imported>Hugo999: removed Category:May 1943; added Category:May 1943 in Africa using HotCat

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removed Category:May 1943; added Category:May 1943 in Africa using HotCat

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{{Short description|Second world war sea blockade of Tunisia}}
{{for|the German bombing of Belgrade in April 1941|Operation Retribution (1941)}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict = Operation Retribution
|partof = the [[Tunisia Campaign]] of the [[Second World War]]
|image = Strait of Sicily map.png
|image_size = 250px
|caption = The Strait of Sicily and surrounding waters
|date = 8–13 May 1943
|place = [[Sicilian Channel]] and [[Cape Bon]], [[Tunisia]]
|coordinates = {{Coord|37|20|N|11|20|E|display=INLINE,title}}
|casus =
|territory =
|result = Allied victory
|combatant1 = {{flag|United Kingdom}}<br />{{flag|United States|1912}}
|combatant2 = {{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}<br />{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Italy}}
|commander1 = [[Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope|Andrew Cunningham]]
|commander2 =
|strength1 =
|strength2 =
|casualties1 =
|casualties2 =
|campaignbox={{Campaignbox Tunisia Campaign}}
}}

'''Operation Retribution''' was the [[Second World War]] air and naval blockade designed to prevent the seaborne evacuation of [[Axis powers|Axis forces]] from [[Tunisia]] to Sicily. Axis forces were isolated in northern Tunisia and faced [[Operation Vulcan]], the final Allied assault. The equivalent blockade of air evacuation was [[Operation Flax]].

The British Admiral [[Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope|Andrew Cunningham]]—Allied naval commander—began the operation on 7 May 1943, with the colourful signal to "Sink, burn and destroy. Let nothing pass". He had also named the operation Retribution in recognition of the losses that his destroyer forces had endured during the [[Greek campaign]], the German occupation of Greece and [[Operation Mercury]] the capture of Crete.<ref name=tomblin>{{cite book |last=Tomblin |first=Barbara |date=31 October 2004 |title=With utmost spirit: Allied naval operations in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945 |publisher=[[The University Press of Kentucky]] |isbn=0-8131-2338-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XDqBUqnrFLYC&pg=PA119}}</ref> The Germans were unable to mount a significant rescue effort.

The predicament of the Axis had been recognised earlier and a large scale effort to evacuate Axis personnel was expected. So, all available naval light forces were ordered to concentrate at [[Malta]] or [[Annaba|Bone]], with specified patrol areas.<ref group=note>"Light forces" included cruisers and all smaller warships. There were 18 destroyers and several flotillas of torpedo boats available.</ref> To achieve this, convoy movements were restricted to release their escorts. The Italian Fleet was expected to intervene and the [[battleship]]s {{HMS|Nelson|28|6}} and {{HMS|Rodney|29|2}} and the [[aircraft carrier]] {{HMS|Formidable|67|6}} were moved to [[Algiers]] in readiness for a major action.<ref name=ike>{{cite web |last=Eisenhower |first=Dwight |author-link=Dwight Eisenhower |title=Report of the Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces ... |pages=47–48 |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/rep/TORCH/DDE-Torch.html#retribution |access-date=26 September 2010}}</ref>

The Italian Fleet did not leave port (due to the imposing threat of the British navy in much of the Mediterranean Sea) and there was no organised attempt to evacuate Axis forces by sea. Two supply ships en route to Tunisia were intercepted and sunk. Inshore flotillas of British [[Motor Torpedo Boat]]s (MTBs) and American [[PT boat]]s intercepted small craft and raided the waters around {{lang|ar|Ras Idda}} ([[Cape Bon]]) and [[Kelibia]].<ref name=tomblin/> The only significant threat to the sea forces were [[friendly fire]] attacks by Allied aircraft, after which red recognition patches were painted on the ships.<ref name="roskill">{{cite web |last=Roskill |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Roskill |title=The African Campaigns; 1st January - 31st May, 1943 |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RN-II/UK-RN-II-19.html |access-date=27 September 2010 |publisher=[[HyperWar Foundation]] |pages=441–442}}</ref> The Allies captured 897 men. 630 Germans and Italians are thought to have escaped to Sicily and Sardinia including 18 men from the s.Pz.Abt. 501 Werkstatt Kompanie. An unknown number drowned.<ref name="Forczyk2020">Robert Forczyk, Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa: Gazala to Tunisia, 1942–43, Osprey Publishing, 2020, p. 299.</ref> One of the most famous escape stories is that of Rudolf Nieger, a German [[Kapitänleutnant]] who made it to Sicily with six other soldiers. They hid for several weeks on small islands off the Tunisian coast. Then they stole an Allied motorboat and got Arabs to provide enough gasoline to get them to Sicily.<ref name="Levine2000">Alan Levine, Captivity, Flight, and Survival in World War II, Praeger Publishers, 2000, p. 32.</ref> However, individual examples of determined escapes by small groups like this did not change the overall outcome of the Tunisian campaign, in which the vast majority of the remaining Germans and Italians in Tunisia would end up in American [[prisoner-of-war camp]]s.

Axis forces in north Africa, squeezed into a small area with minimal supplies and facing well-equipped and -supplied opponents, surrendered on 13 May. The north African ports were rapidly cleared and readied to support the forthcoming invasions of southern Europe. The 12th, 13th and 14th Minesweeping Flotillas from Malta, two groups of minesweeping trawlers and smaller vessels cleared a channel through the minefields of the Sicilian Channel to [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], removing nearly 200 moored [[Naval mine|mines]]. On 15 May, Cunningham signalled that "the passage through the Mediterranean was clear" and that convoys from [[Gibraltar]] to [[Alexandria]] could be started at once. Thus the direct route between Gibraltar and Alexandria—closed since May 1941—was reopened with substantial savings in shipping and their escorts.<ref name=roskill/>

==See also==

* [[List of classes of British ships of World War II]]
* [[North African campaign timeline]]

==Notes==
<References group=note/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{World War II}}

[[Category:Tunisian campaign]]
[[Category:Code names|Retribution]]
[[Category:May 1943 in Africa]]
[[Category:1943 in Tunisia]]
[[Category:1943 in military history]]

Operation Retribution - Revision history

imported>Hugo999: removed Category:May 1943; added Category:May 1943 in Africa using HotCat