by Harry Yeide
4. Gerald Astor, The Greatest War: From Pearl Harbor to the Kasserine Pass (New York, NY: Warner Books, Inc., 1999), 400-401. (Hereinafter Astor.)
5. Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels, The 2d Armored Division (Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1977), 101. (Hereinafter Houston.)
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1948), 81-83. (Hereinafter Eisenhower.)
7. George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West: United States Army in World War II, The Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1957, 21. (Hereinafter Howe.)
8. Eisenhower, 86-93.
9. B. H. Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War (New York, NY: G. Putnam’s Sons, 1970), 311-313. (Hereinafter Liddell Hart.)
10. Eisenhower, 85.
11. Howe, 47-48.
12. Ibid., 48, 192.
13. Liddell Hart, 324.
14. AAR, 1st Infantry Division. “Summary of Lessons Derived from Amphibious Operations, November 8-11 1942, at Casablanca and Oran,” 25 February 1943.
15. “Observer Report,” 5 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
16. Josowitz, 7.
17. Gill, 20.
18. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
19. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Astor, 406-407.
20. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. “History of the 1st Armored Regiment,” http://macspics.homestead.com/history.html. (Hereinafter “History of the 1st Armored Regiment”.) “Interview with LtCol John K. Waters, Commander of 1st Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment (Light Tanks), 1st Armored Division, CP, 24 Miles SE of Oran, December 29, 1942.” Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943. Gill, 20.
21. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tan22. k Destroyer Battalion.
22. Gabel, 20.
23. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Telephone interview with Arthur Edson, April 2002. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
24. Gill, 21.
25. Telephone interview with Rudolph Mojsl, April 2002.
26. Josowitz, 7.
27. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
28. H. R. Knickerbocker, et al, Danger Forward (Atlanta, Georgia: Albert Love Enterprises, 1947), 5. (Hereinafter Knickerbocker.)
29. “Remarks of Special Service Officer, Central Task Force, Oran, Algeria, December 29, 1942.” Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
30. Josowitz, 7.
31. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Astor, 451.
32. “Narrative of Observer’s Tour with W. T. F., French Morocco,” not dated.
33. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
34. Josowitz, 3. Telephone interview with Bill Harper, April 2002.
35. Josowitz, 7.
36. Letter from Major General Orlando Ward to Lieutenant General Jacob Devers, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
37. Liddell Hart, 329, 335.
38. Thomas E. Griess, ed., The West Point Military History Series, The Second World War, Europe and the Mediterranean (Wayne, NJ: Avery Publishing Group Inc., 1984), p.173. (Hereinafter Griess.)
39. LtCol F. J. Redding, “The Operations of ‘C’ Company, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion (with the British First Army), Vicinity of Medjez-El-Bab – Beja, Tunisia, 24 November-11 December 1942, Tunisian Campaign (Personal Experience of a Company Commander),” unpublished manuscript prepared for the Advanced Infantry Officers Course, 1948-1949. (Hereinafter Redding.)
40. Ibid. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
41. “Narrative Report of Antiaircraft Observer in North African Theatre, LtCol Arthur L. Fuller, 27 December 1942 to 13 January 1943.”
42. Memo recording the observations of Lt Col W. H. Schaefer and Major Franklin T. Gardner in Algeria and Tunisia, 26 December 1942-20 January 1943, dated 10 February 1943.
43. Tunisia, CMH Pub 72-12 (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, not dated), 7-8. (Hereinafter Tunisia.) Redding.
44. Redding.
45. Tunisia, 11.
46. Redding.
47. Tunisia, 8. Liddell Hart, 338. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Redding.
48. “Observer Report,” 5 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
49. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Redding.
50. Redding.
51. History, 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
52. Redding.
53. Ibid. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
54. Liddell Hart, 340. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
55. Dr. F. M. Von Senger und Etterlin, German Tanks of World War II (New York, NY: Galahad Books, 1969), 46-47, 196-199. (Hereinafter Von Senger und Etterlin.)
56. Ibid., 200-201.
57. Peter Chamberlain, Pictorial History of Tanks of the World, 1915-1945 (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1972), 129. (Hereinafter Chamberlain.)
58. The American Arsenal, 44, 51, 137.
59. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Redding. General Order Number 1, Headquarters Combat Command B, 3 January 1943.
60. Liddell Hart, 340. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Redding.
61. “Observer Report,” 5 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
62. Martin Blumenson, Kasserine Pass (New York, NY: Jove Books, 1983), 74-75. (Hereinafter Blumenson, Kasserine Pass.)
63. Linwood W. Billings, The Tunisian Taskforce, http://historicaltextarchive.com/ww2/tunisian.html.(Hereinafter Billings.)
64. Billings. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 75.
65. Billings. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
66. Billings. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
67. Billings.
68. Telephone interview with Randolph Mojsl, April 2002.
69. Gill, 23.
70. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Telephone interview with Arthur Edson, April 2002.
71. Maj Gilbert A. Ellmann, “Gafsa and Sbeitla,” TD Combat in Tunisia (Tank Destroyer School, 1944), 13. (Hereinafter Ellmann.) Telephone interview with Arthur Edson, April 2002.
72. Billings. Operations report, Company B. 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Ellmann, 14. Telephone interview with Arthur Edson, April 2002.
73. Tunisia, 11.
74. Eisenhower, 124-124.
75. Tunisia, 14.
76. Josowitz, 8.
77. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 93-94.
78. Gill, 25. S-3 Journal, 13th Armored Regiment.
79. Josowitz, 10.
80. Operations reports, 1st Armored Division, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
81. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
82. Ibid.
83. “Observer Report,” 5 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
84. Unit history, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 January-31 December 1943.
85. Untitled document fragment included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
86. “Observer Report,” 5 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
87. “Comments of Executive Officer, CCB, 1st Armored Division, Teboursouk, January, 1943.” In
cluded in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
Chapter 3: From Gloom to Glory
1. Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair, A General’s Life (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 128. (Hereinafter Bradley and Blair.)
2. Eisenhower, 141.
3. Bradley and Blair, 128.
4. Eisenhower, 125-127. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 115.
5. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 97-99, 130-132.
6. Bradley and Blair, 127.
7. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 120-121.
8. Eisenhower, 141-142.
9. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 121-123, 137. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
10. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 138. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
11. Charles Whiting, First Blood: The Battle of Kasserine Pass 1943 (London: Grafton Books, 1984), 138. (Hereinafter Whiting, First Blood: The Battle of Kasserine Pass 1943.)
12. Whiting, First Blood, 177. Operations report, 701st Destroyer Battalion. History of the 168th Infantry for Period November 12, 1942 to May 15, 1943.
13. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 141-143.
14. Operations reports, 701st Destroyer Battalion and 1st Armored Division.
15. History of the 168th Infantry for Period November 12, 1942 to May 15, 1943.
16. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
17. Gill, 26.
18. Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 151. Whiting, First Blood, The Battle of Kasserine Pass 1943, 181. Operations report, 701st Destroyer Battalion.
19. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
20. Operations report, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Howe, 413.
21. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
22. Operations report, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Howe, 414, 417.
23. The account of CCC’s attack is based on Howe, 418 ff; the operations report of the 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion; an undated memo describing the 701st’s operations at Sidi bou Zid; and a telephone interview with Arthur Edson, April 2002.
24. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
25. Howe, 423.
26. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
27. Howe, 430-431. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
28. Undated memo describing the 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion’s operations at Sidi bou Zid.
29. S-3 Journal, 13th Armored Regiment.
30. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Howe, 428.
31. Howe, 433.
32. Gill, 27.
33. Operations report, Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division.
34. Howe, 434.
35. Josowitz, 10.
36. Operations report, Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division.
37. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Operations report, Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division. Josowitz, 10.
38. Unless otherwise noted, the following account is derived from the operations report, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
39. Telephone interview with William Zierdt, April 2002.
40. Telephone interview with John Spence, April 2002.
41. Howe, 433.
42. Telephone interview with John Spence, April 2002.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Howe, 438-441.
46. Regimental history, 26th Infantry Regiment.
47. Unit journal, 26th Infantry Regiment. Operations report, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 29.
48. Regimental history, 26th Infantry Regiment.
49. Howe, 455.
50. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
51. Unit journal, 26th Infantry Regiment.
52. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Howe, 462.
53. Tunisia, 17.
54. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
55. “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign, 1942-43.”
56. A Brief History of the U.S. Army in World War II (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1992). (Hereinafter A Brief History of the U.S. Army in World War II.)
57. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
58. Letter from Major General Orlando Ward to Lieutenant General Jacob Devers, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
59. Josowitz, 11.
60. Telephone interview with John Spence, April 2002.
61. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
62. Unit history, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 January-31 December 1943.
63. Untitled document fragment included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
64. Gill, 29.
65. Tunisia, 17-18.
66. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.
67. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
68. This description is based on several accounts: LtCol Herschel D. Baker, “El Guettar,” TD Combat in Tunisia (Tank Destroyer School, 1944), 17 ff (Hereinafter Baker); Howe, 560-562; Presidential unit citation, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, quoted in Josowitz, 12-14; telephone interview with Bill Harper, April 2002; operations report and medal citations, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion; Gill, 31-33; and Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2002), 439-441 (Hereinafter Atkinson).
69. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Gabel, 37-38.
70. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
71. Unit history, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
72. Gill, 34.
73. Greenfield, et al, 425.
74. “Report on OPERATION AVALANCHE,” 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 25 September 1943.
75. Greenfield, et al, 426.
76. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
77. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
78. Greenfield, et al, 427.
79. Lessons learned, 1st Armored Division. The document is undated.
80. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.
81. “Observer Report,” 13 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.
82. Bradley and Blair, 159.
83. Greenfield, et al, 428.
84. Rich Anderson, “The United States Army in World War II.” Military History Online. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/usarmy, 2000. (Hereinafter Rich Anderson.)
85. Tunisia, 29.
86. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 23.
87. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 31.
88. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, May 1944.
89. Greenfield, et al, 430-431. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 23.
90. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 31.
91. AAR, 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
92. Gill, 44.
93. Unit history, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
94. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
Chapter 4: The Tough Underbelly
1. Martin Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1969), 73-77. (Hereinafter Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino.)
2. Ibid., 80-82.
3. Ibid., 86.
4. Opera
tions report, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
5. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 89 ff.
6. Griess, 234. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 97.
7. Operations report, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 100.
8. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 104ff.
9. S-1 logs, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
10. Griess, 234.
11. S-1 logs, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
12. Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the 45th Infantry Division (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998), 87-88. (Hereinafter Whitlock.)
13. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 108.
14. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
15. Sherman, 16.
16. Gill, 45.
17. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 114-115.
18. Gill, 45.
19. Liddell Hart, 463.
20. Combat Lessons Learned Number 2. (U.S. War Department, 1944), 22.
21. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 115.
22. Ibid., 118.
23. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
24. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
25. Recommendation for Silver Star, 24 September 1943, records of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 45.
26. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
27. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 129.
28. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
29. Liddell Hart, 464.
30. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
31. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
32. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 34-35.
33. Account of Col J.Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
34. Liddell Hart, 465.
35. Griess, 234-235. Whitlock, 99-100. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 183.
36. Quoted in Whitlock, 98.
37. Liddell Hart, 469.
38. Combat Lessons Learned Number 2, 53.
39. Military Attache Report 284, “Tank Destroyer Operations,” 13 October 1944, 1-4.284/44 (7316 1/2), records of the Adjutant General’s Office, National Archives.
40. Generalmajor Martin Schmidt, “Panzer Units, Employment in Central Italy, 1944.” MS # D-204. Historical Division, Headquarters United States Army, Europe, 1947. National Archives. (Hereinafter Schmidt.)