The Battle of the Mareth Line or the Battle of Mareth was an attack in the Second World War by the British Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) in Tunisia, against the Mareth Line held by the Italo-German 1st Army (General Giovanni Messe). It was the first big operation by the Eighth Army since the Second Battle of El Alamein months previously. On 19 March 1943, Operation Pugilist, the first British attack, established a bridgehead but a break-out attempt was defeated by Axis counter-attacks. Pugilist established an alternative route of attack and Operation Supercharge II, an outflanking manoeuvre via the Tebaga Gap was planned. Montgomery reinforced the flanking attack, which from 26 to 31 March, forced the 1st Army to retreat to Wadi Akarit, another back in Tunisia. Background Axis retreat from El Alamein The retreat of Panzer Army Africa (known as the / from October 1942) took place from 5 November 1942 to 15 February 1943. On 8 November, Operation Torch began in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as the in Egypt managed to evade British outflanking moves but traffic jams, fuel shortages, poor weather and air attacks reduced the speed of their retreat to per day. in Rome and OKW in Berlin took an optimistic view of the situation and chose the Mersa-el-Brega–El Agheila position as the terminus of the retreat, even though the position had a front of , its strongpoints were up to apart, too far for mutual support, and only When the arrived, the had only and only of the of supplies it needed daily. Rommel wanted to retreat to Wadi Akarit in the Gabès area, further west, where the non-motorised troops could defend a narrow gap between the Mediterranean and the Chott Djerid. The tanks and motorised infantry would join the 5th Panzer Army (Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim) further north, drive back the British First Army from Tunisia into Algeria, then swiftly return to force back the Eighth Army. At a meeting with Hitler on 28 November, Rommel discussed the proposal but received only a promise of more supplies. On the night of the British attacked and on the following evening, the resumed its retreat, and despite its chronic fuel shortage, evaded another outflanking move. The took up a defensive position at Buerat on 29 December but it was poorly fortified, wide open to an outflanking manoeuvre and vulnerable to an attack on Gabès by the