An Army at Dawn

by Rick Atkinson

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”); Don
ald 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”).

  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”).

  “They Shot the Little Son of a Bitch”

  Algiers on Christmas Eve: Renée Gosset, Conspiracy in Algiers, 130; Mario Faivre, We Killed Darlan, 122; Tompkins, 185 (Mousse d’Islam); Parris and Russell, 193; Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, 81st Reconn., 1st AD, 1989, MHI; A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Overseas Service,” 1981, IWM, 81/33/1; R. Priestly, 2nd Bn, Para Regt, ts, IWM, 83/24/1; Paul K. Skogsberg, “The North African Campaigns,” ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st Reconn. Troop, 1st ID, 25; Fussell, Wartime, 186 (“White Mistress”).

  Morale officers: “History of Special Service Section,” II Corps, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3236 (“extremely bad discipline” and “at high tension”); Gale A. Mathers, “The Special Service Office in the European Theater,” Aug. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3236 (“I have seen cases”); Crawford, 172.

  The Little Fellow: Howard and Sparrow, 109; MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 143 (“His small blue eyes”); Clark, Calculated Risk, 128; MWC, SOOHP, Forest S. Rittgers, Jr., 1972–73, MHI (“You know, the Little Fellow”); Murphy, 143 (“There are four plots”).

  One would suffice: Tompkins, 185–87; Gosset, 130; Faivre, 125–26; Murphy msg to State Dept., Dec. 24, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-226-B; Ambrose, Ike’s Spies, 49–50; Anthony Verrier, Assassination in Algiers, 226.

  Half a mile away: MWC, SOOHP, MHI (“They shot”).

  A voluble mob: Murphy, 143; Clark, Calculated Risk, 128–30 (“a troublesome boil”); Boatner, 119; William H. Lee, memo, AFHQ, Dec. 24, 1942, OW, MHI; Marsh, ASEQ; MacVane, Journey into War, 134; MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 157 (“never seen happier faces”).

  Eisenhower had insisted: “Tactical Communications in World War II,” part 1, Signal Communication in the North African Campaign, 1945, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 92 (he remained beyond reach); First Army log, Dec. 24, 1942, PRO, WO 175/50 (“most serious thing”); Juin, OH, Dec. 5, 1948, SM, MHI; Anderson to Brooke, Dec. 25, 1942, PRO, WO 175/56; “Record of Events and Documents from the Date That Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark Entered into Negotiations with Admiral Jean Francois Darlan Until Darlan Was Assassinated,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1 (“Have just returned”); Davis, Dwi
ght D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy, 401; Three Years, 229 (ended one problem).

  Badly reduced: Rudolf Lang, “Battles of Kampfgruppe Lang in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, #D-173, MHI.

  More than a hundred: 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; Howard and Sparrow, 116; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” MRC FDM, 24; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 55 (“We will fight to the last”).

  The right flank: Linderman, 284 (“sick kittens”); Nicholson and Forbes, 269 (“a few scraggy chickens”).

  Word soon circulated: NWAf, 343; Hill, “The Coldstream at Longstop Hill,” 175; Downing, 145.

  Longstop belonged to the Germans: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS #C-098, MHI; Operations Bulletin No. 2, May 31, 1943, HQ, NW African Air Forces, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 132 (4,000-pound bomb).

  Of the Tommies and Yanks: Intel. Summary No. 89, 1st Guards Bde, May 15, 1943, PRO, WO 175/186 (oddly unmolested); Nicholson and Forbes, 271 (“a cheese-grater”); William G. Chamberlin, ASEQ, 32nd FA Bn, 1st ID, n.d.; Johnson, One More Hill, 27–28 (“Objective lost”).

  “This Is the Hand of God”

  For a man: McKeough and Lockridge, 63; DDE to Berthe Darlan, Dec. 25, 1942, Chandler, 861 (“You have”); Morgan, 98, 101 (“God rest ye merry”).

  The investigation: MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 158; Moorehead, The End in Africa, 58; Faivre, 131 (“I have brought to justice”); Tompkins, 195–97 (coffin); Verrier, 249 (“surprised to be shot”).

  As his assassin: “Darlan funeral,” Signal Corps, 35mm, B&W, NARA, ADC 1002; Curt Riess, ed., They Were There, 530 (“Not a tear”); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-121; Tompkins, 191 (bared halberds).

  As the funeral: United Press account, New York Times, Dec. 27, 1942; New York Times, Dec. 28, 1942; “Funeral for Admiral Darlan—Record of Events,” Dec. 26, 1942, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-204-F (“all sidearms”).

  The requiem mass: Cunningham, OH, Feb. 12, 1947, Forrest C. Pogue, MHI (“Go ahead”).