The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  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 on Kasserine 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 Year
s, 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.