Hello All! My name is Oscar Scafidi and I am currently writing the Bradt Travel Guide to Tunisia (1st Edition). When published in early 2022, it will be the first English-language tourism guidebook to this country in over ten years. I also have a YouTube channel where I film my travels around this amazing country. There is a playlist in there where I am building up video tours of all of Tunisia's Commonwealth War Graves that you might be interested in, as well as another of me hunting down German bunkers outside Mareth on the Mareth Line. I am planning to walk the entire Mareth Line with some friends quite soon, from west to east, ending at the coast. However, I am struggling to find any detailed maps of the fortifications. I am aware of the fancy French coffee table book Ligne Maginot du desert : La défense du limes républicain, which claims to have maps of all the fortifications, however, they do not deliver to Tunisia (where I am based), and they also do not seem to have a digital version I can pay to download. Does anyone out there have any detailed maps of the actual fortifications, or GPS tracks that we might find useful? Or even ideas on a starting point (i.e. which is the easternmost fortification near Toujane)? I know that the fortifications roughly follow the bed of the Oued Zigzaou, which is easily visible from satellite photography on Google Earth, however, I get the feeling the lines stretch a lot further south-west than that, given that there is a pretty prominent one at Ksar Hallouf. I am really struggling to get anything useful, and the Military Museum in Mareth cannot help. These are the only two maps I can find and neither are very detailed! It would be great to successfully complete this trek, and then share the details with the world via the upcoming Bradt Travel Guide to Tunisia in 2022. Tunisia has SO MUCH battlefield tourism potential.
I have asked an intrepid explorer of fortifications has been there and will ask others too, which is a bit slower. You may have done this already, caveat aside now. Have a peek at these threads: 1. Map help Maps explained 2. A tour operator to Tunisia now eight years ago: WWII tours of North Africa The author of that post only posted once in 2013. The tour(s) run by Steve Hamilton are on his website: Western Desert Battlefield Tours
Maybe (and only maybe!) some useful co-ordinates here. Carte archéologique nationale Good luck with all your endeavours, and please be mindfull of wandering too far from the beaten (tourist?) track (mines!) Kind regards, always, Jim.
A reply from the intrepid explorer of fortifications: The whole line is good visible on Google Earth. COVID intervened to stop a visit.
Hi Oscar, That's a great project you're working on, really enjoyed your YouTube tour too. Are you planning on visiting Wadi Akarit? I'd love to see that terrain, and any other battlefields around North Africa too. So relating to your route - I've been finding a lot of locations on google maps retracing my Grandad's journey through WW2 and have the various Mareth positions pegged on Google Earth. The various strongpoints of the Mareth Line all had French names (after the various military engineers who had constructed them) but to avoid confusion by mispronounciation they were all given the names of English girls by the 8th Army, I've a sketch map of these positions and tallied this up with earthworks I've found on google earth which match up as close as possible. There is of course some room for error, but by triangulation and allowing for some overlap and position sizes they look reasonably correct to me - you'll find obvious trench systems at the bottom of each pin which correlate. As another thought I would guess if you simply walked along the North bank of the wadi you'd happen upon a large network of trenches and pillboxes without much effort. Here are the Google Earth co-ords so you can zoom in and check them out for yourself:- South of Wadi Zigzaou:- Big Audrey 33°38'4.91"N 10°23'36.28"E Little Audrey 33°38'32.75"N 10°24'7.30"E North of Wadi Zigzaou:- Jane 33°39'37.65"N 10°24'44.80"E Susan 33°39'40.73"N 10°23'55.06"E Sally 33°39'45.89"N 10°23'24.84"E Mabel 33°39'19.56"N 10°23'40.58"E Miriam 33°39'26.88"N 10°21'55.54"E Mary 33°39'17.40"N 10°22'59.63"E Margaret 33°39'9.21"N 10°23'54.11"E Violet 33°38'54.13"N 10°23'9.66"E Betty 33°38'48.56"N 10°22'32.76"E Peggy 33°38'9.42"N 10°20'52.67"E Lola 33°37'57.46"N 10°21'9.46"E Trenches 33°38'9.42"N 10°20'52.67"E More Trenches 33°37'10.98"N 10°20'11.50"E
Wow Flamula, thank you so much for this detailed information! I had a hike of the Mareth Line all lined up for a few weeks ago, then the Tunisian government locked us down again for a brief while, making travel southwards from Tunis impossible. It's very hot down in Mareth now, but we may give this a go either in the summer on later on in autumn. I will be sure to keep you posted on our exploits, and let you know what we find! In the mean time, have you seen my latest video from down in Kasserine? We managed to find the Kasserine Pass memorial from the battle in February 1943. It's very well hidden!
Just checked it out, very interesting! Will keep tabs on your content for sure, you're certainly putting a lot of effort into uncovering things - its really great stuff. We're having a mini-heatwave in the UK at the moment, so I don't envy the heat you're having there. I've a bit more digging to do (via Google Earth) in conjunction with the various ww2 maps/sources I'm looking into in Tunisia (specifically regarding Enfidaville, Medenine, Gabes and Wadi Akarit, as well as more research on Mareth) so if I turn anything interesting up I'll be sure to post it here on the off-chance it isn't on your radar already. I've got a lot of locations in Libya pinned if you ever head that way, as you'll know there's a whole bunch of history went on there too, although there are also still plenty of 80 year old landmines in that neck of the woods to keep you from going too far off-road
So far I'd only looked at the coastal end of the line, as that's where the main thrust of the frontal attack was (My Grandad was with 50th Div and was wounded there). I decided this morning to take a look for more evidence stretching inland to the Matmata Hills. You mightn't need these but here are some of the more obvious landmarks giving a general impression of the direction and extensiveness of the defensive line. Continuing 1 mile southwest along the wadi from Lola 33°37'10.98"N 10°20'11.50"E Near road/bridge between Mareth and Arram 33°35'42.31"N 10°18'37.44"E Continuing along wadi you find extensive trench network set up which winds around a fair bit 33°33'10.01"N 10°16'19.06"E You can just about trench hop from the previous co-ords north to near Lazaiza, there are numerous positions on ridges all around here. 33°34'28.98"N 10°15'2.41"E Further south you start to hit Matamata hill trench system, appear to be anti-tank ditches and all sorts which you can follow to various other positions on the hill tops. 33°31'33.09"N 10°15'55.69"E You get more hill top action further south west here:- 33°29'19.94"N 10°14'10.90"E Over a very obvious anti tank ditch in the valley to the lower hill range 33°28'56.54"N 10°13'54.74"E Then you’ll find trenches all over the various hilltops continuing to the south west, example 33°28'40.20"N 10°13'19.28"E I eventually stopped tracking them here, this may not be the furthest western edge of the line, and running south there are more visible trenches on the peaks. But I expect this is in the general region of the western limit. 33°25'22.86"N 10° 8'50.86"E You can see my pins got a bit out of control... I’ve no idea how much further it heads as it appears to turn to the southeast following the mountain range, if you’re still finding them beyond Ksar Hallouf you’ve quite a trek on your hands If I happen to get hold of the French book you mentioned (which does look very useful), I will let you know. There is a preview of a few pages available here which you may have already found, worth a glance if not:- https://www.editions-klopp.com/upload/flipbooks/ligne-maginot-du-desert/index.html#page/1 Incidentally, Google Earth is sometimes not the greatest for image quality, I sometimes flick between bing maps and mapquest which often yield far higher quality ground close-ups. Could be useful.
Jut to update you all on this project, we are planning on setting out on the Mareth Line hike this Friday morning, and will camp Friday night in the fortifications. Will be filming the whole thing for my YouTube channel (Scafidi Travels). Thanks for all your help!
Awesome, looking forward to it! I believe this picture was taken in the region of co-ords 33.649462, 10.392172 on or around 25th March 1943, after the frontal attack was called off. (Referring to my previous map:- Violet/Ouerzi is not far to the west of this location) 233 RE constructed this crossing and cleared the way while RTR supported by 8th DLI headed straight out to take the lines in front of them. 5th East Yorks were simultaneously taking objectives to the right of this picture (Jane - Ksiba Est), 6th DLI to the left (Betty - Zarat Sudest). Rain prior to the attack had made the Wadi difficult to cross. Heat from the exhausts caused some fascines to catch fire and the leading Valentine tank from 50th RTR (pictured) became bogged down. Under constant enfilading fire, 233 RE managed to bypass this ditched tank and 4 tanks got across the Wadi (and across the anti-tank ditch on the far side successfully) before another got stuck. By now daylight was coming on fast and no further attempts were made until the following night (March 21st) - this time 42 Valentines made it across, but the crossing was so damaged by this point that no more could follow. Even so, 50th Div captured and held all but one of their objectives expecting further support to be brought up. Unfortunately this delay enabled Rommel to bring up 15 Panzer division which counterattacked in the afternoon (w/30 tanks) and two battalions of infantry. The unsupported units on the enemy side of the Wadi held on until nightfall at which point they were ordered to pull back leaving 30 disabled tanks, 200 prisoners and many more killed/wounded. Montgomery had essentially used the 50th Div as bait, while the flanking manoeuvre by the New Zealand Corps played out in the north.
Just got back to Tunis after an epic hike along the Mareth Line. We started up in Toujane at the anti-aircraft installations on Kef Enssoura and made our way down to Mareth itself. Soon I will go back and do the section east of Mareth, towards the sea, but I hear this bit is more landmine-affected, so need to do further research on that one. Weather was beautiful, but there was a lot of clambering up and down to reach the various trenches, bunkers and fortifications. We discovered a lot of additional sites in between the points that Flamula kindly shared above. Eventually I'll post a video of the whole hike to my YouTube channel (Scafidi Travels), and also more photos on my Instagram (oscarscafidi). But for now, here are some shots (including a final photo from inside Rommel's bunker!)
I have finally uploaded the full video of our hike along the Mareth Line. Check it out here and thanks again to everyone on this forum that contributed to it being a success!
man that is really great, can't imagine how hard that rocky ground must have been to dig trenches through, some very impressive views there too. thanks for posting!
A year ago I would have put you in contact with Christopher Newbould who used to run the Royal British Legion's Battlefield Tours to Tunisia. Sadly Christopher Newbould died last year. One of the veterans travelling with him was Major Peter Watson Black Watch who was awarded the MC for his actions at Wadi Akrit. He also was the man with the compass for his battalion at El Alamein. Veterans mark 70th anniversary of El Alamein | The Times Judging by the photograph in the Times, Peter is still alive and may be worth contacting for testimony. He was very alert when I met him - but that was in 2009.
Too late alas, Major Peter Watson MC, died in 2015 and his obituary refers to his MC for action at Wadi Akarit: From the Black Watch journal 'The Red Hackle' May 2015: https://theblackwatch.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/May2015.pdf
There is a recording by Peter Watson you can listen to online via IWM giving his account of the war, Mareth and Wadi Akarit are discussed in reel 5/6 :- Watson, Peter (Oral history) Would definitely be interested in any current info/photos Oscar has regarding Wadi Akarit as its current condition accessibility isn't too often mentioned/known about nowadays, probably an enjoyable hike too if he has the time, although no idea how extensively the land mine issue has been tackled in that area, looks like a good amount of farmland on the flat, but many fortifications visible towards higher ground on Google Earth (for example in area of co-ords 34.097843, 9.885266).
Wadi Akarit is definitely on my "to visit" list for this year, very likely before July. I will keep y'all posted!
