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, Mediterr
anean 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”).
SOURCES
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