An Army at Dawn

by Rick Atkinson

  Rogers, Robert John. “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II.” Master’s thesis. Fort Leavenworth, Kan., 1965.

  Schnarrenberger, Ernst. “Report on My Activities as Commander of Rear Area of Army of North Africa.” 1947. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-072.

  ———. “Situation of the Fortification of Tunis.” 1947. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-005.

  Semmens, Paul. “The Hammer of Hell: Forward Area Antiaircraft Artillery at Kasserine Pass and the Remagen Bridge.” N.d. CMH.

  Shugart, David A. “On the Way: The U.S. Field Artillery in the Inter-War Period.” Paper delivered at Society for Military History meeting, April 2000.

  “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns.” Part 1, “Tactical Communication in World War II.” 1945. Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Historical Section. MHI.

  “The Story of the Embarkation of the 1st Infantry Division.” N.d. CARL, N-6172.

  “Strategy and Logistical History, Mediterranean Theater of Operations.” Unpublished volume in Army “Green Series.” NARA RG 319, OCMH, boxes 257–58.

  TD Combat in Tunisia. 1944. U.S. Army Tank Destroyer School. MHI.

  “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily.” N.d. TdA, MHI.

  Toppe, Alfred. “Desert Warfare: German Experiences in World War II.” 1991. CSI.

  “U.S.A.F. Airborne Operations, World War II and Korean War.” March 1962. USAF Historical Division.

  Uffner, Raphael L. “Recollections of World War II with the First Infantry Division.” 1991. MRC FDM.

  “United States Naval Administration in World War II.” 1946. Amphibious Training Command. No. 145. NHC.

  ———. Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet. Vol. 1.

  ———. COMNAVEU. Vols 1–2, N.d. NHC.

  ———. United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945. Vol. 1, Part 3, N.d. NHC.

  Von Arnim, Hans J. T. “Recollections of Tunisia.” Trans. Janet E. Dewey. 1951. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, C-098.

  ———. “Tunisian Operations.” Trans. Janet E. Dewey. 1951. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, C-094.

  Von Liebenstein, Kurt. “The Drive via Gafsa Against Kasserine Pass.” 1947. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-124.

  ———. “Operations of the 164th Light Africa Division.” N.d. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-315.

  Von Rinteln, Enno. “The Italian Command and Armed Forces in the First Half of 1943.” Trans. Janet E. Dewey. 1947. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, T-1a.

  Von Vaerst, Gustav. “Operations of the Fifth Panzer Army in Tunisia.” N.d. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-001.

  Wade, Gary. “World War II Division Commanders.” N.d. CSI.

  Warlimont, Walter. “High Level Decisions—Tunisian Campaign.” Trans. Janet E. Dewey. 1951. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, C-092a.

  Webb, James R. “First Waltz with Rommel.” N.d. Webb papers, DDE Lib, box 1.

  Weber, Friedrich. “Battles of 334th Division and of Group Weber.” N.d. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-215.

  Werner, Christoph Wilhelm. “The Battles of the Hermann Göring Division in Tunisia From January to 12 May 1943.” 1947. U.S. Army European Command. FMS, D-085.

  “Western Task Force: Landing Operations at Safi.” N.d. Washington D.C. War Department, Historical Division. CMH.

  “Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala.” N.d. Washington, D.C. War Department, Historical Division. CMH.

  “Western Task Force: The Attack on Mehdia and the Port Lyautey Airdrome.” 1945. Washington, D.C. War Department, Historical Division. CMH.

  Wilhm, Jack F. et al. “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa.” 1950. Fort Knox, Ky. Armored School. MHI.

  Wilson, Lloyd G. “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa.” 1948. Fort Benning, Ga. Infantry School. MHI.

  “World War II, A Brief History.” 1946. Washington, D.C. Office of the Provost Marshal General.

  Yarmon, Morton. “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO: IV, TORCH and the European Theater of Operations.” 1946. Historical Division, U.S. Army Forces, European Theater. CMH.

  Papers, Letters, Collections, Personal Narratives, and Diaries

  Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kan.: files for Harold R. L. Alexander; Terry Allen; Kenneth Anderson; Harry C. Butcher; Lloyd Fredendall; Operation TORCH; George S. Patton, Jr.; Charles W. Ryder; James R. Webb

  Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans: Fred W. Hall, Jr.

  George C. Marshall Foundation Research Library, Lexington, Va.: George F. Howe Papers; George C. Marshall Papers; Paul M. Robinett Papers; Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Papers; Reginald Winn Collection

  Imperial War Museum, London: A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Overseas Service” G.P. Druitt diary; Charles Gairdner diary; J.B.A. Glennie, narrative in papers of R. de L. King; Adrian Clements Gore, “This Was the Way It Was” G.R. Grandage, “Operation TORCH” J.R.T. Hopper, “Figures in a Fading Landscape” H.M. Jones, narrative; Richard F. Kinden, “The Road to Fort McGregor and the Long Way Home” W.D. McClure, diary; Cameron Nicholson Collection; A.G. Oakley diaries; R. Priestly papers; P. Royle, narrative; K. Shirley Smith, diary; R.C. Taylor, “Seven Sunrays” Fred Telford, narrative; G.E. Thubron, narrative; A.J.A. Weir, letters; J.K. Windeatt, “Very Ordinary Soldier”

  Iowa Gold Star Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa: Leslie W. Bailey, “An Infantry Battalion in Attack” William F. Beekman, “A Diary of World War II as Observed Through the Eyes, Ears and Mind of Bill Beekman” Eugene L. Daniel papers; Vernon Hohenberger, “Retracing My Footsteps in World War II” Lester Kness, “An Iowa Soldier Remembers Patton” William Walling Luttrell, “A Personal Account of the Experiences as a German Prisoner of War” Edgar P. Moschel, “168th Inf Regiment Narrative of Action” Dennis F. Neal, “Dennis Frederick Neal, Soldier” Robert L. Owen, typescript on 168th Infantry Regiment band at Kasserine Pass; Bill Roth, “The Longest Days of a G.I.” John H. Van Vliet, Jr., typescript

  Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.: Wallace Carroll Papers; H. Kent Hewitt Papers; Samuel Eliot Morison Papers; George S. Patton, Jr., Papers; Paul M. Robinett Papers; Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Papers; Jerauld Wright Papers

  Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London: Charles Walter Allfrey Collection; B. H. Liddell Hart Collection; E. E. Mockler-Ferryman papers; William Ronald Campbell Penney Collection

  McCormick Research Center, First Division Museum, Cantigny, Ill.: Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story; Joseph T. Dawson Collection; Stanhope Brasfield Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II” Robert Maurice Mullen, “Memorial Booklet” Jean Gordon Peltier diary; Raphael L. Uffner Papers

  Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.: H. Kent Hewitt Papers; Samuel Eliot Morison Office Files

  Norwich University, Norwich, Vt.: Ernest Harmon Papers

  U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.: Terry de la Mesa Allen Papers; William S. Biddle Papers; Robert W. Black Collection; Roy C. Brewer Papers; Raymond H. Croll Papers; William J. Donovan Papers; Chester B. Hansen Papers; Ernest B. Harmon Papers; David Irving Collection (microfilm transcription of Everett Hughes’s diaries, “Allied High Command”); Oscar Koch Papers; Louis F. Lisko Papers; John P. Lucas Papers; Samuel L. Myers Papers; Martin M. Philipsborn Papers; Oscar S. Reeder Papers; Robert I. Stack Papers; Orlando Ward Papers

  Diaries and personal narratives contained in MHI Army Service Experiences Questionnaire: 1st Armored Division (William H. Balzar; Robert G. Bond; Harold F. Blodgett; Thomas E. Hannum; William A. Heslep; Oswald Jett; Howard F. Kenney; Stanley J. Krekeler; Robert M. Marsh; John Mayo; Arthur Robert Moore; Gustav A. Mueller; James Rhoden Pritchard; Laurence P. Robertson; James Scott Stapel; Ernest A. Wells)

  1st Infantry Division (William E. Faust; Charles T. Horner, Jr.; George J. Koch; William M. Lee; Paul K. Skogsberg; Andrew C. Wright)

  3rd
Infantry Division (Joseph A. Watters)

  9th Infantry Division (George Bastedo; Donald Peel)

  60th Troop Carrier Group (Robert L. Miley)

  U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.: James D. Alger Collection; Benjamin A. Dickson Collection; Henry E. Gardiner Papers; Will Lang Collection

  University of Missouri at Columbia, Western Historical Manuscript Collection: James McGuinness letter

  University of Tennessee at Knoxville: Bill Sabin Papers

  University of Texas at El Paso Library, S.L.A. Marshall Military History Collection: Terry de la Mesa Allen Papers

  Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.: Mina Curtiss Collection

  Author Interviews

  Consuelo Allen; Aurelio Barron; Dave Berlovich; Edward Boehm; Paul H. Calder; Frank B. Clay; Ross W. Cline; Wilbur C. Darnell; Paul F. Gorman; George Juskalian; Jack A. Marshall; Clem Miller; Robert R. Moore, Jr.; John D. Nelson; William W. Quinn; Albert H. Smith; Hans von Luck; Edith Ward Spalding; Clifton J. Warner; Eston White; John Ward Yates; Robin Ward Yates

  Interview and Oral History Transcripts

  Columbia University, Oral History Research Office, New York: Mark W. Clark; H. Kent Hewitt; Lyman Lemnitzer; Robert Murphy

  Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kan.: Ray W. Barker; Charles Bolte; LeRoy Lutes; James B. Stack

  George C. Marshall Library, Lexington, Va.: Forrest C. Pogue interview: George C. Marshall

  Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: Paul M. Robinett papers: Walter Nehring

  McCormick Research Center, First Division Museum, Cantigny, Ill.: Harley Reynolds; John Hall Thompson

  National War College Library, NARA, RG 334: John S. Allard; Webster Anderson; C. T. Booth; Charles Hoy; M.T. Wordell

  Rutgers University, Oral History Archives of World War II, New Brunswick, N.J.: Walter Bruyere, III; Thomas A. Kindre; John G. Rosta

  U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: Philip G. Cochran

  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History, Alexandria, Va.: Garrison H. Davidson; Herbert W. Ehrgott; Henry J. Hoeffer; Harry O. Paxson; Edwin L. Powell, Jr.; William F. Powers

  U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa: Russell A. Gugeler interviews: Jacob Devers; Hamilton H. Howze; McCurtain Scott; Robert Simons

  Sidney Matthews Papers: Russell F. Akers; Leo S. Bachmann; Rudolph Barlow; R. Brodie, Jr.; Harold G. Bull; Benjamin F. Caffey, Jr.; Ben Crosby; Frederic P. Culbert; Benjamin A. Dickson; Leon Dostert; Hobart Gay; Frederick W. Gibbs; Henri Giraud;

  Peter C. Hains, III; Pierpont M. Hamilton; Ernest N. Harmon; Robert A. Hewitt; LeRoy Irwin; Alphonse Juin; Geoffrey Keyes; George C. Marshall; Stanhope Mason; John W. O’Daniel; Edwin A. Russell; Charles W. Ryder; Harry H. Semmes; Walter Bedell Smith; Alexander Stark; Kenneth D. W. Strong

  Forrest Pogue interviews: Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke; Arthur Coningham; Lord Cuningham of Hyndhope; Charles de Gaulle; Benjamin A. Dickson; James Gault; Hastings L. Ismay; Albert Kenner; C. E. Lambe; Frederick E. Morgan; Viscount Mountbatten of Burma; Viscount Portal of Hungerford; Walter Bedell Smith; Orlando Ward

  Senior Officer Oral History Program: Mark W. Clark; Theodore J. Conway; Harry H. Critz; Ira C. Eaker; William P. Ennis, Jr.; Hobart R. Gay; Peter C. Hains, III; John A. Heintges; Robert A. Hewitt; Hamilton Howze; Walter T. Kerwin, Jr.; Robert W. Porter, Jr.; Elwood R. Quesada; John K. Waters; Albert C. Wedemeyer; William P. Yarborough

  U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Military History, Washington, “Background Papers to NW Africa,” NARA, RG 319, boxes 220–231: Harold Alexander; Terry Allen; Mark W. Clark; John T. Crocker; Robert E. Cullis; Francis De Guingand; Charles J. Denholm; H. Kent Hewitt; Gordon H. A. MacMillan; Robert P. Miller; Leland L. Rounds; Charles W. Ryder; R. I. Stack; Robert Ward

  U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md.: Walter Ansel; Hanson Weightman Baldwin; George W. Bauernschmidt; Bernhard H. Bieri; Joshua W. Cooper; George C. Dyer; Ralph K. James; Jackson K. Parker; U. S. Grant Sharp; Elliott B. Strauss; Edward K. Walker; Charles Wellborn, Jr.; F.E.M. Whiting

  Motion Pictures

  From National Archives, RG 111, Office of the Chief Signal Officer

  Allied Offensive in North Africa. Film Bulletin No. 51

  At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army. No. 1001, Dec. 1942

  Soldier Stevedores. Film Bulletin No. 32

  Tunisian Victory: An Official Record. No. 1012

  Signal Corps silent B&W footage:

  ADC 1; ADC 246; ADC 2407; ADC 1113; ADC 979; ADC 465; ADC 1002; ADC 998

  From British Army Film & Photographic Unit / Royal Air Force Film Production Unit Desert Victory. 1943

  Miscellany

  “The Attack on Sidi bou Zid.” Narrative composed by officers, 2nd Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment, while prisoners of war, n.d. James D. Alger Collection, USMA Arch.

  Biddle, William S. “Amphibious Training of American Troops in Great Britain in Preparation for North African Landing Operation.” Lecture, Fort Hood, Tex., 1943. MHI.

  ———. “The French Army of North Africa in the Tunisian Campaign.” Lecture, Fort Hood, Tex., 1943. MHI.

  Cirillo, Roger. Lecture, Hannibal Club. May 14, 2001. Washington, D.C.

  Darby, William O. “U.S. Rangers.” Lecture, Army and Navy Staff College. Oct. 27, 1944. MHI.

  Dunphie, Charles. Memo on Thala, N.d. NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229.

  Dunton, D. H. “Air Service Organization and Functioning in NATOUSA.” Lecture, Army and Navy Staff College. 2 Sept. 1943. NARA, RG 334, NWC Lib.

  El Bekri, Mohamed Ali. Lecture, Hannibal Club. May 14, 2001. Washington, D.C.

  “French Policy Toward Arabs, Jews and Italians in Tunisia.” OSS, Research and Analysis Branch, Dec. 1943. NARA RG 334, NWC Lib., box 895.

  Grahl, Charles H. “Biennial Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Iowa.” Des Moines: Office of the Adjutant General, 1940. Iowa GSM.

  Howze, Hamilton H. “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid.” Lecture, U.S. Army Cavalry School, n.d. MHI.

  Maraist, Robert V., and Peter C. Hains. Transcript, “Conference on North African Operations.” Fort Knox, Ky., 16 June 1943. SM, MHI.

  Matejka, Jerry V. “Communication Plans: Basic, Joint and Combined.” Lecture, Army-Navy Staff College, 19 Aug. 1943. NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 167.

  “Partial Planning File, First United States’ Use of Parachute Troops in Connection with TORCH,” n.d. MHI Library.

  Pirnie, W. Bruce, Jr. Letter about Sidi bou Zid, to Amon G. Carter, publisher of Fort Worth Star Telegram, 16 June 1943. OW, MHI.

  Richardson, C. G. “The Attack on Safi.” Lecture, Army and Navy Staff College. 20 Aug. 1943. NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 164.

  Robinett, Paul M. “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” n.d., LOC.

  ———. “Memorandum Notes.” Army War College seminar, Nov. 1951, Army War College Studies, Z-R55.

  Seacord, Daniel F. “Ludlow.” Account, U.S.S. Ludlow. NHC, 1979.

  Somervell, Brehon. “Army Service Forces.” Lecture, Army-Navy Staff College, 9 Aug. 1943. NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 167.

  “Statement of Brig. Gen. Laurence C. Kuter.” Pentagon, 22 May 1943. NARA RG 319, box 103.

  U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.: Army Service Experiences Questionnaires for 1st Infantry Division; 1st Armored Division; 3rd Infantry Division; 9th Infantry Division; 34th Infantry Division; Rangers; II Corps.

  Interviews by Michael Corley with John T. Corley, Tom Gendron, John Kelley (1977, possession of Paul Gorman); thedropzone.org, interviews by Patrick K. O’Donnell with Leo Inglesby, Carl Lehmann.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I was born in occupied Munich in 1952 and spent my early childhood in occupied Austria as the son of an American Army officer. That perhaps explains a lifelong fascination with World War II—how did we find ourselves in central Europe, and why? But my professional passion for the subject was enflamed in the mid-1990s when, as the Berlin bureau chief for The W
ashington Post, I covered a succession of fiftieth-anniversary commemorations, from the landings at Normandy to the final surrender of Germany. Walking the battlefields at Anzio and Arnhem, Salerno and the Bulge, and listening to veterans recount their tales made two things clear: this was the greatest story of the twentieth century, and like all great stories, it was bottomless. There was more to write; there will always be more to write. The armies that liberated Europe in 1944 and 1945 had a cumulative history, as did the officers and men who composed those armies, and no comprehensive understanding of the victory of May 1945 is possible without understanding the earlier campaigns in Africa and Italy. Hence, the Liberation Trilogy.

  Any twenty-first-century author writing about World War II owes an incalculable debt to those of the twentieth century, and I gratefully acknowledge mine. Among the hundreds of volumes consulted for this work, a special recognition is owed the 114-volume U.S. Army in World War II, the official history informally known as the Green Series. I have also profited from the official British History of the Second World War, as well as innumerable regimental and division histories, personal memoirs, historical analyses, and scholarly studies. The compendium is large, and now one book larger.

  Out of conviction that the ground itself has a great deal to say, I traveled to Tunisia in September 1996 and April 2000; to Morocco in April 2000; and to El Alamein, Egypt, in May 1996. To further steep myself I visited Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), Moscow, the Seelow Heights east of Berlin, and other battlefields in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands from 1994 to 2001. I also interviewed many veterans. But the core of this narrative is drawn from primary, contemporaneous sources—diaries, letters, records official and unofficial, after-action reports, unpublished memoirs, original maps—a surprising number of which have not previously been used in comprehensive accounts of the war. For help in tracking down these many thousands of documents I am deeply grateful for the professionalism and patience of a hundred or more historians and archivists.

  At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, I thank John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States; Michael J. Kurtz; Richard Boylan; Timothy Mulligan; and especially Timothy K. Nenninger, who is also president of the Society for Military History. As chief of modern military records, Tim has been an extraordinary guide in the deep woods of federal archives. He was also kind enough to read the galleys and to offer suggestions. This would be a lesser book without him.