British airborne operations in North Africa | |||||||
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Part of the Tunisian Campaign of World War II | |||||||
Officers of the 2nd Parachute Battalion resting near Beja after returning from a drop on Depienne. |
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom |
Germany Italy |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edwin Flavell | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Brigade | Various | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,700 | Unknown |
The British airborne operations in North Africa were conducted by British paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Edwin Flavell, as part of the Tunisian Campaign of World War II, over the period between November 1942 and April 1943.
When planning began for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, it was decided to attach the 1st Parachute Brigade, part of the 1st Airborne Division, to the Allied forces taking part, as an American airborne unit, the 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was also to be used during the invasion. After a short period of training and being brought up to operational strength, mainly with men from the 2nd Parachute Brigade, also part of the 1st Airborne Division, the brigade was deployed to North Africa in November 1942.
Units from the 1st Para Brigade dropped near Bône on 12 November, then near Souk el-Arba and Béja on 13 November, and at Pont Du Fahs on 29 November, seizing airfields, fighting as infantry after each action and linking up with an Allied armoured force, supporting it until December. Due to the inability of units of the British First Army to link up with the Pont Du Fahs force, the 2nd Parachute Battalion, under Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, was forced to retreat over fifty miles towards the nearest Allied units; it was attacked several times during the retreat, and although it reached Allied lines safely it had taken more than 250 casualties.