Battle of Ksar Ghilane

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The French memorial obelisk at the Ksar Ghilane oasis commemorates Jacques-Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the battle.

The Battle of Ksar Ghilane (also: Ksar Rhilane ) was a military conflict that took place on the African continent between the German Africa Corps (DAK) and the Allied forces during the Second World War . Ksar Ghilane, a desert oasis ( small fort Tisavar ) already occupied by a small garrison in Roman times , which is located directly on the northern edge of the Eastern Great Sand Desert belonging to the Sahara , is located around 75 kilometers west of Tataouine in southern Tunisia .

On March 10, 1943, two German tank divisions of the DAK attacked the Free French Armed Forces of then Brigadier General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (1902–1947), which was entrenched at the oasis . Bf 109 of Jagdgeschwader 77 of the Luftwaffe , which acted as escort for the Ju 87s of Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 , which were also ordered to the Ksar Rhilane area , were involved in battles against 20 Curtiss Kittyhawk and six Spitfires of the British Royal Air Force . The Allies were able to stop and repel the decisive ground attack mainly through their air support - in particular through Hurricane Mk.IIB with armor-piercing weapons - but Jagdgeschwader 77 managed to shoot down ten enemy aircraft and end the battle without losses of its own.

Unusually, the traces of the tank tracks remained visible in the sand until at least 1979 and two desert plants established here were no longer seen after the war. A 1985 report by the United Nations World Food Organization evaluated this in the context of other African theaters of war as a sign of how quickly the ecosystem in arid zones can be unbalanced even by seemingly minor disturbances.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jochen Prien: The fighter pilot associations of the German Air Force 1934 to 1945, Part 11 / II, deployment in the Mediterranean region 1.1. until December 31, 1943. Struve-Druck, Eutin, 2011. ISBN 3-942943-00-X . P. 317.
  2. ↑ Monro MacCloskey: Torch and the Twelfth Air Force. Rosen Press, 1971. p. 164.
  3. ↑ Michel C. Baumer, Brahim Ben Salem: Roll of forestry in the control of desertification. In: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Ed.): Sand dune stabilization, shelterbelts and afforestation in dry zones. Forestry Department, Rome 1985. ISBN 92-5-102261-5 . P. 10.