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Empire losses in North Africa since Italy's entry into the war in
June 1940 had numbered some 220,000—killed, wounded, and prisï؟¾oners. In the period November 1942 to May 1943 the French had
lost about 20,000, while American casualties had been about 18,500.
By June of 1943 Allied might was beginning to be felt throughout
the world. American production was pouring the materials of war
into all Allied armies at an increasing rate. Allied air power was
striking at strategic targets in Europe and pounding Japanese bases
in the Pacific. The Mediterranean area and the Middle East were
again secure in Allied hands. Operation Husky, the invasion of
Sicily, had been planned and would shortly be launched. The Rusï؟¾sians had driven the Germans from the Caucasus oil fields and the
Don River bend and were ready to launch a great summer offensive.
In the Pacific the Japanese had been driven from the Aleutians,
Guadalcanal was an Allied base, the drive up the Solomons was under
way, and General Mac Arthur had begun his march up the New
Guinea coast toward the Philippines. Everywhere the Axis was on
the defensive, and, even more important, in the hills of Tunisia an
Allied force had been born which would ultimately advance across
western Europe to the heart of Germany.
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