On May 5, at 5 p.m., the right division of the 5th corps (1st D.I.) launched its preliminary attack on Djebel-bou-Aoukaz, with powerful air support. It seizes it in the evening, thus ensuring the security of the left flank of the attack of the 9th corps, whose divisions gain, in the night, their starting bases, east and south-east of Medjez.
May 6, D-Day, at 3:30 a.m., under the stars, on a moonless night, but suddenly illuminated by thousands of lightning bolts and filled with the continuous rolling of 400 guns which execute their prepared fire on the enemy positions, the British and the Indians emerge side by side on a narrow front and begin their advance under a vault of fire.
By daylight, the Allied air force takes the ' air, providing, with 2,000 sorties, the largest air effort executed so far.
On the German side, the surprise is complete. The adversary was obviously not expecting an attack against his positions in the Medjerda, the oldest and most solidly fortified.
At 11 a.m., the infantry had reached all their objectives, about eight kilometers from the starting base. The 6th and 7th Armored Divisions immediately pass through the gap and rush towards Tunis, on either side of the main road. The penetration is so fast and so deep that it encounters no organized resistance. Only a few groups of tanks from the 15th Panzer Division rush up and are jostled as they pass. The advance is only hampered by 88 anti-aircraft guns used as anti-tanks, but the momentum of the British armor is such that, after having captured Fourna, they reach, at nightfall, Massicault, only 20 kilometers away. from Tunis
The next morning, May 7, the 6th D.B., which was marching south of the road to Tunis, was snagged by a few panzers, but it freed itself, while on its left the 7th D.B. captured Saint-Cyprien. at 8:30 a.m., and immediately pushes on the Bardo crossroads, at the western entrance to Tunis.
Finally. at 3:00 p.m., the tanks of the Derbyshire Yeomanry and the First Hussar Regiment entered the Tunisian capital, amid the delirious enthusiasm of the population.