The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

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” and stuffed 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”).

&
nbsp; 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 not discuss”).

  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”).