An Army at Dawn
Page 83
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 Years, 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.
Rommel famously observed: Martin Van Creveld, Supplying War, 201; 601st Ordnance Bn, unit history, MHI; Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, WWII operations reports, 95-AL1-4, box 203; Bykofsky and Larson, 148; quartermaster memo, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Leighton and Coakley, 475 (“brilliant”).
In World War I: lecture, B. B. Somervell, “Army Service Forces,” Aug. 9, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, L-1-43, box 167; Kreidberg and Henry, 649; memo, North African logistics, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.
Can do: Leighton and Coakley, 485; Ellis, Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War, 298 (II Corps lost more armor); “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” from “Tactical Communications in World War II,” part I, Historical Section, Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 120 (500 miles); McNamara, 60 (new shoes); Logistical History of NATOUSA/ MTOUSA, 82.
The Americans’ “genius”: Behrens, 333, 313 (“creating resources”); Kennett, 93; McNamara, 70; letter, Carter B. Magruder to LeRoy Lutes, March 21, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, Ordnance Dept., box 596; “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” 1946, CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 87.
“The American Army”: Ellis, Brute Force, 525 (“overwhelms them”); Donald Davison, “Aviation Engineers in the Battle of Tunisia,” 1943, 12; Beck et al., 90.
The German military: Leighton and Coakley, 14; Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 362; Bragadin, 245–47 (“roaring furnace”); Friedrich Weber, “Battles of 334th Division and of Group Weber,” n.d., FMS, #D-215, MHI.
Ships not yet sunk: Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. 4, 349–50; Warlimont, “High Level Decisions—The Tunisian Campaign,” Feb. 1951, FMS, #C-092a, MHI, 19; NWAf, 368, 499n, 513fn, 682; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 417 (“to create the build-up”).
Other woes: NWAf, 366; AAR, Wehrmacht transportation officer, Apr. 1–May 4, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (lignite); Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS, C-098, MHI, 62 (oil cakes), 84.
These tribulations: Lucas, Panzer Army Africa, 173 (“paper divisions”); Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 373–74; Destruction, 274 (“if no supplies”); Warlimont, “High Level Decisions,” Feb. 1951, FMS, #C-092a, MHI, 33–34 (“a fortress”); Cooper, 368 (“Hitler wanted”).
“The Devil Is Come Down”
Bernard Law Montgomery: Majdalany, 37–38 (“lonely and loveless”); Tute, 194; Hamilton, 142; Boatner, 372–74; John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 17 (“One only loves”).
the Book of Job: Doherty, Irish Generals, 29; W. P. Lunn-Rockliffe, “The Tunisian Campaign,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Apr.–May 1969, 109, and June–July, 1969, 228; Rolf, 26 (“Kill Germans”); Alan F. Wilt, War from the Top, 197; Gilbert, 372; Barnett, The Desert Generals, 268 (“sheer weight of British resources”); Charles D. McFetridge, “In Pursuit: Montgomery After Alamein,” Military Review, June 1994, 54; Chalmers, 158; Hamilton, 169 (“trust him”).
And yet: Barnett, The Desert Generals, 236; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 501 (“a kindliness”).
He disdained: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 163 (“quite useless”), 177, 206; D’Este, Bitter Victory, 107n (“Good chap”); Brooks, ed., 194, 131, 175 (“quite unfit”), 150; Macksey, The Tank Pioneers, 186; F. E. Morgan, OH, n.d., FCP, MHI (“thoroughly disloyal”).
Swaggering into Tunisia: Boatner, 372; Ellis, Brute Force, 284; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 261; Clarke, 81 (“We will roll”); Barnett, The Desert Generals, 274 (“dray horse”); report on benzedrine sulfate, “Military Reports on the United Nations,” No. 2, Jan. 15, 1943, WD, Military Intelligence Service, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 585.
Contrary to: Ellis, Brute Force, 265, 286; Coningham, OH, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (“Once Monty”).
This time: msg to Rommel, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Stannard, ed., 287 (vats of hot water); Kesselring, T-3 P1, 33; Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” FMS, #D-046; Destruction, 331–33; John W. Gordon, The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940–1943, 163.