An Army at Dawn

by Rick Atkinson

  Weary and distracted: Destruction, 441–42; G. R. Stevens, 245 (surly rebellion); Horrocks, 164 (“Of course we can”).

  Even the most irresistible: Hunt, 176 (“rather a sad”); David Williams, The Black Cats at War: The Story of the 56th (London) Division T.A., 1939–1945; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 287; Messenger, 111 (“It was only”); Hamilton, 236–38; Brooks, ed., 222 (“short rest”).

  As usual in Tunisia: Hamilton, 216 (“partridge drive”); Brooks, ed., 209; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 208–209 (seventy different air attacks); Messenger, 102; Macksey, Crucible of Power, 277; Blaxland, 227 (“The plan’s all right”); Nicholson and Forbes, 318–19.

  The Germans struck: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Kurowski, 118; Horsfall, 167 (“Go away, James”).

  Crocker launched: Destruction, 434; NWAf, 612; Messenger, 103–104; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 75 (“Men have begun”).

  On April 26: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” George E. Wrockloff, “Land Mines,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL S-1-43, W-89, box 169; Macksey, The Tank Pioneers, 191; Hastings, 229.

  So it was up to Allfrey: Malcolm, 118; Ray, 50; Destruction, 436 (“ghosts of good soldiers”); Marshall, Over to Tunis, 124–25; Skillen, 327 (“like a crowd”); Horsfall, 98 (“children of Satan”), 140.

  Good Friday dawned: D’Arcy-Dawson, 213–14; Perret, At All Costs, 159–66; Alexander to Montgomery, March 29, 1943, in Brooks, ed., 189; Middleton, 269; Malcolm, 118; Ray, 52; Austin, 132; Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 171; Jordan, 237 (“an infernal sight”); Messenger, 105 (“the whole ridge”); P. Royle, ts, n.d., IWM, 66/305/1 (Zeiss binoculars).

  Longstop had fallen: Destruction, 437; NWAf, 611–13; AAR, 1st Bn Irish Guards, Apr. 27–30, 1943, PRO, WO 175/488; G. E. Thurbon, ts, n.d., IWM, 94/8/1; D.J.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War (“threw everything” and “no time for the gangrene”); Nicolson and Forbes, 321–30 (“pungent scent”); Marshall, Over to Tunis, 134–35 (“a forest of rifles”).

  The hill remained: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Three Years, 292 (3,500 casualties); NWAf, 613; G. P. Druitt, ts, n.d., IWM, 96/38/1 (“One arm was sticking”).

  “Count Your Children Now, Adolf!”

  “We are sitting”: Baumer, 122; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 81.

  The guns finished: Austin, 120 (“the hollows”); Arthur R. Harris, “The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall,” Field Artillery Journal, May–June 1938, 228; NWAf, 614; Hannum, “The 30 Years of Army Experience,” ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, MHI, 38–40 (“Count your children”).

  The infantry surged: Tobin, 95 (“long, slow line”); NWAf, 621–23; Johnson, One More Hill, 63–64; Eston White, author interview, Feb. 2000; log, “16th Infantry, Béja-Mateur Campaign,” Apr. 25, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5919; John W. Baumgartner et al., “History of the 16th Infantry, 1798–1946,” 28; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 10/26–74; Spivey, 76 (“Please shoot me”).

  Into this maelstrom: Kahn, “Education of an Army,” New Yorker, Oct. 14, 1944, 28, and Oct. 21, 1944, 34; G. Perret, There’s a War to Be Won: The United States Army in World War II, 70; Larrabee, 119 (“a Presbyterian pulpit speaker”); Boatner, 353.

  Now McNair did something: McNair diary, visit to North Africa, Apr. 15–May 3, 1943, NARA RG 337, HQS, commanding general, box 1 (“nowhere did I find”); Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 167 (mss); CBH, Apr. 23–25, 1943, MHI; Kahn, “Education of an Army” John Kelley, interview by Michael Corley, 1977, possession of Paul Gorman (argued bitterly); Hall, “A Memoir of World War II” Charles T. Horner, Jr., “The General’s First Purple Heart,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 16th Inf Regt, 1st ID, MHI (“get the jeep”); Hansen, 5/52 (upside down); Clark, Calculated Risk, 168 (“American soldiers”).

  That was untrue: Three Years, 292; Phillips, Sedjenane, 27, 57, 67.

  Impassable it proved to be: AAR, “Report on the Operation Conducted by the 9th Infantry Division in Northern Tunisia, 11 Apr.–8 May 1943,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7326; AAR, 47th Inf Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514; AAR, 60th Inf Regt, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7535; AAR, 9th ID artillery, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7424; NWAf, 615–20; Mittelman, 106–14.

  So it went: Phillips, Sedjenane, 86, 104 (“a dark theater”), 111; Mittelman, 106–14; “The Fragrance of Spring Was Heavy in the Air,” Trail Tales, 1979, Boone Co. (Iowa) History Society, Iowa GSM; “G-2 report, II Corps, Battle for Bizerte,” Annex B, counter-intelligence section, May 13, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126 (“free from Arabs”); “Adventures by Men of the 60th Infantry Regiment in WWII,” 1993, MHI, 20–22.

  The enemy held fast: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 89; Liebling, Mollie & Other Pieces 9; Mittelman, 106; Howard and Sparrow, 118; D’Arcy-Dawson, 134; William E. Faust, ASEQ, ts, 1st ID artillery, 1990, MHI, 42, 50.

  No hill loomed: author visit, Apr. 2000; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis” (“best German troops”).

  Anderson proposed: Bradley, 86–87 (“Never mind”), Bradley and Blair, 157 (“far over his head”); To Bizerte with the II Corps, 16; CBH, May 1, 1943, MHI; “G-3 Report, Tunis Operation,” 1st ID, Apr. 28–30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5759; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, chapter 10; CBH, May 1, 1943 (“This campaign is too important”).

  To seize the hill: Caffey, OH, SM, MHI; Bradley, 85 (“Get me that hill”); letter, Robert P. Miller to G. F. Howe, Jan. 14, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Arnold N. Brandt, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 135th Infantry at Hills 609 and 531,” 1948 (“There was excitement”); Ryder, OH, SM, MHI; Berens, 62; Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 106; Green and Gauthier, 120–24 (“For the love of heaven” and “crouched gray shapes”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 254 (rocks wrapped); Bolstad, 140 (“We lay there awaiting dawn”).

  Two attacks failed: NWAf, 631; To Bizerte with the II Corps, 18–21; AAR, “Operations Following the Battle of Fondouk,” 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Ankrum, 277–81; Bolstad, 140; AAR, Co C, 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, Apr. 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Mickey C. Smith and Dennis Worthen, “Soldiers on the Production Line,” Pharmacy in History, 1995, 183; Riess, ed., 543; Middleton, 275 (“wheat at Gettysburg”); “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Div.,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; “Report of Action on Hill 609, 135th Inf Regt.,” June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Leslie W. Bailey, “An Infantry Battalion in Attack,” Iowa GSM; Robert Ward, OH, Nov. 30, 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Johnson, One More Hill, 65 (“erupting volcano”); Bolstad, 138–40; C. Miller, Some Things You Never Forget, 123–24.

  Ryder’s troubles: T. Allen, “A Factual Summary of the Combat Operations of the 1st Infantry Division,” 28 (“unshirted hell”); Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 98 (“Hill 606”); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” Allen papers, MHI; NWAf, 633, 636; Green and Gauthier, 129 (white phosphorus); letter, Allen to G. F. Howe, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; letter, G. A. Taylor to G. F. Howe, Nov. 22, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228 (considered the attack rash); letter, C. J. Denholm to G. F. Howe, Dec. 13, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228.

  Impatience cost: Clay, 167–69 (mss); Robert E. Cullis, “We Learn in Combat,” Infantry Journal, June 1944, 31 (“more like a street fight”); AAR, Co H, 3rd Bn, 1st Armored Regt, Apr. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14916; Robert V. Maraist and Peter C. Hains, “Conference on North African Operations,” transcript, June 16, 1943, Fort Knox, SM, MHI; log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” Apr. 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5919 (“Heinies are all over”).

  Hill 609 would change hands: Maraist and Hains, transcript, SM, MHI (“No one”); Ankrum, 274 (“God bless all of you”), 276 (“Tell my mother”); B. A. Dickson, OH, SM, MHI; Bradley, 87; AAR, “Operations of This Company While on Detached Service,” Co I, 1st AR, May 14, 1943, possession of Roger Cirillo; AAR, “Oper
ations Following the Battle of Fondouk,” 1st Bn, 133rd Inf Regt, June 30, 1943, Iowa GSM; Hougen, The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division; Larson, ed., 84–86.

  “Jerries approach”: log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” May 1, 1943 (“A panorama”); Robert R. Moore quoted in Villisca (Iowa) Review, n.d., Iowa GSM (killed by such treachery); Robert R. Moore, “Tunisian Stand,” ts, Oct. 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 103; “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; Brandt, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 135th Infantry at Hills 609 and 531” Ankrum, 282; Bradley, 94 (“few prisoners”); “Dennis Frederick Neal, Soldier,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 68 (“literally covered”); “German Tanks Trapped,” Times (London), May 5, 1943 (“thick as currants in cake”); Pyle, Here Is Your War, 259 (“Those who went”).

  Ryder put his losses: “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Dec. 1943, Iowa GSM; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 96 (“shoes hanging”); log, “16th Inf., Beja-Mateur Campaign,” May, 1, 1943 (“no prisoners will be taken”); “German Tanks Trapped,” Times (London), May 5, 1943 (“At our feet”).

  Outside Béja: CBH, May 1, 1943, MHI (“smoothing the sparse gray hair”).

  Mateur fell on May 3: AAR, “Report of Operations, 23 Apr.–9 May,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Hoy, “The Last Days in Tunisia,” Cavalry Journal, Jan.–Feb. 1944, 8; NWAf, 645; To Bizerte with the II Corps, 36.

  The land here: Austin, 138–39 (Bismarck); Fred H. Salter, Recon Scout, 76–85; Harmon, Combat Commander, 132 (“let the men live”); Middleton, 282 (“Tell the sons of bitches”).

  Many thousands had retreated: Hannum, “The Thirty Years of Army Experience,” ASEQ, 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, 40; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 134; unsigned narrative of Mateur-Bizerte action, ts, n.d., PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“Arab shacks”); L. P. Robertson, ASEQ, 1st AR, MHI, 343 (“a tin goose”), 347 (“Some of the enemy”); msg, Eddy to 9th ID and Corps Franc d’Afrique, Apr. 29, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7334 (“Here is our chance”).

  The 1st Armored Division: Howze, “Tank Action,” ts, 1943, Ward papers, MHI (“monkey’s paw”); Bradley, 92 (“Can you do it?”).

  Yet Harmon nursed: letter, E. N. Harmon to G. F. Howe, Oct. 16, 1952, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (“crybaby outfit”); Harmon memo, Apr. 14, 1943, in “History of the 91st Armored FA Battalion” (“lack of discipline”); Robinett, “Among the First,” PMR, GCM Lib, box 28, 474–75 (“damned all past performance”); Robert Simons, OH, July 1976, OW, MHI (the temerity to boo); S. J. Krekeler, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA, 1st AD, 92.

  Now they had reached: Robinett, Armor Command, 227 (“Will the damned”); Robinett memo to CCB, May 5, 1943, PMR, GCM Lib, box 12 (“Towards the rear”).

  After that unpromising prelude: letter, Harmon to WD G-1, May 23, 1943, Harmon papers, MHI; Harmon, OH, Sept. 16, 1952, SM, MHI (“Hell, that fellow”); Robinett, Armor Command, 228–29 (“looking hard”).

  Tunisgrad

  The most intense: Blaxland, 252; Middleton, 287; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” Nicholson, Alex, 190 (“The muzzle flashes”).

  Determined to bury: Tuker, 367–69 (“stunning weights”); Destruction, 450–51; Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 251–53; Marshall, Over to Tunis, 118 (“you could almost”); “Military Reports of the United Nations,” Sept. 15, 1943, Military Intelligence Division, WD, NARA RG 334, box 585; Messenger, 113–14 (“a roof of shells”).

  Behind the guns: “Report on Participation of the Allied Air Force in the North Africa Campaign, Apr. 11–May 14, 1943,” n.d., NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 BA, box 103; NWAf, 649.

  Well before dawn: Tuker, 367; Stevens, 249; Horrocks, 168 (“chalk from cheese”).

  Four tank battalions: Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” NWAf, 645–49; North, ed., 38–39 (“into the heart”).

  “The whole valley”: MacVane, On the Air in World War II, 180; Blaxland, 252; Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. IV, 173; “Military Reports of the United Nations,” Sept. 15, 1943, Military Intelligence Division, WD, NARA RG 334, box 585 (“thick pall”); Nicholson, Alex, 191 (“baker’s boy”).

  Allied eavesdroppers: Skillen, 333 (medics); Ernst Schnarrenberger, “Situation of the Fortification of Tunis,” March 1947, FMS, D-005; Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 2, 615; Kriegstagebuch V, Fifth Panzer Army, May 6, 1943, RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (“laid low”); Destruction, 450; Nicholson and Forbes, 334 (“Butter”), 335 (“I can see the lily-white walls”); Roskill, 441; Cunningham, 529 (“Sink, burn”).

  The righteous wrath: letter, Charles J. Denholm to G. F. Howe, Feb. 20, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; R.W. Porter, Jr., “Report of Interrogation of Recaptured American Soldiers,” May 11, 1943, 1st ID, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3161; letter, Floyd F. Youngman to parents, June 4, 1943, in Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 291 (“like a forest”); AAFinWWII, 193; William Munday, “Prison Ship Escapes,” Tunis Telegraph, May 10, 1943, in Downing, At War with the British, photo; Hill, Desert Conquest, 318; Edwin V. Westrate, Forward Observer, 167 (“hopping around”); Dawson, Tunisian Battle, 240–45; NWAf, 650; Craven and Cate, eds., 193 (more than one hundred).

  Harmon’s 1st Armored: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 93; NWAf, 650, 653; Austin, 151 (“perambulators”); Phillips, Sedjenane, 136; Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” MHI, 64; Crawford, 138; Berens, 69–70; Ohio Historical Society web site, www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/kilroy.

  With the 9th Division: “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; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes,” MRC FDM.

  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”).