An Army at Dawn

by Rick Atkinson

  But here they were: Signal Corps film, ADC-979 and ADC-465, NARA; Price, 190; MacVane, Journey into War, 180–83; Davis, Experience of War, 379; Sherwood, 688 (“a very warlike look”); Jordan, Jordan’s Tunis Diary, 153 (“Peter Pan”); Parris and Russell, 277 (“I was born”).

  As the generals: FRUS, 726 (“unprecedented in history”), 822; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 203; Price, 191; Middleton, 254; Harriman and Abel, 186 (“the privilege”); Moorehead, 119 (“It was all rather embarrassing”).

  “I think we have all”: FRUS, 727; Copson, “Summit at Casablanca” (“storm and ruin”).

  No one scrutinizing: Sherwood, 687, 696 (“popped into my mind”); FRUS, 635 (“the united nations”); “Minutes of a meeting at the White House on Thursday, Jan. 7, 1943, at 1500,” NARA RG 165, E 422, box 54; Wedemeyer, 187 (“compel the Germans”).

  What was done was done: Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 373; Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. IV, 282–85; Anne Armstrong, Unconditional Surrender, 13–14 (Third Punic War and none of the fifteen).

  The reporters had their story: MacVane, Journey into War, 180–83; Austin, 73 (“What’s your paper, eh?”); Middleton, 254 (“the touch of the world”).

  The Sinners’ Concourse

  while the hacks: Harriman and Abel, 191 (For four hours); Moran, 89; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 694 (“most elaborately organized brothels”); “Minutes of Meeting,” Jan. 15, 1943, 1000 hrs., NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 169 (“refuse any invitation”); Sherwood, 694; Pendar, 135.

  Their refuge: “Moses Taylor Villa,” NARA RG 338, Fifth Army files, box 262; Durno, 26; Bryant, 563; Pendar, 136, 140, 145 (nervous breakdown).

  Looming above La Saadia: Moran, 90 (“paralyzed legs dangling”); Churchill, Hinge of Fate, 695; Pendar, 148–49.

  They sat in reverent silence: FRUS, 535; Powell, In Barbary, 428, 436 (Sinners’ Concourse); Pendar, 148–49 (“ain’t no war”); Marvine Howe, “In Marrakesh,” New York Times, March 3, 2002; Larrabee, 39.

  But what should happen: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, 7 (“Where do we go”); GCM, OH, Oct. 29, 1956, FCP, GCM Lib (“chrome steel baseboards”); “Minutes of Meeting,” JCS, Jan. 20, 1943, 0900 hrs., NARA RG 218, box 169; Lamb, 222 (“Nothing in the world”).

  The compromises at Anfa: Behrens, 331; Greenfield, American Strategy, 92 (“I note that the Americans”); Morton Yarmon, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” part IV, “TORCH and the European Theater of Operations,” 1946, CMH, 8.31 AA, 117; Vigneras, 31, 38; Abraham Friedman, “Operation TORCH: The Dispatch of Aircraft from the United Kingdom by Eighth Air Force,” Sept. 14, 1944, Historical Section, U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24351, 15–16; Slessor, 448.

  Many months would also pass: Armstrong, 154 (“putrefying albatross”); Parkinson, 70; Greenfield, American Strategy, 9; Thomas Fleming, The New Dealers’ War: F.D.R. and the War Within World War II, 184–85; Warlimont, 316; Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. IV, 284 (“a word of encouragement”).

  A sense of companionship: Murphy, 168 (“a reluctant tail”); Christopher Hitchens, “The Medals of His Defeat,” Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 2002, 118 (wariness); Danchev and Todman, eds., 364 (“charming people”); “Minutes of Meeting,” copy #61, CCS, NARA RG 218, JCS records, box 195 (some pencil turned); George Q. Flynn, The Mess in Washington: Manpower Mobilization in World War II, 207 (a great waterman); Harriman and Abel, 191 (“the old order could not last”).

  Dinner at La Saadia: Pendar, 149–58 (“I am the pasha” and “Don’t tell me”); Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 119; Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 695; Moran, 90 (“I love these Americans”); Harriman and Abel, 191–92; Larrabee, 39.

  CHAPTER 8: A BITS AND PIECES WAR

  “Goats Set Out to Lure a Tiger”

  The almond trees: Robinett, Armor Command, 152–55 (panniers heaped and grave markers); Moorehead, 109 (veiled women peered); Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 120 (its brakes stuck).

  As a first line of defense: Anthony Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 74 (“British senior officers”); Adrian Clements Gore, “This Was the Way It Was,” ts, 1987, IWM, 90/29/1 (“a comic-opera soldier”).

  The French possessed almost no: Truscott, Command Missions, 135; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa,” June 7, 1943, London Gazette; Ankrum, 207, 225; Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 92 (“goats set out”); msg, Advance AFHQ to AFHQ, Feb. 3 and 4, 1943, NARA, AFHQ micro, R-100-D, 319.1 (“somewhat discouraged”).

  “This past week”: “Memo for diary,” Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 909; Three Years, 242–43 (“one of the world’s greatest”), 244, 245 (“Mud is a silly alibi”), 250; DDE to J. T. McNarney, Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 914 (“There is no use”).

  The abrupt scuttling: DDE to GCM, Jan. 30, 1943, Chandler, 932 (“We must keep”); DDE to CCS, Feb. 3, 1943, Chandler, 934 (“offensively defensive”); Butcher diary, Jan. 18, 1943, DDE Lib, A-161 (“I don’t want anything”).

  In this the Germans: NWAf, 377; memo, DDE to W. B. Smith, Jan. 11, 1943, and memo, L. W. Rooks to W. B. Smith, Feb. 11, 1943, NARA AFHQ micro, R-71 Special (“no action can be taken”); Rame, 221 (“retiring from crest to crest”); Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” (“not hopeful”).

  General Anderson ordered: NWAf, 378, 382; “Report of Ousseltia Valley Campaign, 19–29 January 1943,” CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 12, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCB-0.3 (“An excellent example”); Rame, 218–19 (“a lake of morning mist”); “The French Army of North Africa in the Tunisian Campaign,” lecture, 1943, Fort Hood, William S. Biddle Papers, MHI; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 111–13; Truscott, Command Missions, 138 (400 Germans).

  French casualties: NWAf, 382, 386n, 387; “Report of Liaison Officer on French Troops,” Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (“French can no longer”); memo, DDE, Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 909; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” Jan. 13, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” G-1 report, HQ II Corps, Feb. 14, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 263; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 489; DDE to Anderson, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 922.

  He had no sooner: Three Years, 244–45, 255; DDE to W. B. Smith, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 923 (“barracks used by our soldiers”); DDE to T. Handy, Jan. 28, 1943, Chandler, 927 (“As much as we preach”).

  Orlando Ward, who ostensibly commanded: Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, X-62; diary, Jan. 23, 28, 1943, OW, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 142; NWAf, 387–88; Fredendall to LKT Jr, phone transcript, Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (“Remember that force”); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, Russell Gugeler, OW, MHI; “Report of Operation, 27 January–3 February 1943,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Knickerbocker et al., 59, 82 (“bits and pieces”).

  General von Arnim duly noted: author visit, April 2000; Carell, 333 (“my nightmare”); Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa” James B. Carvey, “Faïd Pass,” Infantry Journal, Sept. 1944, 8.

  That was about to change: Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” lecture, n.d., Cavalry School, MHI (“Do not fire”); Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 150; Hansen, 2/80 (“the most important point”); Blumenson, “Kasserine Pass, 30 January–22 February 1943,” in Heller and Stofft, eds., 245.

  Prompt, decisive action: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 108.

  McQuillin’s nickname: R. E. McQuillin, Army biographical files, MHI; Robert Simons, OH, July 1976, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“As a man he was”); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, OW, MHI.

  Having granted the enemy: A. N. Stark, Jr., Army biographical files, MHI; author interviews, George Juskalian, Feb. 25, 2000 (“It was nerve-racking”), and Paul F. Gorman, Feb. 7, 2000; Akers, OH, Ju
ly 27, 1949, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 148; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 109; Raphael L. Uffner, “Recollections of World War II with the First Infantry Division,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 245–50 (“strongly rejected”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 7/1–2; Robinett, Armor Command, 143.

  Truscott and Ward drove: author visit, Apr. 2000; Jordan, Jordan’s Tunis Diary, 175 (“that half-world”); Truscott, Command Missions, 148–49.

  The American force: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/1–2; Laurence P. Robertson, ts, 1988, ASEQ, 1st AR, 1st AD, MHI (also, earlier draft in Laurence Robertson papers, USMA Arch); “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; G. C. Kelleher, Army biographical files, MHI; Uffner, 250 (French toast).

  For Company H: Robertson, ts, MHI, 184 (“The velocity” and heavy black bread); Truscott, Command Missions, 149; Uffner, 248; “Catalogue of Standard Ordnance Items, Volume I,” in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. II, part 3, CMH.

  The failed counterattack: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; OW to McQuillin, Jan. 31, 1943, 2115 hrs., NARA RG 407, E 427 (“I am counting on you”); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/2–3 (“held their fire”); NWAf, 393–94;E. C. Smith, Feb. 14, 1943, MCC, YU (“shook us”); AAR, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, and S-2 report, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767.

  Faïd Pass was gone: NWAf, 392 (scathing message), 394n (more than 900); Heller and Stofft, eds., 246 (McQuillin bitterly); Hansen, 2/80 (“To retake it”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 135; Rudolf Lang, “Battles of Kampfgruppe Lang in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, D-173; Carell, 331 (“It will soon be over”).

  “This Can’t Happen to Us”

  Fredendall’s attention: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 76 (“draw the pucker string”); NWAf, 392–96.

  Infantrymen from the 1st Battalion: Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH, 102–107 (“Sunday School picnic”); author interview, Aurelio Barron, Oct. 19, 1999 (“All down the road”); “History of the 168th Infantry,” Jan. 31, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, boxes 9575–77; Rame, 229; Rolf, 79 (“It was the most terrible thing”); AAFinWWII, 142; Lauren E. McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station,” Infantry Journal, Apr. 1945, 30 (“Maimed and twisted”).

  Three different colonels: Stewart, “The ‘Red Bull’ Division: The Training and Initial Engagements of the 34th Infantry Division, 1941–43,” 1; Dennis B. Dray, “Regimental Commander of the 168th Infantry, Colonel Thomas Davidson Drake: Battle of Sened and Sidi bou Zid, Tunisia,” ts, Nov. 1977, Iowa Military Academy, Iowa GSM; memo, Jan. 12, 1943, in William F. Beekman, “A Diary of World War II as Observed Through the Eyes, Ears, and Mind of Bill Beekman,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM (“Neither will good table manners”); Green and Gauthier, eds., 76 (Quack-Quack).

  As his 1st Battalion huddled: Thomas D. Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry,” Apr. 1945, Charles W. Ryder Collection, DDE Lib, container 4; Ankrum, 174; Curtiss, ed., 276.

  But first, Sened Station: Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427, Moynihan, ed., 57.

  a cakewalk: author interview, Aurelio Barron (“Go on up there!”); Ankrum, 174 (“all those bees”); Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station” (“I saw his canteen”); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” (“Men were dying everywhere”).

  At midafternoon: Berens, 5, 47 (“Kill them all!”); “168th African History,” in “168th Infantry Publications,” Iowa GSM; Rame, 235.

  Fredendall was considerably less charmed: NWAf, 397 (contradictory orders); “Historical Record, HQ,” March 1, 1943, CCD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCD 0.3 (“Too much time”); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV-13 (“There has been a breakthrough!”); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” Camp, ed., 55 (“A sort of hysteria”); Powell, OH, CEOH, 110 (“hightailing it”); letter, James McGuinness to parents, May 23, 1943, Co. F, 168th Inf, World War II Letters, 1940–1946, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri–Columbia, Missouri (“Some of the fellows”).

  The American attack was spent: “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427 (“Your outfit”); AAR, 1st AD, Jan. 27–Feb. 3, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part I, CMH (“no decisive objective”); Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 129; NWAf, 398; Ankrum, 174.

  “One of the things that gives me”: DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 4, 1943, Chandler, 939; Truscott, Command Missions, 150 (Fredendall was too rash); Three Years, 254 (“futile rushing around”); diary, Feb. 8, 10, 1943, OW, MHI (“spherical SOB”).

  As recently as February 1: “Meeting, 1000 hours, 1 Feb. 1943,” NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D; NWAf, 399.

  “We could not help wondering”: “701st Tank Destroyer Battalion: North African Campaign Diary, B Company,” 1943, MHI.

  “The Mortal Dangers That Beset Us”

  At eight A.M. on February 12: David Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 267.

  The trailer door: Fritz Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” n.d., FMS, D-046, MHI, 9 (“My dear young friend”); Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (“The very last armored”); Forty, The Armies of Rommel, 176; B. H. Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 394 (“It’s two years”).

  “Rommel, Rommel, Rommel!”: Bryant, 450 (“What else matters”); Boatner, 461; Matthew Cooper, The German Army, 1939–1945, 352; Charles Douglas-Home, Rommel, 110; Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 101; Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (“one good division”); James J. Sadkovich, “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North Africa, 1940–1942,” International History Review, May 1991, 284; Bruce Allen Watson, Exit Rommel, 56, 158–59 (“fugitive leading”).

  “Day and night”: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 390–91; Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 373–74; Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” 9 (“a broken man”).

  Rommel understood: NWAf, 370, 372; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 1948, supplement to London Gazette, 868; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”

  Yet Rommel’s German units: “Rommel to Tunisia,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 227; war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 3–4 and Feb. 10–17, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Hellmuth Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16, 1943, and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 1949, FMS, #C-075, 17 (“hypnotic influence”); NWAf, 370.

  True, Rommel’s army included: Boog et al., 801n (350,000 Axis men); NWAf, 371; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”

  Rommel increasingly blamed: Domenico Petracarro, “The Italian Army in Africa, 1940–1943: An Attempt at Historical Perspective,” War & Society, Oct. 1991, 103 (tied bandannas); Enno von Rinteln, “The Italian Commmand and Armed Forces in the First Half of 1943: Their Situation, Intentions, and Measures,” 1947, FMS, #T-1a, trans. Janet E. Dewey, MHI (“was in agony”); Westphal, The German Army in the West, 130; Kesselring, “Italy as a Military Ally,” n.d., FMS, #C-015, 9 (“three fashionable passions”); war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 11, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH.

  In these and other matters: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 48–49 (“sober cal- culations” and “a second Stalingrad”); Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16 (“house of cards”) and March 10, 1943 (brigade of homosexuals), and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Jackson, The Battle for North
Africa, 415; Destruction, 274.

  talk of decampment: Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 28, 31; Kesselring, Memoirs, 143, 149; Warlimont, 310, 284 (restricted rations).

  to avoid a similar diet: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 868; Destruction, 273, 283–84; OKW to Comando Supremo, Jan. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 253 (English dictionary); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 397 (“break up the American”).

  Kesselring agreed: Irving, 266–67 (“We are going to go”); NWAf, 206–207; war diary, Fifth Panzer Army, Feb. 8, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH (“weaken the American”); war report, Panzer Army Africa, Jan. 16 to Feb. 12, 1943.

  The front remained: Pyle, Here Is Your War, 154; Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 37; Oswald Jett, “As I Saw the War,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 47th Medical Bn, 1st AD, MHI, 287 (Army chaplain); war diary, 27th Armored FA, Feb. 11, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (Clubmobile).

  II Corps had suffered: Waters, SOOHP, 690; William H. Simpson, AGF Observer Report, Apr. 1943, NARA RG 165, E 418, Director of Plans and Ops, box 1229 (130 charged with absence); Ankrum, 179–80 (“Hell, no”); Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; William Petroski, “Fifty Years Later, Defeat by Rommel Still Clear,” March 21, 1993, Des Moines Sunday Register (“We had never heard of them”); Heller and Stofft, eds., 247.

  Quiescence at the front: Everett S. Hughes diary, Feb. 10, 1943, “Allied High Command” micro, reel 5, David Irving collection, MHI (original in LOC Ms Div) (“too complicated to be placed”); G-3 memo, Feb. 8, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-188-D (Allied intelligence concluded); Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 274; Ralph Bennett, 373–74.