'Etappenhase' was a German unrealised attempt to establish assault bases along the Algerian/Tunisian border to counterattack and drive back the forces of Lieutenant General K. A. N. Anderson’s Allied 1^st Army advancing to the east toward Tunisia after the 'Torch' landings (spring 1943).

Later developments of the same basic concept suggested the secret establishment of forward air bases in the Libyan area, from the airfield at Kalmaki near Athens in Greece as the staging base, and the launching of raids from these forward bases to mine the Nile river and/or Suez Canal.