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 Smi
th, 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; Ambros
e, 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.
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