Operation Retribution was the Second World War air and naval blockade designed to prevent the seaborne evacuation of Axis forces from Tunisia to Sicily.

Axis forces were isolated in northern Tunisia and faced Operation Vulcan, the final Allied assault.

[1] The only significant threat to the sea forces were friendly fire attacks by Allied aircraft, after which red recognition patches were painted on the ships.

[5] However, individual examples of determined escapes by small groups like this did not change the overall outcome of the Tunisian campaign, in which the vast majority of the remaining Germans and Italians in Tunisia would end up in American prisoner-of-war camps.

Axis forces in north Africa, squeezed into a small area with minimal supplies and facing well-equipped and -supplied opponents, surrendered on 13 May.