threw up many arms and raised white flags in surrender to a squadron of British armored cars that reached Cap Bon's Lighthouse Hill at 3 p.m. today.
This is one of the most incredible sights of the war.
Look at the orderly columns of infantry, grenadiers, gunners, armored crewmen, air force detachments and supply troops marching to three Tommies at the crossroads just east of the whitewashed, domed, earthen homes of Haquaria Village.
The Germans made no real attempt to hold Cap Bon. They quit cold.
I could have outfitted a division with the rifles, machine guns and artillery discarded by the enemy along the 40-mile road from the neck to the tip of Bon Peninsula along which I drove behind a string of armored cars since soon.
As an unarmed noncombatant war correspondent, I had a rare experience when a captain of the famous Goering division stopped me on the road, where no British were in view. ...
Saluting as his Adam's apple bobbed nervously, he said his company was complete, including a field kitchen, and was ready to drive its own vehicles to any destination I could name.
"Marschierfen sie weiter" (march on farther) was all I could reply, pointing in the direction of Tunis. ...
All the enemy cars converging here fly the white flag, and troops aboard hold out white handkerchiefs and undershirts to make sure the handful of British recognize their intentions.
German colonels drive up in their own "Volkwagens" or long ago captured American jeeps. They turn in their Luger automatics to a squat, grinning British private who waves them along the dusty route to Tunis with his bayoneted rifle.
German half-tracks and trucks are crammed with junior officers and men. There is not a single escorting guard in sight. ...
An Italian colonel tramps with a gold braided retinue to the junction and inquires sadly where he shall go, and then begs a passing German half-track for a lift.
"Ah, Tunis," said he, "I only left it four days ago and now I must go back." ...
These German troops going toward military prisons have almost a skylark attitude. ... They carry pet dogs and accordions and have pockets bulging with cigars, cigarettes, biscuits and candy.
Hitler fed them well, dressed them well and inspired them with what they thought almost a holy mission. But they did not fight today. They quit.