Je vous écris pour vous dire que je m'intéresse à la deuxième guerre mondiale, mais avec une optique tunisienne. Mon pays n'a pas seulement été un champ de bataille, mais plus de 60 000 tunisiens civils sont morts sous les bombes et obus des deux antagonistes. Toute la Tunisie garde les séquelles de cette guerre terrible. Mareth, Kasserrine, Gafsa, Kairouan, Tunis, Enfidha, Zaghouan, Mateur Bizerte Beja, Sidi Nsir, Tahent, Cote 609.. Et tant d'autres endroits. Tous ici vous raconteront leurs souffrances, leurs angoisses, ils vous raconteront comment ils ont pleurés leurs morts. Morts anonymes sans honneur, sans reconnaissance. Les dégâts matériels sont aussi énormes,. Qui vous dira que les bombardements de la deuxième guerre mondiale ont détruits une grand partie des remparts de la ville de Kairouan, qui datent de plus de 1000 ans. Personnes n'en parle. Aujourd’hui, la Tunisie accueille les cimetières des soldats que cela soit Américains, Allemands, Français et anglais… Ils sont tombés au champ d'honneur, ils reposent dans notre terre. Tous ces hommes morts entre novembre 42 et le 13 Mai 1943, sont regroupés dans des mémoriaux dignes, car nul ne peut amoindrir un perte humaine quelque soit sont bord. Les tunisiens eux sont morts sans que personne ne leur fasse un hommage ni la moindre reconnaissance. Ce n’est pas leur guerre ; Et ils n’ont rien gagné. Doublement perdant, Et je me propose depuis peu de chercher dans la littérature de guerre, quelques références aux pertes d'autochtones.

Approximate translation (Yahoo Babel Fish):
Hello from Tunisia,
I write to you to think that I m' interest in the second world war, but with a Tunisian optics. My country n' was not only one battle field, but more than 60.000 civil Tunisian died under the bombs and shell of the two antagonists. All Tunisia keeps the after-effects of this terrible war. Mareth, Kasserrine, Gafsa, Kairouan, Tunis, Enfidha, Zaghouan, Mateur Bizerte Beja, Sidi Nsir, Tahent, Dimension 609. And so much d' other places. All here will tell you their sufferings, their anguishes, they will tell you how they cried their deaths. Died anonymous without honor, recognition. The property damages are also enormous. Who will say to you that the bombardments of the second world war destroyed large a part of the ramparts of the town of Kairouan, which date of more than 1000 years. People n' in speaks. Today, Tunisia accomodates the cemeteries of the soldiers that is American, German, French and English… They fell to the field d' honor, they rest in our ground. All these men died between November 42 and on May 13, 1943, are gathered in worthy memorials, because no one cannot reduce an human loss some is are edge. Tunisian them died without nobody making them a homage nor the least recognition. It is not their war; And they did not gain anything. Doubly loser, And I recently propose to seek in the literature of war, some references to the losses d' autochtones.

The Italian campaign was a nightmare enough with the German forces that were available. Imagine if they hadn't overcommitted in Tunisia. Perhaps the Italian government might not have fallen. that could have been a very ugly scenario for your hero and mine General Mark "where's my pants?" Clark.

Were the divisions that were sent to North Africa allocated for the defense of Italy or were they going to be sent to fight the Soviet Union? In my opinion if these divisions were specifically assigned to the defense of Italy and Sicily you could argue that Hitler wasn't taking away divisions from Sicily or Italy but he was trying to defend Sicily and Italy by fighting the Allies in North Africa. One of the arguments for going into Iraq and Afghanistan was to fight the terrorists on their soil so that the fight did not work its way back to the United States. Maybe that was what Hitler was trying to do. Maybe Hitler realized he was losing Italian support and that in order to keep the Italians in the war he must keep the Allies off of the Italian homeland. Therefore from a political perspective it makes sense to send reinforcements to Tunis.

War is a strange business sometimes.