To provide an individual citation for every fact in this book would result in an extraordinarily cumbersome and pedantic ream of notes. I have instead grouped the sources relevant to particular passages of the text; the intent is to provide explicit attribution, as well as a guide for readers seeking additional source material. The bibliography also gives further information regarding the sources cited.
The following abbreviations appear in the endnotes and bibliography.
AAF Army Air Forces
AAFinWWII W.F. Craven and J.L. Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. II
AAR after action report
AD armored division
AFHQ micro Allied Forces Headquarters microfilm, NARA RG 331
AFHRA Air Force Historical Research Agency
ag adjutant general
AR armored regiment
ASEQ Army Service Experiences Questionnaire, MHI
Bde brigade
Bn battalion
CARL Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
CBH Chester B. Hansen diary, MHI
CCS Combined Chiefs of Staff
CEOH U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History
Chandler Alfred Chandler, ed., The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The War Years, vol. II
CINCLANT Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet
CMH U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
Co company
Col U OHRO Columbia University Oral History Research Office
corr correspondence
CSI Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
CT combat team
DDE Lib Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Destruction I.S.O. Playfair and C.J.C. Molony, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. IV
diss dissertation
Div division
DSC Distinguished Service Cross
E entry
ETO European Theater of Operations
FA field artillery
FCP Forrest C. Pogue, background material for The Supreme Commander
FDR Lib Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
FMS Foreign Military Studies, MHI
FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943
GCM Lib George C. Marshall Library, Lexington, Va.
GSP George S. Patton, Jr., Papers
Hansen draft of Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, C. B. Hansen, MHI
HKH Henry Kent Hewitt Papers
ID infantry division
inf infantry
Intel intelligence
Iowa GSM Iowa Gold Star Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa
IWM Imperial War Museum, London
JAG judge advocate general
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
lib library
LHC Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London
LKT Jr. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.
LOC MS Div Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Med Mediterranean
MCC Mina Curtiss Collection
MHI U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.
MWC Mark Wayne Clark
micro microfilm
MP military police
MRC FDM McCormick Research Center, First Division Museum, Cantigny, Ill.
msg message
mss manuscript
MTOUSA Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army
N Af North Africa
NARA National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
NATOUSA North African Theater of Operations, United States Army
n.d. no date
NHC Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.
NSA National Security Agency
NWAf George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West
NWC Lib National War College Library
OCMH Office of the Chief of Military History
OCNO Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
OCS Office of the Chief of Staff
OH oral history
OSS Office of Strategic Services
OW Orlando Ward Papers
Para parachute
PMR Paul McD. Robinett papers
PP-pres Papers, Pre-presidential
PRO Public Record Office, Kew, England
qm quartermaster
Regt regiment
RG record group
RN Royal Navy
ROHA Rutgers University Oral History Archives of World War II
SEM Samuel Eliot Morison Office Files
SM Sidney T. Matthews Papers
SOOHP Senior Officer Oral History Program
S.P. self-published
td tank destroyer
TdA Terry de la Mesa Allen Papers
Three Years Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower
TR Theodore Roosevelt III Papers
ts typescript
USAF U.S. Air Force
USAF HRC U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center
USMA Arch U.S. Military Academy Archives, West Point
USAWWII United States Army in World War II
USN U.S. Navy
USNAd “U.S. Naval Administration in World War II”
USNI OHD U.S. Naval Institute, Oral History Department, Annapolis, Md.
UTEP University of Texas at El Paso
UT-K University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Center for the Study of War and Society
WD War Department
WTF Western Task Force
WWII World War II
YU Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives
PROLOGUE
Twenty-seven acres: Author visits, Sept. 1996, Apr. 2000; “North Africa American Cemetery,” n.d., American Battle Monuments Commission.
No large operation: AAFinWWII, 41 (“the degree of strategic surprise”); Siegfried Westphal, The German Army in the West, 131 (“to the last man”).
“There is a soul”: William T. Sherman, Memoirs, 387.
North Africa is where: Mina Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 65 (“It is a very, very horrible war”); James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 89 (“killing is a craft”); A. B. Austin, Birth of an Army, 133 (“The last war”).
September 1, 1939: Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, 894, 57; Martin Gilbert, The Second World War, 14–19 (“Take a good look”). Weinberg estimates total war-related deaths at 60 million.
“The small countries”: Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 24. France was not small: Destruction, 116; Gilbert, 90 (“First they were too cowardly”); Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 421 (“They call me only”); NWAf,16–17.
Pétain so pledged: Gilbert, 100 (“Whatever happens”), 130 (“The war is won”), 137 (RAF pilots shot down), 151 (“Whither thou goest”); Marvin A. Kreidberg and Merton G. Henry, History of Military Mobilization in the United States Army, 1775–1945, 674–75; Norman Gelb, Desperate Venture, 72 (“our eyelids”).
Hitler faced: Gilbert, 135 (“we are on the march”), 194–99, 246–47, 272, 277 (“the single most decisive act”), 304; Weinberg, 260, 264–72; Churchill, The Grand Alliance, 606, 608 (“the sleep of the saved”).
Two years, three months: Gelb, 25 (“more unready for war”); Christopher R. Gabel, The U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941, 8; James A. Huston, The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1775–1953, 411; Richard M. Ketchum, The Borrowed Years, 1938–1941,544 (“reconstruction of a dinosaur”). That task had started: Ketchum, 645; Lee B. Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 19–22, 29; Ralph Stein and Harry Brown, It’s a Cinch, Private Finch! (“Do you like girls?” and “at least below the rank of major”); Roy R. Grinker and John P. Siegel, War Neuroses in North Africa.
Jeremiads derided: Roger Barry Fosdick, “A Call to Arms,” diss, 1985; Time, Aug. 18, 1941, 36.
Equipment and weaponry: Marvin Jensen, Strike Swiftly: The 70th Tank Battalion, 6 (“tanks are dear”); Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 51 (“The idea of huge armies”); David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 57; Alexander M. Bielakowski, “Calmer Heads Will Prevail,” paper, Society for Military History, Apr. 2000; Alexander M. Bielakowski, “The Role of the Horse in Modern Warfare as Viewed in the Interwar U.S. Army’s Cavalry Journal,” Army History, summer–fall 2000, 20.
To lead the eventual host: Mark A. Stoler, George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century, 93; Gabel, 116; Charles E. Kirkpatrick, “Orthodox Soldiers: Army Formal Schools Between the Two World Wars,” paper, March 1990; Richard W. Stewart, “The Red Bull Division,” Army History, winter 1993, 1; letter, L. J. McNair to C. Brewer, Nov. 15, 1943, NARA RG 165, Director of Plans and Ops, corr, box 1229; E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Education of an Army,” New Yorker, Oct. 14, 1944, 28; Joseph W. A. Whitehorne, The Inspectors General of the United States Army, 1903–1939, 440 (stained with scandal).
Yet slowly the giant stirred: Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won: The United States Army in World War II, 29 ($9 billion), 31; Gilbert, 240 (amputation saws).
But where?: Louis Morton, “Germany First: The Basic Concept of Allied Strategy in World War II,” in Kent Roberts Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 3–38 (“the problem confronting us”); Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941–1942, USAWWII, 27, 44, 113; Ray S. Cline, Washington Command Post: The Operations Division, USAWWII, 56; Gilbert, 286 (“life, liberty, independence”).
The American idea: Gelb, Desperate Venture, 70 (“Through France”); Cline, 156; John Slessor, The Central Blue, 434 (“go for him bald-headed”); Arthur Bryant, The Turn of the Tide, 353 (“wanted revenge”).
Direct, concentrated attack: Russell F. Weigley, The American Way of War, 313 (for an enlightening critique of the U.S. strategic tradition see Brian M. Linn, “The American Way of War Revisited,” Journal of Military History, April 2002, 501); Maurice Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944, USAWWII, 11; Matloff and Snell, 156; memo, DDE, Chandler, vol. I, 66 (“We’ve got to go”).
As the new chief: Matloff, 12; Leo J. Meyer, “The Decision to Invade North Africa,” in Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 134; Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 222; Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, OH, FCP, Jan. 28, 1947, MHI (“We shall be pushed out”); Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman, eds., War Diaries, 1939–1945, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, 281–82; Richard W. Steele, The First Offensive, 171, 231; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” ts, n.d., MHI, 9 (some skeptics); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 43; Gilbert, 283; Frederick E. Morgan, ts, n.d., cited in FCP, MHI (“He recoiled in horror”); Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate Biography, 591; GCM, OH, Forrest C. Pogue, Oct. 5, 1956, GCM Lib (“Bodies floating in the Channel”); GCM, OH, July 25, 1949, SM, MHI (“sacrifice play”).
Whereas the dominant American strategic impulse: Morton, “Germany First,” 34; Meyer, “The Decision to Invade North Africa,” 132; Weigley, 328; Michael Howard, The Mediterranean Strategy in the Second World War, 14–17; Matloff and Snell, 55; Gelb, 96 (“This has all along”).
The American military disagreed: Matloff and Snell, 104 (“indirect contribution”); Gelb, 89 (“will not result in removing”).
To many American officers: William C. Frierson, “Preparations for TORCH,” Dec. 1945, vol. I, Historical Division, WD Special Staff, CMH 2–3.7 AD, 22; Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 436 (“After England Failed”).
Following another visit: Stoler, The Politics of the Second Front, 55–56; Matloff and Snell, 214, 231, 268–72, 276; Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports!, 158 (“Scotch bagpipe band”); msg, WD to AFHQ, Nov. 4, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1388; Walter Bedell Smith, OH, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI (often had to rely on the British); Morison, History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. IX, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, 4 (war could last a decade); GCM, OH, July 25, 1949, SM, MHI (would have to field at least 200 divisions).
Other factors also influenced: Walter Scott Dunn, Jr., Second Front Now 1943; Gilbert, 322, 350 (Operation WATCHTOWER), 335 (“I am going on to Suez”).
By chance, the bad news: Danchev and Todman, eds., 268–69, 286 (Cromwell’s death mask); Gilbert, 335 (“What can we do”); Arthur Layton Funk, The Politics of Torch, 86; Meyer, 143; Matloff and Snell, 283; NWAf, 14.
The president had made: Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. IV, xxi (“defeat of Germany”); Danchev and Todman, eds., 250 (“The prospects of success”), 275 (“to play baccarat”); Charles Bolte, OH, Oct. 17, 1973, Maclyn Burg, DDE Lib, OH 395, 51–52 (Army logisticians); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 41; Meyer, 135–39 (7,000 landing craft); Matloff and Snell, 104 (“persuasive rather than rational”), 241 (only 20,000); Cline, 150 (at least 600,000), 157 (“Who is responsible”).
Roosevelt had saved: Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 1939–1942, 330 (“We failed to see”); Three Years, 29 (“blackest day”); Matloff and Snell, 190 (“thrashing around”), 298 (“a blessing in disguise”), 310–11; Cline, 160; Funk, 86–92; minutes, CCS, July 25, 1942, 10:30 A.M., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 325; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 449–51; NWAf, 15.
CHAPTER 1: PASSAGE
A Meeting with the Dutchman
A few minutes past ten A.M.: John Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” Naval War College Review, XXVIII, summer/fall 1975, 2 (“squeezed the tar”); note, July 24, 1943, HKH, LOC MS Div., box 1 (turkey trot); George Sessions Perry, “Why Don’t They Write About Hewitt?” Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 16, 1944, 22; Louis Mountbatten, OH, n.d., HKH, NHC, box 6 (“a fat, bedraggled figure”); HKH, n.d., Col U OHRO, CNOF-0334, NHC, box 20; Thaddeus V. Tuleja, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” in Stephen Howarth, ed., Men of War: Great Naval Leaders of World War II, 315–16; HKH, “Reminiscences of a World War II Admiral,” ts, n.d., NHC, box 21, 170–206; John T. Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 160–63.
In April 1942: DDE to T. Troubridge, Oct. 13, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG Office, WWII Ops Reports, box 203 (“The object of the operations”); Matloff and Snell, 291.
Through a tiny window: Brinkley, 117 (if the military); William D. Leahy, I Was There, 98; James B. Stack, OH-317, DDE Lib.; Alfred Goldberg, The Pentagon: The First Fifty Years, 175.
The plane settled: Associated Press article, in New York Sun, Jan. 30, 1943, HKH, LOC MS Div, box 9, folder 6 (“You do everything”); “Amphibious Training Command,” #145, USNAd, NHC, VII-26; William S. Biddle, “Amphibious Training of American Troops in Great Britain,” lecture, Fort Hood, 1943, William S. Biddle Papers, MHI; Kenneth Macksey, Crucible of Power: The Fight for Tunisia, 1942–1943, 48 (imaginary ocean); Ken Ford, Battleaxe Division, 6.
Would the eight: “Reminiscences of a World War II Admiral,” 170–206; Michael Howard, Grand Strategy, 112; C.B.A. Behrens, Merchant Shipping and the Demands of War, 367–68; F. H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 470; Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 167; Disney note, HKH, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 6.
The staff car crawled: New York Times, Oct. 21, 1942, 1; Washington Evening Star, Oct. 21, 1942, 1 (“there aren’t any nylon stockings”); Goodwin, 394.
The car pulled up: Quartermaster report, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 231 (among the secret cargoes).
Since Roosevelt’s final decision: Theodore J. Conway, SOOHP, Robert F. Ensslin, Sept. 1977, MHI; Leahy, 136 (“pig-headed”).
First, he insisted: Greenfield, ed., 149; FDR to Churchill, in Aug. 31, 1942, memo, E. King to GCM, NARA RG 218, JCS, box 325 (“I am reasonably sure”); James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 290 (public opinion in North Africa); Larrabee, 424.
There was skepticism: Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War, 160 (“where all good Americans”); Churchill to FDR, Sept. 14, 1942, NARA RG 218, JCS, box 225; Danchev and Todman, eds., 316 (wait a full month).
The second vital issue: Matloff and Snell, 287; minutes, CCS meeting, Aug. 28, 1942, NARA RG 218, JCS, box 225 (“take great risks”); Andrew Browne Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 470; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 79.
But General Marshall: Howard, Grand Strategy, 124, 127; NWAf, 26; Destruction, 124; msg, War Cabinet, Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee, Aug. 7, 1942, NARA RG 165, Plans and Ops, General Records, corr, box 1229; Bernard Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 197 (drawstring); General Lord Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 261; MWC, OH, May 19, 1948, G. F. Howe, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; minutes, CCS meeting, Aug. 28, 1942, NARA RG 218, JCS, box 225 (“only bring ridicule”).
Roosevelt agreed: FDR to Churchill, Aug. 31, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA records, box 1388; Danchev and Todman, eds., 315 (“a much wiser plan”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 80 (“realm of the probable”).
On September 5: GCM, OH, Oct. 5, 1956, FCP, GCM Lib; GCM, OH, July 25, 1949, SM, MHI.
At the White House: William Seale, The President’s House, vol. II, 976; Hewitt, Col U OHRO, copy at NHC, Hewitt papers, box 20.
Even as he shook Patton’s hand: HKH to GSP, Sept 1, 1942, HKH, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 5 (“By all means”); HKH, OH, Jan. 23, 1951, G. F. Howe, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228 (Army planners proposed); Ismay, 265 (“bunch of rattlesnakes”); “Amphibious Training Command,” #145, USNAd, NHC, VII-8 (“failure to cooperate”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 82 (Eisenhower’s personal warrant); Carlo D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 422 (“Don’t scare the Navy”); Warren Tute,The North African War, 152; NWAf, 43.
At precisely two: “FDR Day by Day, Oct. 21, 1942,” Secret Service records, box 4, FDR Lib; diary, Oct. 21, 1942, GSP, LOC MS Div. (“Come in”).
“Well, gentlemen”: Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 195 (“conqueror or a corpse”); John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies: Pearl Harbor to D-Day, 63 (“cigarette-holder gesture”); Larrabee, 486.
But TORCH had its own hazards: Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 223; S.L.A. Marshall, World War I, 192.
For his part, Roosevelt: Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 425, 416; diary, Oct. 21, 1942, GSP, LOC MS Div (how to moor); Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” 72 (“just dropped off”).
Gathering the Ships
An unholy din rolled: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” vol. I, USNAd, 391; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, vol. II, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, 48; Soldier Stevedores, Signal Corps Film Bulletin #32, NARA Films, RG 111, Chief Signal Officer; William Reginald Wheeler, ed., The Road to Victory, 35.
Into the holds: Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley, Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943, 465; Frierson, “Preparations for ‘Torch,’” vol. 1, 63 ($100,000 in gold coins); memo, Aug. 23, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 (flyswatters); msg, Oct. 18, 1942, NARA RG 338, General Records ETO, 7th Army Awards, box 1 (Purple Hearts).
In theory, only 800 people: Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 4; 12th Air Force doc., Oct. 17, 1942, Lauris Norstad Papers, Air Campaign in Naf, DDE Lib, box 6 (“I am your friend”); C. L. Strong, “Allo, Maroc,” Bell Telephone Magazine,Sept. 1943; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” vol. I, USNAd, 384; John H. Waller, The Unseen War in Europe, 252 (“Behold”).
Quartermasters had: Quartermaster report, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 231 (“Do not open”); “Chemical Warfare Policy, Operation TORCH,” Sept. 10, 1942, AFHQ G-3, and memo, “chemical warfare policy,” W. B. Smith, Sept. 27, 1942, both in NARA, AFHQ micro, R-83-F (“most unlikely”). The use of chemical weapons appears never to have been seriously considered. See Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat, 87–93.
Using a Michelin: Jack F. Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa,” Armored School, 18; M.T. Wordell and E.N. Seiler, Wildcats over Casablanca, 19 (Baedekers); Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Command Missions, 33; Alfred M. Beck et al.,The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 63; “Catalogue of Standard Ordnance Items,” vol. I, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. II, pt. 3, CMH.
All cargo was: Leighton and Coakley, 443; Carl E. Bledsoe, report, Oct. 15, 1942, NARA RG 165, Plans and Ops, Gen’l Records, corr, box 1228; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” vol. I, USNAd, 391; John Erbes, “Hell on Wheels Surgeon,” ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 11.
On this disorderly Thursday: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 92, 94–95; Farago, 194; D’Este, Patton, 425; Wheeler, ed., 10 (Aeneid).
It was a fair self-assessment: Rick Atkinson, introduction to GSP, War as I Knew It, xi–xxii; Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 413.
“Give me generals”: Mountbatten, OH, n.d., HKH, NHC, box 6; Larrabee, 486; diary, Oct. 21, 1942, GSP, LOC MS Div.
His command for TORCH: Matloff and Snell, 317; E. N. Harmon with Milton MacKaye and William Ross MacKaye, Combat Commander, 69 (“put iron in their souls”); D’Este, Patton, 422, 426–27 (“had been ordered into arrest” and “If you don’t succeed”).
In a dinner toast: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 81; Henry Gerard Phillips, The Making of a Professional: Manton S. Eddy, USA, 84; James H. Doolittle with Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, 299; Harmon, Combat Commander, 69; Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 64.
On Friday morning, October 23: “Reminiscences of Rear Adm. Joshua W. Cooper,” USNI OHD, John T. Mason, 1975 (“If you have any doubts”); Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 43.
As the hour of departure: Frierson, “Preparations for ‘Torch,’” vol. I, 23.
More usually: Wheeler, ed., 224–25; Albert E. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II, 165–67 (Recent experience).
No less dramatic: GCM to AFHQ, Oct. 8, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA records of the special staff, box 1385; “W.R.P.,” “Mission to Morocco,” Navy, Nov. 1958, 7; Charles F. Marsh, ed., The Hampton Roads Communities in World War II, 259; Bertram B. Fowler, “Twelve Desperate Miles,” Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 28, 1943, 14; Wheeler, ed., 73.
All the confusion: Walter T. Kerwin, Jr., SOOHP, D. A. Doehle, MHI, 1980 (“a sweltering inferno”); general courts-martial offense ledger sheets, NARA RG 153, Office of the Judge Advocate General, boxes 17–19; “Amphibious Training Command,” #145, USNAd, IX-34; Steve Kluger, Yank: The Army Weekly, 58; Lee B. Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 32.
Naughty Norfolk: J. Blan van Urk, “Norfolk—Our Worst War Town,” American Mercury, Feb. 1943, 1944 (“solid block of beer joints” and “give me a concentration camp”); Phyllis A. Hall, “Crisis at Hampton Roads: The Problems of Wartime Congestion, 1942–1944,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1993, 405 (“girlie trailers”); Marvin W. Schlegel, Conscripted City: Norfolk in World War II, 193 (massacre white citizens).
Sober and otherwise: Owen C. Bolstad, Dear Folks: A Dog-Faced Infantryman in World War II, 9; Edwin Hubert Randle, Safi Adventure, 20.
Eight to twelve officers shared: Robert Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It,” Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 16, 1943, 20.
From this very anchorage: James R. Reckner, Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, 23; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” vol. I, USNAd, 383 (“previously seen salt water”); A. Russell Buchanan, The United States and World War II, vol. I, 148. Patton settled into: Diary, Oct. 21 and 23, 1942, GSP, LOC MS Div.; Fred Ayer, Jr., Before the Colors Fade, 116.
“generals so bold”: NWAf, 44; Farago, 194; D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 885n.
Shortly before seven: “U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Amphibious Force—Action Report,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24490. For an interesting antecedent, see Thucydides, “Launching of the Sicilian Expedition,” History of the Peloponnesian War, Rex Warner trans., 427–9.
The dawn was bright: Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, 56 (bright and blowing); Ch’ên T’ao, “Turkestan,” The Jade Mountain: A Chinese Anthology, Witter Bynner, trans., 14 (into the rooms).
Rendezvous at Cherchel
It began with a single light: Frederick C. Painton, “Secret Mission to North Africa,” Reader’s Digest, May 1943, 1; Godfrey B. Courtney, “Clark’s Secret Mission,” in Louis L. Snyder, ed., Masterpieces of War Reporting: The Great Moments of World War II,205–206 (“got to get off”); N.L.A. Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, 21; E. Alexander Powell, In Barbary, 309; A. J. Redway, “Admiral Jerauld Wright: The Life and Recollections of a Supreme Allied Commander,” NHC, WWII CF Indiv Pers, box 674; Joseph E. Persico, Roosevelt’s Secret War, 200–205.
an odd choice: F. W. Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, 90 (among the few Americans); Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield: Monty’s War Years, 1942–1944, 154 (a secret so profound).
That Eisenhower had entrusted: Carl W. McCardle, “Mark W. Clark,” These Are the Generals, 90–91 (Contraband); Blumenson, Mark Clark, 51, 54 (“nine dittos”), 248–5 (“The more stars”); Mark W. Clark, Calculated Risk, 49 (“When the soup”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 87 (“He seems to me”); D’Este, Bitter Victory, 55 (“evil genius”).
The voyage to Cherchel: Funk, 164; Three Years, 146 (“happy as a boy”); David Alvarez, Secret Messages, 62, 93, 97, 152, 184, 166–67, 170–71; Mary S. Lovell, Cast No Shadow, 147; H. Montgomery Hyde, Cynthia, 147; Anthony Cave Brown, The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan, 229; Peter Tompkins, The Murder of Admiral Darlan, 20 (“an ornament of Harry’s”); Kenneth Pendar, Adventure in Diplomacy, 11 (“so many Alices”); R. Harris Smith, OSS, 39; Leon Borden Blair, “Amateurs in Diplomacy: The American Vice Consuls in North Africa, 1941–1943,” Historian, Aug. 1973, 607.
Only a howling dog: Redway, 236; Clark, 79; Richard Livingstone, “Mark Clark’s Secret Landing,” in Basil Liddell Hart, ed., History of the Second World War, vol. 3, 1200; Tompkins, 47 (“What sort of army”).
Murphy was too excited: Robert Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 2, 70, 74, 102 (“nobody ever pays”), 107; Pendar, 18 (“gaiety”); Charles de Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 314; Macmillan, War Diaries: The Mediterranean, 1943–1945, 69.
At six A.M. General Mast: Boatner, 349; L. James Binder, Lemnitzer, A Soldier for His Time, 82–83.
For more than four hours: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 87; Blumenson, Mark Clark, 82; Binder, 83–84 (“Where are these”).
Perhaps lies: Most participants in this celebrated episode wrote accounts, sometimes elaborated in the telling. Among the most reliable is Teissier’s “Notes sur la Mission du General Clark en Afrique du Nord,” quoted in Waller, The Unseen War in Europe, 256; Murphy, 119; Binder, 82–88; “The French-American meeting of the Messelmoun,” OSS Files, NARA RG 226, E 99, box 39; William L. Langer, Our Vichy Gamble, 329; Renée Gosset, Conspiracy in Algiers, 45; Redway, 236; Three Years, 154; Clark, 85–88; Mason, ed., 201.
On the Knees of the Gods
As Hewitt’s Task Force: Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 539; Michael Howard and John Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 108 (“only the boiling white foam”).
Eight distinct deception plans: George Juskalian, author interview, Feb. 25, 2000; Charles Cruickshank, Deception in World War II, 38–44; Mason, ed., 194 (platoon of reporters).
Like Hewitt’s ships: “North African Operation, Convoys, Plans,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 231; Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 19; “Glossary for Use of U.S. Army Forces,” Sept. 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” box 24348.
The loading at British ports: Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” CMH, 2.37 CC1, II-31; Frierson, “Preparations for ‘Torch,’” vol. I, 26; “History of Planning, ASF [Army Service Forces],” 1946, CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 86.
The cable stirred: Frierson, “Preparations for ‘Torch,’” vol. I, 37; “History of Planning, ASF,” CMH, 86; Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 143.
Few of the 72,000: “What to Do Aboard a Transport,” 260; Francis J. Vojta, The Gopher Gunners: A History of Minnesota’s 151st Field Artillery, 141 (Belgravia Riding Academy); Guy Ramsey, One Continent Redeemed, 20; A. D. Malcolm, History of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders 8th Battalion, 1939–47, 74; Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It” Robert J. Berens, Citizen Soldier, 42; William F. Beekman, “A Diary of World War II,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM.
For the officers: Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 78 (“Blouses were worn”); Monro MacCloskey, Torch and the Twelfth Air Force, 84 (“Bath, sahib?”); Juskalian, author interview, Feb. 25, 2000; letter, TR to Eleanor, Oct. 26, 1942, TR, LOC, box 9. (Ted Roosevelt was alternately known as TR, Jr., and TR, III; he was in fact the third successive Roosevelt male to bear the name. See Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex, 46, 766.)
Below the waterline: Kluger, Yank: The Army Weekly, 16; Mina Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 102; Howard and Sparrow, 108; Jensen, 24.
Troops caught nibbling: Oswald Jett, “As I Saw the War,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 1st AD, 47th Medical Bn, MHI; Harry P. Abbott, The Nazi “88” Made Believers, 25; Bolstad, 70; Wilbur C. Darnell, author interview, Oct. 19, 1999; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment, Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (“became quite wild”).
Morale suffered: G. R. Grandage, “Operation TORCH: Invasion of North Africa,” ts, IWM, 87/16/1 (nothing stronger than ginger ale); “Morale report for period 19–26 November 1942,” Center Task Force, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, NAf-Med, box 239 (“sorry sons of bitches” and “I hate myself”).
“To make a good army”: Barbara W. Tuchman, Sand Against the Wind: Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945, 204; Russell A. Gugeler, ts (unpublished Ward biography), OW, MHI, x-18, x-27; George F. Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 16; Hamilton H. Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 37; Hamilton H. Howze, OH, Russell A. Gugeler, Aug. 1976, OW, MHI (“None of the division”).
Twenty months earlier: Charles E. Heller and William A. Stofft, eds., America’s First Battles, 1776–1965, 238; Homer Ankrum, Dogfaces Who Smiled Through Tears, 22–34.
after nine false alarms: Vojta, 124; Brinkley, 36; Ankrum, 32 (“World War II is a battle”).
Ten months later: Benjamin F. Caffey, Jr., OH, Feb. 1950, SM, MHI; Ann Larson, ed., “The History and Contribution to American Democracy of Volunteer ‘Citizen Soldiers’ of Southwest Iowa, 1930–1945,” 22; John H. Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division.
Among those who survived: Robert R. Moore, Jr., author interview, June 13, 2000; Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 9, 1997, 1.
Fourteen years later, Bob Moore: “Induction of Company F,” memo, Iowa GSM; author visit, southwest Iowa, Oct. 1999; Villisca (Iowa) Review, Feb. 20, 1941.
Then the time: Dave Berlovich, author interview, Oct. 19, 1999; Clarinda (Iowa) Herald-Journal, March 3, 1941; Red Oak (Iowa) Express, March 3, 1941; Larson, ed., 42.
And in Villisca: Villisca Review, Feb. 27 and March 6, 1941.
“Everyone was excited”: Curtiss, ed., 102; William O. Darby with William H. Baumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 7; Ramsey, 20; S.W.C. Pack, Invasion North Africa, 1942, 10; Drew Middleton, Our Share of Night, 167 (“Chinese flag”); “North Africa,” NARA RG 338, Records of US Army Commands, WTF, box 1; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 175n (“First Families of Virginia, in bathrobes”).
Shortly after sunset: Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 78; letter, TR to Eleanor, Oct. 30, 1942, TR, LOC, box 9.
A Man Must Believe in His Luck
Known as TUXFORD: DDE msg, Oct. 21, 1942, NARA RG 218, Records of JCS, box 325; Richard McMillan, Mediterranean Assignment, 316; Winston G. Ramsey, ed., “The War in Gibraltar,” After the Battle, No. 21, 1978, 1; Alden Hatch, General Ike, 128 (“thick as logs”); Michael J. McKeough and Richard Lockridge, Sgt. Mickey and General Ike, 46 (“ten shillings”).
The Snoopers had: “Interviews on Four Aspects of the Air Campaign in Africa,” July 1943, Office of Asst. Chief of Air Staff, Intel, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 14; Ramsey, ed., “The War in Gibraltar,” 1 (windsocks); “A Study of Gibraltar,” July 1941, NARA RG 407, E 427, 1st AD, 601-2.10.
Late in the afternoon: Paul W. Tibbetts, Jr., The Tibbetts Story, 107; AAFinWWII, 66.
Staff cars pulled up: Carleton E. Coon, ts, n.d., NARA RG 226, OSS, box 39, folder 8 (“General Howe”); msg, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” box 24350.
Eisenhower left the guest suite: Raymond H. Croll Papers, ts, n.d., MHI, 97–98; Tute, 155; Ramsey, ed., “The War in Gibraltar.”
Eisenhower’s brisk stroll: Larrabee, 412 (“worth an army corps”); Kenneth S. Davis, Experience of War, 285 (“good and right in the moral sense”); Arthur Coningham, OH, FCP, Feb. 14, 1947, MHI (“Ike has the qualities”).
In his rapid rise: Boatner, 152; Larrabee, 415, 419 (“far more complicated”), 420, 421 (P. D. Eisenhauer); Stephen E. Ambrose, The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 15 (“lot of big talk”), 17, 97 (“not very sure of himself”).
His capacity for hard work: Chronology, Chandler, vol. V; Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 104; Larrabee, 420 (“contrived”); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, 202; DDE to GCM, Oct. 20, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 629 (“Whenever”); DDE to GCM, Chandler, vol. I, 591 (“I find”); DDE to Vernon E. Prichard, Aug. 27, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 505 (“Fake reputations”).
As D-Day for TORCH: DDE to C.K. Gailey, Jr., Oct. 12, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 608; Ambrose, Eisenhower, 178; DDE, Crusade in Europe, 65 (“sober, even fearful”).
Inside Gibraltar: Photograph, Ramsey, ed., “The War in Gibraltar,” 1; DDE to HKH, Nov. 3, 1942, HKH, correspondence, NHC, box 1 (“Dear Kent”).
On November 6: msg, Nov. 6, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1388; “Memorandum to General Eisenhower,” Oct. 29, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 153; GCM to DDE, Nov. 5, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1388 (“orders to defend”); Murphy, 121; Harry C. Butcher diary, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 165, 164 (“big and little”).
On November 7: Three Years, 165–67; DDE to GCM, Nov. 7, 1942, Chandler, 669.
Not until reconnaissance planes: War diary, German naval staff, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 645; diary, Hellmuth Greiner, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; NWAf, 186 (“I await a ruthless”).
At daybreak on Saturday: “Torpedoing and Salvage of USS Thomas Stone,” Jan. 26, 1943, NARA RG 407, box 24487; AAR, 39th CT, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7501; Jensen, 26; Joseph B. Mittelman, Eight Stars to Victory, 56; Phillips, El Guettar,43; AAR, 39th CT, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7501.
Some hours passed: André Beaufre, “General Giraud’s Escape,” History of the Second World War, vol. 3, Basil Liddell Hart, ed., 1198 (field glasses); Kenneth S. Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy, 357; Clark, 96; DDE to H. H. Giraud, Nov. 4, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 656 (phony London letterhead).
Giraud was intrepid: Sept. 19, 1942, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-78-D (“Surrounded”); Brown, The Last Hero, 240; Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 346 (“Allez, mes enfants!”); David Hunt, A Don at War, 154; Murphy, 180 (porcelain cat); Macmillan,War Diaries, 68 (“so stately”), 71; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-221 (“Papa Snooks”).
The general’s greatest genius: Beaufre, 1197; G. Ward Price, Giraud and the African Scene, 45.
Now he was in: Clark, Calculated Risk, 96-98; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 100; GCM to DDE, Nov. 1 and 6, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1388 (10 million francs); Binder, 97; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 186; Davis,Dwight D. Eisenhower, 357; DDE to GCM, Oct. 29, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 640; Three Years, 171 (“Old gentleman”); DDE to GCM, Nov. 7, 1942, Chandler, 668 (“I’m weary”).
Dinner at Government House: Murphy, 180; Tompkins, 112; Three Years, 171 (“We would like”).
Giraud took his leave: Ambrose, Eisenhower, 203 (“airplane accident”); S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, vol. II, 320; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 176 (a few moments of meditation); Pack, Invasion North Africa, 26; Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower,354; DDE to GCM, Oct. 29, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 642 (“I fear nothing”); DDE to GCM, Oct. 20, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 628 (“To a certain extent”).
CHAPTER 2: LANDING
“In the Night, All Cats Are Grey”
Two hundred and thirty: “History of Third Port, TC,” NARA RG 407, 270/64/28/7, 10; Powell, In Barbary, 322.
The plan was British: RESERVIST planning memo, Aug. 17, 1942, NARA RG 94, special file, 6–8. 1311/42; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 534 (“in the night, all cats”); AAR, n.d., “Reservist” file, SM, MHI.
To command RESERVIST: John Laffin, British VCs of World War 2, 25; Leo Disher, “HMS Walney,” in John A. Parris, Jr., and Ned Russell, Springboard to Berlin, 93 (“Rain, darkness”), 102 (“the opportunity I have been waiting for”). Disher’s firsthand account is brilliant.
Peters worried the Americans: Richard Lamb, Churchill As War Leader, 172 (“showed how a frontal assault”); Susan H. Godson, Viking of Assault: Admiral John Lesslie Hall, Jr., and Amphibious Warfare, 9; Fergusson, 182 (“defenders must be drenched”); Field order #1, Oct. 11, 1942, 26th Inf, MRC FDM; MWC, “Memorandum to General Eisenhower,” Oct. 13, 1942, DDE, PP-pres, box 153 (“a Trojan horse”); Roskill, 327.
Convinced that Peters planned: AAR, NARA RG 407, “Special Files,” box 24486; A. C. Bennett to CINC U.S. Fleet, Nov. 30, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 786.
Another American admiral: “Reminiscences of Vice Adm. Bernhard H. Bieri,” 1997, USNI OHD, 112 (“I can’t take your advice”); Paul McDonald Robinett, Armor Command, 32; MWC, “Memorandum to General Eisenhower,” Oct. 13, 1942, DDE, PP-pres, box 153 (“If these craft”); unmailed letter, OW to PMR, n.d., OW, MHI.
The honor of storming: “Historical and Pictorial Review,” 6th Inf yearbook, 1941, MHI; Howze, OH, Gugeler, Aug. 1976, OW, MHI (“finest assignment”).
The overloaded cutters: Disher, in Parris and Russell, 102, 109 (“without firing a shot”); memo, Leland L. Rounds to William Donovan, July 13, 1944, “Torch Report,” NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS files, box 40; L. L. Rounds, OH, Oct. 21, 1948, SM, MHI; Anthony Cave Brown, ed., The Secret War Report of the OSS, 145; “Awards of Medals for Gallantry During Attack on Oran Harbour,” Admiralty AAR, PRO, 1/11915.
At one minute: AAR, Wallace Moseley, RN, Nov. 17, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, CINCLANT, box 2; Disher, in Parris and Russell, 111; Marvin P. Clemons, ASEQ, 1st AD, MHI (former coal mine brakeman).
Peters, Duncan, and fifteen: Walney account: AAR, T. H. Troubridge, RN, Nov. 13, 1942, NARA RG 407, special file, 6–8. 1311/42; AAR, Wallace Moseley, RN, Nov. 17, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, CINCLANT, box 2; AAR, RN, n.d., SM, MHI; Disher, in Parris and Russell, 93–125; Pack, Invasion North Africa, 1942, 87; AAR, RN, “Assault on Oran,” Dec. 27, 1942, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-16-A; David Rame, Road to Tunis, 61–62 (“wire through cheese”); NWAf, 203; Destruction, 148.
Hartland fared: Hartland account: AAR, John M. Gill, USN, “Operations of U.S. Naval Forces, Center Task Force,” Nov. 30, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 786; “Awards of Medals for Gallantry During Attack on Oran Harbour,” Admiralty, PRO, 1/11915.
A mile to the west: Ernie Pyle, Here Is Your War, 22 (“Them dead men”); Disher, in Parris and Russell, 123; memo, E. B. Howard to DDE, Nov. 18, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3165.
Men paddled: “Awards of Medals for Gallantry,” Admiralty, PRO, 1/11915; AAR, Gill; AAR, G. D. Dickey, USN, “Operations of U.S. Naval Forces, Center Task Force,” Nov. 30, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 786; Paul Auphan and Jacques Moral, The French Navy in World War II, 226.
French marines rounded up: “History of 3rd Battalion, 6th Armored Infantry,” NARA RG 407; AAR, Wallace D. Moseley, RN, Admiralty, PRO, 1/11915; AAR, Gill; Auphan and Moral, 226–27; AAR, A. B. Cunningham, RN, “Operation TORCH—Report of Proceedings,” March 30, 1943; NWAf, 204; AAR, RN, n.d., SM, MHI (“contributed to the half-hearted manner”); DDE to B. B. Somervell, Nov. 18, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, records of special staff, box 1381; Edward Ellsberg, No Banners, No Bugles,49, 71, 133.
Corpses bobbed: Andrew T. McNamara, Quartermaster Activities of II Corps, 28; William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, III-8; William F. Powers, OH, Herbert Hart, Aug. 1985, CEOH; John G. Rosta, OH, G. Kurt Piehler and Mark Rybak, ROHA, 1997; memo, II Corps QM, Nov. 30, 1942, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-73-D.
Ostensibly to avoid: memo, A.B. Cunningham, Dec. 18, 1942, Admiralty 1/11915, PRO (“silence is the best policy”); Rame, 60 (hatless buccaneer); Laffin, 26; “Reminiscences of Rear Adm. George W. Bauernschmidt,” 1991, USNI OHD (pilotage fees).
Eisenhower eventually accepted: Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-174; A. J. Redway, “Admiral Jerauld Wright,” ts, 1995, NHC, 269; “Reminiscences of Vice Adm. Bernhard H. Bieri,” 1997, USNI OHD (“going to get that fellow”); diary, Nov. 15, 1942, OW, MHI; Gugeler, OW, MHI, x-35.
In Barbary
Faint odors: John P. Downing, At War with the British, 68; H. R. Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 38 (“sumptuous as a condemned man’s”); NWAf, 192–93; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” part IV, n.d., MRC FDM; Bill Sabin, “The Loves and Lives of 13008634,” ts, UT-K, MS-1881, box 20, 9 (“Sure I’m scared”); Rame, 7 (“Looks as if”).
Under the plan: NWAf, 192–93. (Many U.S. Army units in North Africa were organized into regimental combat teams and battalion combat teams, usually by adding engineers and other support units to the infantry or armored core. At the risk of oversimplification, I generally retain the traditional regimental and battalion nomenclature.)
The largest contingent: James J. Altieri, “Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers,” 1977, Louis F. Lisko Papers, Rangers, ASEQ, MHI; David W. Hogan, Jr., Raiders or Elite Infantry? 18; Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Fought Ahead of Everybody,” Saturday Evening Post, July 15, 1946, 15; James Altieri, The Spearheaders, 122 (“Be bloody thankful”).
Two companies: William O. Darby and W.H. Dammer, “U.S. Rangers,” lecture, Oct. 27, 1944, Army and Navy Staff College; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 11; “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 1972, USNI OHD, 3–111 (“For King and country!”); Altieri, The Spearheaders, 129; Darby, Darby’s Rangers, 19–21; Jerome Joseph Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalions in World War II,” 115; Knickerbocker et al., 45 (The mayor of Arzew); Ramsey, 30.
On the weather deck: Stanley J. Grogan, “Memorandum for Mr. McCloy,” n.d., NARA RG 165, E 418, Director of Plans and Ops, box 1228; A. J. Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” New Yorker, Apr. 24, 1943, 221; C. M. Eymer, ts, MRC FDM, Allen 1989.124, box 392; Consuelo Allen, author interview, Sept. 21, 2000; Knickerbocker et al., 38.
Terry de la Mesa Allen: William Frye, “‘Terrible Terry’ of the 1st Division Is Getting Tougher as He Goes Along,” Kansas City Star, June 17, 1943 (name swaggered); Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 9; Robert John Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” master’s thesis, 1965, 8; Thomas W. Dixon, “Terry Allen,” Army, Apr. 1978, 57.
The drowsy interwar years: obituary, New York Times, Sept. 13, 1969 (“the fightingest man”); “How Major Allen Beat Cowboy Champ in 300-Mile Race,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 31, 1922; San Antonio Light, Jan. 20, 1952.
Less successful: Rogers, “A Study of Leadership,” 8 (“most indifferent student”); Terry de la Mesa Allen Papers, MS 307, S.L.A. Marshall Military History Collection, UTEP; “Gen. Marshall Smashing Army’s Caste System in Quest for Best Leaders,”St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 19, 1940.
With war, the rioters: Robert A. Hewitt, SOOHP, Earl D. Bevan, 1982, MHI (kept a list in a safe); Robert W. Porter, Jr., SOOHP, John N. Sloan, 1981, MHI; “Gen. Marshall Smashing Army’s Caste System in Quest for Best Leaders,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch,Dec. 19, 1940.
After receiving: C.M. Eymer, ts, MRC FDM, Allen 1989.124, box 392; Stanhope Brasfield Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, ts, MRC FDM; GCM to TdA, July 30, 1942, GCM Papers, Pentagon office corr, GCM Lib, box 56, folder 17 (“Be on your guard”); DDE to TdA, “Morals and Conduct,” Oct. 10, 1942, AFHQ micro, R-73-D, box 115 (a tart memorandum).
Proud, self-absorbed: Downing, 51; Porter, SOOHP, MHI (“You should forget”); letter, TdA to Mary Frances, Oct. 23, 1942, TdA, MHI.
Chaos awaited him: Ford, 6; Stephen V. Ralph, “The Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry in the Invasion of North Africa,” 1947, MRC FDM, 13; AAR, “Naval Commander Centre Task Force, Operation TORCH,” Dec. 27, 1942, NARA AFHQ micro, RN Operations, R 16-A; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 32; MacCloskey, 83 (“Men, this is what”).
Linguists holding bullhorns: Mason, 26; Knickerbocker et al., 24–25; John K. Waters, SOOHP, William C. Parnell III, 1980, MHI, 166 (“Okay, boys”).
Some fired: Derrill M. Daniel, “Landings at Oran, Gela and Omaha Beaches,” 1947, Armed Forces Staff College, 9 (“They’re not shooting”); Gerald Astor, The Greatest War, 259 (“half the grapevines”); Ralph, 15 (fled down the road).
Confusion and error: Malcolm Marshall, ed., Proud Americans of World War II, 24 (“Tank coming!”); Paul K. Skogsberg, “The North African Campaigns,” ASEQ, 1st Reconnaissance Troop, MHI, 21 (ran him through); Abbott, 28 (“Everything’s all right”); Parris and Russell, 87 (“The French die hard”).
Terry Allen had seen worse: Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” 221; letter, TdA to Associated Press, July 23, 1947, TdA, MHI (“a mountebank”); “Peppery General, Well Known Here, Changes His Branch of Service in New Assignment of Duty,”Kansas City Star, Jan. 4, 1942; Frye, “Terrible Terry,” Kansas City Star, June 17, 1943 (“A soldier doesn’t fight”).
Using a flashlight: Henry C. Wolfe, AAR, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” Dec. 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24348; Frye, “Terrible Terry” (“I believe”); Knickerbocker et al., 45.
At Beach Y: George Juskalian, author interview, Feb. 25, 2000; TR to Eleanor, Nov. 11, 1942, TR, LOC.
Bookmakers in the 1st Division: Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 214; GCM to TdA, June 5, 1942, GCM Papers, Pentagon corr, GCM Lib, box 56, folder 17; Downing, 34 (“Goddam it”).
Handsome he was not: Maxwell Hamilton, “Junior in Name Only,” Retired Officer, June 1981, 28 (“the most disreputable-looking”); GCM to TdA, June 5, 1942, GCM Papers, Pentagon corr, GCM Lib, box 56, folder 17 (“rare courage”); Michael Pearlman,To Make Democracy Safe for America, 249.
His father, the twenty-sixth: Hamilton, 29, 31 (“never amount”); Pearlman, 250–51; Edward J. Renehan, Jr., The Lion’s Pride, 210, 226; Linda Donn, The Roosevelt Cousins, 99.
Now Roosevelt was ashore: Pearlman, 251; TR to Eleanor, Oct. 20, Oct. 30, Nov. 11, 1942, Jan. 16, 1943, TR, LOC (“little, scarcely seen shapes”).
The French counterattacked: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 20; Karig, 213; Robinett, Armor Command, 56.
“Soldier, what”: William M. Lee, ASEQ, n.d., 26th Inf, MHI (“Come on, follow me”); Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Day Before Yesterday, 440; Renehan, 66.
VILLAIN
One final element: “Parachutist’s combat equipment,” 2nd Bn/503rd Para Inf, “Air Campaign in N Af,” DDE Lib, box 6; “Partial Planning File, First United States’ Use of Parachute Operations in Connection with TORCH,” 1942, MHI Lib (Slips of rice paper).
The objective of Operation VILLAIN: “Operation TORCH: The Dispatch of Aircraft from the United Kingdom by Eighth Air Force,” Sept. 14, 1944, Historical Section, U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, NARA RG 407, E 427, Pre-Invasion Planning, box 24351; Lowell Rooks, II Corps chief of staff, cited in MWC, “Memorandum to General Eisenhower,” Oct. 7, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 153 (“no material difference”); MWC, OH, SOOHP, F. S. Rittgers, Jr., 1972, MHI (“The British just want”).
The 2nd Battalion: William Pelham Yarborough, Bail Out over North Africa, 31; John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 8–9; “Administrative History, 60th Troop Carrier Group,” AFHRA, NARA micro, R-B 0155-0157 (“distracted conversation”).
Clark had approved: Eighth Air Force msg, AFHRA, NARA micro, R-A 5857; Lloyd G. Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa” William Breuer, Geronimo: American Paratroopers in World War II, 34 (“Dear God”).
After takeoff: Warren, 7; AAR, Gordon H. Browne, NARA RG 226, OSS, E 99, boxes 39–40.
The sun rose: AAR, Carleton S. Coon, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 39, folder 8 (banging their fists); Maurice Tugwell, Airborne to Battle: A History of Airborne Warfare, 1918–1971, 141.
Airborne once again: Gerard M. Devlin, Paratrooper!, 138; Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa,” 1947, 10; AAR, William P. Yarborough, Nov. 13, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, WWII Operations Reports, box 234; “Administrative History, 60th Troop Carrier Group,” AFHRA, NARA micro, R-B 0155–0157.
Most of Raff ’s: Breuer, 41; “USAF Airborne Operations, World War II and Korea,” 1962, USAF Historical Division, MHI, 5; Warren, 13.
To the Last Man
Viewed from the great: Powell, 280 (“resounded to the groans”); R.H.W.S. Hastings, The Rifle Brigade in the Second World War, 1939–1945, 209 (“white-walled city”); Tompkins, 11 (“reclining woman”).
So it was: Murphy, 120–28 (“I am convinced”); Anthony Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 70; Tompkins, 70 (“chloroform the city”), 90 (“painful search”).
“I am happy to say”: Langer, 346; Murphy, 127–30; Kingsbury Smith, “Unrevealed Facts About Robert Murphy,” American Mercury, Nov. 1944, 528 (“We are coming by invitation”).
Murphy described: François Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 222; Leahy, 48 (Popeye); Murphy, 127–30; Lamb, 211 (“a bad man”).
By a coincidence: Russell Brooks, “The Unknown Darlan,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Aug. 1955, 879; Boatner, 117; Tompkins, 65; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 105 (“If I could meet”); Murphy, 118, 129 (“I have known”).
For fifteen minutes: Pendar, AAR, Jan. 3, 1945, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (“The necessary”); Murphy, 131 (“Giraud is not”).
The insurrection: Funk, 212 (“This isn’t just”), 218–20; Pendar, Adventure, 108-109 (Pirates of Penzance); AAR, “Narrative of Captain Frederick Brown,” July 17, 1945, NARA RG 26, E 99, OSS, box 40; msg, Nov. 8, 1942, NARA RG 38, OCNO, Office of Naval Intel., box 1 (“France and her honor”).
Regrettably, the Allies: Bolstad, 31, 63; Leslie W. Bailey, “The Operations of the 3rd Battalion, 135th Infantry at Algiers,” 1948, 11; NWAf, 243.
The lights of Algiers: AAR, A. B. Russell, RN, “Operation Terminal,” Nov. 11, 1942, SM, MHI; Leslie W. Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 52.
Then, on his fourth: AAR, A.F.C. Layard, in Bolstad, 225.
Badly shaken: Richard Collier, The War in the Desert, 14 (“light out like stripey-assed baboons”); Tute, 177; Auphan and Moral, 222; Layard, 225; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 46.
Fancourt sounded the recall: John MacVane, Journey into War, 59; H. L. St. J. Fancourt, “Report of Commanding Officer, Force TERMINAL,” Nov. 11, 1942, SM, MHI (“The morale effect of a destroyer”).
Even with the ship gone: Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 49; “A Partial History, 135th Infantry Regiment,” n.d., Iowa GSM; “Regimental History, 135th Infantry,” NARA RG 407.
Then the unmistakable creak: Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; Kenneth Maitland Davies, To the Last Man, 97; NWAf, 244; Bolstad, 95.
Thirty-three thousand: Richard F. Kinden, “The Road to Fort McGregor and the Long Way Home,” ts, IWM, 84/50/1 (“I should have thought”); Pack, 64 (“testing for salt”).
Finding the right beach: Jack Marshall, “Tales of a Timid Commando,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 34th ID, MHI; AAR, “Company B, 168th Inf,” Nov. 1942, Iowa GSM; Ankrum, 122 (“I’m sorry to tell you”); AAR, RN, Inshore Squadron, H.M.S.
Bulolo, Dec. 8, 1942, NARA AFHQ micro, RN Ops., R-17-A; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 206; AAR, “5 Corps Lessons From TORCH,” Nov. 26, 1942, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 472.
Outnumbered five to one: Marshall, “Tales of a Timid Commando” (“Why don’t you”); Macksey, Crucible of Power: The Fight for Tunisia, 1942–1943, 71 (“French families); Benjamin Caffey, OH, Feb. 1950, SM, MHI; Middleton, Our Share of Night, 175 (enterprising wine merchant).
On the far western fringe: David Scott Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 151; Middleton, 175 (“You gentlemen”).
The 168th Infantry: NWAf, 236; Robert R. Moore, AAR, “Record of Events from 14 Oct. 1942 to Armistice, Nov. 1942,” Iowa GSM; “The Tunisian Campaign,” 34th Div., Dec. 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 334–0.3 (“not prepared”); letter, Moore to family, Dec. 2, 1942 (“I got my helmet creased”); Red Oak Express, Feb. 22, 1943; Des Moines Sunday Register, July 18, 1943 (“I thought the fight”); Bill Roth, “The Longest Days of a G.I.,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM; 168th Inf Regt, pamphlet, Iowa GSM.
“Glory Enough for Us All”
The stars had once again: U.S.S. Brooklyn war diary, Nov. 7, 1942, SEM, NHC, box 15.
More than 100: The Landings in North Africa, 16 (“reeling drunk”); Morison attributes the “Chinese laundry” line to Robert C. Giffen, Operations in North African Waters, 48; Kreidberg and Henry, 678; Astor, 252.
A gale born south of Iceland: Erbes, “Hell on Wheels Surgeon,” ts, USMA Arch, 11; Robert E. Coffin, “Operation TORCH: A Perilous Preview,” Army, Nov. 1992, 42 (“I can’t believe a ship”); Philip G. Cochran, OH, 1975, USAF HRC, 418; Fitzhugh L. Palmer, Jr., “The Old Indispensables,” Proceedings, Aug. 1976, 61.
For Hewitt, the storm: Alfred M. Gruenther to GSP, Oct. 13, 1942, NARA RG 218, CCS 381, section 1–1a, box 325; Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” ts, MHI, 21; AFHQ msg, Nov. 7, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1388 (“Very poor”).
“I hope to God”: Mountbatten, OH, n.d., HKH, NHC, box 6.
The choice: diary, Oct. 28, 30, 1942, GSP, LOC Ms Div, box 2, folder 13.
“We are to be congratulated”: Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 168; Farago, 9, 13 (“Some goddam fool”).
Despite their early antipathy: Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 112, 121 (“War is the only place”); DDE to GSP, Jr., Oct. 13, 1942, Chandler, 618; NWAf, 44–45; “Reminiscences of Rear Adm. Elliott B. Strauss,” 1989, USNI OHD (“when things get overturned”).
In the smallest hours: weather reports, HKH, correspondence, NHC, box 1; Tuleja, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” in Howarth, ed., 319–20.
Hewitt studied: Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” 76 (“velvet”).
A solitary banana boat: AAR, “Trip of Honduran SS Contessa,” March 22, 1943, in Wheeler, ed., 76.
With new urgency: Harmon, Combat Commander, 81; Franklyn E. Dailey, Jr., Joining the War at Sea, 1939–1945, 137 (“resembled a fraternity house”); memo, HQ Task Force A, Oct. 10, 1942, NARA micro, Western Task Force, AFHQ G-3, R-24-C (first-day battle casualities); Harry McK. Roper, “Report on Observations Made as Observer with Task Force Brushwood,” n.d., NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52; AAR, Hewitt, March 1943, NARA RG 218, JCS, CCS 381, section 1–1a, box 325 (wetted down); Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 71 (“pretend they’re Japs”).
Commanders with an impulse: F.E.M. Whiting, correspondence, 1972, USNI OHD (“Ense petit”); Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 92 (“glory enough”); Emily Morison Beck, ed., Sailor Historian: The Best of Samuel Eliot Morison, 205 (“gangway for a fighting ship”).
Patton napped: Patton directive, Oct. 14, 1942, NARA RG 165, Office of the Director of Plans and Operations, General Records, corr, box 1229 (“Get off that damned beach”); GCM to DDE, n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1387 (“avoid firing”); NWAf,45, 70 (“superiority complex”).
On the darkened bridge: msg, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (“We come, among”); AFHQ msg, NARA RG 218, JCS, box 325 (“Vive”); Farago, 17 (“Mes amis”).
“God’s most favorite”: Hatch, George Patton: General in Spurs, 138.
Only rebels: Brooks, “Casablanca—The French Side of the Fence,” Proceedings, Sept. 1951, 909; “Memorandum for Colonel Donovan,” OSS AAR, Jan. 1943, NARA RG 226, E 99, box 40 (scheme by Moroccan Jews); “TORCH Report,” Sept. 6, 1944, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (Leroy the Badger); AAR, Émile Béthouart, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (“a juvenile enthusiasm”); letter, Auguste Paul Noguès to G. F. Howe, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
After that, nothing: Macmillan, The Blast of War, 197 (“No-Yes”); AAR, Michel Despax, July 15, 1944, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (his mistress’s bed); AAR, Béthouart; letter, Noguès to Howe; Philip H. Bagby, “D-Day in Casablanca,”American Foreign Service Journal, March 1945, 16 (Senegalese soldiers); NWAf, 95.
“The sky is dark”: letter, Dave Murdock, Arizona Republic, Dec. 6, 1942, MCC, YU. Soldier letters collected by Mina Curtiss frequently indicate the date and newspaper or magazine in which the correspondence was published.
The lieutenant was deceived: Morison, “The Approach to Fedala,” ts, n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16 (“One plot showed”); “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 426 (“center of Times Square”).
Despite this irrefutable evidence: 3rd ID, “Brushwood Final Report,” Dec. 8, 1942, NARA micro, AFHQ G-3 Operations, R-24-C; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 426 (“as though one switch”); AAR, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24430; Morison, “The Approach to Fedala,” ts, n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16; Truscott, Command Missions, 93 (“To be perfectly honest”).
Destroyers tacked: “Operations, 3rd Bn., 60th Combat Team, 8–11 Nov. 1942,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7540; Ernest D. Whitehead, Sr., World War II: An Ex-Sergeant Remembers, 33 (impaled his thigh); Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It,” 20; Randle,Safi Adventure, 27 (“Don’t harass”).
Then the loadmasters bellowed: AAR, U.S.S. Charles Carroll, n.d., U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24490.
At Fedala, the first wave: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 430 (“indescribable confusion”); “CSI Battlebook 3-A: Operation TORCH,” CSI, 53; AAR, J. T. Hagglove, “Report of Operation at Fedala,” U.S.S. Leonard Wood, Nov. 28, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, Box 24490; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 436; Kerwin, SOOHP, MHI, 123 (scavenging life jackets).
Eighty miles north: Truscott, Command Decisions, 97; Mittelman, 48 (“like a yacht race”); AAR, Henry T. Allen, n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16; “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia and Port Lyautey Airdrome,” 1945, ts, 2–3.7 AEI, CMH.
The third and final: Karl Baedeker, The Mediterranean, 109; Justin McGuinness, Footprint Morocco Handbook, 203; Oscar Koch, ts, n.d., MHI (picture postcards); lecture, Louis Ely, Feb. 5, 1943, SEM, NHC (Jew’s Cliff).
To seize Safi port: AAR, 47th Infantry, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514; Karig, 184 (“sawed-off”); SEM, NHC, box 4, folder 2; George Bastedo, “K Goes to Africa,” ts, n.d., in Chester H. Jordan file, 3rd Bn, 47th Inf, ASEQ, MHI; Randle, Safi Adventure,appendix A (“Violent, rapid”).
The usual muddle: Harmon, 84 (stretched a huge net); “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 408.
Machine-gun rounds: lecture, C. G. Richardson, “The Attack on Safi,” Aug. 20, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 164.
Unsettled, the troops: James Adams, “Observer’s Report on Landing Operations of Task Force BLACKSTONE,” Jan. 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 52 (They flopped); Bastedo, “K Goes to Africa” Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa.”
Three more waves: Adams, “Observer’s Report” (“A soldier would snake”); Randle, Safi Adventure, 45, 58.
By early afternoon: Mittelman, 65; Erbes, “Hell on Wheels Surgeon,” 15 (“with a welder’s torch”).
It was all too much: “Official Report Submitted by Commander of the Safi Garrison,” Nov. 14, 1942, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1; NWAf, 109.
Eisenhower had trusted: Three Years, 173–76; DDE to GCM, Nov. 8, 1942, Chandler, 673 (“Everything appears”).
Besides that: DDE to John S. D. Eisenhower, Oct. 13, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 617.
“this business of warfare”: Three Years, 176–77; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 678 (“That I do not believe”).
“Worries of a Commander”: DDE memo, Nov. 8, 1942, Chandler, 675.
CHAPTER 3: BEACHHEAD
A Sword in Algiers
This was war: Martha Gellhorn, quoted in Paul Fussell, Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic, 298 (“our condition”); Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach.”
East of the Algerian: Destruction, 144; The Landings in North Africa, 13; “5 Corps Lessons from TORCH,” extract from letter, Nov. 26, 1942, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 472 (“all very friendly”).
Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Doyle: letter, John O’Daniel to OW, Jan. 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Berens, 36–37 (Ignoring orders and “at the beach”).
Luftwaffe pilots: The Landings in North Africa, 104; Baltimore Sun, Dec. 17, 1942; Karig, 220; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 213.
Pleasing as such retaliatory: AAR, Jan. 3, 1945, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40; Pendar, 112.
In Juin’s limousine: Charles W. Ryder, OH, March 1949, SM, MHI (“I will go anywhere”); Murphy, 132.
A bugler perched: AAR, July 17, 1945, and Jan. 3, 1945, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (“I don’t like blood”); Pendar, 114; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division (hunting trophies); Ryder, OH, March 1949, SM, MHI (“Are you”); AAR, C.W. Ryder, Nov. 19, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, box 244; Murphy, 133.
At dawn on Monday: Roskill, 325; Fergusson, 213; S.W.C. Pack, Invasion North Africa 1942, 80 (“Everyone lie down!”).
So, too, did General Giraud: Langer, 350 (“his presence”); DDE to GCM, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 680 (“stupid Frogs”).
The authorities in Vichy: Langer, 356 (“a rebel chief and a felon”); memo, J. J. McCloy to L. J. McNair, March 31, 1943, NARA RG 165, Plans and Ops, box 1230; Funk, 234; Tompkins, 116 (uniform had gone missing).
Three hours later: Murphy, 135 (“messes things”); Darryl F. Zanuck, Tunis Expedition, 39, 48.
The Hôtel St. Georges: Baedeker, 221; Middleton, 191 (spinsters touring).
Clark found General Ryder: Berens, 38 (“shoot their butts off”); “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1, 1–13; Clark, Calculated Risk, 108.
“We have work”: Clark, Calculated Risk, 108–13; “Record of Events” (“All my associates”); Langer, 352 (“Pétain is nothing”); log, Nov. 10, 1942, Jerauld Wright Papers, LOC, box 2 (“That is your decision”); Murphy, 138 (“Would you mind”).
The Americans retreated: Murphy, 138 (Clark’s tacit threat); Funk, 243 (“in the name”); Tompkins, 121 (“J’accepte”); “Record of Events,” 13.
He immediately: Alan Moorehead, The End in Africa, 61 (“He appeared”); Funk, 240 (“I issued”); Tompkins, 123 (“I am lost”); “Record of Events,” 13; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 217; Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” 29 (“Mon Admiral, by order”).
At Gibraltar, Eisenhower thumbed: Chandler, 679 (“War brings”); Butcher diary, Nov. 8 (“good assassin”) and 13 (“in a neutral country”), DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 165.
But it was Oran: DDE to GCM, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 680 (“My biggest”).
A Blue Flag over Oran
American soldiers had converged: Field Order #1, Oct. 11, 1942, 26th Inf., MRC FDM (Brooklyn, Brockton).
Terry Allen and a larger portion: Rame, 16 (“scrofulous”); author interview, Eston White; Downing, 92 (When the mule).
A wounded soldier lay: Downing, 89 (“Don’t kick”); Fred W. Hall, Jr., “A Memoir of World War II,” ts, 1997, Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans (“The fallen wire”).
St. Cloud was a buff-tinted: NWAf, 220n; AAR, Leland L. Rounds, July 13, 1944, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40; Field Order #1, intel. annex, Oct. 11, 1942, 26th Inf., MRC FDM (“second- or third-class”); Rame, 16.
At 3:30 P.M., the battalion: Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 31–40 (“Keep going, Mac”); Robert W. Baumer, Before Taps Sounded, 64.
Now French artillerymen: Marshall, ed., 26 (“Please, please,”), 31 (“Stop!”), 35 (goats stampeded).
Night slipped down: Russell F. Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI.
By seven A.M. on November 9: Parris and Russell, 193; Rame, 28–31.
“I’m going to put”: Rame, 29; Knickerbocker et al., 46.
At that moment: Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” 14, 16; “Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves,” Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 17, 1946, 20; Frye, “‘Terrible Terry’ of the 1st Division Is Getting Tougher as He Goes Along.”
Standing beneath a fig tree: John K. Waters, SOOHP, 1980, William C. Parnell III, MHI, 683; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” MRC FDM; “A Factual Situation and Operations Report on the Combat Operations of the 1st Infantry Division,” n.d., TdA, MHI (“There will not be”); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” n.d., TdA, MHI; Ramsey, 55 (“I just couldn’t do it”).
The circumvention of St. Cloud: Rogers, 15; Knickerbocker et al., 50 (“You will not talk”); Rame, 40; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 45 (flood the port). (George Marshall later sent FDR a copy of Allen’s field order no. 3 as a model of brevity.)
Festive crowds: Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Passages to Freedom, 26; letter, William B. Kern to PMR, Jan. 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH.
For more than five hours: “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental History,” n.d., Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 117 (a large blue pennant).
Beyond the killed: NWAf, 227, 228n; Observer Report, #41, March 5, 1943, NARA RG 337, Box 52 (Allen and Roosevelt also relieved); author interview, Juskalian, Feb. 25, 2000.
The liberators immediately: McNamara, 22; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 83 (“to make them feel”); Waters, SOOHP, 171; Edward J. Josowitz, An Informal History of the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 7 (threw a jolly party); Pearlman, 249; author interview, Juskalian.
Almost 37,000 men now occupied: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 47 (“Everything is rosy”); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 10, 1942, Chandler, 686 (“rush and rush”).
“An Orgy of Disorder”
Casablanca provided: Landings in North Africa, 27–39; Auphan and Moral, 230–36; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 93–114 (“fire-away Flannagan”).
hardly a syllable: Three Years, 182.
Hewitt considered: New York Sun, Jan. 30, 1943, HKH, LOC Ms. Div., box 9, folder 6; Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” part 2, 83; U.S.S.
Brooklyn war diary, Nov. 8, 1942, SEM, NHC, box 15 (“Have noticed”).
Within ten minutes: Brooks, “Casablanca—The French Side of the Fence,” 909.
The Jean Bart: AAR, Carl E. Bledsoe, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 51; Mason, 181; Godson, 51.
The commander of the French: Auphan and Moral, 230; Tompkins, 162–65 (black cassock and wives and children).
French shells: AAR, R. E. Ingersoll, “TORCH Operation, Comments and Recommendations,” March 1, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24486; AAR, USN, “Participation in Operation TORCH Action off Casablanca,” Nov. 19, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24488; Landings in North Africa, 35; “Signal Communication in the North African Campaign,” ts, 1945, Tactical Communication in World War II, Part I, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 17.
concussion: HKH, “Reminscences of a World War II Admiral,” ts, NHC, box 21; letter, Edward S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16; Farago, 35–36 (“I hope you have”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 103, 105 (“I was on”).
Hewitt was too busy: Landings in North Africa, 37; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 100–101 (“grasshopper with a rock”), 104; “Reminiscences of Rear Adm. Joshua W. Cooper,” OH, John T. Mason, 1975, USNI OHD (galley trash can); AAR, Daniel F. Seacord, U.S.S.
Ludlow, n.d., NHC; Harley Cope, “Play Ball, Navy!” Proceedings, Oct. 1943, 1131.
Four miles: AAR, “Aircraft Operations During the Execution of TORCH,” CINCLANT, March 30, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action, box 3; Wordell and Seiler, 133 (Scotch tape).
Patched and vengeful: C. T. Booth and M. T. Wordell, OH Dec. 4, 1942, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, box 476 (“The first pass”); Wordell and Seiler, 93.
The air attacks and weight: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” ts, 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 449; Wordell and Seiler, 93 (“heeled over”); Auphan and Moral, 233; Landings in North Africa, 35–36; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 107.
The most operatic death: AAR, translated from French Naval Historical Service, n.d., in Ludlow file, NHC; Auphan and Moral, 233; Landings in North Africa, 36; Collier, 146 (Terrified pigs).
Of the French ships: AAR, “Aircraft Operations During the Execution of TORCH,” CINCLANT, March 30, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action, box 3; Wordell and Seiler, 93 (sweeping, ceremonial turn); letter, C. V. August, Chicago News, Jan. 28, 1943, MCC, YU (bathed in champagne).
Diehard French officers: Ellsberg, 271 (“We Come”); Tompkins, 165.
Patton finally reached: letters, Edward S. Johnston to S. E. Morison, April–May 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16 (“I cannot stomach”); D’Este, Patton, 435.
That would be: Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 128 (“orgy of disorder”); Observer Report #37, Feb. 10, 1943, NARA RG 337, box 52 (“Had the landings”); “Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala,” n.d., War Department, CMH, 2–3.7 WE; “Signal Communication in the North African Campaign,” ts, 1945, Tactical Communication in World War II, Part I, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 59; Kenneth G. Crawford, Report on North Africa, 45; letter, Arthur R. Wilson to GCM, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS, box 106; Joseph A. Watters, “The Invasion of North Africa at Fedala and Casablanca,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 3rd ID, MHI; Three Years, 148.
While trapped: Hatch, George Patton: General in Spurs, 138 (“I wish”); Charles R. Codman, Drive, 22; Harry H. Semmes, “George S. Patton, Jr.’s Psychology of Leadership,” Army, Jan.–Feb. 1955, 1 (“words of fire”); Harmon, 94 (useful rumor).
Five French infantry battalions: Wilhm et al., 71; “History of Regimental Landing Group 30,” March 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 245 (“Rendezvous!”); “Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala” decoration affidavits, Mackenzie E. Porter, Robert D. Henriques, NARA RG 338, 7th Army Awards, box 2; William Ellsworth, OH, n.d., SM, MHI (“For God’s sake stop”); Coffin, “Operation TORCH: A Perilous Preview,” 42; Donald G. Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 23.
A white handkerchief: “History of Regimental Landing Group 30” (offered water).
Patrols pushing: Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 65 (“the greatest setback”).
Rommel was still: William Ellsworth, OH, n.d., SM, MHI; Franklin M. Reck, Beyond the Call of Duty, 27 (“Good day, my friends!”); Taggart, ed., 20; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 86, 110; NWAf, 128; Farago, 39 (“determined to slug it out”).
The fight would be: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” ts, 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 443; letter, Arthur R. Wilson to GCM, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS, box 106; Farago, 200 (“My theory”); Codman, 35 (Patton strolled); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 106 (“God was”).
God withdrew: Wilson to GCM, Dec. 12, 1942 (“calmest day”); Beck et al., 77; Landings in North Africa, 76; Garrison H. Davidson, OH, John T. Greenwood, 1980, CEOH, 172 (“Let’s do it”).
Shore parties lacked: Bykofsky and Larson, 160; “Amphibious Training Command,” ts, n.d., USNAd, VII-36, 58; “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” in Tactical Communications in World War II, part 1, 1945, MHI, 24; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2.37 CC1, III-15; Earl Burton, “The Invasion of North Africa,” in Armed Forces Series, vol. 2, 1992.
A company of 113: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, ts, vol. I, USNAd, 431 (“bring order”); History of 67th Armored Regiment, 67; Taggart, ed., 23; “CSI Battlebook 3-A: Operation TORCH,” CSI, ADA 151 625 (“full of metal”); decoration citation, Walter J. Burns, 204th MP Co., NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, A 47-A-3948, box 56.
Two hours later: H. Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 55 (“flay the idle”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 108 (“nasty blue” and “beach was a mess”).
One officer quoted Patton: Codman, 21.
Scourging would not: Taggart, ed., 29; Watters, ASEQ, MHI; Forrest K. Kleinman, “The Bizarre Battle for Casablanca,” Army, Aug. 1997, 38; GSP to DDE, Nov. 14, 1942; “Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala,” 60.
“Today has been bad”: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 109; DDE to GSP, Nov. 10, 1942, Chandler, 684.
Battle for the Kasbah
Of the nine major: LKT Jr. to MWC, Sept. 12, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 (“should not be”); Farago, 29; GCM to DDE, Oct. 5, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1386 (“noon Dog Day”).
“Beloved Wife”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Oct. 22, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib; Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Twilight of the Cavalry, xiii–xv; John K. Waters, SOOHP, William C. Parnell III, 1980, MHI; Boatner, 574; Truscott, Command Missions, 71; Theodore J. Conway, SOOHP, Robert F. Ensslin, 1977, I-22; diary, Oct. 15, 1942, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 (“I am just”).
Truscott’s opening gambit: Author visit, April 2000; P. M. Hamilton, OH, Nov. 30, 1949, SM, MHI; P. M. Hamilton, OH, July 1945, “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia and the Port Lyautey Airdrome,” ts, 1945, CMH, 2–3.7 AEI; Reck, 44.
The failed diplomatic: “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia,” 27; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, ts, vol. I, USNAd, 416 (“with cold steel”); AAR, Carl E. Bledsoe, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 51 (“absolutely dumbfounded”).
Nightfall made matters worse: Semmes, 121; “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia,” 63.
On the broad: Truscott, Command Missions, 113–14.
The troops ducked: LKT Jr. to GSP, Nov. 12, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 (“halfway to Bermuda”).
Like Patton, Truscott concluded: Farago, 29–30 (“disaster against”); Peter Andrews, “A Place to Be Lousy In,” American Heritage, Dec. 1991, 100 (Truscott suspected); Truscott, Command Missions, 97–98 (“One of the first lessons”).
Yet only luck: Semmes, 125; Semmes, reply to Armored School queries, Dec. 1949, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 118 (“not a cheerful one”).
At first light: AAR, Gordon Browne, n.d., OSS files, NARA RG 226, E 99, box 39 (“Tout va bien”); “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia,” 4; msg, GCM, Oct. 2, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, Special Staff, box 1385 (“rivet attention”); Malvergne Silver Star documentation, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 56; Roul Tunley, “A Frenchman Returns,” Sea Power, Jan. 1945, 13; AAR, Co C, 15th Engineer Combat Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 9th ID, box 7455.
Dallas yawed wildly: R. Brodie, Jr., OH, June 19, 1951, SM, MHI; NWAf, 165; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 131.
Two hours later: “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia,” 122; “Adventures by Men of the 60th Infantry Regiment in WWII,” ts, 1993, MHI, 9; Mittelman, 72; Truscott, Command Missions, 120 (“a beautiful sight”); Frederic A. Henney, “Combat Engineers in North Africa: The Capture of Port Lyautey,” Military Engineer, Jan. 1944, 1; Landings in North Africa, 53 (“Beau Geste”).
Enemy resistance: NWAf, 164, 170 (“a brightly colored pageant”); “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia,” 96; Semmes, 139; Truscott, Command Missions, 123 (“Our parley”).
The three-day fight: AAR, LKT Jr., Dec. 15, 1942, AFHQ G-3, NARA micro R-24-C; AAR, “Trip of Honduran SS Contessa,” March 22, 1943, in Wheeler, ed., The Road to Victory, 76; Fowler, “Twelve Desperate Miles,” 14.
In a final twist: AAFinWWII, 77; Astor, 282 (“war hysteria”).
“It’s All Over for Now”
Gray with fatigue: Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” 72, 75.
Hewitt resumed: AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WW II Action Reports, box 3; “Aircraft Operations during the execution of TORCH,” March 30, 1943, CINCLANT, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 3 (“No more Jean Bart”); Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 163; HKH, comment on Jan. 1950 Morison volume, HKH, NHC, box 1 (“Come a little closer”).
For Patton, enough was enough: DDE to GSP, Oct. 13, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA Special Staff, AFHQ, box 1383; “Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala,” n.d., CMH, 2–3.7 WE.
At two A.M., about the time: 3rd ID field artillery officer, OH, n.d., SM, MHI; Codman, 40 (“Unless the French navy”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 109 (“Staff wanted me”).
At dawn, the guns: Arthur R. Wilson to GCM, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS, classified general correspondence, box 106 (“Report whether”); Wordell and Seiler, 162 (“Boys, it’s all”).
Franco-American amity: Brooks, “Casablanca—The French Side of the Fence,” 909 (“Chicago, I give up!”); Taggart, ed., 30.
At the Miramar: Geoffrey Keyes, OH, Feb. 15, 1950, SM, MHI.
“They drank $40 worth”: GSP to Henry Stimson, Dec. 7, 1942, Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 112; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, appendix II, 285; HKH, “Reminiscences,” 230.
The conquest of Morocco: NWAf, 173; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 110 (“We are in”), 114 (“If you adhere”).
Press dispatches: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 107 (“I realize”), 111, 116, 119.
After leaving: “Report on Material and Logistics, Commander Task Force 34,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24486; AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WW II Action Reports, box 3; Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa,” 47; HKH, “Reminiscences,” 230.
And yet: AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A.G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3; NWAf, 175; war diary, German naval staff, Nov. 1942, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 645 (“Go after them”).
“Good lads”: letter, E. S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16; Wordell and Seiler, 173; John Ellis, Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War, 528.
Blackout drapes: Davidson, OH, 182; Codman, 47; author visit, April 2000.
At 7:48 P.M., the festivities: Davidson, OH, 182.
The German submarine U-173: “Reminiscences of Vice Admiral Charles Wellborn, Jr.,” 1972, USNI OHD (“you could see”); “Report on Material and Logistics, Commander Task Force 34,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24486; AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 169; Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. II, 110; uboat.net/ boats/u173.htm.
The “goosing”: U.S.S.
Brooklyn war diary, Nov. 11, 2156 hrs., SEM, NHC, box 15.
Hewitt was furious: HKH, ts, n.d., comments on SEM, Operations in North African Waters, Jan. 1950 edition, HKH, NHC, box 1 (“extreme reluctance”).
For more than an hour: HKH to USN, June 16, 1950, HKH, NHC, box 1; HKH, “Reminiscences” Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 171.
Finally, he could continue: AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3.
Hewitt slumped: HKH, OH, G. F. Howe, Jan. 23, 1951, NARA RG 319, 2–3.7, box 228; HKH, ts, n.d., comments on SEM, Operations in North African Waters, Jan. 1950 edition, HKH, NHC, box 1.
As dusk sifted: Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. I, 473, and vol. II, 111; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 171; uboat.net/boats/u130.htm.
Each hit home: AAR, Hugh L. Scott, Nov. 18, 1942, and “U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Amphibious Force, Action Report,” both in NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24490.
Her two sisters: Landings in North Africa, 78; letter, E. S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16 (“The damned fools”); msg, L. B. Ely to HKH, Nov. 12, 2025 hrs., HKH, NHC, box 1; Codman, 48.
Fifteen hundred survivors: “United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. I, part 3, ts, n.d., USNAd, 673; Albert W. Kenner, “Medical Service in the North African Campaign,” Military Review, Feb. 1944, 5; Harry McK. Roper, “Report on Observations Made as Observer with Task Force Brushwood,” n.d., NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 168 (“pieces of bacon”); Charles M. Wiltse, Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters,119, 121.
Friday’s dawn brought: AAR, NARA RG 407, E 427, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, box 24430.
Soldiers looking seaward: Blair, vol. II, 201; “Comments of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, USN, on Operations in North African Waters (original edition), 26 Feb. 1947” HKH to SEM, March 13, 1947; HKH to J. L. Hall, March 13, 1947, all in HKH, NHC, box 1.
General Clark’s arrest of Darlan: “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1, 25–28 (“Not once”); Murphy, 142 (“Merde!”).
At noon on November 13: Three Years, 190; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 693; DDE to Churchill, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 689; DDE to GCM, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 692.
At the St. Georges: Funk, 248 (a coward).
Eisenhower sighed: DDE to GCM, Nov. 9 and 11, 1942, Chandler, 680, 692; DDE to MWC, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 698; DDE to W.B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 701; “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1; letter, Noguès to G. F. Howe, Jan. 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2–3.7 CC1, box 225.
Eisenhower shook hands: DDE to MWC, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 699 (“When you are away”); Clark, 123 (“Now we can”).
Sixty years after torch: NWAf, 173; Destruction, 154.
The number of French killed: De Gaulle, 353; Marcel Vigneras, Rearming the French, 18; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 16, 1942, Chandler, 718 (eighteen French battalions); Butcher diary, A-4, Nov. 25, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 166 (“remain embittered”). torch had lured: Milton Viorst, Hostile Allies: FDR and Charles de Gaulle, 123 (“It’s not very pretty”); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 702 (“We are just”).
The war’s momentum: Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 702–703.
“habits of peace”: W.G.F. Jackson, The Battle for North Africa, 396.
“For God’s sake”: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 702; Leahy, 137 (the White House).
CHAPTER 4: PUSHING EAST
“We Live in Tragic Hours”
At two A.M. on November 8: Twelve Apostles summary, n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS files, box 39 (with his Spanish maids); Tompkins, 141–42 (“They had better”); Boatner, 155; Cunningham, 186 (the Monk), 221; Philip Jordan, Jordan’s Tunis Diary, 132 (“fashion plate gone seedy”); Alan Moorehead, The End in Africa, 82 (“Hurry”).
There was no need: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 190 (“panther’s leap”); Kriegstagebuch, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 16–30, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Volkmar Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 158–61; Paul Carell, The Foxes of the Desert, 311; Loerzer, “Negotiations with…Estéva,” n.d., FMS, #D-040, 2 (low, intimidating pass).
French troops ringed: Paul Deichmann, “Mission of OB Süd…in North Africa After the Allied Landing,” n.d., FMS, #D-067, 6; Cunningham, 226; NARA RG 319, OCMH, “Background Papers to NW Africa,” box 222.
Hitler had learned: Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 158; Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 271; Anthony Martienssen, Hitler and His Admirals, 147; msg, Hitler to Mussolini, Nov. 20, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 225 (“Yours in”).
Already 230: Horst Boog et al., Germany and the Second World War, vol. VI, The Global War, 793–94 (“cornerstone of our conduct”).
On Tuesday, November 10: Walter Nehring, “The First Phase of the Battle in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, #D-147, 29; Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirm Panzerkorps Hermann Göring, 109; Kühn, 160; Gardiner, memoir, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 84.
Weak as the German vanguard: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 35, 37 (“I count on everyone”); Brooks, “The Unknown Darlan,” 879 (“November 8, we fight everybody”); Auphan and Moral, 251 (“The enemy is the German”).
On November 12: Kriegstagebuch, Nov. 16, 1942, 2130 hrs, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 16, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“only nodding”); Robinett, Armor Command, 73 (“After forty years”); NARA RG 319, OCMH, “Background Papers to NW Africa,” box 222; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 38 (“I shall be known”).
Sadly, yes: Bennett, 191; Kriegstagebuch, Nov. 16–30, 1942, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“cannot read”); Carell, 311 (marched four abreast); Albert Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” n.d., FMS, #T-3 P1, 7; AAR, Bayerlein, Apr. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 225; Deichmann, 18; “Account of Marjorie Springs,” n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 39 (newly fashionable goose step); Nigel Nicholson and Patrick Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. II, 339.
Soon enough, Derrien: Tompkins, 145; Auphan and Moral, 269; Kühn, Rommel in the Desert, 181–84.
A French court: Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 241 (“national unworthiness”); Cunningham, 226 (“it is an honor”); Tompkins, 145; Auphan and Moral, 284–85 (Derrien, too); Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 73.
“We live in tragic hours”: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 42.
Conviviality reigned: Kesselring, FMS, T-3 P1, part II, 6; Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 8–9; Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 155–56; Boatner, 271.
On November 10: Macksey, 143 (poison gas); Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 172 (“drop of water”).
The Allies had achieved: Siegfried Westphal, The German Army in the West, 121; Lowell Bennett, Assignment to Nowhere: The Battle for Tunisia, 101; H. A. Jacobsen and J. Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 212.
A Cold Country with a Hot Sun
Five hundred and sixty: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 475; Middleton, Our Share of Night, 169 (“Those squareheads”); Freeland A. Daubin, Jr., “The Battle of Happy Valley,” Apr. 1948, ts, Armored School Advanced Officers Class, 9 (“that all of the Germans”).
Town mayors donned: Gardiner, memoir, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 79 (version also in PMR, “Tank Commander,” ts, n.d., GCM Lib., box 20); Moorehead, 73; Ralph Bennett, 225; Robert H. Welker, “G.I. Jargon: Its Perils and Pitfalls,” Saturday Review of Literature, Oct. 1944, 7; Harmon, Combat Commander, 107 (reparations).
British troops dominated: Austin, 10 (“Edwardian motoring veil[s]”); Howard and Sparrow, 109; “History, HQ Detachment, 109th Medical Bn, 34th ID,” Feb. 1942–Nov. 1943, NARA RG E 427, box 9618; Moorehead, 91 (fishmongers in striped sweaters); A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Overseas Service,” ts, 1981, IWM, 81/33/1; letter, Dan Rupert, May 22, 1943, MCC, YU; Jordan, 46.
For the Yanks: Oswald Jett, ASEQ, “As I Saw the War,” ts, 1988, 1st AD, 47th Medical Bn, 287; Laurence R. Robertson, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st AD, MHI, 164; Powell, In Barbary, 102; Randle, Safi Adventure, 138; Frelinghuysen, 27.
Eastward the caissons: Rame, 81–82 (“hanging like red lamps”); Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 44.
At dusk they bivouacked: Liebling, Mollie & Other Pieces, 31; Robertson, ASEQ, 1st AD, MHI, 164; Bolstad, 105 (“Gas!”); letter, Virginia Samsell, n.d., MCC, YU (burro named Rommel).
Pilfering by the locals: Jensen, 51; Mayo, 120; Ralph G. Martin, The GI War, 1941–1945, 41; Hilary St. George Saunders, The Red Beret, 81; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 51 (“If they”); McNamara, 30 (“useless, worthless, illiterate”).
At dawn, the promenade: letter, Jack Pardekooper, Jan. 1943, MCC, YU (“Every town over here”); letter, Joseph T. Dawson, Nov. 21, 1942, MRC FDM (“The sky is almost”); Rame, 88 (“She’ll be”).
Thanks to Ultra’s decipherment: Hinsley, vol. II, 466–67, 488–89 (“low category” and “probable scale”).
There was much talk: Frierson, “Preparations for TORCH,” 1945, vol. I, CMH 2-3.7 AD, 46 (primarily to the British); Yarborough, SOOHP, 1975, MHI, 26; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 51–54.
Proverbially: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 119 (“were not clearly understood”); DDE to E. N. Eisenhower, Nov. 16, 1942, Chandler, 724.
“I get so impatient”: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 11, 12, and 16, 1942; DDE to E. N. Eisenhower, Nov. 16, 1942, all in Chandler, 693, 703, 724.
Nor was he yet: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged ed., 256, 263, 267; Jackson, The Battle for North Africa, 399.
Perhaps the biggest: Leighton and Coakley, 438; Beck et al., 63; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” vol. I, II–40; AAR, Henry C. Wolfe, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” box 24348; Jordan, 40 (“Inevitably there was chaos”).
Ordnance officers wandered: Mayo, 119; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” vol. I, IV–7; Lunsford E. Oliver, “In the Mud and Blood of Tunisia,” Collier’s, Apr. 17, 1943, 11; DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” London Gazette, Feb. 3, 1948, 865.
Even success: Russell F. Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI.
This muddle greeted: DDE to Anderson, Nov. 12, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5 (“I applaud”); Parris and Russell, 155 (“The German”).
Anderson had been born in India: CBH, Apr. 18–22, 1943, MHI (“grinning preoccupation”); Gregory Blaxland, The Plain Cook and the Great Showman, 28–29, 106, 167 (“jutting chin”); Jordan, 44 (“moderately successful surgeon”), 61.
One British general: David Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them, 251 (“plain cook”); “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” Feb. 7, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC (Sunshine); Chandler, 778n (GROUCH); Boatner, 9; Jordan, 137; DDE to GCM, Oct. 10, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 628 (“he studies”); K.A.N. Anderson to DDE, Dec. 23, 1948, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5 (“a queer sort”); Anderson to DDE, Jan. 19, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5 (“good medicine”).
Anderson’s most ambitious: “General Anderson’s Plan, 19 September 1942,” Kenneth Anderson file, DDE Lib, box 5; “Possible Variations to Plan Y,” First Army, Nov. 7, 1942, PRO, WO 175/50; NWAf, 277.
A battalion of the Royal West Kent: AAR, Inshore Squadron, H.M.S Bulolo, Dec. 8, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, RN Operations, R 17-A.
Two bombs hit: David Rolf, The Bloody Road to Tunis, 34 (“swimming frantically”); AAR, Inshore Squadron, H.M.S.
Bulolo, Dec. 8, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, RN Operations, R 17-A (lowered boats without orders); Pack, Passage to Africa, 102.
Most soldiers and sailors: Roskill, 337; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 87.
Things went better: Baedeker, 301; Saunders, 80 (“I’ll have”); NWAf, 278.
Unfortunately, Bône: “At the Front in North Africa,” U.S. Army Signal Corps, 16mm; Moorehead, 81; Meyer, IV-13; Cyril Ray, Algiers to Austria, 8; Rame, 280 (“In this force”).
Having chased Napoleon: Shelby Foote, The Civil War, vol. III, 29; Destruction, 169; Ray, 9, 32; AAR, 26th Armoured Bde, PRO, WO 175/211; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 54; George Forty, Tank Action, 110.
“had no appeal”: Blaxland, 91.
And then, they were in Tunisia: Parris and Russell, 209; Marshall, Over to Tunis, 45 (“cold country”); R.L.V. ffrench Blake, A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 1922–1959, 91, 113 (“The most important thing”); Liebling, 38; Gustav A. Mueller, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 13th AR, 1st AD, 249.
To protect Anderson’s: Edson D. Raff, We Jumped to Fight, 74, 79; William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, n.d., CEOH, IV-6; William F. Powers, OH, Aug. 1985, Herbert Hart, CEOH, 45 (“stamped the hell”).
But most of the Allied force: Ray, 55; Ford, 46 (said to be feuding); Robinett, Armor Command, 77 (Santa Claus); Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 89.
With Anderson’s approval: AAR, “Operation of 1st Bn., Parachute Regiment,” E.W.C. Flavell, and S Company report, Jan. 18, 1943, in Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Walter Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/4; J. Hill, “Operation TORCH,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Jan. 1946, 177 (all 3,000); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 93 (“non-existent preponderance”).
They cheered again: J.R.T. Hopper, “Figures in a Fading Landscape,” ts, 1995, IWM, 97/3/1.
Then Stuka dive-bombers: Hill, “Operation TORCH,” Army Quarterly and Defense Journal, Jan. 1946, 177; AAR, 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry, n.d., PRO 175/293; Saunders, 83–86; Blaxland, 105 (local enthusiasm faded); Lowell Bennett, 123.
Medjez-el-Bab
“Whoever has Medjez-el-Bab”: Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 162 (“master of all Tunisia”); Austin, 31 (tobacco and salt); Baedeker, 329; Homer, The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles, 160.
Medjez-el-Bab’s strategic value: author visits, Sept. 1996, Apr. 2000; Moorehead, 71.
At this bucolic place: Kriegstagebuch, Division Lederer, Nov. 17 and 20, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“throw the enemy back”); Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 162; “Notes by Major Burckhardt on Tactics in Africa,” NARA RG 407, E 427, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” box 24348; Wilhelm Knoche, “Meine Erlebnisse im Tunesien-Feldzug,” FMS, D-323, 12, 19–20 (“Think what’s at stake”); Kesselring, Memoirs, 142.
At four A.M. on November 19: Hill, “Operation TORCH,” 177; AAR, “Operations of 1st Bn., Parachute Regiment,” Jan. 18, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/4.
Barré passed word: AAR, 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry, n.d., PRO, WO 175/293; AAR, First Army, PRO, WO 175/50.
An apricot dawn: Knoche, 28; Edward A. Raymond, “Some Battle Lessons,” Field Artillery Journal, Feb. 1944, 104 (“The war”).
West of town: Hill, “Operation Torch,” 177 (“guns of all calibers” and “gun teams had worked”).
The balance of the day: Howard A. Smith, Jr., “Among Those Baptized,” Field Artillery Journal, Apr. 1944, 214 (“Poor buggers”); James Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 143.
By late afternoon: NWAf, 287; DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign, 1942–1943,” 19; Raymond, 104; Knoche, 29, 31; Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 168; Lucas, 143.
This disagreeable news: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 52 (Anderson had resisted); NWAf, 291.
Neither side: Liebling, 3; Lowell Bennett, 130 (“a funny sort of front”).
But Axis forces: Kriegstagebuch, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 22, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“There is no time”); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged ed., 270; AAR, 17th/21st Lancers, PRO, WO 175/292 (“Alice”); Anderson to DDE, Nov. 16, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-5-C;W. S. Chalmers, Full Cycle: The Biography of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay, 151 (“Huns are beating”).
Never hesitant to play: John Kennedy, The Business of War, 274 (“like a peacock”); Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 681 (“not as good fighters”); Danchev and Todman, eds., 243 (“totally unfit”).
Eisenhower maintained: DDE to H. H. Arnold, Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 751; memo, DDE, Nov. 22, 1942, Chandler, 761 (“It would be wrong”); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged ed., 263, 270 (25,000); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 18, 1942, Chandler, 734 (“If we don’t”).
Most disheartening: Anthony Farrar-Hockley, “The Follow-up to TORCH,” Basil Liddell Hart, ed., History of the Second World War, vol. 3, 1228.
Allied fighters, by contrast: NWAf, 293; Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 139; AAFinWWII, 121 (“rather appalling”), 127; DDE to GCM, Nov. 22, 1942, Chandler, 759; asst. G-3 inspection report to AFHQ, Dec. 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-5C.
Troops learned to their sorrow: Warren, 14; Charles Messenger, The Tunisian Campaign, 13 (crew chiefs sat); John S. D. Eisenhower, 204; Tibbits, 119 (crews wielded); L. F. Ellis, Welsh Guards at War, 27 (“a loving type of mud”).
On November 24: W. J. Jervois, The History of the Northamptonshire Regiment: 1934–1948, 119; NWAf, 302.
The other prong: ibid.; Ray, 12–13; Farrar-Hockley, 1228; Lucas, 144; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 94; Ford, 17.
Fat Geese on a Pond
With both brigades: Rolf, 36 (“Armor for Tunis!”); AAR, “Operations of 1st Bn., Parachute Regiment,” Jan. 18, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/4; Saunders, 88 (“great ebony warriors”); Waters, SOOHP, 1980, MHI (“tank-infested”); Blaxland, 104, 108.
son of a Baltimore banker: Waters, SOOHP, 54, 66.
Waters’s fifty-four light tanks: Arthur Robert Moore, ASEQ, ts, 1993, 1st AD; Forty, United States Tanks of World War II in Action, 42–51; Daubin, 6 (“squirrel rifle” and “hat box”).
The battalion rolled: Waters, SOOHP, 611 (“I’m scared to death”); Daubin, 16 (“three-day growth”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 66.
Farther north: ffrench Blake, 93 (“sent up a stream”).
But it was on: Waters, SOOHP, 611 (“Right in front of me”); Robinett, Armor Command, 65, Daubin, 6–19.
Seventeen Stuarts: Daubin, 19 (“fat geese”); Waters, SOOHP, 611; Rudolph Barlow, OH, n.d., SM, MHI; Lowell Bennett, 197 (“bounced off like peas”); Hans Jürgen von Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 1951, trans. Janet E. Dewey, FMS, #C-098, CMH, 20; Rame, 156 (shot down or crushed); Forty, United States Tanks of World War II in Action, 47, 49; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 67; Boog et al., 805.
Panicky, exaggerated reports: Nehring, “The First Phase of the Battle in Tunisia,” FMS, #D-147, MHI (“tear open one tactical hole”); Kriegstagebuch, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 25, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Ulrich Bürker, “Einsatz Der 10. Panzer Division in Tunisien, II. Teil,” Dec. 1947, FMS, #D-310, 10; Lucas, 136 (preparing to burn).
Kesselring voiced sympathy: Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean, Part II, The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” FMS, #T-3, P1, MHI, 13 (“made a beautiful mess”); Kesselring, Memoirs, 143.
Smiling Albert’s assurances: Chandler, 778n (DIZZY and INCUR); Nicholson and Forbes, 265; Kennett, 122 (“never had any bringing up”).
The key to the door: Charles Hendricks, “A Time of Testing: U.S. Army Engineers in the Tunisia Campaign of World War II,” paper, Oct. 1999, Colloquium on Military Fortifications and Infrastructure in Tunisia; DDE to GSP, Nov. 26, 1942, Chandler, 774 (“At this moment”); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 27, 1942, Chandler, 777 (“I believe”).
CHAPTER 5: PRIMUS IN CARTHAGO
“Go for the Swine with a Blithe Heart”
From the tall windows: Raymond H. Croll, ts, n.d., MHI, 116; CBH, Feb. 1942, MHI; minutes, commander-in-chief staff conference, Oct. 26, 1942, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-79-D (had intended to move).
“How weary I am”: DDE to MWC, Nov. 20, 1942, and Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 745, 750.
He was hardly: Croll, 99, 116.
Eisenhower’s own office: Three Years, 199.
A few days before leaving: DDE to MWC, Nov. 20, 1942, Chandler, 744; Robert Murphy, Col U OHRO, David C. Berliner, OH-224, Oct. 12, 1972, 6–7; “History of AFHQ, Part One, Aug.–Dec. 1942,” n.d., NARA RG 331, box 63 (400 offices); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-43 (as much meat); “Tactical Communication in World War II,” part 1, “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” 1945, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 54 (“reasonable estimate”); Hansen, 3/40 (“huge, chairborne force”); Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” n.d., MHI, 30 (“never were so few”); Jordan, 180 (“it’s worth fifty divisions”).
Algiers already showed: Croll, 116 (electric razors); Moorehead, 65; MacVane, Journey into War, 85 (“I am married”); Rame, 206; both in NARA RG 338, Fifth Army awards and decorations, A 47-A-3948, box 56 (“Valor, Patience”).
Oranges: Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, III-2, III-14; Lowell Bennett, 295; Jensen, 50.
Indiscipline overwhelmed: AAR, Dec. 28, 1942, Center Task Force, Staff JAG, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, WWII Ops Reports, box 244; AAR, II Corps JAG, Dec. 22, 1942, and AAR, HQ II Corps, JAG, Sept. 9, 1943, both in NARA RG 338, II Corps JAG, box 157.
There was folderol: DDE, Crusade in Europe, 128 (Eisenhower was a Jew); Milton S. Eisenhower, The President Is Calling, 145 (“Ike”); Butcher diary, Nov. 25, 1942, DDE Lib (Clark gave); DDE to GCM, Nov. 21, 1942, and DDE to MWC, Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 748; John D’Arcy-Dawson, Tunisian Battle, 66 (correspondents advised).
“After leaving where we were”: Dale Allen Hawley, New York Herald Tribune, July 3, 1943, MCC, YU.
In a message on November 22: Chandler, 767n; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-50 (“Go for the swine”); DDE to MWC, Nov. 19, 1942, Chandler, 740; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 18, 1942, Chandler, 736.
In truth, he spent: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 18, 1942, Chandler, 732.
No distraction tormented: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 677 (“these Frogs”); DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign,” 17 (“morbid sense of honor”); DDE to GCM, Feb. 4, 1943, Chandler, 937 (“volatile”); Kennedy, 282 (“a dog about religion”).
But the commander-in-chief lacked: CCS, “Minutes of Meeting,” Jan. 15, 1943, 1430, NARA RG 218, “Records of U.S. JCS,” box 195 (132 desertions); Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It,” 20; “The Reminiscences of Rear Adm. George W. Bauernschmidt,” 1991, USNI OHD, appendix B, 9 (French supply requests).
More distracting: Crawford, Report on North Africa, 83 (“like a Tammany scan- dal”); Milton Eisenhower, 137 (“fighting Nazis”); Three Years, 192 (“stinking skunk”); Chandler, 739n (“We are fighting”); Langer, 368.
Darlan’s repressive actions: MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 121; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 184; Middleton, 242; Tompkins, 132, 136, 139 (hoarded coffee).
Eisenhower averted: DDE to GSP, Nov. 26, 1942, Chandler, 775; DDE to GCM, Nov. 17, 1942, Chandler, 729; DDE to CCS, Nov. 14, 1942, Chandler, 708; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 14, 1942, Chandler, 712.
Roosevelt had authorized: Three Years, 206 (“I am but a lemon”).
All this was folderol: Ramsey, 111 (“For Christ’s sake”); Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair, A General’s Life, 133; Hanson Baldwin, New York Times, March 29, 1969, 1 (“best damn lieutenant colonel”); Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times, 96 (“fatchist”); Macmillan, The Blast of War, 174 (“I’m no reactionary!”).
At the end: Hatch, General Ike, 130; McKeough and Lockridge, 51, 61; Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier, 435; Three Years, 199, 206.
Even an officer as strong: DDE to GCM, Nov. 17, 1942, Chandler, 731; Kay Summersby Morgan, Past Forgetting, 110 (“lonely man”); DDE to H. H. Arnold, Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 751.
He regretted, too: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 781; Ismay, Memoirs, 289; Bryant, 527, 528, 534 (“far too busy”); Three Years, 201 (“The whole thing”).
The low moan: Ramsey, 236; Paul Semmens, “The Hammer of Hell,” ts, n.d., CMH, 94; Three Years, 306, 200.
To his son: DDE to John S. D. Eisenhower, Nov. 20, 1942, Chandler, 747 (“I hope”); Morgan, 101; Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy, 399.
“The Dead Salute the Gods”
no roasted peacock: Daubin, “The Battle of Happy Valley” AAR, T. A. Seely, includes OH w/ J. K. Waters, Dec. 29, 1942, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, #46, box 52; Rame, 120 (“swallows diving”); Fergusson, 96 (“Like all things German”); Charles W. Eineichner, ASEQ, Rangers, MHI (“any weapon we had”); “Lessons of the Tunisian Campaign, 1942–3, British Forces,” n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 56.
On the rare occasions: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 22; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 69; Rame, 138; Robert S. Cameron, “Americanizing the Tank,” diss, Temple Univ., 1994, 772 (any airborne object); Robert A. Brand, ASEQ, 16th Inf, MHI; Relman Morin, Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Gauge of Greatness, 81 (“WEFT”).
Despite such demoralizing episodes: H. B. Latham to G. F. Howe, June 13, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; AAR, T. A. Seely, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, #46, box 52.
Before dawn on November 26: NWAf, 300–301; author visit, Apr. 2000; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 68; Daubin, 1–29; Waters, SOOHP, 611 (“a beautiful column”).
The approaching Mk IV: ffrench Blake, A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 1922–1959, 97; Belton Y. Cooper, Death Traps, 25.
From the ridge: Daubin, 1–29 (“long searing tongues”); minutes, “Meeting of the Subcommittee on Armored Vehicles of the National Research Council,” June 1943, 9; John Ellis, On the Front Lines, 153 (“like a finger”).
Wreathed in gray smoke: Messenger, 21 (“snapped like a cap pistol” and “power-driven grindstone”); Daubin, 1–29.
“Our losses,”: Kriegstagebuch, Nov. 26, 1942, Div. Lederer, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
“The Americans had done well”: ffrench Blake, 97.
Ten miles south: Parris and Russell, 223–24 (eggs and a beefsteak); Middleton, 209 (“dusty and empty”).
Tucked into an oxbow: author visit, Apr. 2000; Blaxland, 111; Robinett, Armor Command, 75 (“haunting memory”).
The Surreys were spread: Jordan, 237 (twelve hours); Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 153–57; Lowell Bennett, 212–15; Ford, 27–28 (“My good man”); Middleton, 215 (“We’ll be in Tunis”); war diary, XC Panzer Corps, Nov. 27, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
There was not a moment: Gardiner, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 84–86; Gerald Linderman, The World Within War, 58; Destruction, 177.
For two miles: Gordon A. Baker, Iron Knights: The United States 66th Armored Regiment, 136 (“looked like a damned cathedral”); Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,” Armored Cavalry Journal, March/Apr. 1948, 8.
Perfectly camouflaged: Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 84–86 (“horribly wounded”); Jervois, 119–22; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 72–73 (“fought in each other’s presence”); Robinett, Armor Command, 75–76; AAR, n.d., PMD, LOC, box 6; Linderman, 25 (“burns like twenty haystacks”); Lowell Bennett, 298 (“As soon as I get well”).
British soldiers, stone deaf: Middleton, 209–10 (“When they reached” and “sixpence for a Spitfire”); ffrench Blake, 98; Jordan, 65 (“a pack of lies”); Rame, 141 (“The dead salute”).
Toward midnight: Jervois, 121 (recognized as witless); Destruction, 177.
Regrettably, this decision: AAR, 5th FA Bn, Nov. 13, 1942–Jan. 18, 1943, and 5th FA Bn journal and operations report, Nov. 20, 1942–March 1, 1943, and letter, R. N. Tyson to Clift Andrus, Dec. 3, 1942, all in NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5879; Robinett,Armor Command, 71 (“looked like street lights”); Frelinghuysen, 27–38 (“Frederic Remington painting”); 10th Panzer Div., intel report, Dec. 17, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 227.
Dawn on November 29: Jervois, 122; Middleton, 211 (“Drag ass”); Frelinghuysen, 41–45 (“People who fight a war”).
The southern prong: Malcolm, 89–91 (“no more menacing”); author visit, Apr. 2000; Ray, 14–15; Austin, 19, 35.
Both presumptions: Carell, 313 (“a Tunisian Verdun”); Jean-Yves Nasse, Green Devils: German Paratroops, 1939–1945, 72–74; James E. Mrazek, The Fall of Eben Emael, 180–91.
The Argylls stopped: Malcolm, 91–95 (“Look, George” and “If only I had”); Kriegstagebuch, Nov. 28, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 147; NWAf, 308n; Ford, 22; Richard Doherty, Only the Enemy in Front, 7, 35; Blaxland, 117 (“gaunt and gangling figure”).
The commandos departed: Jack A. Marshall, ASEQ, 34th Div, 168th Inf, “The Battle That Wasn’t,” ts, n.d., MHI; Jack A. Marshall, “Tales of a Timid Commando,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“a tall, Dracula-like figure”); AAR, 1st Commando troops, n.d., C. W. Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/5/3; Jordan, 88–93; “British Commandos,” Aug. 1942, Military Intelligence Service, WD, 7; Fussell, Wartime, 284 (“Never give the enemy”); H. Marshall, Over to Tunis, 82 (“ant in a hairbrush”); Lowell Bennett, 99;Kriegstagebuch, Div von Broich, Dec. 1, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“decimated in a short fire fight”); Coon, A North Africa Story, 68 (“tall, Dracula-like figure”); Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division.
Five hundred and thirty: AAR, “Report by Lt. Col. J. D. Frost, MC,” 2nd Bn, the Parachute Regiment, n.d., PRO, WO 175/56; John Frost, Nearly There, 1; Frost, A Drop Too Many, 74 (“We were not”); Robert Peatling, Without Tradition: 2 Para, 1941–1945,73–87 (“traveling circus” and “a medieval look”); Warren, 17; Saunders, 93–99; Tugwell, 144.
At five P.M. the 180 men: Destruction, 177n; NWAf, 309; Rame, 179 (“Dr. Livingston”); AAFinWWII, 87.
“Jerry Is Counterattacking!”
In late November: chronology, Chandler, vol. v, 99; Three Years, 204–208 (“Boy Scout trip”).
the shocking news: Auphan and Moral, 255–66 (“Scuttle!”); Cunningham, 158, 255–65; Jean-Paul Pallud, “The French Navy at Toulon,” After the Battle, 1992, 1 (“The ship is sunk!”); De Gaulle, Memoirs, 359; Boatner, 301; Three Years, 203–204.
Of greater concern: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 700 (“apparently imbued”); Clark, Calculated Risk, 134 (“the Anderson setup”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 48 (“nothing is more difficult”).
Some things about the war: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 487 (exceeded 850), 491; DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779; Three Years, 208; Abbott, 64 (“There’ll be Stukas”).
To Eisenhower’s surprise: Huston, 478 (U.S. Army doctrine and Regulations had prohibited); Chandler, 968n (until 1941); Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 44 (“only way to hurt a Kraut”); NWAf, 480 (“Purple Heart box”); Linderman, 25 (Ronsons); Cameron, “Americanizing the Tank,” 764; Jensen, 60 (“light every time”); Robinett, Armor Command, 157 (“rat racing”).
“My immediate aim”: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779.
Even as this pretty delusion: Ulrich Bürker, “Einsatz der 10. Panzer Division in Tunisien,” Dec. 1947, FMS, #D-310, MHI, 15; Boog et al., 805 (“definite change” and “play for time”); NWAf, 310; Lucas, 151; Ralph Bennett, 194; Heinz Pomtow, “The Campaign in Tunisia,” FMS, #3-A, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; 10th Panzer Div, “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942,” n.d., PMR, LOC Ms Div box 4; Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 174 (only thirty German).
From decrypted German messages: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 504 (“special priority signal”); Ford, 31 (“All around us”); Rame, 164–65 (“incandescent, enormous”). Rame was the nom de plume of A. D. Divine.
Fischer’s tanks had closed: war diary, Blade Force, Dec. 1–2, 1942, PRO, WO 175/179; “At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army,” NARA RG 111, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, No. 1001, Dec. 1942; AAR, 78th Div, Dec. 2, 1942, PRO, WO 175/168.
Two German infantry groups: 10th Panzer Div., “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942” (“Not the slightest interest”); NWAf, 315–16 (the Americans retreated); R. N. Tyson to Clift Andrus, Dec. 3, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5879.
They came running: Moorehead, 90 (“Keep clear”); Nicholson and Forbes, 263 (“Thank God”).
The CCB commander: “Register of Graduates,” class of 1913, USMA, 1989 ed.; Robinett, Armor Command, 87; Rame, 153.
Robinett was delighted: “Comments on Kasserine Pass,” PMR, MHI, 4 (“Always do whatever”), 12; Martin M. Philipsborn, Jr., Papers, MHI; Abbott, 51; Robinett, Armor Command, 77–80; Robinett biographical sketch, 1945, CMH; McCurtain Scott, OH, March 1976, Russell Gugeler, OW, MHI (“fussy”); “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” Feb. 15, 1943, LHC (“all talk and grouse”).
Robinett arrived: corr, Philip G. Walker to PMR, Aug. 9, 1950, PMR, LOC, box 4 (bitter objections and “appeared to be watching”); NWAf, 317; 10th Panzer Div., “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942” Abbott, 51 (“demoralizers”); Jordan, 96 (“The most intrepid chaps”); Oliver, “In the Mud and Blood of Tunisia,” 11 (“The boys stuck”).
Now the noose: Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 78; Robinett, Armor Command, 80–82; Nehring, “The First Phase of the Battle in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS #D-147, MHI, 37; Rame, 169; Linderman, 254 (“hammers of the devil”).
Robinett had seen: PMR, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” n.d., PMR, LOC; Robinett, Armor Command, 77.
General Fischer himself: 10th Panzer Div., “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942.”
Fischer also deployed: Nehring, FMS #D-147, 27 (“decisive”), 37; Egon Kleine and Volkmar Kühn, Tiger: The History of a Legendary Weapon, 1942–1945, 8; Kühn, Rommel in the Desert, 178.
From a range: AAR, 2nd Hampshires, Dec. 31, 1942, 78th Div. appendix, PRO, WO 175/168; Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. III, 91–98; Bryan Perrett, Against All Odds, 153 (“The situation”).
If Wednesday: M. J. Barton, “The Hampshire Regiment at Tébourba, 1942,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Apr. 1944, 57–63; 10th Panzer Div, “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942” (“Indications are”); Blaxland, 126 (“It was Dunkirk”).
“Commander is dissatisfied”: First Army, command post files, n.d., PRO, WO 175/56.
Too late: situation report to K.A.N. Anderson, Dec. 4, 1942, First Army, PRO, WO 175/50; K.A.N. Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa,” London Gazette, 1946; Jordan, 75 (“Bollocks!”); Messenger, 24 (“Looking back”).
At noon: 10th Panzer, “Combat Report,” Dec. 4, 1942; AAR, Philip G. Walker to PMR, Aug. 9, 1950, PMR, LOC, box 4 (“But for occasional curses”); Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, 98; Jordan, 76 (“One night in Glasgow”).
At a field hospital: ffrench Blake, 102; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 95 (“illuminated by candlelight”).
Several miles to the east: Moynihan, ed., 67 (“with delicate respect”).
The East Surreys had departed: Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, 157; Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, 91; NWAf, 320n; Nehring, 37; 10th Panzer, “Combat Report,” Dec. 4, 1942; Jordan, 69 (“There is an air”).
“The coordination of tank attacks”: PMR to GCM, Dec. 8, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, box 106; Robinett, Armor Command, 85 (“had not foreseen”).
“My dear C-in-C”: Anderson to DDE, Dec. 5, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5.
“There was abroad”: ibid; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Anderson to DDE, n.d., PRO, WO 175/50 (“enemy has already”); Anderson to DDE, Dec. 6, 1942, PRO, WO 175/50 (“wheezy French lorries”).
Fischer and his 10th Panzer Division: CCB Operations Report, Dec. 6, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; corr, W. B. Kern to PMR, “Account of the Battle Between U.S. and German Forces near El Bathan,” Apr. 25, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (a single man); Robinett, Armor Command, 88–91 (terrified .50-caliber gunner).
As the battalion commander: 27th Armored FA Bn, “Battalion History,” n.d., PMR Papers, GCM Lib, box 12 (“For Christ’s sake”); Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 85; NWAf, 328.
Help had been ordered: Erbes, “Hell on Wheels Surgeon,” 31 (“charge up the valley”); AAR, Philip G. Walker, n.d., PMR, LOC, box 4 (“Shells were cutting”); CCB Operations Report, Dec. 6, 1942; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 87; Robinett,Armor Command, 93.
Rain began: Martin Philipsborn, “Intelligence Report for Period 1 Dec. to 11 Dec. 1942,” CCB, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (“total effect was in fact terrifying”).
Latrine rumors: Lowell Bennett, 205 (poison gas), 132 (“Beware”); Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 157; E.W.C. Flavell, “Operations of 1st Bn., Parachute Regiment,” Dec. 7 and 10, 1942, C. W. Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/4; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-100 (burned an entire Arab village); Rame, 146 (“like an escaping murderer”); T. J. Camp, ed., “Tankers in Tunisia,” 34; AAR, 2nd Bn, 13th AR, n.d., PMR, LOC, box 6; letter, Thomas Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR, LOC, box 4 (like repelled like); Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, 124 (a potential reliquary).
“In an attack”: Fuller quoted in S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire, 71; asst. G-3 inspection report to AFHQ, n.d., NARA AFHQ micro, R 5-C; First Army to AFHQ, Dec. 8–9, 1942, AFHQ micro, R 5-C (“Reason is”).
Even before Eisenhower’s reply: Juin, OH, Dec. 5, 1948, SM, MHI (Juin stalked off); Louis Koeltz, Une Campagne Que Nous Avons Gagnée Tunisie, 83–84.
Omens and auguries: “Operations Report,” CCB, Dec. 10, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 91.
At eight A.M.: Nicholson and Forbes, 265 (“Tank Boche!”); Robinett, Armor Command, 96–100.
Holding a poor map: W. H. Hatcher to PMR, Oct. 13, 1949, PMR, LOC, box 4 (futile effort to blind); AAR, 10th Panzer, “The Tank Battle of Cactus Hill in the Area to the Southwest of Tébourba,” PMR, LOC, box 4; Robinett, Armor Command, 100–104 (“ground was alive” and “You have ruined me!”).
He had indeed: AAR, G. E. Lynch, March 5, 1943, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52, #21; “From Beer Beach to Kasserine Pass: The Story of the 175th Field Artillery Battalion,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 9542; AAR, J. Wedderburn Maxwell, 78th (U.K.) Div, in 175th FA Bn, War Diary, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 9542; NWAf, 332; Robinett, Armor Command, 104 (“new terrors into the minds”); Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 92 (reasoned pleas); Rame, 197–98 (“Turn the column”andstuffed bedrolls).
At 1:30 A.M.: Oliver, “In the Mud and Blood of Tunisia,” 11 (“I never felt so bad”); James Scott Stapel, ts, 1988, ASEQ, 1st AD (thermite grenades); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-85, A-93 (Eisenhower also considered); Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-39; Mayo, 121;NWAf, 332; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” (“crippling loss”); Robinett, Armor Command, 109; AAR, “Operations of Company C, 701st TD Battalion, 3 Oct. 1942 to 24 Jan. 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 23699; DDE to K.A.N. Anderson, Dec. 14, 1942, Chandler, 841 (no longer combat worthy).
“The faults were clear”: Rame, 202.
Other deficiencies: Robinett, Armor Command, 109; GSP to GCM, Dec. 21, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, chief of staff classified correspondence, box 106 (live goats); Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 95 (training ammunition); NWAf,332n.
“We are having our troubles”: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries, 83.
CHAPTER 6: A COUNTRY OF DEFILES
Longstop
For eleven days: Johnson, One More Hill, 25; Jack Belden, Still Time to Die, 219 (“standing on a window ledge”); Nicholson and Forbes, 266, 271 (“Fabriqué à Paris!” and “family of Arabs living”); Parris and Russell, 249 (“one bloody great mine”).
By December, 180,000 American troops: Matloff, 52; DDE memo, Dec. 15, 1942, Chandler, 842; Zanuck, 102, 117 (pulverized dates); L. Bennett, 237; letter, Harold Gottlieb, 32nd Bombardment Sq., in Annette Tapert, Lines of Battle: Letters from American Servicemen, 1941–1945 (“No shave, no bath”); “Memorial Booklet, 2nd Lt. Robert Maurice Mullen, Co. A, 18th Inf., 1st Div.,” MRC FDM, 1988.32, box 206 (“Thanks for giving me”); Robinett, Armor Command, 113 (bathrobes).
“There are none”: quoted in Tobin, 80.
The lull allowed: Downing, At War with the British, 111, 135, 140 (“old-fashioned workingmen”); Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, MRC FDM, 67 (“We’ve eaten British compo”).
Across the killing fields: Boog et al., 806; Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., “Arnim,” in Correlli Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 335–41; Destruction, 187.
Defense meant fortifications: “French Policy Toward Arabs, Jews and Italians in Tunisia,” OSS, Research and Analysis Branch, Dec. 1943, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, box 895 (“Equipped with tools”); war crimes testimony, Heinz Schweiger, June 1945, NARA RG 153, JAG, file 3-32, box 2 (Others were press-ganged); war diary, V Corps, Dec. 27, 1942, and intel summary, early December, PRO, WO 175/82; “Information Gathered from the 20th to the 23rd December 1942,” II Corps Miscellaneous Papers, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3163; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM, 22; Dorothy Stannard, Tunisia, 259.
“This means a most un-Christian Christmas”: Anderson to DDE, Dec. 16, 1942, First Army files, PRO, WO 175/50; also, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D; Anderson to DDE, Dec. 15, 1942, Chandler, 841n; Anderson dispatch, “Operations in North West Africa.”
Longstop offered: author visit, Apr. 2000; John Horsfall, The Wild Geese Are Flighting, 26 (“so foul, broken, blasted”); Ray, 35 (“a country of defiles”).
Had the British spent: AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943, PRO, WO 175/86; Destruction, 188; Howard and Sparrow, 113; E. R. Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, July 1944, 175 (“We failed to realize”).
As required by the unwritten rules: Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill” AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943, PRO, WO 175/86; Middleton, 232 (Muzzle flashes reddened); NWAf, 339–41; Perrett, At All Costs, 156; Messenger, 28–29; Horsfall, 153; AAR, 2nd Coldstream Guards, Dec. 23–25, 1942, PRO, WO 175/487.
An hour passed: S-1 journal, 1/18th Inf., Dec. 22–25, 1942 (“Brooklyn”), and 1st Guards Bde, Operations Order No. 1, Dec. 22, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5351; Saunders, 111 (“Blackpool beach”); “Report of Longstop Hill Engagement, Tunisia,” 18th Inf, March 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5936.
The relief in combat: NWAf, 341–43; AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943, PRO, WO 175/186; Howard and Sparrow, 113 (hiked in squelching boots); Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” 175; Rame, 207 (“Good King Wenceslas”).
Dawn on Longstop: Marshall, ed., Proud Americans of World War II, 51–55 (“They just appeared”).
Along the hill crest: Austin, 127, 131 (“like a boy” and “leaping with light”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 69; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM, 21 (“mud would foul your rifle”).
Pinned in a cactus: Porter, SOOHP, 259; Linderman, 243 (“white chrysanthemum”); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 55.
The Coldstreams had just finished: AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943; PRO, WO 175/186; “Report of Longstop Hill Engagement, Tunisia,” 18th Inf, March 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5936; Ray, 29; Ellis, 98 (“bored indifference”), 71 (“the release of fear”); Moynihan, ed., 67 (some already green); Nicholson and Forbes, 269 (even for mules); Messenger, 29 (bogged down 5,000 yards); Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” 175.
A lull persisted: Parris and Russell, 256 (“guns flashed”).
From that pinnacle: AAR, V Corps, Dec. 24, 1942, PRO, WO 175/82 (“in our possession”); Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” 175; NWAf, 342 (“never been appreciated”).
The rain slowed: Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 55 (“Get this man out!” and handing out razor blades); D’Arcy-Dawson, 52; Edward A. Raymond, “Long Toms in Action,” Field Artillery Journal, Nov. 1943, 803 (“Muddy Christmas”).
Eisenhower had yet: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, 215; chronology, Chandler, vol. V, 102; United Press article, Feb. 27, 1943, James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib; DDE to Ira C. Eaker, Dec. 6, 1942, Chandler, 808 (wicked dagger); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 124; McKeough and Lockridge, 85.
He suspected: Three Years, 210; CCS to DDE, Chandler, vol. II, 793n (“Losses in”); DDE to Churchill, Dec. 5, 1942, Chandler, 802 (“this battle”); DDE to T. T. Handy, Dec. 7, 1942, Chandler, 811 (“every recognized”); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-96 (“Engage and wear”); Foote, The Civil War, vol. 3, 739 (Grant’s casualties).
“Through all this”: memo, DDE, Dec. 10, 1942, Chandler, 824.
Shortly after noon: Baedeker, 301; Rame, 102 (“cubes of frozen moonlight”); Raff, 60; Powell, In Barbary, 252.
Even as they neared: NWAf, 337; Butcher diary, A-99; DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign,” 22 (all rail loadings); “History of Planning Division, ASF,” ts, 1946, CMH, 3-2.2; Kreidberg and Henry, 649 (twice as many);Destruction, 385; Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg, Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors, 51 (“Stop sending stockings”); GCM to DDE, Dec. 23, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-49-M, Supreme Allied Commander’s Secretariat (“Do notdiscuss”).
Increasingly, the strain showed: John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 210; Three Years, 218 (“a caged tiger”); GCM to Elmer Davis, Dec. 13, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS correspondence, box 106 (“I am very”); GCM to John Dill, Dec. 5, 1942, Chandler, 793n (Privately the chief); William D. Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R., 145 (“Why are they so slow?”).
The strain on Eisenhower: Three Years, 212 (“Those are your troubles”); Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 52 (“Tell everybody here”); Butcher diary, Nov. 27, 1942, DDE Lib, A-99 (“Damned if I’m not”), A-106;
Following an overnight stop: Robinett, Armor Command, 113 (“greatly depressed”); Three Years, 227–228 (“ordered trials” and offered to resign); Butcher diary, A-112; First Army log, Dec. 24, 1942, PRO, WO 175/50 (“Decision was made” and“Due to continual rain”).
“They Shot the Little Son of a Bitch”
Algiers on Christmas Eve: Renée Gosset, Conspiracy in Algiers, 130; Mario Faivre, We Killed Darlan, 122; Tompkins, 185 (Mousse d’Islam); Parris and Russell, 193; Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, 81st Reconn., 1st AD, 1989, MHI; A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Overseas Service,” 1981, IWM, 81/33/1; R. Priestly, 2nd Bn, Para Regt, ts, IWM, 83/24/1; Paul K. Skogsberg, “The North African Campaigns,” ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st Reconn. Troop, 1st ID, 25; Fussell, Wartime, 186 (“White Mistress”).
Morale officers: “History of Special Service Section,” II Corps, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3236 (“extremely bad discipline” and “at high tension”); Gale A. Mathers, “The Special Service Office in the European Theater,” Aug. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3236 (“I have seen cases”); Crawford, 172.
The Little Fellow: Howard and Sparrow, 109; MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 143 (“His small blue eyes”); Clark, Calculated Risk, 128; MWC, SOOHP, Forest S. Rittgers, Jr., 1972–73, MHI (“You know, the Little Fellow”); Murphy, 143 (“There are four plots”).
One would suffice: Tompkins, 185–87; Gosset, 130; Faivre, 125–26; Murphy msg to State Dept., Dec. 24, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-226-B; Ambrose, Ike’s Spies, 49–50; Anthony Verrier, Assassination in Algiers, 226.
Half a mile away: MWC, SOOHP, MHI (“They shot”).
A voluble mob: Murphy, 143; Clark, Calculated Risk, 128–30 (“a troublesome boil”); Boatner, 119; William H. Lee, memo, AFHQ, Dec. 24, 1942, OW, MHI; Marsh, ASEQ; MacVane, Journey into War, 134; MacVane, On the Air in World War II,157 (“never seen happier faces”).
Eisenhower had insisted: “Tactical Communications in World War II,” part 1, Signal Communication in the North African Campaign, 1945, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 92 (he remained beyond reach); First Army log, Dec. 24, 1942, PRO, WO 175/50 (“most serious thing”); Juin, OH, Dec. 5, 1948, SM, MHI; Anderson to Brooke, Dec. 25, 1942, PRO, WO 175/56; “Record of Events and Documents from the Date That Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark Entered into Negotiations with Admiral Jean Francois Darlan Until Darlan Was Assassinated,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1 (“Have just returned”); Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy, 401; Three Years, 229 (ended one problem).
Badly reduced: Rudolf Lang, “Battles of Kampfgruppe Lang in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, #D-173, MHI.
More than a hundred: AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943, PRO, WO 175/186; “Report of Longstop Hill Engagement, Tunisia,” 18th Inf, March 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5936; Howard and Sparrow, 116; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” MRC FDM, 24; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 55 (“We will fight to the last”).
The right flank: Linderman, 284 (“sick kittens”); Nicholson and Forbes, 269 (“a few scraggy chickens”).
Word soon circulated: NWAf, 343; Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” 175; Downing, 145.
Longstop belonged to the Germans: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS #C-098, MHI; Operations Bulletin No. 2, May 31, 1943, HQ, NW African Air Forces, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 132 (4,000-pound bomb).
Of the Tommies and Yanks: Intel. Summary No. 89, 1st Guards Bde, May 15, 1943, PRO, WO 175/186 (oddly unmolested); Nicholson and Forbes, 271 (“a cheese-grater”); William G. Chamberlin, ASEQ, 32nd FA Bn, 1st ID, n.d.; Johnson, One More Hill, 27–28 (“Objective lost”).
“This Is the Hand of God”
For a man: McKeough and Lockridge, 63; DDE to Berthe Darlan, Dec. 25, 1942, Chandler, 861 (“You have”); Morgan, 98, 101 (“God rest ye merry”).
The investigation: MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 158; Moorehead, The End in Africa, 58; Faivre, 131 (“I have brought to justice”); Tompkins, 195–97 (coffin); Verrier, 249 (“surprised to be shot”).
As his assassin: “Darlan funeral,” Signal Corps, 35mm, B&W, NARA, ADC 1002; Curt Riess, ed., They Were There, 530 (“Not a tear”); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-121; Tompkins, 191 (bared halberds).
As the funeral: United Press account, New York Times, Dec. 27, 1942; New York Times, Dec. 28, 1942; “Funeral for Admiral Darlan—Record of Events,” Dec. 26, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-204-F (“all sidearms”).
The requiem mass: Cunningham, OH, Feb. 12, 1947, Forrest C. Pogue, MHI (“Go ahead”).
It was over: “Darlan funeral,” Signal Corps, 35mm, B&W, NARA, ADC 1002; “Funeral for Admiral Darlan—Record of Events,” Dec. 26, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-204-F (“the following errors”).
The procession wound: Gosset, 130; De Gaulle, Memoirs, 381 (“the long disease”); Macmillan, The Blast of War, 167 (“Once bought”); Hunt, 153 (“fell like a stone”).
Finger-pointing: Fergusson, 148 (“a cup of tea”); Three Years, 239 (“Is there anyone here”); Jordan, 139 (“Arab”); D’Este, Bitter Victory, 55 (“You will find the Americans”).
Yet a harsher: Larrabee, 436 (“our Italians”); Alexander G. Clifford, The Conquest of North Africa, 1940–1943, 405 (“gifted amateurs”); W.R.C. Penney, ts, n.d., LHC (“crashing bores”); Fergusson, 148 (“The British cope”).
“The plain facts”: AAR, 1st Guards Bde, Jan. 9, 1943, PRO, WO 175/86.
To Major General Terry Allen: Dixon, “Terry Allen,” 57 (“Please always remember”); GCM to TdA, July 30, 1942, GCM Lib, Pentagon correspondence, box 56, folder 17; Baumer, 68, 117 (“all that stuff”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 187 (“like vermin”).
Yet as the weeks: Dixon, “Terry Allen,” 57; Steven Clay, Blood and Sacrifice: The History of the 16th Infantry Regiment, 27 (read in mss); Curtis, 42; Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” 221 (“like whiskey”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 188 (“Is this a private war”); Robert W. Porter, SOOHP, John N. Sloan, 1981, MHI, 260; S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire, 161 (“A man fights”).
The last straw: Porter, SOOHP, 259–60 (“I can’t understand”); “Terry Allen and the First Division,” MHI; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 274.
good men dared: Sherwood, xvii.
The bottom of the year: DDE to CCS, Dec. 26, 1942, Chandler, 868 (“severest disappointment”); “directive for commander-in-chief, Allied Expeditionary Force,” Aug. 13, 1942, NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 325.
An enormous siege: Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 196; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 36; “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign, 1942–1943,” 51. (Eisenhower came to believe that quick victory in Tunisia would have put Allied troops in the Po River Valley in northern Italy by winter 1943.)
For now, there were deficiencies: Allerton Cushman, AGF Observer Report, March 29, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 418, Director of Plans and Ops, box 1228 (“The German army”); Stanley J. Grogan, “Memorandum for Mr. McCloy,” n.d., NARA RG 165, E 418, box 1228 (“More than discipline”); John P. Lucas, Observer Report, Apr. 28, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS classified general correspondence, box 106 (“not leading their men well”).
They had seen things: Marshall, “The Battle That Wasn’t,” ASEQ, 34th Inf Div, MHI (“cracked porcelain surface”); Michael D. Doubler, Closing with the Enemy, 253, 293; Linderman, 212 (“questers”); John C. McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II, 282 (“Twins, we feel”).
“Things have not gone well”: Anderson to Brooke, Dec. 25, 1942, PRO, WO 175/56.
CHAPTER 7: CASABLANCA
The Ice-Cream Front
At 10:30 P.M.: “President’s Trip to Casablanca,” Guy H. Spaman to Frank J. Wilson, June 26, 1945, FDR Lib, Secret Service records, box 4; George E. Durno, “Flight to Africa: A Chronicle of the Casablanca Conference Between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill,” n.d., FDR Lib, 200-2-U; Hassett, 127, 142, 146; Leahy, 143; Raymond W. Copson, “Summit at Casablanca,” American History, Apr. 2002, 60.
With a steamy sigh: Seale, vol. II; Michael F. Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 136–47; Goodwin, 366; Sherwood, 665.
A kind of Roman camp: AAR, 1st Armored Signal Batt, Sept 18, 1943, NARA RG 165, director for plans and ops, corr, box 1230; Wordell and Seiler, 281.
Fragrant with begonias: Reilly, 150; Austin, 71; Durno, 63, 66, 68; msg to DDE, Jan. 10, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, “Casablanca Conference,” R-49-M; Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels: The 2nd Armored Division, 143 (“Hail to the Chief”); Macmillan,The Blast of War, 194; memo, Arthur R. Wilson, Dec. 10, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 246 (George Washington).
Overseeing this feverish activity: Austin, 71 (“Every other four-wheeler”); Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 132; Patton, War As I Knew It, 35; Codman, 76 (“absolutely steady”); Crawford, Report on North Africa, 26 (“the Ice-Cream Front”).
Patton was miserable: Farago, 222 (huge Packard); A. G. Shepard, “Report on Operation TORCH,” Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, serial 0014, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 3; Robinett, Armor Command, 110 (“Where are the Germans”); Blumenson,Patton, 174–75 (“Top Dog”); John Field, “Patton of the Armored Force,” Life, Nov. 30, 1942, 113; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 163 (“kill someone”).
Patton discharged: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 175, 123, 150.
Arriving from London: Pendar, Adventure in Diplomacy, 140 (“working up mud”); Thomas B. Buell, Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, 253; Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 1943–1945, 18 (dire warnings).
Churchill and his entourage: Lord Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 85 (silk vest and nothing else); Ismay, Memoirs, 284–85 (“we were clever enough”); Bryant, 434, 485; Kennedy, 280; W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 180 (“Any fool can see”); Goodwin, 301 (“big English bulldog”).
“at the conference”: Matloff and Snell, 379 (“the British will have a plan”); Roger Parkinson, A Day’s March Nearer Home, 14; “The Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 1972, USNI OHD, 3–124; Ian Jacob diary, quoted in Bryant, 540 (“dark hole”); Moran, 78 (“the control of the Mediterranean”); D’Este, Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 38 (“dripping of water”); Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 390; Macmillan, War Diaries: The Mediterranean, 1943–1945, 8.
Speedy Valley
Operation SATIN envisioned: The AAF in Northwest Africa, 29; “Memorandum of Conference at Advanced Allied Force Headquarters,” Jan. 21, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-187-D; Three Years, 236.
SATIN was bold: NWAf, 350; Roskill, 433 (437,000 soldiers); CCS msg, Jan. 1943, NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 325 (“The Allied forces”); “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall and Supporting Players,” Jan. 3, 1943, James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“II Corps is to be bait”).
Eisenhower and his staff: memo, AFHQ G-4, Jan. 15, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D (“logistically out of hand”); “Record of Conference Held by C-in-C Allied Force,” Jan. 10, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D (“fatal to do nothing”).
Eisenhower made several moves: “History of Allied Force Headquarters,” 1945, MTOUSA Historical Section, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95ALI-0.1, boxes 142–43; Theodore J. Conway, SOOHP, Sept. 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, MHI; Ambrose,Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, 226; Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI; D. Clayton James, with Anne Sharp Wells, A Time for Giants, 153 (“begged and pleaded”); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-8 (“Clark admitted”), A-127 (“Ike doesn’t think Clark”), A-157, A-194 (“manure pile” and lectured him); Danchev and Todman, eds., 356 (“very ambitious and unscrupulous”).
“I bless the day”: DDE to GCM, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 690.
At fifty-nine: “Outline History of II Corps,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3112; Robert H. Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders, 5; These Are the Generals, 227 (“very soldierly little fellow”); Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 27; “World War II Generals,” 1945, WD, USMA Lib.
Thirty-five years later: letter, James Webb to family, Apr. 20, 1943, OW, MHI (a conviction that neither); Leland L. Rounds, OH, Oct. 21, 1948, SM, MHI; “Leland L. Rounds: His Tale, July 13, 1944,” OSS files, NARA RG 226, E 99, box 39 (“Lay off”).
Orders issued from: Curtis, “The Song of the Fighting First,” ts, 1988, MRC FDM, 56; Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, n.d., CEOH, III-13.
Truscott found him: Kirkpatrick, “Orthodox Soldiers: Army Formal Schools Between the Two World Wars,” 10; Truscott, Command Missions, 144 (“outspoken in his opinions”); Fredendall to LKT Jr., Jan. 22, 1943, 1050 hrs. and 1345 hrs., LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5.
Fredendall also harbored: “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall,” Oct. 7, 1942, “Log of Our Transatlantic Flight,” James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib; James, A Time for Giants, 95 (“Ike is the best”); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 35.
Lloyd Fredendall’s chosen avenue: Rame, 214 (Solomon the Eunuch); Baedeker, 315; Miller, Ike the Soldier, 472; G-1 report, HQ II Corps, Feb. 14, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 263; Carter, “Carter’s War,” III-13 (“Fredendall’s kindergarten”); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” 37 (“surrounded by children”); “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall,” Jan. 25, 1943, James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“woods are stiff”).
Tébessa’s high plateau: “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall,” Jan. 8 (“cold as a snake”), Jan. 9 (bulletproof Cadillac), and Jan. 11 (“Everyone is freezing”), 1943, James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib; Austin, 77 (“lumber camp”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 301 (in his canvas chair).
Day and night: blueprint, 19th Engineer Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, box 19248; “II Corps Engineer Section Journal,” Jan. 21–March 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3234; “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall,” Jan. 25, 1943, James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib.
Some officers believed: Truscott, Command Missions, 146; MacVane, Journey into War, 195 (“Some of ours”); Waters, SOOHP, MHI, 175–76, 202 (some questioned); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV-15 (“We had no proper”).
Suspected Tunisian collaborators: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 5/19, 6/13; Raff, 194–95 (“Of the thirty-nine”).
Ted Roosevelt, who had been peeled: TR to Eleanor, Jan. 16 and Feb. 2, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9; Cameron, “Americanizing the Tank,” 761; “Journal for the 3rd Battalion,” 26th Infantry, Feb. 1943, MRC FDM (“everything but the Rising Sun”).
Among the most active: AAR, “Account of Carleton S. Coon,” NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 39, folders 8, 34, 39, 75, 85 (“mule turds”); Coon, A North African Story, 68 (“rogues and cutthroats”), 76 (“one Arab and one cow”), 79; George C. Chalou, ed.,The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II, 20 (“Bad-Eyes Brigade”); The Overseas Targets: War Report of the OSS, vol. 2, 19–20 (“This use of hostages”); Brown, The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan, 266, 269 (“Captain Retinitis”).
“It is still”: TR to Eleanor, Feb. 6, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9.
So were the tens: Pyle, “Our Soldiers in Tunisia Learn the Agony of War,” ts, n.d., AAR, 26th Inf, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5942; Mayo, 135; article, Gault MacGowan, New York Sun, Dec. 8, 1942 (Army grub); letter, Raymond Dreyer to family, March 10, 1943, MCC, YU (Life Savers); letter, Joseph T. Dawson to family, Apr. 26, 1943, Dawson Collection, MRC FDM (“We often wonder”); Abbott, 64 (“Tunisian deer”); Lawrence J. Starr, ASEQ, 135th Inf, 34th ID, MHI; Houston, 139; History 67th Armored Regiment, 71.
Dysentery, parasites: Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa,” 1948; Hamilton H. Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” lecture, n.d., Cavalry School, MHI (“Stuka time”); D’Arcy-Dawson, 95 (“Messerstorks”); Ray, 34 (250 Allied casualties); Ford, 44 (Evelegh ordered); Austin, 77.
“Never out of artillery range”: Lawrence J. Starr, ASEQ, 135th Inf, 34th ID, MHI (“An old man at twenty”); Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 24; Liebling, 66 (“old man with chilblains”); Robinett, Armor Command, 139 (“Lay it on them!”); Abbott, 83 (“Mother, please”).
“I should have”: diary, Nov. 10, 1942, OW, MHI; Robinett, Armor Command, 28 (“I would either go”).
Known as Dan: author interviews, Edith Ward Spalding, Oct. 2000, Robin Ward Yates, Sept. 2000, and John Ward Yates, August 2001; obituary, Assembly, March 1973; Gugeler, ts, n.d. (unpublished Ward biography), OW, MHI, I-11, III-1, V-4, VII-13, IX-4, IX-22; David A. Shugart, “On the Way: The U.S. Field Artillery in the Inter-War Period,” paper, Apr. 2000, Society for Military History, 5; W. B. Smith to OW, July 1943, OW, MHI; OW to 8th AD cadre, March 3, 1942, OW, MHI.
Ward had two peculiarities: Gugeler, IX-16; diary, Nov. 8, 1942, Jan. 15, 20, 27, 1943, OW, MHI.
“The Touch of the World”
The Emperor of the West: logs, FRUS; Reilly, 152; Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 71 (“Winnie is”).
Preserving the status quo: Austin, 73 (“Business: Chiefs of Staff”); Sherwood, 676 (“Ike seems jittery”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 133, 135; Frederick E. Morgan, OH, n.d., FCP, MHI (how such a man).
He spoke without notes: Chandler, 906n; FRUS, Jan. 15, 1943, 569 (“might be a good division”), 567 (“At first operations”).
Watching this performance: Bryant, 17, 552 (“shooting his tongue”); Boatner, 63; Danchev and Todman, eds., xv (“I flatly disagree”); David Fraser, Alanbrooke, 92–93, 297; Kennedy, 291.
did not distract: Danchev and Todman, eds., 352 (“ridiculous plan”), 351 (“Eisenhower as a general”).
Now Brooke pounced: msg no. COS (W) 430, British chiefs of staff, Jan. 5, 1943, Watson Notes, GCM Lib; FRUS, 567, 574, 577; Bryant, 548; NWAf, 353; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 579 (Ultra decrypt today).
Eisenhower tried to regroup: FRUS, 567–69 (“any necessary adjustments”); Three Years, 236 (“Fredendall’s plan”); “Minutes of Meeting,” CCS, Jan. 15, 1943, NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195.
British and American chiefs: Kent Roberts Greenfield, American Strategy in World War II: A Reconsideration, 31; Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. IV, 245; Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 241; Behrens, 328; Francis Tuker, Approach to Battle, 319 (It is axiomatic).
No sooner had Eisenhower: FRUS, 539 (“final victory”); memo, British chiefs of staff, Jan. 2, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, box 54; “Minutes of Meeting,” JCS, Jan. 16, 1943, 1700 hrs., NARA RG 218, box 169; Matloff, 24 (Eisenhower’s own planners).
All of which argued: FRUS, 539, 570, 572, 573; Clark, Calculated Risk, 50 (“Why stick your head”); Leighton and Coakley, 673.
As Brooke had listened: Bryant, 545; Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 1943–1945, 7; Ernest J. King and Walter Muir Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 413 (“old crustacean”); Buell, xi, 11, 75 (foghorn voice), 78–79 (bibulous and lecherous); GCM, OH, Oct. 5, 1956, Forrest Pogue, GCM Lib (“Albion perfidious”); C. E. Lambe, OH, Feb. 26, 1947, FCP, MHI (“his eye on the Pacific”).
King threw a rock: “Minutes of Meeting,” JCS, Jan. 16, 1943, 1700 hrs., NARA RG 218, box 169 (“do not seem”); FRUS, 547, 549; Mary H. Williams, ed., Chronology, 1941–1945, USAWWII, 81–97; Leighton and Coakley, 662, 663n (only 15 percent); Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 47–48 (virtually all U.S. Marines); Matloff and Snell, 157 (at least three times), 357–60.
No matter: FRUS, 553, 555; Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports!, 165 (secretly tape-recorded), 158; “Minutes of Meeting,” JCS, Jan. 16, 1943, 0930 hrs., NARA RG 218, box 169 (“If we subscribed”).
Brooke recorded his assessment: Danchev and Todman, eds., 360.
Casablanca lay: Gugeler, ts, MHI, X-53 (“too terrible”); Three Years, 243 (“neck is in a noose”); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-176; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 136–37; Danchev and Todman, eds., 363 (“deficient of experience”); Sherwood, 689 (“The President told General Marshall”); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 623 (read in mss) (“what I’m going to do with Tunisia”); Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 79 (“What’s your guess?”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 154 (“He thinks his thread”).
Brooke’s deputy: Kennedy, 273 (“He is difficult enough”); Codman, 76; Durno, 73 (“You Are My Sunshine”); Reilly, 155; Harmon, Combat Commander, 109 (“Corporal of the guard!”).
Mornings, he lounged: Sherwood, 688; Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 102; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 194; Kersaudy, 240 (“Come and see”); Ismay, OH, Dec. 17 and Dec. 20, 1946, FCP, MHI (“Very well”); Frederick E. Morgan, OH, n.d., FCP, MHI (“to view with contempt”); Charles F. A. Portal, OH, Feb. 7, 1947, FCP, MHI (“We don’t get paid”).
Roosevelt also found: Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 94; Codman, 76; Powell, In Barbary.
A state dinner: FRUS, 832 (effects of teetotalism), 608 (“there just aren’t going”).
Around and around: “Minutes of Meeting,” CCS, Jan. 16, 1943, 1030 hrs., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195 (“how Germany is to be defeated”).
There it was: “Minutes of a meeting at the White House on Thursday, Jan. 7, 1943, at 1500,” NARA RG 165, E 422, box 54; FRUS, 594–96, 597 (“not interested in occupying Italy”); Trumbull Higgins, Soft Underbelly, 47; “Minutes of Meeting,” CCS, Jan. 18, 1943, 1030 hrs., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195.
After two stormy hours: Danchev and Todman, eds., 362 (“It is no use”).
“We lost our shirts”: Wedemeyer, 191–92.
Besides, the president: Signal Corps film, ADC-979 and ADC-465, NARA; Walter Logan, United Press account, Jan. 21, 1943; Durno, 74 (“Roadsides were a panorama”); Reilly, 160 (To distract curious), 155 (“The Heinies know”); Harmon, 109; Blumenson,The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 157 (“bunch of cheap detectives”); Clark, Calculated Risk, 149 (“Negro troops who”); Whitehead, 35–37; “President’s Trip to Casablanca,” Guy H. Spaman to Frank J. Wilson, June 26, 1945, FDR Lib, Secret Service records, box 4 (no bullets); Harriman and Abel, 181 (trained on the docile troops).
Rumors that FDR: Houston, 144 (“Anything is possible”); Durno, 75–79; Logan, UP account, Jan. 21, 1943; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 158 (“says India is lost”); Three Years, 283 (“hoped to die”).
The distant roar: “Minutes of Meeting,” CCS, Jan. 19, 1943, 1600 hrs., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195; Austin, 71–72 (“We’ll need”); John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 238 (“petit De Gaulle”), 244; Tompkins, 230 (“a self-seeker”); Codman, 72, 80 (“Uncle Sam”); Murphy, 170, 174–76; Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 74, 91 (“a dud”); De Gaulle, 387, 392; Anthony Eden, The Memoirs of Anthony Eden, Earl of Avon, 421; Leahy, 144; Pendar, 151 (Jeanne d’Arc); Moran, 88; FRUS, 694; Harmon, 109; Signal Corps film, ADC-979 and ADC-465, NARA; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 682; Sherwood, 685 (entire Secret Service detail); Reilly, 158.
But here they were: Signal Corps film, ADC-979 and ADC-465, NARA; Price, 190; MacVane, Journey into War, 180–83; Davis, Experience of War, 379; Sherwood, 688 (“a very warlike look”); Jordan, Jordan’s Tunis Diary, 153 (“Peter Pan”); Parris and Russell, 277 (“I was born”).
As the generals: FRUS, 726 (“unprecedented in history”), 822; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 203; Price, 191; Middleton, 254; Harriman and Abel, 186 (“the privilege”); Moorehead, 119 (“It was all rather embarrassing”).
“I think we have all”: FRUS, 727; Copson, “Summit at Casablanca” (“storm and ruin”).
No one scrutinizing: Sherwood, 687, 696 (“popped into my mind”); FRUS, 635 (“the united nations”); “Minutes of a meeting at the White House on Thursday, Jan. 7, 1943, at 1500,” NARA RG 165, E 422, box 54; Wedemeyer, 187 (“compel the Germans”).
What was done was done: Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 373; Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. IV, 282–85; Anne Armstrong, Unconditional Surrender, 13–14 (Third Punic War and none of the fifteen).
The reporters had their story: MacVane, Journey into War, 180–83; Austin, 73 (“What’s your paper, eh?”); Middleton, 254 (“the touch of the world”).
The Sinners’ Concourse
while the hacks: Harriman and Abel, 191 (For four hours); Moran, 89; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 694 (“most elaborately organized brothels”); “Minutes of Meeting,” Jan. 15, 1943, 1000 hrs., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 169 (“refuse any invitation”); Sherwood, 694; Pendar, 135.
Their refuge: “Moses Taylor Villa,” NARA RG 338, Fifth Army files, box 262; Durno, 26; Bryant, 563; Pendar, 136, 140, 145 (nervous breakdown).
Looming above La Saadia: Moran, 90 (“paralyzed legs dangling”); Churchill, Hinge of Fate, 695; Pendar, 148–49.
They sat in reverent silence: FRUS, 535; Powell, In Barbary, 428, 436 (Sinners’ Concourse); Pendar, 148–49 (“ain’t no war”); Marvine Howe, “In Marrakesh,” New York Times, March 3, 2002; Larrabee, 39.
But what should happen: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, 7 (“Where do we go”); GCM, OH, Oct. 29, 1956, FCP, GCM Lib (“chrome steel baseboards”); “Minutes of Meeting,” JCS, Jan. 20, 1943, 0900 hrs., NARA RG 218, box 169; Lamb, 222 (“Nothing in the world”).
The compromises at Anfa: Behrens, 331; Greenfield, American Strategy, 92 (“I note that the Americans”); Morton Yarmon, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” part IV, “TORCH and the European Theater of Operations,” 1946, CMH, 8.31 AA, 117; Vigneras, 31, 38; Abraham Friedman, “Operation TORCH: The Dispatch of Aircraft from the United Kingdom by Eighth Air Force,” Sept. 14, 1944, Historical Section, U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24351, 15–16; Slessor, 448.
Many months would also pass: Armstrong, 154 (“putrefying albatross”); Parkinson, 70; Greenfield, American Strategy, 9; Thomas Fleming, The New Dealers’ War: F.D.R. and the War Within World War II, 184–85; Warlimont, 316; Howard, Grand Strategy,vol. IV, 284 (“a word of encouragement”).
A sense of companionship: Murphy, 168 (“a reluctant tail”); Christopher Hitchens, “The Medals of His Defeat,” Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 2002, 118 (wariness); Danchev and Todman, eds., 364 (“charming people”); “Minutes of Meeting,” copy #61, CCS, NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195 (some pencil turned); George Q. Flynn, The Mess in Washington: Manpower Mobilization in World War II, 207 (a great waterman); Harriman and Abel, 191 (“the old order could not last”).
Dinner at La Saadia: Pendar, 149–58 (“I am the pasha” and “Don’t tell me”); Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 119; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 695; Moran, 90 (“I love these Americans”); Harriman and Abel, 191–92; Larrabee, 39.
CHAPTER 8: A BITS AND PIECES WAR
“Goats Set Out to Lure a Tiger”
The almond trees: Robinett, Armor Command, 152–55 (panniers heaped and grave markers); Moorehead, 109 (veiled women peered); Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 120 (its brakes stuck).
As a first line of defense: Anthony Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 74 (“British senior officers”); Adrian Clements Gore, “This Was the Way It Was,” ts, 1987, IWM, 90/29/1 (“a comic-opera soldier”).
The French possessed almost no: Truscott, Command Missions, 135; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa,” June 7, 1943, London Gazette; Ankrum, 207, 225; Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 92 (“goats set out”); msg, Advance AFHQ to AFHQ, Feb. 3 and 4, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-100-D, 319.1 (“somewhat discouraged”).
“This past week”: “Memo for diary,” Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 909; Three Years, 242–43 (“one of the world’s greatest”), 244, 245 (“Mud is a silly alibi”), 250; DDE to J. T. McNarney, Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 914 (“There is no use”).
The abrupt scuttling: DDE to GCM, Jan. 30, 1943, Chandler, 932 (“We must keep”); DDE to CCS, Feb. 3, 1943, Chandler, 934 (“offensively defensive”); Butcher diary, Jan. 18, 1943, DDE Lib, A-161 (“I don’t want anything”).
In this the Germans: NWAf, 377; memo, DDE to W. B. Smith, Jan. 11, 1943, and memo, L. W. Rooks to W. B. Smith, Feb. 11, 1943, NARA AFHQ micro, R-71 Special (“no action can be taken”); Rame, 221 (“retiring from crest to crest”); Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” (“not hopeful”).
General Anderson ordered: NWAf, 378, 382; “Report of Ousseltia Valley Campaign, 19–29 January 1943,” CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 12, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCB-0.3 (“An excellent example”); Rame, 218–19 (“a lake of morning mist”); “The French Army of North Africa in the Tunisian Campaign,” lecture, 1943, Fort Hood, William S. Biddle Papers, MHI; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 111–13; Truscott, Command Missions, 138 (400 Germans).
French casualties: NWAf, 382, 386n, 387; “Report of Liaison Officer on French Troops,” Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (“French can no longer”); memo, DDE, Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 909; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” Jan. 13, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” G-1 report, HQ II Corps, Feb. 14, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 263; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 489; DDE to Anderson, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 922.
He had no sooner: Three Years, 244–45, 255; DDE to W. B. Smith, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 923 (“barracks used by our soldiers”); DDE to T. Handy, Jan. 28, 1943, Chandler, 927 (“As much as we preach”).
Orlando Ward, who ostensibly commanded: Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, X-62; diary, Jan. 23, 28, 1943, OW, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 142; NWAf, 387–88; Fredendall to LKT Jr, phone transcript, Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (“Remember that force”); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, Russell Gugeler, OW, MHI; “Report of Operation, 27 January–3 February 1943,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Knickerbocker et al., 59, 82 (“bits and pieces”).
General von Arnim duly noted: author visit, April 2000; Carell, 333 (“my nightmare”); Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa” James B. Carvey, “Faïd Pass,” Infantry Journal, Sept. 1944, 8.
That was about to change: Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” lecture, n.d., Cavalry School, MHI (“Do not fire”); Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 150; Hansen, 2/80 (“the most important point”); Blumenson, “Kasserine Pass, 30 January–22 February 1943,” in Heller and Stofft, eds., 245.
Prompt, decisive action: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 108.
McQuillin’s nickname: R. E. McQuillin, Army biographical files, MHI; Robert Simons, OH, July 1976, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“As a man he was”); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, OW, MHI.
Having granted the enemy: A. N. Stark, Jr., Army biographical files, MHI; author interviews, George Juskalian, Feb. 25, 2000 (“It was nerve-racking”), and Paul F. Gorman, Feb. 7, 2000; Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 148; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 109; Raphael L. Uffner, “Recollections of World War II with the First Infantry Division,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 245–50 (“strongly rejected”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 7/1–2; Robinett, Armor Command, 143.
Truscott and Ward drove: author visit, Apr. 2000; Jordan, Jordan’s Tunis Diary, 175 (“that half-world”); Truscott, Command Missions, 148–49.
The American force: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/1–2; Laurence P. Robertson, ts, 1988, ASEQ, 1st AR, 1st AD, MHI (also, earlier draft in Laurence Robertson papers, USMA Arch); “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; G. C. Kelleher, Army biographical files, MHI; Uffner, 250 (French toast).
For Company H: Robertson, ts, MHI, 184 (“The velocity” and heavy black bread); Truscott, Command Missions, 149; Uffner, 248; “Catalogue of Standard Ordnance Items, Volume I,” in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. II, part 3, CMH.
The failed counterattack: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; OW to McQuillin, Jan. 31, 1943, 2115 hrs., NARA RG 407, E 427 (“I am counting on you”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/2–3 (“held their fire”); NWAf, 393–94;E. C. Smith, Feb. 14, 1943, MCC, YU (“shook us”); AAR, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, and S-2 report, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767.
Faïd Pass was gone: NWAf, 392 (scathing message), 394n (more than 900); Heller and Stofft, eds., 246 (McQuillin bitterly); Hansen, 2/80 (“To retake it”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 135; Rudolf Lang, “Battles of Kampfgruppe Lang in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, D-173; Carell, 331 (“It will soon be over”).
“This Can’t Happen to Us”
Fredendall’s attention: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 76 (“draw the pucker string”); NWAf, 392–96.
Infantrymen from the 1st Battalion: Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH, 102–107 (“Sunday School picnic”); author interview, Aurelio Barron, Oct. 19, 1999 (“All down the road”); “History of the 168th Infantry,” Jan. 31, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, boxes 9575–77; Rame, 229; Rolf, 79 (“It was the most terrible thing”); AAFinWWII, 142; Lauren E. McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station,” Infantry Journal, Apr. 1945, 30 (“Maimed and twisted”).
Three different colonels: Stewart, “The ‘Red Bull’ Division: The Training and Initial Engagements of the 34th Infantry Division, 1941–43,” 1; Dennis B. Dray, “Regimental Commander of the 168th Infantry, Colonel Thomas Davidson Drake: Battle of Sened and Sidi bou Zid, Tunisia,” ts, Nov. 1977, Iowa Military Academy, Iowa GSM; memo, Jan. 12, 1943, in William F. Beekman, “A Diary of World War II as Observed Through the Eyes, Ears, and Mind of Bill Beekman,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM (“Neither will good table manners”); Green and Gauthier, eds., 76 (Quack-Quack).
As his 1st Battalion huddled: Thomas D. Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry,” Apr. 1945, Charles W. Ryder Collection, DDE Lib, container 4; Ankrum, 174; Curtiss, ed., 276.
But first, Sened Station: Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427, Moynihan, ed., 57.
a cakewalk: author interview, Aurelio Barron (“Go on up there!”); Ankrum, 174 (“all those bees”); Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station” (“I saw his canteen”); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” (“Men were dying everywhere”).
At midafternoon: Berens, 5, 47 (“Kill them all!”); “168th African History,” in “168th Infantry Publications,” Iowa GSM; Rame, 235.
Fredendall was considerably less charmed: NWAf, 397 (contradictory orders); “Historical Record, HQ,” March 1, 1943, CCD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCD 0.3 (“Too much time”); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV-13 (“There has been a breakthrough!”); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” Camp, ed., 55 (“A sort of hysteria”); Powell, OH, CEOH, 110 (“hightailing it”); letter, James McGuinness to parents, May 23, 1943, Co. F, 168th Inf, World War II Letters, 1940–1946, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri–Columbia, Missouri (“Some of the fellows”).
The American attack was spent: “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427 (“Your outfit”); AAR, 1st AD, Jan. 27–Feb. 3, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part I, CMH (“no decisive objective”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 129; NWAf, 398; Ankrum, 174.
“One of the things that gives me”: DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 4, 1943, Chandler, 939; Truscott, Command Missions, 150 (Fredendall was too rash); Three Years, 254 (“futile rushing around”); diary, Feb. 8, 10, 1943, OW, MHI (“spherical SOB”).
As recently as February 1: “Meeting, 1000 hours, 1 Feb. 1943,” NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D; NWAf, 399.
“We could not help wondering”: “701st Tank Destroyer Battalion: North African Campaign Diary, B Company,” 1943, MHI.
“The Mortal Dangers That Beset Us”
At eight A.M. on February 12: David Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 267.
The trailer door: Fritz Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” n.d., FMS, D-046, MHI, 9 (“My dear young friend”); Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (“The very last armored”); Forty, The Armies of Rommel, 176; B. H. Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 394 (“It’s two years”).
“Rommel, Rommel, Rommel!”: Bryant, 450 (“What else matters”); Boatner, 461; Matthew Cooper, The German Army, 1939–1945, 352; Charles Douglas-Home, Rommel, 110; Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 101; Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (“one good division”); James J. Sadkovich, “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North Africa, 1940–1942,” International History Review, May 1991, 284; Bruce Allen Watson, Exit Rommel, 56, 158–59 (“fugitive leading”).
“Day and night”: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 390–91; Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 373–74; Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” 9 (“a broken man”).
Rommel understood: NWAf, 370, 372; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 1948, supplement to London Gazette, 868; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”
Yet Rommel’s German units: “Rommel to Tunisia,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 227; war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 3–4 and Feb. 10–17, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Hellmuth Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16, 1943, and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 1949, FMS, #C-075, 17 (“hypnotic influence”); NWAf, 370.
True, Rommel’s army included: Boog et al., 801n (350,000 Axis men); NWAf, 371; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”
Rommel increasingly blamed: Domenico Petracarro, “The Italian Army in Africa, 1940–1943: An Attempt at Historical Perspective,” War & Society, Oct. 1991, 103 (tied bandannas); Enno von Rinteln, “The Italian Commmand and Armed Forces in the First Half of 1943: Their Situation, Intentions, and Measures,” 1947, FMS, #T-1a, trans. Janet E. Dewey, MHI (“was in agony”); Westphal, The German Army in the West, 130; Kesselring, “Italy as a Military Ally,” n.d., FMS, #C-015, 9 (“three fashionable passions”); war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 11, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH.
In these and other matters: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 48–49 (“sober cal- culations” and “a second Stalingrad”); Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16 (“house of cards”) and March 10, 1943 (brigade of homosexuals), and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Jackson, The Battle for North Africa, 415; Destruction, 274.
talk of decampment: Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 28, 31; Kesselring, Memoirs, 143, 149; Warlimont, 310, 284 (restricted rations).
to avoid a similar diet: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 868; Destruction, 273, 283–84; OKW to Comando Supremo, Jan. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 253 (English dictionary); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 397 (“break up the American”).
Kesselring agreed: Irving, 266–67 (“We are going to go”); NWAf, 206–207; war diary, Fifth Panzer Army, Feb. 8, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH (“weaken the American”); war report, Panzer Army Africa, Jan. 16 to Feb. 12, 1943.
The front remained: Pyle, Here Is Your War, 154; Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 37; Oswald Jett, “As I Saw the War,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 47th Medical Bn, 1st AD, MHI, 287 (Army chaplain); war diary, 27th Armored FA, Feb. 11, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (Clubmobile).
II Corps had suffered: Waters, SOOHP, 690; William H. Simpson, AGF Observer Report, Apr. 1943, NARA RG 165, E 418, Director of Plans and Ops, box 1229 (130 charged with absence); Ankrum, 179–80 (“Hell, no”); Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; William Petroski, “Fifty Years Later, Defeat by Rommel Still Clear,” March 21, 1993, Des Moines Sunday Register (“We had never heard of them”); Heller and Stofft, eds., 247.
Quiescence at the front: Everett S. Hughes diary, Feb. 10, 1943, “Allied High Command” micro, reel 5, David Irving collection, MHI (original in LOC Ms Div) (“too complicated to be placed”); G-3 memo, Feb. 8, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-188-D (Allied intelligence concluded); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 274; Ralph Bennett, 373–74.
Commanders in Tunisia: Statement, P. C. Hains, III, 1st AR, in AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. 1, part 1 (seven possible); Robinett, Armor Command, 152 (“He sucked in his breath”), 155, 160; Robinett, “Among the First,” ts, PMR, GCM Lib, box 22, 366–70 (“The conference”); Martin Philipsborn, Jr., and Milton Lehman, “The Untold Story of Kasserine Pass,” Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 14, 1948, 23 (“We can’t win”).
Daubed it was: NWAf, 402–403; Leon F. Lavoie et al., “The First Armored Division at Faïd-Kasserine,” 1949, Armored School Advanced Course, 22 (“The generals of three nations”).
Nor were commanders certain: “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall and Supporting Players, Dec. ’42–March ’43,” James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“They seemed to expect”); Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-66; E.C. Hatfield, diary, Feb. 6, 1943, OW, MHI (“angry and disappointed”); Howze, SOOHP, MHI; Howze, OH, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“infuriated, insulted”).
The greatest insult arrived: Jackson, 430; NWAf, 400; Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-72 (“It’s wrong”).
Fredendall had visited Sbeïtla: Peter C. Hains, III, OH, May 1991, David W. Hogan, MHI (“Good God”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 122; Andrews, “A Place to Be Lousy In,” 100; Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-73; Howze, OH, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“Neither he nor I”).
Orders were orders: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 141; Ankrum, 182 (“isn’t that much barbed wire”), 183 (“How would you hear rocks”), 186 (“Poppycock!”); AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 3–16, 1942, Iowa GSM; Waters, SOOHP, 189–90 (“Waters, I’ve got orders” and “General McQuillin, let me ask”).
There was nothing for it: AAR, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 27, 1943, Iowa GSM; AAR, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, n.d., Iowa GSM; AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 3–16, 1942, Iowa GSM (“killed at once” and “when I want prisoners taken”); Robertson, ts, ASEQ, 1st AR, 1st AD, MHI.
“A Good Night for a Mass Murder”
As commander-in-chief: Chandler, vol. I, 604n (far greater powers); Danchev and Todman, eds., 365 (neither “the tactical” and “We were pushing”); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 464; DDE to GCM, Feb. 8, 1943, Chandler, 942–46 (“popular impression”); Three Years, 258 (“burning inside”).
Upon hearing the news: Three Years, 260; Hughes diary, Jan. 24, 1943, MHI (“Ike is doomed”).
that woman: Miller, 469; Morgan, Past Forgetting, 111; Irving, The War Between the Generals: Inside the Allied High Command, 47–48; Hughes diary, Feb. 12, 1943, MHI (“Maybe Kay”).
Skibereen was behind the wheel: chronology, Chandler, vol. V, 105; D. D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, 259 (“taking too many trips”); Charles M. Thomas, diary fragment, Feb. 13, 1943, possession of Roger Cirillo (“I never knew the wind and sand”).
“In one respect only”: Truscott, Command Missions, 153; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 124; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 141 (“the divisions have”).
Fifteen minutes later: Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” 1985, CSI, 15; Altieri, “Darby’s Rangers,” 1945, Ranger Book Committee; Jerome Joseph Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalions in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 1982, Fordham University, 120; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 197 (“We’ve got to leave our mark”), 206 (“good night for a mass murder”); Patrick O’Donnell, Beyond Valor, 33–35 (at least one wounded prisoner).
Anderson walked in: Akers, OH, SM, MHI; Dickson obituary, Assembly, Sept. 1978; B. A. Dickson, “statement of service,” Benjamin A. Dickson Collection, USMA Arch, box 3; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 125.
“Rommel can be expected”: Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” 38–43 (“alarmist and a pessimist”); Dickson, OH, Dec. 13, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI.
For over two hours: Porter, SOOHP, MHI; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 583–85, 757; Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” 38–43; Robert A. Hewitt, OH, n.d., G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“General disposition of forces”); John H. Thompson, “Kasserine Fiasco Laid to British,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 1948; DDE to GCM, Feb. 15, 1943, Chandler, 955 (“as good as could be made”), 956 (“seems keen and fit”).
An urgent phone call: PMR to DDE, Sept. 12, 1967 (“hoped to win”), and DDE to PMR, Sept. 15, 1967, Robinett Papers, MHI; Robinett, “Among the First,” ts, PMR, GCM Lib, box 22, 366–70 (“Only a question” and “The yielding of ground”); Robinett,Armor Command, 160–62 (“only evidence” and “Now that General Eisenhower”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 142.
Another cactus patch: Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-77; Truscott, Command Missions, 153; Peter C. Hains, III, OH, Apr. 26, 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” n.d., PMR, LOC, box 6.
Eisenhower had sensed: diary, Feb. 13, 1943, OW, MHI (“Ike would swap”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 142; Eisenhower, At Ease, 259–60 (“Get your mine fields out”); CCA, “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14825 (“listened to a description”); “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” n.d., PMR, LOC, box 6.
He stepped from: D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 641mss (“We do not pray”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 139 (“General, what will we do”); John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 269 (“I think you’re going”).
A week later: DDE to GCM, Feb. 21, 1943, Chandler, 970 (“a delicate matter”); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 583–86, 757–59 (“A-day”), 761–62; G-2 records, II Corps, Feb. 13, 14, 1943, NARA RG 338, II Corps, box 9 (“Urgent. Absolute priority” and “Rommel has been reported”); “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” n.d., PMR, LOC, box 6; Waters, SOOHP, 193 (“My error”); NWAf, 411.
A cold drizzle: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 6/13; Robertson, ts, ASEQ, 1st AR, 1st AD, MHI; letter, W. Bruce Pirnie, Jr., to Amon G. Carter, June 16, 1943, OW, MHI (“seemed sort of silly”); msg, DDE to AGWAR, Feb. 13, 1943, 1013 hrs., NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, G-3 Forward, Constantine, R-99-D, 319.1 (“Axis cannot risk”)
CHAPTER 9: KASSERINE
A Hostile Debouchment
A brief, howling sandstorm: Hudel and Robinett, “The Tank Battle at Sidi bou Zid,” in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” n.d., vol. I, part 1, CMH; Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 165; AAR, “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3; Tätigkeitsbericht, 10th Panzer Div., 14–22 Feb. 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; James E. Hagan, ASEQ, n.d., Co G, 3rd Bn, 1st Armored Regt; Ankrum, 186 (“Krupp Iron Works”); Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” lecture, MHI.
Three miles east: letter, W. Bruce Pirnie, Jr., to Amon G. Carter, June 16, 1943, OW, MHI (“really changed the sound”); Waters, SOOHP, 204, 213 (“If you can’t fire”); NWAf, 408, 412.
One after another: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 145–46; David W. Hazen, “Role of the Field Artillery in the Battle of Kasserine Pass,” master’s thesis, 1973, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 43 (somehow forgotten in the confusion); Thomas E. Hannum, “The 30 Years of Army Experience,” ASEQ, ts, n.d., Co A, 91st Armored FA, MHI (“We didn’t know exactly”); Robert G. Bond, “Induction into the Armed Service,” ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st AD, MHI; Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid” William H. Balzer, ASEQ, ts., n.d., 1st Armored Regt, MHI (“All around me comrades”); 443rd CA Battalion history, and letter, Werner L. Larson to G. F. Howe, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Wiltse, 126 (“lost his sense of direction”); John T. Jones, Jr., ASEQ, n.d., Co H, 3rd Bn, 1st Armored Regt.
The enemy without question: AAR, “Operations of 3rd Bn, 1st Armored Regt,” Feb. 14, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916; Harold V. Boyle, Associated Press account of Texas, Cavalry Journal, March–Apr. 1943, 12 (“smoked us up” and “like peas”); Robertson, ASEQ, Co H, 1st Armored Regt, MHI (“dryland Dunkirk”); John B. Scheller, ASEQ, n.d., 1st Armored Regt Band, MHI (“Take off, men!”); Hannum, “The 30 Years of Army Experience” (“air was full of whistles”); Stanley J. Krekeler, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, MHI (lint from camouflage nets); Pirnie to Carter, June 16, 1943, OW, MHI (“suddenly blossomed”); Milo L. Green and Paul S. Gauthier, ed., Brickbats from F Company, 149; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 150–53; Louis V. Hightower, DSC citation, 1943, NARA RG 492, NATOUSA general orders; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 141–42.
Of fifty-two Shermans: Kriegstagebuch, 21st Panzer Div., 14–23 Feb., 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Hudel and Robinett, “The Tank Battle of Sidi bou Zid.”
The disaster: AAR, “1st Armored Regt., North African Campaign, Nov. 8, 1942–May 9, 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916; Waters, SOOHP, MHI, 203–22 (“Sir, I couldn’t”), 596 (“There must be something”); AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 1943, Iowa GSM; “Kasserine Pass Battles,” n.d., vol. I, part 1, CMH (“Pete, I’m going to shut”); Balzer, ASEQ, 1st Armored Regt, MHI; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 164–65.
Ten miles to the southeast: Edgar P. Moschel, statement in “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” n.d., Iowa GSM; Franklin M. Davis, Jr., “The Battle of Kasserine Pass,” American Legion, Apr. 1965, 22 (“It seems like”); AAR accounts by Gerald C. Line, Thomas D. Drake, Harry P. Hoffman, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division.
Drake soon recognized: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA; AAR, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 8–20, 1943, Iowa GSM; letter, Thomas D. Drake to Charles W. Ryder, Oct. 4, 1944, Ryder Papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“fled so fast”).
At two P.M. Drake: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA; “Brief Statement of Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet, Jr.,” in “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” Iowa GSM; letter, Drake to Ryder, Oct. 4, 1944, Ryder Papers, DDE Lib., box 1; AAR account, Marvin E. Williams, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 145.
Eisenhower and Truscott: chronology, Chandler, vol. V; Morgan, 112 (“very tired”); Truscott, Command Missions, 155–56 (“There was no reason”); DDE to GCM, Feb. 15, 1943, Chandler, 956 (“I really believe”).
The truth would soon: Hazen, 42, 48–54; William R. Betson, “Sidi bou Zid—A Case History of Failure,” Armor, Nov.–Dec. 1982, 38; Peter Hoffman, Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944, 171; DDE to GCM, Feb. 15, 1943, Chandler, 956; AAR, 60th Inf Regt, Feb. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7535.
With Summersby: Powell, In Barbary, 242 (“barbarians”); Baedeker, 290 (“Venari lavari”); Truscott, Command Missions, 156; Truscott aide official diary, Feb. 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 1.
“When you remember me”: Miller, Ike the Soldier, 477 (“always to do my duty”); McKeough and Lockridge, 73 (picked out “Taps”).
None Returned
With Anderson’s decision: Liebling, Mollie & Other Pieces, 67, 85; Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 43; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” Feb. 15, 1943, MRC-FDM, 8/4–16 (Madame LaZonga); “Journal for the 3rd Battalion,” 26th Infantry Regt, Feb. 15, 1943, MRC-FDM; Messenger, 50 (“rather sinister darkness”); AAR, “Account of B Company Operations at Gafsa,” 19th Engineer Regt, n.d., in II Corps records, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (wedged six tons of ammonal); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 400 (The explosion also demolished). Ammonal is composed of TNT, ammonium nitrate, and aluminum; guncotton is an ingredient of smokeless gunpowder.
The sprawling air bases: AAFinWWII, 155; AAR, “Report of Operations, XII Air Support Command,” Apr. 9, 1943, NARA; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 176 (large wall map); “From Beer Beach to Kasserine Pass: The Story of the 175th Field Artillery Battalion,” n.d., 34th ID, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 9542; Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH (“Before I finished”); NWAf, 437; AAR, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion, “The Tunisian Campaign,” Feb. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 23768;Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 29.
A battlefield bromide: Charles J. Hoy, “Reconnaissance Lessons from Tunisia,” Cavalry Journal, Nov.–Dec. 1943, 16–19; Ben Crosby, OH, March 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“badly used up”); Moschel, statement in “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” n.d., Iowa GSM.
Yet a mood of benighted: letter, Robinett to H. Gardiner, Dec. 26, 1967, PMR, GCM Lib, box 5, folder 21; First Army to II Corps, Feb. 14, 1943, 2010 hrs., NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, AFHQ G-3 Forward, R-100-D, 319.1 (“As regards action”).
This hallucination: George F. Hoffman and Donn A. Starry, eds., Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of U.S. Armored Forces, 151; diary, Feb. 15, 1943, OW, MHI (“I didn’t like it much”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,157; Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 41, 59 (“not contesting the order”); Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, 211; George L. Durgin, ASEQ, 2nd Bn, 1st Armored Regt, 1st AD, MHI (“Off we went”); Robinett, Armor Command, 163 (“saluted and smiled”).
Half a mile south: Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 15 (“signature belch”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 167 (“We are going to kick hell”); Hains, OH, Apr. 26, 1951, SM, MHI.
The day was dry: Edwin H. Burba, “Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” Field Artillery Journal, Sept. 1943, 643; Robertson, ASEQ, Co. H, 1st Armored Regt, MHI (“‘Into the valley of death’”); author visit, Apr. 2000.
Alger had been told: “The Attack on Sidi bou Zid,” 2nd Bn, 1st Armored Regt, “by officers of the battalion while POWs,” n.d., James D. Alger Collection, USMA Arch; “Record of Events,” 2nd Bn appendix to AAR, 1st Armored Regt, North African campaign, Nov. 8, 1942–May 9, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916; Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid” Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 159; NWAf, 419–21; war diary, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 15, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2; “G-3 Journal” and message traffic, 1st AD, Feb. 15, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767 (“Tanks now approaching” and “Keep your eye peeled”); letter, T. Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR LOC, box 4.
No sooner did: Rame, Road to Tunis, 247–48 (“like a bright diamond” and “within a matter of minutes”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 170 (“Brown geysers”).
The killing was confined: Lavoie et al., “The First Armored Division at Faïd-Kasserine” Macksey, Crucible of Power, 149–153 (electric blue); Macksey, Tank Versus Tank, performance chart, 107; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 117 (“it takes ten minutes”); “Record of Events,” 2nd Bn appendix to AAR, 1st Armored Regt, North African campaign, Nov. 8, 1942–May 9, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916 (“None returned”).
“As dusk began”: R. E. McQuillin, comments on draft of Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; Balzer, ASEQ, 1st Armored Regt, MHI (“I found myself”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 163–65 (“We might have walloped”); NWAf, 415; DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign, 1942–1943,” 35; Krekeler, ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, MHI; Anderson to DDE, Feb. 15, 1943, 1743 hrs, NARA RG 331 micro, AFHQ G-3 Forward, R-99-D, 319.1 (“dangerously dispersed”); Tobin, 82 (“awful nights”).
“Sometimes That Is Not Good Enough”
The immolation: Des Moines Sunday Register, July 18, 1943, 1; AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 3–19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Austin, 87 (“Message okay”).
At 10:30 P.M.: AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 15–16, 1943, Iowa GSM (“so close”); Norland Norgaard, AP dispatch in Red Oak Express, Feb. 22, 1943, 1; Des Moines Sunday Register, July 18, 1943, 1; “An American Story: The Life and Times of a Midlands Family,” Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 9, 1997, 1; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; NWAf, 424; Eugene L. Daniels, DSC citation, NATOUSA Gen’l. Order 66, July 30, 1943, NARA RG 492.
Drake’s ordeal: AAR account, Marvin E. Williams, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH (“Besieged”); letter, Drake to Ryder, Oct. 4, 1944, Ryder Papers, DDE Lib, box 1; Tätigkeitsbericht, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 16, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; AAR, “168th Inf Regiment Narrative of Action,” Iowa GSM; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 196; Kriegstagebuch, 21st Panzer Div., Feb. 17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Robert L. Owen, ts, Jan. 19, 1993, “Kasserine Pass file,” Iowa GSM; AAR accounts, G. C. Line, T. D. Drake, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; “Brief Statement of Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet, Jr.,” in “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” Iowa GSM; AAR, Harry P. Hoffman, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Iowa GSM.
A few minutes later: H. P. Hoffman, G. C. Line, T. D. Drake accounts, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Van Vliet account, “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” Iowa GSM; Larson, ed., “The History and Contribution to American Democracy of Volunteer ‘Citizen Soldiers’ of Southwest Iowa, 1930–1945,” 57–58; AAR, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 16–17, 1943, Iowa GSM.
“We marched”: Bill Roth, “The Longest Days of a G.I.,” n.d., Iowa GSM (“Whenever the moon”); Larson, ed., 61–63; author interview, Dave Berlovich, Oct. 19, 1999 (“You’re marked”).
Dawn caught them: author interviews, Clifton J. Warner, Ross W. Cline, Oct. 19, 1999; AAR, 3rd Bn, 168th Inf Regt, Feb. 17, 1943, Iowa GSM; Drake, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1 (“gained the desired ground”); William Walling Luttrell, “A Personal Account of the Experiences as a German Prisoner of War,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM (“He took one look”); Van Vliet account, “168th Inf Regt. Narrative of Action,” Iowa GSM; letter, Drake to Ryder, Oct. 4, 1944, Ryder Papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“You go to hell”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 199; Roth, “The Longest Days of a G.I.” Kriegstagebuch, 21st Panzer Div., Feb. 17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; NWAf, 424; Larson, ed., 61–63, 66–67; letter, Gerald C. Line to wife, March 2, 1943, Iowa GSM, #1999.25.2 (“sane or insane”).
Their triumph at Sidi bou Zid: “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” 1945, Historical Section, Special Activities Branch, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, “Tactical Communication in World War II, Part 1,” MHI, 166 (“unbelievably low”); Philipsborn report to Robinett, CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 16, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427; Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” 1980, U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, WWII, vol. I, NARA RG 457, NSA files, SRH 391, box 114, 29–30; war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 16, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, (mislabeled “Fifth Panzer Army”), CMH; Destruction, 292; NWAf, 425–26.
Rommel’s staff car: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 398–400 (“Hitler! Rommel!”); Messenger, 50.
Arnim had: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 400 (“I had never gambled”); war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 18, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 270; Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS, C-098, 55; minutes of conference with Kesselring, Arnim, et al., war diary, 10th Panzer Div, Feb. 15, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2.
Allied intelligence detected: Hugh Skillen, Spies of the Airwaves, 274; Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 206–207.
Kesselring dithered: war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 18, 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; NWAf, 440; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 402 (“appalling and unbelievable”), 411 (“old war horse”).
Not since A.D. 647: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 178; Robinett, Armor Command, 165–66 (“indescribable confusion”); Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid” Schrijvers, 63 (“slapping us around”).
Panic built slowly: Martin, 47; Cowdrey, 117 (“a ghastly word”); Roberta Love Tayloe, Combat Nurse: A Journal of World War II, 39; letter, unsigned, Feb. 23, 1943, MCC, YU (“Americans never retreat”).
Night deepened: letter, unsigned, Feb. 17, 1943, MCC, YU (“Shooting. Have to go”); “Account of Carleton S. Coon,” NARA RG 226, OSS records, E 99, box 39, folder 8 (“We didn’t want to”); “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” 1945, Historical Section, Special Activities Branch, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, “Tactical Communication in World War II, Part 1,” MHI, 100, 164 (pigeon platoon).
At 8:30 P.M.: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 172; Philipsborn report to Robinett, CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 16, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427; NWAf, 432; letter, R. I. Stack to G. F. Howe, March 8, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; Rame, 253; Ankrum, 221 (“I’ll be damned”); Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, ts, notes to G. F. Howe, Sept. 23, 1952, 81st Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, MHI (“We were next”); Oswald Jett, ASEQ, “As I Saw the War,” ts, n.d., 47th Medical Bn, 1st AD, MHI, 287 (“Get that junk”).
The fog of war: McCurtain Scott, OH, March 1976, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“annoyed and rattled”); diary, Feb. 16, 1943, OW, MHI; Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-85.
Ward was further discomposed: CCA, “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 Feb.,” NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14825; Ben Crosby, OH, March 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; letter, R. I. Stack to G. F. Howe, March 8, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (“I told General Ward”); author visit, Apr. 2000; NWAf, 432.
Fredendall immediately: phone memos, Feb. 16–17, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; Truscott, Command Missions, 159–62 (“tanks were fighting”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 191; PMR, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 7; II Corps provost marshal journal, Feb. 19, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126.
This farrago: Kriegstagebuch, 21st Panzer Div., Feb. 16–17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 172–73; war diary, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH.
“Move the big elephants”: Robinett, Armor Command, 165–69 (“When things are going badly”); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia,” lecture, n.d., PMR, LOC MS Div.
In truth: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 192 (“Everything is going badly”); phone transcript, Feb. 17, 1943, 1055 hrs., LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 (“I have had”).
Ward and Robinett braced: L. C. Gates, The History of the 10th Foot, 1919–1950, 135; letter, T. Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR, LOC MS Div, box 4 (“We stood in the cactus”).
Fifteen minutes: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 27 (“Everybody was throwing”); Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,” 8 (“I counted thirty-five”); Robinett, Armor Command, 167–75 (“let them have it!”); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia,” lecture; n.d.; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 175–79; NWAf, 434–36; CCB log, Feb. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCB-0.3, box 14825.
“War is cruelty”: Foote, The Civil War, vol. III, 602; Rame, 252, 254 (“The night was heavy”); Tobin, 82 (“You need feel”).
“This Place Is Too Hot”
Two formidable sentinels: author visits, Sept. 1996 and Apr. 2000; NWAf, 348, 446 (“gigantic, crudely corrugated”).
Kasserine Pass is not impregnable: NWAf, 446 (“offers such advantages”); phone transcript, Feb. 17, 1943, 1340 hrs. (“I am holding”), and phone memo, Rooks to Truscott, Feb. 18, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; AAR, 19th Engineers, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; Beck et al., 96–98 (failed to complete); Conway, SOOHP, MHI (“trying to draw a line”).
Just beyond: NWAf, 440–42, 453; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 171; war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2; Kesselring, Memoirs, 151; Destruction, 295.
Even at his distant remove: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 8/14–16 (“pull a Stonewall Jackson”); phone transcript, Feb. 18, 1943, 1022 hrs., LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; Heller and Stofft, eds., 255–57 (hold back more than 200); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineers, RG 407, box 19248; author interview, Hans von Luck, May 1994, Hamburg; Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander, 113; war diary, Afrika Korps, Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2.
And, soon, on the right: Davis, “The Battle of Kasserine Pass,” 22; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 8/19; NWAf, 451.
Shadows swallowed: memo, Charles A. L. Dunphie, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (“out of his depth”); “Report of Operations,” II Corps, May 2, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. 1, part 2, CMH (“well in hand”); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI (“that blockhead”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/21.
Even as this puff: diary, Charles M. Thomas, Co. C, 19th Engineers, possession of Roger Cirillo (“The worst of it all”); letter, George F. Hertz, published in Iowa City Daily Iowan, May 19, 1943, MCC, YU; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 89 (“women sobbing”).
Night fever spread: AAR, 19th Engineers, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (“A considerable number of men”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/22; NWAf, 452; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, box 19248; II Corps provost marshal journal, report from William A. Seitz, Co. A, 26th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126 (“In some instances”).
Bad as the bad night: NWAf, 454–55; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 171.
The American collapse: “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/24–25; diary, C. M. Thomas, possession of Roger Cirillo (“Forget about”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 249–52; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (“This place is too hot”).
The “uncoordinated withdrawal”: AAR, 19th Engineer Regt, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/22–25 (French gunners and “action shots” and “Fight to the last man”); Blumenson,Kasserine Pass, 255 (Casualties just among infantrymen); NWAf, 455; Conway, SOOHP, MHI (Washington on horseback); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI (“We had to crawl”).
“Order, Counter-order, and Disorder”
Demolitionists laid: Rame, 263 (slabs of guncotton); McNamara, 57; “Tébessa Tableaux,” ts, n.d., Samuel L. Meyers Papers, MHI (slaughtering every chicken).
As always in the great clash: letter, TR to Eleanor, Feb. 24, 1943, TR, LOC; Renehan, 234; Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, 441.
Little buoyancy: Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” MRC FDM (“head in hands”); These Are the Generals, 227 (“I like that man”); James R. Webb, “First Waltz with Rommel,” ts, n.d., James R. Webb Papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“If I were back home”); Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, 603 (“I saw his attitude change”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 280.
Fredendall repaired: “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall and Supporting Players, Dec. ’42-March ’43,” James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“Dabney, open up the bottle”); Clift Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM (“Dinner!”).
“I’m going to be”: Hal Boyle, “Brass Seen at Fault at Kasserine Pass,” Associated Press, Feb. 11, 1948, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Fredendall to DDE, Feb. 19, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 42 (“Ward appears tired”).
While Eisenhower pondered: NWAf, 457–58; Robinett, Armor Command, 175–77; Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture; Robinett, letter to G. F. Howe, March 4, 1952, PMR, LOC MS Div., box 4; letter, Philipsborn to G. F. Howe, Feb. 18, 1952, PMR, LOC MS Div., box 4 (“There is no use”); Dunphie memo, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Porter, SOOHP, MHI (“Get hold”); letter, F.A.V. Copland-Griffiths to A. F. Smith, March 19, 1943, 1st Guards Bde, PRO WO 175/186 (“the most perfect example”).
Into the muddle: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 869; DDE to Alexander, Feb. 7, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-5-C; Blaxland, 160; Alexander to DDE, Feb. 19, 1943, 1920 hrs., Alexander files, DDE Lib, box 3, folder 8; Alexander to Montgomery, Feb. 22, 1943, in Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 152 (“very shocked”).
He cut a dashing: Austin, 105; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 332–37 (“natural good manners” and “able more than clever”); Boatner, 4–5; Doherty, Irish Generals, 32, 36 (“At the worst crises”), 38 (Churchill’s favorite); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life,650 (mss) (“Our position is catastrophic”); Rupert Clarke, With Alex at War, xii–xiii; Brian Holden Reid, in John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 105 (“archetypal Edwardian hero”).
Some thought him stupid: Reid, in Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 104 (“Wellington without the wit”), 108 (“empty vessel”), 109 (“Intellect was not”); Rolf, 25; Clarke, With Alex at War, xii (tap dancing); Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell,Tug of War: The Battle for Italy, 1943–1945, 36 (“the campaigns of Belisarius”).
Brilliantly slow: Alexander, OH, n.d., G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“solid soldier” and “allowing the Germans”); Hamilton, 166 (“The poor body”); Destruction, 304 (“Real fault” and “My Main anxiety”); “Reminiscences of Hanson Weightman Baldwin,” OH, 1976, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD (“old school tie”); Reid, in Keegan, ed., 114 (“quite useless”).
First, Rommel’s northern thrust: war diary, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Benjamin Caffey, OH, Feb. 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; NWAf, 452–53; Johnson, One More Hill, 37 (“If they attack us”); Howard and Sparrow, 119; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Camp, ed., 23 (“taking shoe boxes”).
A renewed assault: author interview, Clem Miller, Jan. 4, 2000; author interviews, Edward Boehm, Nov. 26, 1999, and Jan. 4, 2000; Edward Boehm, “My Autobiography in WWII,” ts, 1997, possession of Roger Cirillo, 36; “The Fragrance of Spring Was Heavy in the Air,” account of 185th FA Bn, Trail Tales, Boone County (Iowa) Historical Society, No. 35, 1979, 37; Vernon Hohenberger, “Retracing My Footsteps in World War II,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 37; “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Iowa GSM, 5.
Checked on the right: AAR, 10th Bn, The Rifle Brigade, PRO, WO 175/518; Destruction, 297; Davis, “The Battle of Kasserine Pass,” 22 (“like caterpillars dropping”); The Rifle Brigade in the Second World War, 1939–1945, 217; Austin, 90; D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis,” Blackwoods, June 1945, 399 (“We were forced” and “as hard as stiff legs”); ffrench Blake, 118.
Rommel again held: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 405; NWAf, 458, 460; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 13, 16.
A reconnaissance report: author visit, Apr. 2000; NWAf, 461.
The scouts were wrong: Stanhope Mason and F. W. Gibb, OH, Apr. 26, 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; letter, Joseph T. Dawson to brother, Feb. 21, 1943, Dawson Collection, MRC FDM (“this is our sector”); Hazen, 104; Steven Clay, Blood and Sacrifice: The History of the 16th Infantry Regiment from the Civil War Through the Gulf War, 33 (mss); Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH, 130; Robinett, Armor Command, 181; letter, Philipsborn to G. F. Howe, Feb. 18, 1953, with PMR comments, PMR, LOC MS Div, box 4 (“simply written on the ground”).
Anderson on this very Saturday: “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign (with 5 Corps),” Feb. 21, 23, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC (“American fighting value”); Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalions in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 121 (“a hairy-chested commander”); Altieri, The Spearheaders, 236 (“Onward we stagger”).
The tanks came: Robinett, Armor Command, 183; NWAf, 462–64; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 191; “Combat Command B, Operations Report, Bahiret Foussana Valley, 20–25 February, 1943,” “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; II Corps, “report of operations,” May 2, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Clay, 35 (mss); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 166.
Repulsed on the right: NWAf, 463–64; Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture, LOC MS Div.
Undeterred, two grenadier battalions: Robinett, Armor Command, 185; Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM; Clay, 35 (mss); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture, LOC; Robinett, “Comments onKasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 13; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 279; Rolf, 139 (Panic Sunday).
Yet something had hardened: Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM (“air was full” and “An artilleryman’s dream”); Andrus biographical file, compiled by Albert H. Smith, MHI (“most skillful and practical”).
A single battalion: “Combat Command B, Operations Report, Bahiret Foussana Valley, 20–25 February, 1943,” “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,” 8 (“A column of prisoners”); Robinett, Armor Command, 187 (“captured a whole flock”).
“Lay Roughly on the Tanks”
As this action in the west: Messenger, 54; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 274 (“He suddenly”).
By midafternoon all euphoria: AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineers, May 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 405 (“They did not seem”); 10th Panzer Div. intelligence report, “Re: the advance of the 10th Panzer Division through the Faïd Pass to Thala,” Feb. 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 172.
The British had: Cameron Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine, February 1943,” Nicholson collection, IWM, micro DS/MISC 7, 4 (“no full-blooded orders” and “I found it difficult”); Dunphie memo, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; memo, S. L. Irwin to P. M. Robinett, June 23, 1949, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (“usual story”); Nigel Nicholson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 176 (“He’s right behind us”).
Absent full-blooded orders: Dunphie memo; Blaxland, 163 (“beautiful to watch”); ffrench Blake, 119; NWAf, 465; D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis,” 399 (“erect in his scout car”).
Dunphie was a gunner: Dunphie memo; Nicholson, Alex, 176 (“empty but heavy”); author visit, Apr. 2000; Herman Walter Wright Lange, “Rommel at Thala,” Military Review, Sept. 1961, 72.
Almost on Dunphie’s heels: war diary, 2/5 Leicestershire Regiment, Feb. 1943, PRO WO 175/513; Blaxland, 163; C. Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine” ffrench Blake, 119; Hastings, 219 (“Keep away”); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 169;Tätigskeitbericht,10th Panzer Div., Feb. 21, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
Two thousand yards: D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis” (“German tracers”); Dunphie memo (“tank fight in the dark”); AAR, F Battery, 12 (HAC) Regt, RHA, appendix C, and “The Battle of Thala (North Africa) with F Bty 12th (HAC) Regt,” RHA, appendix E (“Lay roughly”), and war diary, “Operations of Nickforce, 20–23 Feb. 1943,” appendix D, all in Nicholson collection, micro, DS/MISC 7, IWM; Irwin memo to Robinett, June 23, 1949; war diary, 2/5 Leicestershire Regiment, Feb. 1943, PRO WO 175/513; Hastings, 219 (“alarms were many”); Watson, 143; Heller and Stofft, eds., 259; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 270, 275.
Dawn came: Dunphie memo (“Irwin himself”); memo, Irwin to Robinett, June 23, 1949 (“extremely critical”); Irwin, OH, Jan. 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; AAR, “Thala Engagement, 21–24 Feb. 1943,” 9th ID artillery, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7424; AAR, 60th FA, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7471; Phillips, Sedjenane: The Pay-off Battle, 28; Phillips, The Making of a Professional: Manton S. Eddy, USA, 91; William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 20.
It served: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 275; Austin, 91 (“I’m sorry”).
The field marshal had shot: NWAf, 469; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 406–407.
True to character: Kesselring, “The Events in Tunisia,” 1949, FMS, #D-066, MHI, 5–10; AAR, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (It appears futile); Watson, 169; Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean, Part II, The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” FMS, #T-3 P1, 38.
Thala would prove: “Narrative of Events, Thala Engagement, 21–24 Feb. 1943,” 9th ID artillery, March 4, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass,” PMR, MHI (“toughest day”); Austin, 93 (“Gilbert and Sullivan”); Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa,” FMS, #C-075, MHI, appendix, 14; AAR, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 23, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“The enemy follows”); Hoffman, 172; Liddell Hart, ed., 408 (“I’ve stood up”).
On February 22: DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 22, 1943, Chandler, 980 (“every confidence”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 145 (“perfectly safe”); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 592–93; Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, NARA RG 457, NSA files, SRH 391, box 114, 29–30; memo, B. A. Dixon, II Corps G-2, Apr. 19, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3163 (“inability of most Arabs”).
Several more convoluted: AAR, 1st AD, “Report of Operations, Bahiret Foussana Valley,” Feb. 23, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 282; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass,” PMR, MHI, 15; Gugeler, x-104; DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 22, 1943, Chandler, 982; Harmon, Combat Commander, 50 (“cobra without”), 112 (“make up your mind”), 116 (“Nobody goes back”); “Report of Gen. Harmon on taking command II Corps as deputy,” n.d., LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; C. Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine,” 9 (“to fight this battle out”); Harmon, OH, Sept. 1952, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (Concluding that the man and “a fucking bloody nose”).
In a Thala cellar: letter, F.A.V. Copland-Griffiths to A. F. Smith, March 19, 1943, 1st Guards Bde, PRO WO 175/186 (“The Germans have gone!”); C. Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine,” 9 (“Man cannot tell”); war diary, “Operations of Nickforce,” Feb. 23, 1943, 1130 hrs (“not unduly”).
“Our follow-up was slow”: Harmon, OH, Sept. 1952, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Harmon, Combat Commander, 50, 111–16; Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine,” 9; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 15; Hatfield diary, Feb. 23, 1943, OW, MHI (“feels very low”).
Light snow fell: Robinett, Armor Command, 195 (“cluttered with wrecked”); Parris and Russell, 293, 296 (chewing gum); diary, C. M. Thomas; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey,” Feb. 23, 1943 (orders were issued); AAR, “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” 5.
Even if Allied troops: “G-2 Report on Tunisian Campaign,” 34th ID, June 12, 1943, Iowa GSM; “Report of Engineer Operations, II Corps, 15 March to 10 April 1943,” NARA RG 338, box 147; letter, F.A.V. Copland-Griffiths to A. F. Smith, March 19, 1943, 1st Guards Bde, PRO WO 175/186 (“vehicles were blowing up”); Hendricks, “A Time of Testing: U.S. Army Engineers in the Tunisian Campaign of World War II,” lecture, 7; Ralph Ingersoll, The Battle Is the Pay-off, 112 (“like caddies”); Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 61; Beck et al., 106; Charles S. Schwartz, “The Field Operations of a Maintenance Battalion,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, in papers of W. L. Rossie, 1st AD, MHI.
A precise tally: Heller and Stofft, eds., 261; NWAf, 477–78; “Office, Division Inspector, 1st AD,” Feb. 23, 1943; Destruction, 302; DDE to GCM, Feb. 24, 1943, Chandler, 984 (“not a child’s game”).
“The proud and cocky”: Three Years, 268; NWAf, 479; Ellis, Brute Force, 253; Gugeler, x-99; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass,” 14 (“one would have to search”).
That error could be laid: Three Years, 265 (“full responsibility”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 146 (“had I been willing”).
There were other: Three Years, 244; DDE to GCM, Feb. 24, 1943, Chandler, 984 (expressed surprise); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 148; Chandler, 958n (“I am disturbed”).
Certainly he had done: DDE to L. R. Fredendall, Feb. 22, 1943, Chandler, 981; DDE to Churchill, Feb. 17, 1943, Chandler, 960 (“We must be prepared”); DDE to J.S.D. Eisenhower, Feb. 19, 1943, Chandler, 965 (“It is possible”).
Fratricide flourished: Semmens, “The Hammer of Hell,” 122; Paul L. Williams, “Report of Operations, XII Air Support Campaign,” Apr. 9, 1943; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 145; Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 199.
the hammer of typewriters: Ingersoll, 31.
CHAPTER 10: THE WORLD WE KNEW IS A LONG TIME DEAD
Vigil in Red Oak
Southwest Iowa’s second winter: Red Oak (Iowa) Express, Villisca (Iowa) Review, Clarinda (Iowa) Herald-Journal, Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Feb.–Apr. 1943; Larson, ed., “The History and Contribution to American Democracy of Volunteer ‘Citizen Soldiers’ of Southwest Iowa, 1930–1945,” 43; author visit, southwest Iowa, Oct. 1999; “Red Oak, Iowa, Has 23 Boys Missing in Action in North Africa,” Life, May 3, 1943, 26; Milton Lehman, “Red Oak Hasn’t Forgotten,” Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 17, 1946, 14 (American Legion Park and female drivers and “They kind of dreaded me”); 168th Infantry Publications,” Iowa GSM.
When letters began arriving: Red Oak (Iowa) Express, Apr. 26, 1943 (“Send the food parcel first”); Villisca (Iowa) Review, March 18, 1943 (“I lost everything”); memo, Jan. 2, 1945, and repatriated POW statements, Apr. 1945, NARA RG 153, Office of the JAG, box 2, files 3-2 and 3-8; letter, Drake to Ryder, Oct. 4, 1944, Ryder Papers, DDE Lib; Lehman, “Red Oak Hasn’t Forgotten” (Ko-z-Aire Furnace Company and she set gold stars); Larson, ed., 43 (“Red Oak came as close”).
“We Know There’ll Be Troubles of Every Sort”
The Carthaginians of antiquity: Powell, In Barbary, 64; DDE to GCM, Feb. 21, 1943, Chandler, 971 (“this affair”); Jordan, 201; E. Hughes diary, March 6, 1943, “Allied High Command,” Irving collection, MHI, reel 5 (“pretty discouraging”).
First to go: E. A. Mockler-Ferryman, ts, n.d., LHC, 129–35 (“If a man is not wanted”); DDE to Brooke, Feb. 20, 1943, Chandler, 969 (“broader insight”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 9/3, MRC FDM, box 301; Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture (“professional graveyard”); Alexander, OH, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“watch him”).
Orlando Ward also awaited: diary, March 4, 1943, OW, MHI; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-250 (voicing regret); DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 20 and March 2, 1943, Chandler, 969 and 1002; Persons, 2; Harmon, Combat Commander, 120 (“no damned good”); Harmon, OH, Sept. 1952, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“common, low”); Blumenson, ed., The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 177 (“coward”), 181; Truscott, Command Missions, 173; Alexander, OH, SM, MHI (“I’m sure”).
A final verdict came: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 42; Hansen, 3/70; letter, Harmon to G. F. Howe, Oct. 16, 1952, NARA RG 319, OCMH (soft landing); DDE to GCM, March 3 and 4, 1943, Chandler, 1006–1007; “Diary covering the activities of Gen. Fredendall,” James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“something wrong”); Rolf, 165 (“Glory be”); W. B. Smith, OH, May 12, 1947, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“a good colonel”).
Patton was hunting boar: Garrison H. Davidson, OH, 1980, John T. Greenwood, CEOH, 189; DDE to GCM, March 11, 1943, Chandler, 1022; memo, DDE to GSP Jr., March 6, 1943, Chandler, 1010; Hatch, 149; Three Years, 273 (“tears came to his eyes” and“like the devil”).
“With sirens shrieking”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 43; Gugeler, x-127 (“picturesque”); Skillen, 284 (“scares the shit”).
Both reactions pleased him: Paul Wanke, “American Military Psychiatry and Its Role Among Ground Forces in World War II,” Journal of Military History, Jan. 1999, 141; Robinett, Armor Command, 204; observer report, team #3, n.d., NARA RG 165, Director of Plans and Ops, corr, box 1229 (“can sweat”); Blumenson, Patton, 183.
They soon developed: Ingersoll, 20, 28; Thomas E. Hannum, “The Thirty Years of Army Experience,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, MHI; Downing, 188; Philip G. Cochran, OH, 1975, USAF HRC, 88 (“don’t even have underwear”); Josowitz, An Informal History of the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 44.
Determined and energetic: Blumenson, Patton, 183; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” ts, 1988, MRC FDM, 64–67, 130–31 (“yellow-bellies”); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, VI-18; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 137; W.R.C. Penney, ts, n.d., LHC (“smart, blasphemous”); Foote, vol. 3, 395 (“stern open air”); Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 99 (“strangest duck”).
Morale improved: memo to AFHQ chief engineer, March 9, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-90-F; Robert John Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” master’s thesis, 1965, Fort Leavenworth, 21 (“Watch us run”); TR to Eleanor, March 2, 6, 11, and 20, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9.
Soldiers were viewed: Robert R. Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 170, 175, 181–83 (“as one would buy”); Kreidberg and Henry, 647; letter, J. L. Devers to L. J. McNair, Feb. 4, 1944, NARA RG 165, Director of Plans and Ops, corr, box 1230; Taggart, ed., 41; Houston, 145; Harmon, “Notes on Combat Experience During the Tunisian and African Campaigns,” in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. II, part 3; report, Walton H. Walker, June 29, 1943, NARA 165, E 418, box 1229 (“sacks of wheat”); “Activities of the G-1 Section During the Tunisian Campaign,” 34th ID, n.d., Iowa GSM; memo, from 5th Replacement Bn to II Corps, Apr. 12, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTO, special staff, box 1043; T. J. Camp, ed., 15; report #42, March 13, 1943, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52; “Lessons of the Tunisian Campaign, 1942–3, British Forces,” n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 56.
No less worrisome: Russell Hill, Desert Conquest, 235 (“a bit windy”); Donald Vining, ed., American Diaries of World War II, 53; Cowdrey, 137–44; Grinker and Spiegel, 234; DDE to GSP Jr., Apr. 12, 1943, NARA RG 94, II Corps, box 3161 (“increasing number”).
First known as shell shock: “Casualties, Wounded, and Wounds, 1946–7,” G-3 Section, Army Field Forces, NARA RG 337, file 704, series 10, box 46 (“the ostrich attitude”); Wanke, 127–46; Doubler, 243–44; McManus, 67 (“beat his head”); Grinker and Spiegel, 14–16, 31, 38, 59, 63, 71, 232–34; Philip G. Cochran, OH, USAF HRC, 106 (“Am I becoming uncourageous?”).
Visiting a field hospital: Parris and Russell, 299.
“One Needs Luck in War”
Dawn was just: Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 103–105; “155th Field Battery at Béja,” Field Artillery Journal.
Eight similar attacks: NWAf, 502–509 (“nincompoops”); Destruction, 327–28; Ray, 41; Rommel, Krieg Ohne Hass, 363–64; McCurtain Scott, OH, March 1976, R. Gugeler, OW, MHI (“too many generals”).
not the nincompoops: Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. 4, 161; Austin, 97–98; Forty, Tank Action: From the Great War to the Gulf, 119; Parris and Russell, 268; Kühn, Rommel in the Desert, 196; Kleine and Kühn, Tiger: The History of a Legendary Weapon, 1942–1945; Destruction, 328n (“Tank Killer”).
The Germans fared: NWAf, 505; Destruction, 327; Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 870–71 (“almost inevitable”); Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”
Cruel mountain fighting: Parris and Russell, 264–65; Gates, 138–43; R. Priestly, ts, n.d., 2nd Bn, Para Regt, IWM, 83/24/1; Perrett, At All Costs, 159; NWAf, 508; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” (“not a happy period”).
Rommel was still seething: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 414–16; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 280–84 (“What a colony”).
Yes, this would have made: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 414 (“end of the army”); Macksey, Tank Versus Tank, 119 (kicked a soccer ball); NWAf, 514–19; Destruction, 322–26.
But Ultra decrypts: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 283; Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 210, 379.
Thick mist lingering: Blaxland, 189; Rolf, 162; Irving, 282; Destruction, 325 (“wandered rather vaguely”); D. C. Quilter, ed., “No Dishonorable Name,” 159 (“A great many”); Ian C. Cameron, History of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders 7th Battalion, 80 (“wonderful shoot”); Hamilton, 169 (“I shall write letters”).
“the first perfect battle”: Clifford, 400; letter, A.J.A. Weir to parents, June 1943, IWM, 67/258/1 (“larger than a card table”); Bernard Ireland, The War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, 198; Kesselring, Memoirs, 152; Greiner diary, March 10, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 415–16 (“great gloom”).
If hardly unexpected: Liddell Hart, ed., 416 (“plain suicide”), 422; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 283 (“During the drive” and “whole thing stinks”), 288 (“fallen from grace”); Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander, 114; author interview, Hans von Luck, Hamburg, May 1994; Westphal, 127 (“gradually consumed”); Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean, Part II, The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 42 (“last trump”); Ronald Lewin, Rommel as Military Commander, 209 (“not quite normal”); Rommel to Arnim, March 12, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226.
“I have observed”: DDE to J.S.D. Eisenhower, March 12, 1943, Chandler, 1028.
After months of sailing: Chandler, 961n (“selflessness of character”); Three Years, 280 (“Tell Ike”).
“I have caught up”: DDE to GCM, Alexander et al., Chandler, 860, 1020, 1049, 1052, 1018.
He was busier: DDE to Edgar Eisenhower, GCM, et al., Chandler, 1018, 1024, 1009, 1050, 862; Jordan, 197 (“Eisenhower’s genius”).
More and more: DDE to GCM, et al., Chandler, 1033, 1036, 860.
Rommel famously observed: Martin Van Creveld, Supplying War, 201; 601st Ordnance Bn, unit history, MHI; Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, WWII operations reports, 95-AL1-4, box 203; Bykofsky and Larson, 148; quartermaster memo, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Leighton and Coakley, 475 (“brilliant”).
In World War I: lecture, B. B. Somervell, “Army Service Forces,” Aug. 9, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, L-1-43, box 167; Kreidberg and Henry, 649; memo, North African logistics, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
Can do: Leighton and Coakley, 485; Ellis, Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War, 298 (II Corps lost more armor); “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” from “Tactical Communications in World War II,” part I, Historical Section, Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 120 (500 miles); McNamara, 60 (new shoes); Logistical History of NATOUSA/ MTOUSA, 82.
The Americans’ “genius”: Behrens, 333, 313 (“creating resources”); Kennett, 93; McNamara, 70; letter, Carter B. Magruder to LeRoy Lutes, March 21, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, Ordnance Dept., box 596; “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” 1946, CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 87.
“The American Army”: Ellis, Brute Force, 525 (“overwhelms them”); Donald Davison, “Aviation Engineers in the Battle of Tunisia,” 1943, 12; Beck et al., 90.
The German military: Leighton and Coakley, 14; Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 362; Bragadin, 245–47 (“roaring furnace”); Friedrich Weber, “Battles of 334th Division and of Group Weber,” n.d., FMS, #D-215, MHI.
Ships not yet sunk: Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. 4, 349–50; Warlimont, “High Level Decisions—The Tunisian Campaign,” Feb. 1951, FMS, #C-092a, MHI, 19; NWAf, 368, 499n, 513fn, 682; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 417 (“to create the build-up”).
Other woes: NWAf, 366; AAR, Wehrmacht transportation officer, Apr. 1–May 4, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (lignite); Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS, C-098, MHI, 62 (oil cakes), 84.
These tribulations: Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 173 (“paper divisions”); Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 373–74; Destruction, 274 (“if no supplies”); Warlimont, “High Level Decisions,” Feb. 1951, FMS, #C-092a, MHI, 33–34 (“a fortress”); Cooper, 368 (“Hitler wanted”).
“The Devil Is Come Down”
The soft whir: Desert Victory; Brian Horrocks, A Full Life, 148; Brooks, ed., 176; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 99 (“wee bugger”); Fred Majdalany, The Battle of El Alamein, 150; Hill, Desert Conquest, 252–61 (“this conqueror business”).
Bernard Law Montgomery: Majdalany, 37–38 (“lonely and loveless”); Tute, 194; Hamilton, 142; Boatner, 372–74; John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 17 (“One only loves”).
the Book of Job: Doherty, Irish Generals, 29; W. P. Lunn-Rockliffe, “The Tunisian Campaign,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Apr.–May 1969, 109, and June–July, 1969, 228; Rolf, 26 (“Kill Germans”); Alan F. Wilt, War from the Top, 197; Gilbert, 372; Barnett, The Desert Generals, 268 (“sheer weight of British resources”); Charles D. McFetridge, “In Pursuit: Montgomery After Alamein,” Military Review, June 1994, 54; Chalmers, 158; Hamilton, 169 (“trust him”).
And yet: Barnett, The Desert Generals, 236; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 501 (“a kindliness”).
He disdained: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 163 (“quite useless”), 177, 206; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 107n (“Good chap”); Brooks, ed., 194, 131, 175 (“quite unfit”), 150; Macksey, The Tank Pioneers, 186; F. E. Morgan, OH, n.d., FCP, MHI (“thoroughly disloyal”).
Swaggering into Tunisia: Boatner, 372; Ellis, Brute Force, 284; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 261; Clarke, 81 (“We will roll”); Barnett, The Desert Generals, 274 (“dray horse”); report on benzedrine sulfate, “Military Reports on the United Nations,” No. 2, Jan. 15, 1943, WD, Military Intelligence Service, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 585.
Contrary to: Ellis, Brute Force, 265, 286; Coningham, OH, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (“Once Monty”).
This time: msg to Rommel, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Stannard, ed., 287 (vats of hot water); Kesselring, T-3 P1, 33; Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” FMS, #D-046; Destruction, 331–33; John W. Gordon, The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940–1943, 163.
These engineering nuances: W. B. Smith, OH, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI (“one for himself”); Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 873.
Montgomery knew: Destruction, 333–34; NWAf, 525–30; Nicholson and Forbes, 298 (“When I give”).
The party had begun: Howard and Sparrow, 129–38 (“lightly held”); Quilter, ed., 161; A. C. Elcomb, “The Battle of Mareth,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Oct. 1973, 44; Fred Telford, ts, n.d., 3rd Bn, Coldstream Guards, IWM, 97/41/1 (“It was my first contact” and “For you the war”); Destruction, 335; NWAf, 531; Messenger, 75; Rolf, 170–71 (“I am still alive” and “the most damnable thing”).
A lesser man: Howard and Sparrow, 133 (“a great success”); Destruction, 332–34 (“left largely”).
As Montgomery and his officers: Belden, 219–24 (“someone is making”); W.A.T. Synge, The Story of the Green Howards, 1939–1945; Lewin, The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps, 191 (“to a picnic”); NWAf, 531–33; Destruction, 338–41; Elcomb, 44–55; Tuker, 291 (“pound the objectives”), 295; G. R. Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 209; The Tiger Kills, 162; B. H. Liddell Hart, The Tanks, 249; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 216; Fritz Bayerlein, “Memorandum for the War Diary,” May 5, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
Montgomery disliked: Hamilton, 193–95 (“What am I”); Rolf, 171; Francis de Guingand, Operation Victory, 250–55; Charles Richardson, Send for Freddie, 117.
The answer lay: Clifford, 401 (“jagged purple coxscomb”); Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier, 277; Powell, In Barbary, 123; Tuker, 299; H. Marshall, Over to Tunis, 100; Hastings, 201.
Alerted by Luftwaffe reconnaissance: msg, Messe to Arnhem, March 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 284–85; Destruction, 341–44; NWAf, 533; Doherty, A Noble Crusade: The History of Eighth Army, 1941–45, 129.
One man: W. G. Stevens, Freyberg, V.C., The Man, 1939–1945, 36, 47, 54–56, 60; Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 170; Boatner, 167; Dan Davin essay on Freyberg in Carver, ed., The War Lords, 582–95 (“cunning as a Maori dog”).
The Salamander was displeased: Destruction, 344; De Guingand, 258.
Montgomery set aside: “Direct Air Support in the Battle of El Hamma,” AAF Informational Intelligence Summary, 43–36, July 10, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 13; Destruction, 348–54; Kippenberger, 282–84.
Through the gap: Stewart, ed., 182 (“Speed up”); Kippenberger, 289 (“dead and mangled”), 280 (“They trust me”); T. M. Lindsay, Sherwood Rangers, 79, 83 (“Like a black snake”); Liddell Hart, The Tanks, 251; Tuker, 306 (“trundled as snails”); Bisheshwar Prasad, ed., The North African Campaign, 1940–43, Official History of the Indian Armed Forces, 502–505; Messenger, 91 (“not unlike hounds”); Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 173; Brooks, ed., 211; NWAf, 537; Horrocks, 155.
“It was the most enjoyable battle”: Brooks, ed., 185; Stannard, ed., 287 (drought); D. McCorquodale et al., History of the King’s Dragoon Guards, 1938–1945, 221; bomb damage assessment, Operations Bulletin No. 2, May 31, 1943, NW African AF, NARA RG, NWC Lib, box 132; Rolf, 190 (donned their kilts); Dudley Clarke, The Eleventh at War, 288–95.
Some of Montgomery’s admirers: Doherty, 130–35; Hamilton, 208; Tuker, 307 (“lack of purpose”); essay on Montgomery by Michael Carver, in Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals; “Montgomery and the Battle of Mareth. Talk with Christopher Buckley,” Nov. 24, 1946, LHC, 11/1946/12 (through repetition).
CHAPTER 11: OVER THE TOP
“Give Them Some Steel!”
An old Arab song: Stannard, ed., 279; Baedeker, 385; author visit, Apr. 2000; NWAf, 541; Parris and Russell, 301.
If seizing Gafsa: “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 Apr. 1943,” II Corps, CARL, N-2652A; Bradley and Blair, 141; Nicholson, Alex, 177 (“I do not want”), 180 (“dashing steed”); DDE to GCM, March 29, 1943, Chandler, 1059; Alexander, OH, SM, MHI.
Patton was incensed: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 187–90 (“Fortunately for our fame”); NWAf, 545; Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 64 (“more dead bodies”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 52.
That night, military policemen: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” n.d., MRC FDM, box 301, 9–18; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 191 (“The hardest thing”); AAR, “Report of Operations 1st AD, Maknassy, 12 March–10 Apr., 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; letter, TdA to G. F. Howe, Apr. 16, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Hansen, 4/33; James Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 77 (“small flotilla of ships”).
“The Dagoes beat it”: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 193, 191; Bradley and Blair, 142; Liebling, Mollie & Other War Stories, 67, 85; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 231–33; MacVane, Journey into War, 231–34; Martin, The GI War, 52; Yarborough, 90; Knickerbocker et al., 66; diary, CBH, March 26, 28, 1943, MHI; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 66 (ore cars); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 53 (“a Moroccan”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 274 (venereal disease); II Corps, provost marshal journal, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126 (“No, suh”); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV-44.6.
Patton knew the value: D’Arcy-Dawson, 177 (Viennese steak); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 191–92 (“If any American”); MacVane, Journey into War, 232; Porter, SOOHP, MHI, 276–78 (“You should”).
On the nineteenth: NWAf, 550, 557; author visit, Apr. 2000; Knickerbocker et al., 67.
No one who met him: Michael J. King, William Orlando Darby: A Military Biography, 17, 46; King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in WWII” Arnbal, 27.
On the evening: Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal; Lehman, “The Rangers Fought Ahead of Everybody,” 28; Darby, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 71; Boatner, 250; Ingersoll, 115–16 (“sighing of the sea”), 147–70 (“rubbing fists in their eyes”); King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in WWII,” 19–20; Arnbal, 61–62 (“odors of hot guns”).
Kitchen trucks: Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” Apr. 24, 1943, 221, and May 1, 1943, 24; II Corps G-2 incident report, March 22, 1943, in 9th ID records, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7334 (“Few Germans”); Dixon, “Terry Allen,” 57.
“There’s but one thought”: TR to Eleanor, March 20, 25, Apr. 11, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9; AAR, 1st ID, n.d., in DSC documentation packet, TR, LOC, box 39; Sam Carter, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, at El Guettar,” 1948, Fort Benning, Infantry School, 19; NWAf, 560–64.
The chink: author visit, Apr. 2000; “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 874–76; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 72, 79; Hamilton, 206 (“complete amateurs”); Skillen, 298; Gustav von Vaerst, “Operations of the Fifth Panzer Army in Tunisia,” n.d., FMS #D-001, 6–10; Carter, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry,” 19 (“huge iron fort”); Raymond, “Slugging It Out,” Field Artillery Journal, Jan. 1944, 14 (“no one had the heart”); Milton M. Thornton and R. G. Emery, “Try the Reverse Slope,” Infantry Journal, Feb. 1944, 8; author interview, Eston White, Feb. 2000.
On the American left: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS #C-098, 82; Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 30–32; Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, MRC FDM; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” MRC FDM, 81, 135; Carter, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry at El Guettar,” 20–22; Riess, ed., 553; Arnold J. Heidenheimer, Vanguard to Victory: History of the 18th Infantry; Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 8/37–39 (mss); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 77–78, 83, 85–86; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 224 (“Hun bastards”); Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” Apr. 24, 1943, 221, and May 1, 1943, 24 (“I will like hell”).
Desperate as the fight: “TD Combat in Tunisia,” Jan. 1944, Tank Destroyer School, MHI; Porter, SOOHP, MHI, 276 (“I expect him”); Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” 82–3; AAR, 899th TD Bn, “Unit History, 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 23879; Christopher R. Gabel, “Seek, Strike, and Destroy: U.S. Army Tank Destroyer Doctrine in World War II,” 1985, CSI, 38; Raymond, “Slugging It Out,” 14; NWAf, 560.
With sirens screaming: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 31–32; Hansen, 4/57 (“I want”).
At three P.M.: “G-2 Report, Battle of El Guettar,” G-2 Miscellaneous Papers, II Corps, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3164; Thomas E. Bennett, “Gafsa–El Guettar,” 1st ID log, March 23, 1943, possession of Roger Cirillo; “A Summary of the El Guettar Offensive,” TdA, MHI; Skillen, 297, 299; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 286; Koch, 22; Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” 27 (“Terry, when”).
Patton’s uncoded warnings: Porter, SOOHP, 1981, MHI, 282 (alerted the Germans); NWAf, 562–63; AAR, 899th TD Bn, “Unit History, 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 23879.
This time the panzers: Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em” (“diffident fat boys”); “TD Combat in Tunisia” V. R. Rawie, 5th FA commander, quoted in Andrus biographical file, MHI (ricochet fire); Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” 87 (“scissors and search”); Darby, Darby’s Rangers, 76; TR to Eleanor, March 25, Apr. 11, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9; Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, MRC FDM; Hansen, 4/41A (“it seems a crime”).
Survivors rejoined: Phillips, El Guettar: Crucible of Leadership, 4; Skillen, 299; NWAf, 564n; II Corps operations report, n.d., GSP, LOC MS Div., box 10; Carter, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry at El Guettar” II Corps, G-3 journal, March 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3175 (“Hun will soon”); Bradley and Blair, 144 (“indisputable defeat”); Drew Middleton, “The Battle Saga of a Tough Outfit,” New York Times Magazine, Apr. 8, 1945, 8 (“Well, folks”).
“Search Your Soul”
Orlando Ward’s attack: II Corps, G-3 journal, March 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3175; AAR, “Report of Operations 1st AD, Maknassy, 12 March–10 Apr. 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Johnson, One More Hill, 46; “Adventures by Men of the 60th Infantry Regiment in WWII,” 1993, MHI.
Then he stopped: memo, Jean Bouley to Robinett, Aug. 1, 1949, PMR, LOC, box 4 (“very serious and costly”); Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, WWII, vol. I, 1980, NARA RG 457, NSA files, SRH 391, box 114, 35; NWAf, 552; Vaerst, “Operations of the Fifth Panzer Army in Tunisia,” 12–13; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 196; Camp, ed., “Tankers in Tunisia,” 32, author visit, Apr. 2000.
Ward also had: Theodore J. Conway, SOOHP, Sept. 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, MHI, ii-39 (“regiment was divided”); Phillips, The Making of a Professional: Manton S. Eddy, USA, 112; observer report #41, March 5, 1943, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52 (malaria).
the Robinett problem: Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-113; diary, Feb.–March, 1943, OW, MHI; Edwin A. Russell, OH, May 15, 1950, SM, MHI (“little dictator”); DDE to OW, March 12, 1943, OW, MHI (“difficult to handle”); PMR to DDE, Apr. 12, 1943, PMR, LOC, box 4; DDE to GCM, March 3, 1943, OW, MHI (“puzzling man”)
his Patton problem: OW to DDE, March 7, 1943, Chandler, 1027n; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 188, 193, 197; Hansen, 4/96; McCurtain Scott, OH, March 1976, OW, MHI (“Goddamit, Ward”); diary, March 22, 1943, OW, MHI (“Patton impatient”).
Alexander’s new orders: AAR, “Report of Operations 1st AD, Maknassy, 12 March–10 Apr 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; AAR, CCC, 1st AD, March–Apr. 1943, NARA; NWAf, 553–55; author visit, Apr. 2000.
He was actually facing: Lang, “Report on the Fighting of Kampfgruppe Lang,” part II, 1947, FMS, #D-166, MHI; Kriegstagebuch V, Fifth Panzer Army, March 23–24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; Kleine and Kühn, Tiger; Carell, 350.
A third American attack: letter, T. Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR, LOC, box 4 (“beautiful and uncomfortable”); William S. McElhenny, 1st AD, ts, n.d., OW, MHI, box 1 (“Come on!”); AAR, 1st Bn, 6th Armored Inf; AAR, 60th Inf, March 22–24, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7535; Camp, ed., “Tankers in Tunisia,” 15; G-2 summary No. 6, Apr. 2, 1943, II Corps, “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 Apr., 1943,” CARL, N-2652A (“Here one can find”); Robertson, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st AD, 288 (“shootin’ gallery”).
Patton had again: letter, R. F. Akers, Jr., to C. B. Hansen, Jan. 12, 1951, CBH, MHI (“Pink, you got”); war diaries, 1943, CBH, MHI, 8-A, S-10; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 197 (“my conscience”).
Ward stood: diary, E. C. Hatfield, March 24, 1943, OW, MHI; AAR, E. C. Hatfield, 1st AD, March 27, 1943, OW, MHI, box 1 (“Sergeant could you”); AAR, CCC, NARA 407, E 427, 601-CCC-0.3, March–Apr. 1943; NWAf, 556; Robinett, Armor Command,209; CBH, 1943, MHI; Scott, OH, OW, MHI (“Damned inadequate”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 198 (“made a man”).
Two days later: diary, March 27, 1943, OW, MHI; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 199.
The stalemate: OW to “All Personnel, 1st AD,” March 27, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“Search your soul”); AAR, “Report of Operations, 1st AD, Maknassy, 12 March–10 Apr. 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; NWAf, 575; DDE to GCM, Apr. 3 and 24, 1943, Chandler, 1066, 1101.
There was truth: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 221; Lang, “Report on the Fighting of Kampfgruppe Lang,” MHI; Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, X-138 (“With some diffidence”), 141 (“Look, Brad”); Rolf, 199 (“quite useless”); OW note, Apr. 4, 1943, OW, MHI; diary, Apr. 4, 1943, OW, MHI (“Bradley gave”).
Harmon would arrive: Harmon, Combat Commander, 123–25 (“stupid questions” and “party is all yours”); E. N. Harmon, OH, Sept. 15, 1952, SM, MHI.
If outwardly gracious: OW, OH, May 5, 1957, FCP, MHI (chief of staff); PMR to OW, Apr. 20, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“deepest gratitude”); OW, DSC awards packet, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, A 47-A-3948, box 56.
Ward was a good soldier: OW to L. E. Oliver, Sept. 27, 1943, OW, MHI (“My record”); Boatner, 599; DDE quoted in GCM to OW, May 5, 1943, Pentagon office correspondence, GCM Lib, box 90, folder 4 (“too sensitive”).
Night Closes Down
With the Americans: AAR, II Corps, “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 April 1943,” CARL, N-2652A; Knickerbocker et al., 94; S-1 log, 18th Inf, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5941; Carter, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry at El Guettar,” 23; Arnbal, 75; NWAf, 564–69.
Moreover, the 9th Division: AAR, “Report on Operation Conducted by 9th ID, Southern Tunisia, 26 March–8 Apr. 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7326; D. T. Kellett, “El Guettar: Victory or Stalemate?,” Military Review, July 1951, 18; AAR, 39th Inf Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7501; Carter, “Carter’s War,” IV-44; Phillips, The Making of a Professional, 76, 80, 97 (“big galoot”); “Hold Fast,” 1945 booklet on 9th ID; Knickerbocker et al., 71; Doubler, 294–95.
An intelligence estimate: AAR, “Report on Operation Conducted by 9th ID” “Report on Defense of Hills 260 [sic] and 369,” May 23, 1943, II Corps engineers, NARA RG 338, box 147 (five dugouts); Heinz Werner Schmidt, With Rommel in the Desert, 266; author visit, Apr. 2000.
Hill 369 prevented: AAR, 47th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514; AAR, 9th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7348; Phillips, El Guettar, 24–31 (“lighting up”), 37 (“You sons”); David E. Gillespie, ed., History of the Forty-Seventh Infantry Regiment; AAR, 10th Panzer Div., March 27, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Mittelman, 93-101.
Worse yet: AAR, “Report on Operation Conducted by 9th ID” Randle, “The General and the Movie,” Army, Sept. 1971; Parris and Russell, 310; William M. Lee, ASEQ, n.d., 26th Inf Regt, 1st ID, MHI; Johnson, One More Hill, 55 (“Just lay in my hole”); AAR, 47th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514.
Alexander visited: AAR, II Corps, CARL N-2652A (professed satisfaction); Phillips, El Guettar, 38 (“In all my career”), 43–47; Mittelman, 101.
North of Highway 15: Marion Hunt and Duane R. Sneddeker, “Over Here, Over There,” Gateway Heritage, winter 1993, 48 (“We baked”); AAR, 1st ID, “Gafsa–El Guettar,” March 31, 1943, possession of Roger Cirillo; author interview, Albert H. Smith, Jan. 24, 2000; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” FDM MRC, box 301, 9/62–81; Martin, The GI War, 56 (“Night just closes down”); Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” 54 (“fussed and fumed”), 136.
Late on March 29: AAR, “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 Apr. 1943,” II Corps, CARL, N-2652A; NWAf, 569–71 (a fourth time); Kellett, 18 (little chance of success); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 200 (“I feel”).
With Patton’s protest: C.C. Benson, “Some Tunisian Details,” Field Artillery Journal, Jan. 1944, 2; Moorehead, 136–37 (“From a hundred wadis”); D’Arcy-Dawson, 187 (“I saw tanks hit”); “Unit History, 1943,” 899th TD Bn, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 23879; NWAf, 571; AAR, “Report on Operation Conducted by 9th ID,” March 30, 1943; Wellard, 80; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 202 (“We seem”).
The Axis line drew back: GSP to DDE, March 29, 1943, Patton files, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91 (“Nasty, grim”); AAR, 9th ID, Apr. 2, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7348; AAR, 9th ID surgeon, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7348; AAR, “Report on Operation Conducted by 9th ID” NWAf, 575; Phillips, El Guettar, 70; Randle, Safi Adventure, 216; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” 69 (“most severe”).
The stuck-everywhere period: Linderman, 256 (“cell-by-cell”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 217 (“everybody ordering”); TR to Eleanor, Apr. 8, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9.
Patton took it badly: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 204–205; CBH, Apr. 1, 1943, MHI; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 147; Bradley, A Soldier’s Life, 63; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 166, A-314 (“Every bone”); Hansen, 4/79; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 232.
“Forward troops”: Coningham, Patton messages, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; daily intel report, Sunset No. 47, Feb. 20, 1943 and Sunset No. 49, n.d., NSA files, NARA RG 457, SRS 1869, box 1; Tedder, 410–11; Laurence S. Kuter, “Goddammit, Georgie!,”Air Force Magazine, Feb. 1973, 51; D’Este, Patton, 483; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 207–208, 211 (“I hope the Boches”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 63–64; Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV–42.
If choler infected: Pyle, Here Is Your War, 241–42.
What Rommel called: Clifford, 390 (“clean, straight”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 17 (slaughterhouse blood); L. J. McNair, “The Struggle Is for Survival,” radio address, Nov. 11, 1942, Vital Speeches of the Day, 111; training memorandum #22, AFHQ through II Corps G-3, “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, box 301, 9/36; GSP Jr., “order of the day,” “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, box 301, 9/35.
nearly 6,000 casualties: “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 Apr. 1943,” II Corps, CARL, N-2652A; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 62 (“Perhaps these American”); G-2 summary #7, Apr. 19, 1943, II Corps, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7334; Samuel D. Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, 73 (“we really learned”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, box 301, 10/24; Herschel H. Husinpiller, “Armored Infantry in Africa,” ts, n.d., Fort Benning Infantry School Library, 7 (“A soldier is not”); Parris and Russell, 308–310; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 106 (“They lost”).
A very thin membrane: “Intelligence at HQ First Army, Nov. 1942–May 1943,” ts, May 23, 1943, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 01, intelligence 10719 (“serious menace”); William E. Faust, ASEQ, ts, 1990, 1st ID, Divarty HHQ, MHI, 39 (“We became ruthless”); letter, printed in Minneapolis Tribune, Apr. 11, 1943, MCC-YU (“Here Arabs live”); Thomas A. Kindre, OH, 1994, G. Kurt Piehler, ROHA; Tom Gendron, OH, 1977, 1st ID, Michael Corley, possession of Paul Gorman; Howard D. Ashcraft, As You Were, 10, 17 (“to watch them dance”).
At a training camp: Schrijver, 118; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, box 301, 9/90; McManus, 67 (“We made them dig”); D’Arcy-Dawson, 107, 125, 133 (“It is not pleasant”).
After Kasserine: author interviews, Edward Boehm, Nov. 26, 1999, and Jan. 4, 2000; Edward Boehm, “My Autobiography During World War II,” ts, 1997, possession of Roger Cirillo.
Such atrocities: inspector general report, July 13, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, records of the special staff, box 2011 (“three out of five”).
But other crimes: “Historical Report of the Provost Marshal Section of the Atlantic Base Section,” Oct. 5, 1942, to May 31, 1943, NARA RG 492, provost marshal general, box 2228; Giraud letter in memo, Apr. 3, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-204-F; memo, J. C. Holmes, chief, AFHQ liaison section to G-1 (personnel), May 3, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-204-F; memo, NATO provost marshal to G-1, May 6, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-204-F.
Some of the most appalling: “Report of the Battalion Chief of Leon Tenneroni,” Bône, Apr. 21, 1943, in “Inspections and Investigations by Inspectors General and Other Officers & Reports Of [sic],” vol. II, serial #8, HQ NATO, June 6, 1943, to CG, 8th AAF, “Report of Security Investigation,” NARA RG 492, MTO, Records of the Special Staff, box 1043; “History of the 98th Engineer (General Service) Regiment,” Aug. 17, 1941–May 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, Engineers, box 19556; WWII U.S. Army executions, JAG, history branch office, U.S. force, ETO, 8-3.5 AA, v. 1; memo, “comparison of executions during WWI and WWII,” U.S. Army JAG to undersecretary of war, Apr. 22, 1946, author’s possession.
“I Had a Plan…Now I Have None”
“a soft feel”: TR to Eleanor, Apr. 6, 1943, TR, LOC, box 9; Destruction, 374–75 (“last man” and “Non è stata”).
It was not especially good: Adrian Stewart, Eighth Army’s Greatest Victories, 189; Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, 189; Benson, “Some Tunisian Details,” 2 (“Attack and destroy”).
They swung at air: Wellard, 80 (“abreast like a Spanish fleet”); AAR, “The El Guettar Operation, Intelligence Report,” Benson Force, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 213; NWAf, 577; “Report on Operation, 15 March–10 Apr. 1943,” II Corps, CARL, N-2652A; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 177–80; Boatner, 534.
Within an hour: Parkinson, 89 (“Hello, Limeys!”); Gordon, 169; Hill, Desert Conquest, 272 (“somebody besides a Nazi”), 300.
Eisenhower was jubilant: DDE to John S. D. Eisenhower, Apr. 8, 1943, Chandler, 1083; DDE to E. E. Hazlett, Jr., Apr. 7, 1943, Chandler, 1081 (“It seems”).
He was just: DDE to A. D. Surles, Apr. 6, 1943, Chandler, 1080; DDE to GSP, Apr. 5, 1943, Chandler, 1073 (“my policy”).
Proximity to the British: Tedder, 406 (“The only way”); Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 178; Brooks, ed., 157–72, 191; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 166, A-282; “Reminiscences of Hanson Weightman Baldwin,” 1976, John T. Mason, USNI OHD, 4–375 (“anybody except that son of a bitch”); Morgan, Past Forgetting, 115 (“a thorn in my side”).
As if to compensate: DDE to GSP, Apr. 5, 1943, Chandler, 1073; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 220, 218.
Yet in his ecumenical: B.A. Dickson, OH, Dec. 13, 1950, SM, MHI; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 144–45 (“speechless”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 59 (“This war’s”); DDE to Alexander, March 23, 1943, Chandler, 1056; DDE to GCM, March 29, 1943, Chandler, 1059; DDE to GSP, Apr. 5, 1943, Chandler, 1074 (“your corps”).
One final chance: author visit, Apr. 2000; “G-2 Report on Tunisian Campaign,” June 12, 1943, 34th ID, Iowa GSM; Vaerst, “Operations of the Fifth Panzer Army in Tunisia,” MHI, 18; Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” MHI, 91; Forty, The Armies of Rommel,177; Carell, 340; Blaxland, 219 (powers of German sergeants).
This was a mistake: Ryder, OH, Feb. 21, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“go out in that area”); “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th ID,” Dec. 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 334-0.3; msg “to all officers of the 34th Div., 11 March 1943,” 201 file, Charles W. Ryder papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“creeping paralysis”); Clem Miller, Some Things You Never Forget, 109; Davies, 103–107; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; AAR, 109th Medical Bn, n.d., in “109th Med Publications,” Iowa GSM.
Belatedly, Alexander realized: Nehring, FMS, MS #T-3, vol. 3a, MHI; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 229, 257.
At eleven a.m. : Macksey, The Tank Pioneers, 186–91 (“watch your step”); Hansen, 3–66; Blaxland, 211; Liddell Hart, “Notes for History, Talk with Crocker,” July 9, 1943, LHC, 11/1943/46; AAR, IX Corps, n.d., PRO, WO 175/97.
It was regrettable: “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th ID,” Dec. 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 334-0.3; Ryder, OH, SM, MHI; Caffey, OH, Feb. 1950 SM, MHI (“I had a plan”); NWAf, 583–85; Destruction, 377–80; Harold G. Bull, OH, Sept. 21, 1950, SM, MHI.
Now another officer: Louis-Marie Koeltz, “Memo on meeting held April 6, 1943, at the command post of General Ryder,” 1950, trans. for author by Claudia Brown, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Robinett, Armor Command, 126; Alexander, OH, SM, MHI; letter, J. T. Crocker, Sept. 8, 1950, and memo, Gordon H. A. MacMillan, n.d., both in memo, H. B. Latham, Cabinet Office Historical Section, to G. F. Howe, Sept. 25, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229.
It went badly: JAG, 34th ID, “Historical Report on Activities,” June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; “Chaplain’s Report on the Tunisian Campaign,” 34th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 9417; Alexander to DDE, Apr. 7, 1943, Alexander files, DDE Lib, box 3, folder 8 (“reasonably confident”); D’Este, Bitter Victory, 62 (“soft, green”); Robert Ward, OH, Nov. 30, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“no one was saying”); Hansen, 3/60-6 (“brittle and axiomatic”); Ryder, OH, Feb, 21, 1950, SM, MHI (“wished to win”).
Perhaps, Ryder mused: “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th ID,” Dec. 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, 334-0.3; Virgil Craven, “The Operation of Company I, 133rd Infantry, in the Attack at Fondouk Gap,” 1950, Fort Benning Infantry School, 6, 9–19; Bailey,Through Hell and High Water, 90; Ankrum, 250, 243; Austin, 114; D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis,” 399; Green and Gauthier, ed., 154; letter, Ray C. Fountain, Des Moines Tribune, Aug. 5, 1943, Iowa GSM.
There would be no bombing: “Proposed Mission Against Fondouk Gap, Tunisia, On 7 April 1943,” Feb. 7, 1951, Air University Lib, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 207; log, Co C, 1st Bn, 133rd Infantry Regt, Iowa GSM (“A wave of flying dust”); Miller, Some Things You Never Forget, 111 (“a pea on a plate”); Roland Anderson, “The Operations of the 135th Infantry Regiment in the Vicinity of Fondouk el Okbi,” 1948, Fort Benning Infantry School; Bailey,Through Hell and High Water, 90 (“We continued”); letter, Robert P. Miller to G. F. Howe, Jan. 14, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Craven, “The Operations of Company I,” 10–19 (“did little more”); Robert Ward, OH, Nov. 30, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; author interview, Paul Calder, Nov. 8, 1999; Ankrum, 238 (“the mere raising”).
General Crocker was fixated: AAR, letter, 1st Guards Bde, Apr. 21, 1943, PRO, WO 175/186; Ellis, Welsh Guards at War, 114–21; NWAf, 588 (even abandoned); Blaxland, 221 (boulder-to-boulder).
A hard night: Craven, “The Operations of Company I,” 19, 22 (“hill looked bigger than ever” and asked to be arrested); “Narrative History, North African–Tunisian Campaign, 133rd Inf Regt.,” June 7, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 9549; letter, Donald C. Landon to G. F. Howe, Jan. 17, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; Richard F. Wilkinson, ts, n.d., in AAR, Co C, 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, Iowa GSM (“brew tea”).
They went—but: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 877–79; ffrench Blake, A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 1922–1959, 133 (“We shall all”); Moorehead, 145; C. N. Barclay, History of the 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers, 1925 to 1961, 88–91 (set fire to blankets and “The tank rocked”); “Combat Report,” 3rd Co (German) 334th Mobile Bn, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Anderson, “The Operations of the 135th Infantry Regiment” AAR, 16th/5th Lancers, Apr. 9–10, 1943, PRO, WO 175/291; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 96 (“as smooth and white”).
The retreating Italians: Kriegstagebuch V, Fifth Panzer Army, Apr. 9, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; NWAf, 588–90; Destruction, 382; Jordan, 226; Rolf, 215 (“usual wog town”); author visit, Apr. 2000; D’Arcy-Dawson, 199–201; Austin, 117; Hansen, 41/116; diary, G. P. Druitt, Apr. 1943, IWM, 96/38/1.
American losses: “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th ID,” Dec. 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 334-0.3; Bolstad, 135 (“It is only”); Ankrum, 253, 256; AAR, Co C, 109th Medical Bn, n.d., Iowa GSM (“You couldn’t make”); Green and Gauthier, ed., 154; letter, Robert R. Moore to Dorothy, Nancy Jo, May 12, 1943, possession of Robert R. Moore, Jr.
A great opportunity: NWAf, 591–92; letter, J. T. Crocker, Sept 8, 1950, and memo, Gordon H. A. MacMillan, n.d. (“all commanders”), both in memo, H. B. Latham, Cabinet Office Historical Section, to G. F. Howe, Sept. 25, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Bull, OH, Sept. 21, 1950, SM, MHI (“severe and caustic”); Time, Apr. 19, 1943, 28.
Ryder declined: Richard Wilson, “The Gallant Fight of the 34th Division,” 1943, Des Moines Register and Tribune; Charles Werterbaker, account of Fondouk, Time, May 24, 1943; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 100; E. N. Harmon to H. G. Bull, Apr. 1943, Harmon papers, MHI (“I do not believe”); diary, G. P. Druitt, Apr. 1943, IWM, 96/38/1; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 261; Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin (“Our cousins regret”).
Eisenhower was both: Butcher diary, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 166, A 306, 307, 308, 313 (“whale tracks” and advocated sacking); Hughes diary, May 1, 1943, MHI, R-5 (“Ike says”); DDE to GCM, Apr. 5, 1943, Chandler, 1073; DDE to MWC, March 29, 1943, Chandler, 1062; Mina Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 61 (“We have found”).
chapter 12: the inner keep
Hell’s Corner
One hundred thousand: “Operations of II Corps, Northern Tunisia, 23 Apr.–9 May,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3113; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 247 (“dead weary”); Vining, ed., 71; letter, Raymond Dreyer, May 18, 1943, in Fenton (Iowa) Reporter, July 1, 1943, MCC, YU (“five months”); Moorehead, 153 (“hilarious, shouting bands”); H. Marshall, Over to Tunis, 46 (convolvulus resembled wood smoke).
Not even a Tunisian spring: Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” n.d., vol. I, CMH, X-16; NWAf, 604–605; CBH, Apr. 1943, MHI.
To Béja: To Bizerte with the II Corps, 4–9; NWAf, 599–601; Destruction, 398; Alexander memo, Apr. 21, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-6-C (“We have got”).
Getting the Allied divisions: C. S. Sugden, XVIII Army Group, to AFHQ G-3, Apr. 7, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-6-C (“present low state”); Morton Yarmon, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO: IV, TORCH and the ETO,” March 1946, Historical Division, U.S. Army Forces, ETO, CMH, 8.31 AA v. 4, 97 (467,000 troops); GSP to Alexander, Apr. 11 and 12, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 32; Bradley and Blair, 150 (“Take them”); Mayo, 142; Harmon, Combat Commander, 130 (“just a childish fancy”); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 218 (“I would rather”); Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 1943–1945, 189 (“marked fall”), 191 (battlefield equals).
On April 18: Patton, War As I Knew It, introduction by Rick Atkinson, xi (“fighting general”); letter, Akers to C. B. Hansen, Jan. 12, 1951, Hansen papers, MHI (“we doubled figures”); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 59 (“Your estimates”); Hansen, 4/121 (Patton disputed); “Report on Operation Conducted by II Corps, U.S. Army, Tunisia,” Apr. 10, 1943, Arthur S. Nevins Papers, MHI; AAR, II Corps, “Report on Operation,” etc., “Statistical Data Corrected to Include 2 May 1943,” CARL, N-2652 A.
As he left: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, 221.
On Thursday morning: Bradley and Blair, 25, 35, 50, 58, 159; Liebling, 89 (“least dressed-up”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 29; Fletcher Pratt, Eleven Generals: Studies in American Command, 300, 314; B. A. Dickson, OH, SM, MHI; Davis, Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy, 413 (“too damned sound”).
With map unfurled: Liebling, 89; DDE to Bradley, Apr. 16, 1943, Chandler, 1093; Bradley and Blair, 155; Martin, The G.I. War, 1941–1945, 57 (“hunting wild goats”); Hansen, 5/60A (“djebel hopping”), 5/27 (“This chap Bradley”); “Operations of II Corps, Northern Tunisia, 23 Apr.–9 May,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3113.
Although the endgame: Donald Davison, “Aviation Engineers in the Battle of Tunisia,” June 1943, AAF School of Applied Tactics, Orlando, MHI, 13, 28; “Statement by Brig. Gen. Laurence S. Kuter,” May 22, 1943, Pentagon, NARA RG 319, background To Bizerte with II Corps, 2-3.7 BA, box 103 (“We attacked Bizerte”); Operations Bulletin No. 2, May 31, 1943, HQ, NW African AF, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 132 (killed 752 civilians); “Interview on Four Aspects of the Air Campaign in Africa,” July 5, 1943, Office of Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Intel., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 14; Destruction, 412; Carell, 351.
Allied minelayers: Bragadin, 242–43; “Reports Received by U.S. War Department on Use of Ultra in the European Theater, WWII,” NARA RG 457, NSA files, SRH-037, 12; The AAF in Northwest Africa, Wings at War, No. 6, Center for Air Force History, 59–60 (twenty-eight tons of bombs); letter, R. Bruce Graham, Feb. 28, 1943, MCC, YU (“It’s Better to Give”); Destruction, 416–17.
Kesselring turned to air transport: “Operations Bulletin No. 1,” Apr. 30, 1943, HQ NW AAF, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 132; Ulrich Buchholz, “Supply by Air of the Enlarged Bridgehead of Tunis,” 1947, FMS, #D-071, MHI; Destruction, 415–16.
Worse was to come: Richard Thruelsen and Elliott Arnold, Mediterranean Sweep: Air Stories from El Alamein to Rome, 86–93; Destruction, 601; Buchholz, “Supply by Air,” FMS, #D-071; MacCloskey, 166; DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch,” 44; Davis,Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 196; Roderic Owen, 205; Tedder, 205 (“If Kesselring goes on”); Destruction, 416.
Although a quarter-million: Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 611; Rinteln, “The Italian Command and Armed Forces in the First Half of 1943” (“was in agony”); Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 176; “P.W.B. Combat Propaganda,” Sept. 2, 1943, AFHQ, Wallace Carroll Papers, LOC MS Div, box 3; “Psychological Warfare in the Mediterranean Theater,” Aug. 1945 report to War Dept., Naples, MHI; Wallace Carroll, Persuade or Perish, 158.
Axis reserves: Destruction, 603, 604n, 542; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. II, 612; First Italian Army to OKH, Apr. 14, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“the repulse”); Ellis, Brute Force, 255 (“armored division without petrol”); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 271 (“squinting for ships”); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged ed., 5; Destruction, 360, 403. the German high command: Warlimont, 307–308, 313 (mangiatori); Kesselring, Memoirs, 155; CCS to Joint Staff Mission and DDE, Apr. 7, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; Destruction, 384 (daily ration).
If his virtual abandonment: NWAf, 601–602; Destruction, 409, 393–94.
Il Duce’s backbone: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 71, 66 (“the greatest desire”).
Hammering Home the Cork
As the Allied armies: Lindsay, 85–87; The Tiger Kills, 179–80; C.R.B. Knight, Historical Record of the Buffs, 176.
Montgomery had known: Destruction, 397–402 (“bald rock faces”); Hamilton, 233–36 (“if Anderson”); Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 177–82; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 241, 271; The Tiger Kills, 184–90; Lindsay, 89; Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 233; Tuker, 338, 346 (fortifications were lightly held); Prasad, ed., 511.
Even the second-highest: author visit, Apr. 2000; Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 180 (“rotting stalagmite”); John Laffin, “The Battle of Takrouna,” After the Battle 12, 1976, 48; I. McL. Wards, Takrouna, 3–27 (“One of those grim moments”); Kippenberger, 305–11 (“never a moment”); Horrocks, 163; Hill, Desert Conquest, 291.
But that was it: Prasad, ed., 511–12; The Tiger Kills, 184 (“My hands”); Hill, Desert Conquest, 265; Montgomery to Brooke, Apr. 12, 1943, quoted in Brooks, ed., 206; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 272 (“In the darkness”).
For the first time: Kippenberger, 313–14 (“wait for the enemy”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 90 (“Let’s radio”).
Weary and distracted: Destruction, 441–42; G. R. Stevens, 245 (surly rebellion); Horrocks, 164 (“Of course we can”).
Even the most irresistible: Hunt, 176 (“rather a sad”); David Williams, The Black Cats at War: The Story of the 56th (London) Division T.A., 1939–1945; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 287; Messenger, 111 (“It was only”); Hamilton, 236–38; Brooks, ed., 222 (“short rest”).
As usual in Tunisia: Hamilton, 216 (“partridge drive”); Brooks, ed., 209; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 208–209 (seventy different air attacks); Messenger, 102; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 277; Blaxland, 227 (“The plan’s all right”); Nicholson and Forbes, 318–19.
The Germans struck: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Kurowski, 118; Horsfall, 167 (“Go away, James”).
Crocker launched: Destruction, 434; NWAf, 612; Messenger, 103–104; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 75 (“Men have begun”).
On April 26: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” George E. Wrockloff, “Land Mines,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL S-1-43, W-89, box 169; Macksey, The Tank Pioneers, 191; Hastings, 229.
So it was up to Allfrey: Malcolm, 118; Ray, 50; Destruction, 436 (“ghosts of good soldiers”); Marshall, Over to Tunis, 124–25; Skillen, 327 (“like a crowd”); Horsfall, 98 (“children of Satan”), 140.
Good Friday dawned: D’Arcy-Dawson, 213–14; Perret, At All Costs, 159–66; Alexander to Montgomery, March 29, 1943, in Brooks, ed., 189; Middleton, 269; Malcolm, 118; Ray, 52; Austin, 132; Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 171; Jordan, 237 (“an infernal sight”); Messenger, 105 (“the whole ridge”); P. Royle, ts, n.d., IWM, 66/305/1 (Zeiss binoculars).
Longstop had fallen: Destruction, 437; NWAf, 611–13; AAR, 1st Bn Irish Guards, Apr. 27–30, 1943, PRO, WO 175/488; G. E. Thurbon, ts, n.d., IWM, 94/8/1; D.J.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War (“threw everything” and “no time for the gangrene”); Nicolson and Forbes, 321–30 (“pungent scent”); Marshall, Over to Tunis, 134–35 (“a forest of rifles”).
The hill remained: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Three Years, 292 (3,500 casualties); NWAf, 613; G. P. Druitt, ts, n.d., IWM, 96/38/1 (“One arm was sticking”).
“Count Your Children Now, Adolf!”
“We are sitting”: Baumer, 122; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 81.
The guns finished: Austin, 120 (“the hollows”); Arthur R. Harris, “The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall,” Field Artillery Journal, May–June 1938, 228; NWAf, 614; Hannum, “The 30 Years of Army Experience,” ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, MHI, 38–40 (“Count your children”).
The infantry surged: Tobin, 95 (“long, slow line”); NWAf, 621–23; Johnson, One More Hill, 63–64; Eston White, author interview, Feb. 2000; log, “16th Infantry, Béja-Mateur Campaign,” Apr. 25, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5919; John W. Baumgartner et al., “History of the 16th Infantry, 1798–1946,” 28; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 10/26–74; Spivey, 76 (“Please shoot me”).
Into this maelstrom: Kahn, “Education of an Army,” New Yorker, Oct. 14, 1944, 28, and Oct. 21, 1944, 34; G. Perret, There’s a War to Be Won: The United States Army in World War II, 70; Larrabee, 119 (“a Presbyterian pulpit speaker”); Boatner, 353.
Now McNair did something: McNair diary, visit to North Africa, Apr. 15–May 3, 1943, NARA RG 337, HQS, commanding general, box 1 (“nowhere did I find”); Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 167 (mss); CBH, Apr. 23–25, 1943, MHI; Kahn, “Education of an Army” John Kelley, interview by Michael Corley, 1977, possession of Paul Gorman (argued bitterly); Hall, “A Memoir of World War II” Charles T. Horner, Jr., “The General’s First Purple Heart,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 16th Inf Regt, 1st ID, MHI (“get the jeep”); Hansen, 5/52 (upside down); Clark, Calculated Risk, 168 (“American soldiers”).
That was untrue: Three Years, 292; Phillips, Sedjenane, 27, 57, 67.
Impassable it proved to be: AAR, “Report on the Operation Conducted by the 9th Infantry Division in Northern Tunisia, 11 Apr.–8 May 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7326; AAR, 47th Inf Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514; AAR, 60th Inf Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7535; AAR, 9th ID artillery, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7424; NWAf, 615–20; Mittelman, 106–14.
So it went: Phillips, Sedjenane, 86, 104 (“a dark theater”), 111; Mittelman, 106–14; “The Fragrance of Spring Was Heavy in the Air,” Trail Tales, 1979, Boone Co. (Iowa) History Society, Iowa GSM; “G-2 report, II Corps, Battle for Bizerte,” Annex B, counter-intelligence section, May 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126 (“free from Arabs”); “Adventures by Men of the 60th Infantry Regiment in WWII,” 1993, MHI, 20–22.
The enemy held fast: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 89; Liebling, Mollie & Other Pieces 9; Mittelman, 106; Howard and Sparrow, 118; D’Arcy-Dawson, 134; William E. Faust, ASEQ, ts, 1st ID artillery, 1990, MHI, 42, 50.
No hill loomed: author visit, Apr. 2000; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis” (“best German troops”).
Anderson proposed: Bradley, 86–87 (“Never mind”), Bradley and Blair, 157 (“far over his head”); To Bizerte with the II Corps, 16; CBH, May 1, 1943, MHI; “G-3 Report, Tunis Operation,” 1st ID, Apr. 28–30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5759; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, chapter 10; CBH, May 1, 1943 (“This campaign is too important”).
To seize the hill: Caffey, OH, SM, MHI; Bradley, 85 (“Get me that hill”); letter, Robert P. Miller to G. F. Howe, Jan. 14, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Arnold N. Brandt, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 135th Infantry at Hills 609 and 531,” 1948 (“There was excitement”); Ryder, OH, SM, MHI; Berens, 62; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 106; Green and Gauthier, 120–24 (“For the love of heaven” and “crouched gray shapes”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 254 (rocks wrapped); Bolstad, 140 (“We lay there awaiting dawn”).
Two attacks failed: NWAf, 631; To Bizerte with the II Corps, 18–21; AAR, “Operations Following the Battle of Fondouk,” 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Ankrum, 277–81; Bolstad, 140; AAR, Co C, 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, Apr. 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Mickey C. Smith and Dennis Worthen, “Soldiers on the Production Line,” Pharmacy in History, 1995, 183; Riess, ed., 543; Middleton, 275 (“wheat at Gettysburg”); “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Div.,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; “Report of Action on Hill 609, 135th Inf Regt.,” June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Leslie W. Bailey, “An Infantry Battalion in Attack,” Iowa GSM; Robert Ward, OH, Nov. 30, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Johnson, One More Hill, 65 (“erupting volcano”); Bolstad, 138–40; C. Miller,Some Things You Never Forget, 123–24.
Ryder’s troubles: T. Allen, “A Factual Summary of the Combat Operations of the 1st Infantry Division,” 28 (“unshirted hell”); Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 98 (“Hill 606”); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” Allen papers, MHI; NWAf, 633, 636; Green and Gauthier, 129 (white phosphorus); letter, Allen to G. F. Howe, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; letter, G. A. Taylor to G. F. Howe, Nov. 22, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228 (considered the attack rash); letter, C. J. Denholm to G. F. Howe, Dec. 13, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228.
Impatience cost: Clay, 167–69 (mss); Robert E. Cullis, “We Learn in Combat,” Infantry Journal, June 1944, 31 (“more like a street fight”); AAR, Co H, 3rd Bn, 1st Armored Regt, Apr. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916; Robert V. Maraist and Peter C. Hains, “Conference on North African Operations,” transcript, June 16, 1943, Fort Knox, SM, MHI; log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” Apr. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5919 (“Heinies are all over”).
Hill 609 would change hands: Maraist and Hains, transcript, SM, MHI (“No one”); Ankrum, 274 (“God bless all of you”), 276 (“Tell my mother”); B. A. Dickson, OH, SM, MHI; Bradley, 87; AAR, “Operations of This Company While on Detached Service,” Co I, 1st AR, May 14, 1943, possession of Roger Cirillo; AAR, “Operations Following the Battle of Fondouk,” 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; Larson, ed., 84–86.
“Jerries approach”: log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” May 1, 1943 (“A panorama”); Robert R. Moore quoted in Villisca (Iowa) Review, n.d., Iowa GSM (killed by such treachery); Robert R. Moore, “Tunisian Stand,” ts, Oct. 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 103; “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; Brandt, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 135th Infantry at Hills 609 and 531” Ankrum, 282; Bradley, 94 (“few prisoners”); “Dennis Frederick Neal, Soldier,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 68 (“literally covered”); “German Tanks Trapped,” Times (London), May 5, 1943 (“thick as currants in cake”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 259 (“Those who went”).
Ryder put his losses: “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 96 (“shoes hanging”); log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” May, 1, 1943 (“no prisoners will be taken”); “German Tanks Trapped,”Times (London), May 5, 1943 (“At our feet”).
Outside Béja: CBH, May 1, 1943, MHI (“smoothing the sparse gray hair”).
Mateur fell on May 3: AAR, “Report of Operations, 23 Apr.–9 May,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Hoy, “The Last Days in Tunisia,” Cavalry Journal, Jan.–Feb. 1944, 8; NWAf, 645; To Bizerte with the II Corps, 36.
The land here: Austin, 138–39 (Bismarck); Fred H. Salter, Recon Scout, 76–85; Harmon, Combat Commander, 132 (“let the men live”); Middleton, 282 (“Tell the sons of bitches”).
Many thousands had retreated: Hannum, “The Thirty Years of Army Experience,” ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, 40; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 134; unsigned narrative of Mateur-Bizerte action, ts, n.d., PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“Arab shacks”); L. P. Robertson, ASEQ, 1st AR, MHI, 343 (“a tin goose”), 347 (“Some of the enemy”); msg, Eddy to 9th ID and Corps Franc d’Afrique, Apr. 29, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7334 (“Here is our chance”).
The 1st Armored Division: Howze, “Tank Action,” ts, 1943, Ward papers, MHI (“monkey’s paw”); Bradley, 92 (“Can you do it?”).
Yet Harmon nursed: letter, E. N. Harmon to G. F. Howe, Oct. 16, 1952, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“crybaby outfit”); Harmon memo, Apr. 14, 1943, in “History of the 91st Armored FA Battalion” (“lack of discipline”); Robinett, “Among the First,” PMR, GCM Lib, box 28, 474–75 (“damned all past performance”); Robert Simons, OH, July 1976, OW, MHI (the temerity to boo); S. J. Krekeler, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, 92.
Now they had reached: Robinett, Armor Command, 227 (“Will the damned”); Robinett memo to CCB, May 5, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“Towards the rear”).
After that unpromising prelude: letter, Harmon to WD G-1, May 23, 1943, Harmon papers, MHI; Harmon, OH, Sept. 16, 1952, SM, MHI (“Hell, that fellow”); Robinett, Armor Command, 228–29 (“looking hard”).
Tunisgrad
The most intense: Blaxland, 252; Middleton, 287; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Nicholson, Alex, 190 (“The muzzle flashes”).
Determined to bury: Tuker, 367–69 (“stunning weights”); Destruction, 450–51; Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 251–53; Marshall, Over to Tunis, 118 (“you could almost”); “Military Reports of the United Nations,” Sept. 15, 1943, Military Intelligence Division, WD, NARA RG 334, box 585; Messenger, 113–14 (“a roof of shells”).
Behind the guns: “Report on Participation of the Allied Air Force in the North Africa Campaign, Apr. 11–May 14, 1943,” n.d., NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 BA, box 103; NWAf, 649.
Well before dawn: Tuker, 367; Stevens, 249; Horrocks, 168 (“chalk from cheese”).
Four tank battalions: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” NWAf, 645–49; North, ed., 38–39 (“into the heart”).
“The whole valley”: MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 180; Blaxland, 252; Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 173; “Military Reports of the United Nations,” Sept. 15, 1943, Military Intelligence Division, WD, NARA RG 334, box 585 (“thick pall”); Nicholson, Alex, 191 (“baker’s boy”).
Allied eavesdroppers: Skillen, 333 (medics); Ernst Schnarrenberger, “Situation of the Fortification of Tunis,” March 1947, FMS, D-005; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 615; Kriegstagebuch V, Fifth Panzer Army, May 6, 1943, RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (“laid low”); Destruction, 450; Nicholson and Forbes, 334 (“Butter”), 335 (“I can see the lily-white walls”); Roskill, 441; Cunningham, 529 (“Sink, burn”).
The righteous wrath: letter, Charles J. Denholm to G. F. Howe, Feb. 20, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; R.W. Porter, Jr., “Report of Interrogation of Recaptured American Soldiers,” May 11, 1943, 1st ID, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3161; letter, Floyd F. Youngman to parents, June 4, 1943, in Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 291 (“like a forest”); AAFinWWII, 193; William Munday, “Prison Ship Escapes,” Tunis Telegraph, May 10, 1943, in Downing, At War with the British, photo; Hill, Desert Conquest,318; Edwin V. Westrate, Forward Observer, 167 (“hopping around”); Dawson, Tunisian Battle, 240–45; NWAf, 650; Craven and Cate, eds., 193 (more than one hundred).
Harmon’s 1st Armored: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 93; NWAf, 650, 653; Austin, 151 (“perambulators”); Phillips, Sedjenane, 136; Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 64; Crawford, 138; Berens, 69–70; Ohio Historical Society web site, www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/kilroy.
With the 9th Division: “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Allen, “A Factual Summary of the Combat Operations of the 1st ID,” TdA papers, MHI; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” MRC FDM.
the 18th Infantry surged: AAR, “Operations of 18th Inf in Mateur Sector,” n.d., includes 1st, 2nd, 3rd Bn reports, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5937; Vining, ed., 72–73 (“Bullets were singing”); Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of WWII,” MRC FDM; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Allen, “A Factual Summary of the Combat Operations of the 1st ID,” TdA papers, MHI; “G-3 Report, Tunis Operation,” 1st ID, May 5–6, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5759; Knickerbocker et al., 80; John T. Corley, OH, n.d., possession of Paul Gorman, 39–40 (“bloody foolish”).
Early on Friday afternoon: Three Years, 289 (“hen”); DDE to CCS et al., Chandler, 1100, 1108, 1113, 1118; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-349 (“good and drunk”).
he was sleeping badly: Three Years, 310; DDE to GCM et al., Chandler, 1104, 1114, 1115, 1148.
Now the fifty-five-year-old: Three Years, 298; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-365 (“How much better”).
Eisenhower shrugged off: DDE to GCM, May 6, 1943, Chandler, 1118; Hansen, 5/46 (“most difficult), 5/134 (“Holy First”); Middleton, “The Saga of a Tough Outfit,” New York Times Magazine, Apr. 8, 1945, 8 (“the finest division commander”); Bradley, 93–94; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 271 (“phony Abraham Lincoln”); Bradley and Blair, 158 (“marked man”).
As Eisenhower and Bradley: letter, C. P. Eastburn to OCMH, June 6, 1947, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 103.
a dead city: interrogation report, Anatole Cordonier, chief naval engineer, Bizerte, by 9th ID, May 7, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7334; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 281 (“Bizerte was”); letter, Donald Peel, May 16, 1943, ASEQ, 9th ID, MHI (“You walked through”); “Statement by BG Laurence S. Kuter,” Pentagon, May 22, 1943, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 BA, box 103; Clifford, 439; letter, Thomas Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR, LOC, box 4.
As Colonel Eastburn: letter, Eastburn to OCMH, June 6, 1947; Stannard, ed., 173; Curtiss, ed., 63; Austin, 152 (“Quite ridiculous”); Martin, 59 (“Everybody was standing”).
By dawn, the last Germans: Phillips, Sedjenane, 133; Abbott, 90; Berens, 70; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 247 (“hundreds of vehicles”); Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 150.
Tunis fell at 3:30 P.M.: Clarke, The Eleventh at War, 299–300; AAR, 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry, PRO, WO 175/293; Destruction, 452; J.R.T. Hopper, “Figures in a Fading Landscape,” ts, 1995, IWM, 97/3/1.
“The streets were full”: F. Stephens, “Collapse in Tunis,” Military Review, Apr. 1945, 69 (“Astonished Germans” and “complete with Buick”); Blaxland, 256; MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 185–86 (“Stop that shooting”); Jordan, 254 (“Get out your weapons”); Powell, In Barbary, 17; D’Arcy-Dawson, 235; Noel F. Busch, “The Fall of Tunis,” Life, May 1943, 35 (a windsock).
Into the city: Marshall, Over to Tunis, 149 (“Men were singing”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 317–18; Hastings, 232; Anderson to DDE, May 10, 1943, PP-pres, DDE Lib, box 5 (“pernicious rivalry”); Hughes diary, May 7, 1943, “Allied High Command,” MHI, micro, R-5 (“our egos”); “S Force Operation Instruction No. 1,” Apr. 1943, “Special Preparation Capture of Tunis 1943,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-81I; “Intelligence at HQ First Army, Nov. 1942–May 1943,” May 23, 1943, ts, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 01, Intelligence 10719.
For months, Eisenhower had worried: Harmon, Combat Command, 138; Parris and Russell, 346 (“we will kill”); Jensen, 73–74; Pyle, Here Is Your War, 277 (“Winning in battle”).
II Corps casualties: To Bizerte with the II Corps, 51–52; “Operation of II Corps, Northern Tunisia, 23 Apr.–9 May 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3113; Bradley and Blair, 159.
For the British: Richard Feige, “Relationship Between Operations and Supply in Africa,” 1947, FMS #D-125, MHI, 11; Webster Anderson, “Organization and Functioning of the Petroleum Section, AFHQ,” Aug. 10, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 162;Destruction, 423; Hunt, 181–82 (“We are waiting”); Kriegstagebuch V, Fifth Panzer Army, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; Nicholson and Forbes, 343 (wristwatches).
At Hammam Lif: Clifford, 443; Ellis, Welsh Guards at War, 123; Parris and Russell, 354 (“like a steamboat”); Howard and Sparrow, 142; Nicholson and Forbes, 339; Blaxland, 257; Quilter, ed., 54.
Like Terry Allen on the Tine: Messenger, 117–18; Blaxland, 259; ffrench Blake, 148; Lindsay, 91; P. Royle, ts, n.d., IWM, 66/305/1 (“Looking back”); Nicholson and Forbes, 343–44 (“dotted with points”); Horrocks, 172 (“I have waited”).
The prisoners came: John Mayo, OH, ASEQ, 1987, 1st AR, MHI; film, “At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army,” Dec. 1942, NARA RG 111, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, #1001; AAR, 16th/5th Lancers, May 12, 1943, PRO, WO 175/291; Martin, 59–60 (“going to a wedding”).
“Germans were everywhere”: Pyle, Here Is Your War, 273; Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, 1989, ts, 81st Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD; Nicholson and Forbes, 341 (“Champagne rather dry”), 285 (“British Tommy!”); Howard and Sparrow, 141 (dental instruments); Jensen, 75; Linderman, 331.
A few escaped: Luck, Panzer Commander, 122; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged edition, 292; “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch,” 48; Nicholson and Forbes, 342 (“they sat astride”); Clarke, The Eleventh at War, 303; Rame, 291–94; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” May 12, 1943, LHC (“The anguished of yesterday”); McCorquodale et al., 235; Austin, 153; letter, Raymond Dreyer, Fenton (Iowa) Reporter, Nov. 4, 1943, MCC, YU.
As recently as May 5: DDE to GCM, May 5, 1943, Chandler, 1114 (“the Axis cannot”), 1146n; memos, MTOUSA, May 1943, NARA RG 492, Records of the Office of the Commanding General, box 56.
Carefully calibrated: memo, B. M. Sawbridge to W. B. Smith, July 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, Office of the Commanding General, box 332; Schrijvers, 51 (“like sardines”); Kurowski, 121.
For some: “Records Relating to Prisoners,” MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, Provost Marshal General, box 2245; “Observation of Provost Marshal Activities in Oran Area,” “memo for Gen. Dillon,” Nov. 25, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, box 2209; Penney, ts, LHC (“using their prisoners”).
Neither starvation: Destruction, 445–46; NWAf, 662; Hansen, 5/104; Parris and Russell, 348 (“fought like sportsmen”).
The biggest fish: Destruction, 458–59; Hunt, 181; Parris and Russell, 357 (“He had tried”).
With fuel scavanged: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 113–15; Carell, 353; Destruction, 457–58.
He soon returned: Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 255; Tuker, 374–78; D’Arcy-Dawson, 245–46 (“a Potsdam parade”); Allfrey diary, May 12, 1943, LHC (“He took this badly”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 157 (snubbed Arnim); J.B.A. Glennie, ts, 1988, in papers of R. de L. King, IWM, 96/29/1 (a Steyer Daimler); Martin, 51 (“an iron-plated monocle”); Destruction, 459.
EPILOGUE
Roses perfumed: Signal Corps footage, NARA film, ADC-1113 and ADC-2407; Bailey, 119; letter, Joe Farley, n.d., MCC, YU (“too damn hot”); Macmillan, War Diaries, 88–91 (“football crowd”).
Shortly before noon: Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 151–52 (“same precision”); Nicholson and Forbes, 349; diary, May 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 (“French ecclesiastic”).
At noon, the crowd’s mood: Three Years, 312; Moorehead, 65; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 119.
After the French: Bailey, 119 (“Arkansas backwoods men”); diary, May 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 (“lack pride”); Harmon, Combat Commander, 141; Davies, 110–11.
Then pipers: memo, 24th Guards to 1st Irish Guards, May 17, 1943, PRO, WO 175/488 (“Brasses will”); Macmillan, War Diaries, 90–91; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 151–52 (“much the better show”).
The parade straggled: Nicholson, Alex, 193 (“Hundreds of Italians”); Nicholson and Forbes, 349; Macmillan, War Diaries, 91–92; Three Years, 313; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 109 (“waste of time”).
Even after two and a half: McMillan, Mediterranean Assignment, 319 (“lean, bronzed”); Three Years, 310, 312; DDE to GCM, May 13, 1943, Chandler, 1129; DDE to Fox Conner, Aug. 21, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 485 (“too simple-minded); D.K.R. Crosswell,The Chief of Staff: The Military Career of General Walter Bedell Smith, 151; F. E. Morgan, OH, FCP, MHI (“One of the fascinations” and “a well-trained”); Larrabee, 427 (“Before he left”).
The tiny Mediterranean island: Roskill, 444 (“salvage firstly”); memo, B. M. Archibald, AFHQ G-3, to G-4, July 15, 1943, NARA RG 331, micro, R-141-C (“not a great deal”); Register of Graduates and Former Cadets, USMA, 1998 (Arnold); lecture, Col. Mohamed Ali El Bekri, May 14, 2001, Army-Navy Club, Washington, D.C. (Sixty years later).
The French high command: “French Policy Toward Arabs, Jews, and Italians in Tunisia,” Dec. 1943, OSS, Research and Analysis Branch, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, box 895.
Preoccupied with the imminent invasion: Miller, Some Things You Never Forget, 126; “History of the 168th Infantry,” Iowa GSM; Davies, 111; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 572; Fussell, Wartime, 264 (“I am Jesus’ little lamb”), 139 (“When you figure how many”); letter, Joe Spring, PM, n.d., in MCC, YU (“Dame Rumor”); Harold B. Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 18, 47, 66–67; Kennett, 136–37; “Dennis Frederick Neal, Soldier,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 72–73 (“There are many rumors” and “Ol’ General Ryder’s”).
Most of their leaders: Anderson to DDE, May 12, 1943, Anderson file, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5; Boatner, 9; “World War II War Hero Fights Final Battle,” Apr. 1991 newspaper clipping, no citation, Iowa GSM; “An American Story: The Life and Times of a Midlands Family,” Nov. 9, 1997, Omaha World-Herald, 1; letter, Robert R. Moore to family, May 12, 1943; author interview, Robert R. Moore, Jr., June 2000.
Young ones do: Destruction, 460; NWAf, 675; D’Arcy-Dawson, 24 (“Mort!”); letter, Joseph T. Dawson to family, June 1, 1943, J. T. Dawson Collection, MRC FDM; Doubler, 240; Blaxland, 253 (six battalion commanders), 265.
Axis casualties: Blaxland, 265; Messenger, 120; Destruction, 460; Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” MHI, 115; Westphal, 124; Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 179; Parkinson, 104.
“one continent”: Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 780; Doubler, 13; Gelb, 320; “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” vol. 4, March 1946, CMH, 124 (“high-grade stock”).
Truscott worried: Truscott, Command Missions, 192; Larrabee, 436 (“a place to be lousy”).
It was the discovery: Richard Wilson, “The Gallant Fight of the 34th Division in the North African Campaign,” 1943, Des Moines Register and Tribune, Iowa GSM (“three things”); Middleton, “We’ll Take ’Em Apart and Then Get Home,” New York Times Magazine, July 18, 1943, 8 (“grudge fight”); letter, Stephen Dinning, Des Moines Register and Tribune, March 21, 1943, MCC, YU (“There’s nothing over here”); letter, Bernard Kessel, n.d., MCC, YU (“In years to come”); letter, n.d., submitted by James D. Buckley, MCC, YU (“We didn’t know”); Essame, 55 (“unlike anyone else”).
“I am not willing”: letter, Ray Salibury to sister, July 6, 1943, in Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle; letter, anonymous, Apr. 1943, Minneapolis Tribune, MCC, YU (“We all feel”).
Africa was the first step: Gelb, 319; Bryant, 419; Warlimont, 277–78; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 779.
Hitler had lost: “An Interview with General Field Marshal Albert Kesselring,” May 1946, World War II German Military Studies, vol. 3, ETHIN 72, MHI (“It was in Tunisia”); Kesselring, Memoirs, 157; Gelb, 320 (“walking around”); “Estimate of the Present Combat Value of the Italian Armed Forces,” May 6, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (“only one Italian”); Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. 4, 338 (milk and rice).
Yet Tunis—like Stalingrad: Goodwin, 437; Warlimont, 314 (“postponing the invasion”); Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. 4, 337, 355.
The protracted campaign: Fraser, Alanbrooke, 336; Roger Barry Fosdick, “A Call to Arms: The American Enlisted Soldier in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 1985, Claremont Graduate School, 22 (“War is a burden”); Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy,371; Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 85; AAFinWWII, 50 (“the purest gamble”); Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 778.
“Together we had all faced death”: P. Royle, ts, IWM, 66/305/1, 77; Caleb Milne, n.d., in Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle (“a vivid, wonderful world”).