An Army at Dawn (104 page)

The “goosing”
: U.S.S.

Brooklyn
war diary, Nov. 11, 2156 hrs., SEM, NHC, box 15.

Hewitt was furious
: HKH, ts, n.d., comments on SEM,
Operations in North African Waters,
Jan. 1950 edition, HKH, NHC, box 1 (
“extreme reluctance”
).

For more than an hour
: HKH to USN, June 16, 1950, HKH, NHC, box 1; HKH, “Reminiscences” Morison,
Operations in North African Waters,
171.

Finally, he could continue
: AAR, “Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard,” Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3.

Hewitt slumped
: HKH, OH, G. F. Howe, Jan. 23, 1951, NARA RG 319, 2–3.7, box 228; HKH, ts, n.d., comments on SEM,
Operations in North African Waters,
Jan. 1950 edition, HKH, NHC, box 1.

As dusk sifted
: Blair,
Hitler’s U-Boat War,
vol. I, 473, and vol. II, 111; Morison,
Operations in North African Waters,
171; uboat.net/boats/u130.htm.

Each hit home
: AAR,
Hugh L. Scott,
Nov. 18, 1942, and “U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Amphibious Force, Action Report,” both in NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24490.

Her two sisters
:
Landings in North Africa,
78; letter, E. S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16 (
“The damned fools”
); msg, L. B. Ely to HKH, Nov. 12, 2025 hrs., HKH, NHC, box 1; Codman, 48.

Fifteen hundred survivors
: “United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. I, part 3, ts, n.d., USNAd, 673; Albert W. Kenner, “Medical Service in the North African Campaign,”
Military Review,
Feb. 1944, 5; Harry McK. Roper, “Report on Observations Made as Observer with Task Force Brushwood,” n.d., NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, box 52; Blumenson,
The Patton Papers, 1940–1945,
168 (
“pieces of bacon”
); Charles M. Wiltse,
Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters,
119, 121.

Friday’s dawn brought
: AAR, NARA RG 407, E 427, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, box 24430.

Soldiers looking seaward
: Blair, vol. II, 201; “Comments of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, USN, on
Operations in North African Waters
(original edition), 26 Feb. 1947” HKH to SEM, March 13, 1947; HKH to J. L. Hall, March 13, 1947, all in HKH, NHC, box 1.

General Clark’s arrest of Darlan
: “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1, 25–28 (
“Not once”
); Murphy, 142 (“Merde!”).

At noon on November 13
:
Three Years,
190; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 693; DDE to Churchill, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 689; DDE to GCM, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 692.

At the St. Georges
: Funk, 248 (
a coward
).

Eisenhower sighed
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 9 and 11, 1942, Chandler, 680, 692; DDE to MWC, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 698; DDE to W.B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 701; “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1; letter, Noguès to G. F. Howe, Jan. 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2–3.7 CC1, box 225.

Eisenhower shook hands
: DDE to MWC, Nov. 11, 1942, Chandler, 699 (
“When you are away”
); Clark, 123 (
“Now we can”
).

Sixty years after torch
:
NWAf,
173;
Destruction,
154.

The number of French killed
: De Gaulle, 353; Marcel Vigneras,
Rearming the French,
18; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 16, 1942, Chandler, 718 (
eighteen French battalions
); Butcher diary, A-4, Nov. 25, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 166 (
“remain embittered”). torch had lured
: Milton Viorst,
Hostile Allies: FDR and Charles de Gaulle,
123 (
“It’s not very pretty”
); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 702 (
“We are just”
).

The war’s momentum
: Roy Jenkins,
Churchill: A Biography,
702–703.

“habits of peace”
: W.G.F. Jackson,
The Battle for North Africa,
396.

“For God’s sake”
: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 12, 1942, Chandler, 702; Leahy, 137 (
the White House).

CHAPTER 4: PUSHING EAST

“We Live in Tragic Hours”

At two
A.M.
on November 8
: Twelve Apostles summary, n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS files, box 39 (
with his Spanish maids
); Tompkins, 141–42 (
“They had better”
); Boatner, 155; Cunningham, 186 (
the Monk
), 221; Philip Jordan,
Jordan’s Tunis Diary
, 132 (
“fashion plate gone seedy”
); Alan Moorehead,
The End in Africa
, 82 (
“Hurry”
).

There was no need
: Ralph Bennett,
Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy
, 190 (
“panther’s leap”
);
Kriegstagebuch
, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 16–30, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Volkmar Kühn,
German Paratroops in World War II
, 158–61; Paul Carell,
The Foxes of the Desert
, 311; Loerzer, “Negotiations with…Estéva,” n.d., FMS, #D-040, 2 (
low, intimidating pass
).

French troops ringed
: Paul Deichmann, “Mission of OB Süd…in North Africa After the Allied Landing,” n.d., FMS, #D-067, 6; Cunningham, 226; NARA RG 319, OCMH, “Background Papers to NW Africa,” box 222.

Hitler had learned
: Kühn,
German Paratroops in World War II
, 158; Walter Warlimont,
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945
, 271; Anthony Martienssen,
Hitler and His Admirals
, 147; msg, Hitler to Mussolini, Nov. 20, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 225 (
“Yours in”
).

Already 230
: Horst Boog et al.,
Germany and the Second World War
, vol. VI,
The Global War
, 793–94 (
“cornerstone of our conduct”
).

On Tuesday, November 10
: Walter Nehring, “The First Phase of the Battle in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, #D-147, 29; Franz Kurowski,
The History of the Fallschirm Panzerkorps Hermann Göring
, 109; Kühn, 160; Gardiner, memoir, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 84.

Weak as the German vanguard
: Blumenson,
Kasserine Pass
, 35, 37 (
“I count on everyone”
); Brooks, “The Unknown Darlan,” 879 (
“November 8, we fight everybody”
); Auphan and Moral, 251 (
“The enemy is the German”
).

On November 12
:
Kriegstagebuch
, Nov. 16, 1942, 2130 hrs, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, Nov. 16, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (
“only nodding”
); Robinett,
Armor Command
, 73 (
“After forty years”
); NARA RG 319, OCMH, “Background Papers to NW Africa,” box 222; Blumenson,
Kasserine Pass
, 38 (
“I shall be known”
).

Sadly, yes
: Bennett, 191;
Kriegstagebuch,
Nov. 16–30, 1942, 90th Panzer Armee Korps, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (
“cannot read”
); Carell, 311 (
marched four abreast
); Albert Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” n.d., FMS, #T-3 P1, 7; AAR, Bayerlein, Apr. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 225; Deichmann, 18; “Account of Marjorie Springs,” n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 39 (
newly fashionable goose step
); Nigel Nicholson and Patrick Forbes,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945
, vol. II, 339.

Soon enough, Derrien
: Tompkins, 145; Auphan and Moral, 269; Kühn,
Rommel in the Desert
, 181–84.

A French court
: Morison,
Operations in North African Waters
, 241 (
“national unworthiness”
); Cunningham, 226 (
“it is an honor”
); Tompkins, 145; Auphan and Moral, 284–85 (
Derrien, too
); Clayton,
Three Marshals of France
, 73.

“We live in tragic hours”
: Blumenson,
Kasserine Pass
, 42.

Conviviality reigned
: Kesselring, FMS, T-3 P1, part II, 6; Kesselring,
The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring
, 8–9; Macksey,
Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe
, 155–56; Boatner, 271.

On November 10
: Macksey, 143 (
poison gas
); Kühn,
German Paratroops in World War II
, 172 (
“drop of water”
).

The Allies had achieved
: Siegfried Westphal,
The German Army in the West
, 121; Lowell Bennett,
Assignment to Nowhere: The Battle for Tunisia
, 101; H. A. Jacobsen and J. Rohwer, eds.,
Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View
, 212.

A Cold Country with a Hot Sun

Five hundred and sixty
: Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. II, 475; Middleton,
Our Share of Night
, 169 (
“Those squareheads”
); Freeland A. Daubin, Jr., “The Battle of Happy Valley,” Apr. 1948, ts, Armored School Advanced Officers Class, 9 (
“that all of the Germans”
).

Town mayors donned
: Gardiner, memoir, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 79 (version also in PMR, “Tank Commander,” ts, n.d., GCM Lib., box 20); Moorehead, 73; Ralph Bennett, 225; Robert H. Welker, “G.I. Jargon: Its Perils and Pitfalls,”
Saturday Review of Literature
, Oct. 1944, 7; Harmon,
Combat Commander
, 107 (
reparations
).

British troops dominated
: Austin, 10 (
“Edwardian motoring veil[s]”
); Howard and Sparrow, 109; “History, HQ Detachment, 109th Medical Bn, 34th ID,” Feb. 1942–Nov. 1943, NARA RG E 427, box 9618; Moorehead, 91 (
fishmongers in striped sweaters
); A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Overseas Service,” ts, 1981, IWM, 81/33/1; letter, Dan Rupert, May 22, 1943, MCC, YU; Jordan, 46.

For the Yanks
: Oswald Jett, ASEQ, “As I Saw the War,” ts, 1988, 1st AD, 47th Medical Bn, 287; Laurence R. Robertson, ASEQ, ts, n.d., 1st AD, MHI, 164; Powell,
In Barbary
, 102; Randle,
Safi Adventure
, 138; Frelinghuysen, 27.

Eastward the caissons
: Rame, 81–82 (
“hanging like red lamps”
); Peter Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin,
44.

At dusk they bivouacked
: Liebling,
Mollie & Other Pieces
, 31; Robertson, ASEQ, 1st AD, MHI, 164; Bolstad, 105 (
“Gas!
”); letter, Virginia Samsell, n.d., MCC, YU (
burro named Rommel
).

Pilfering by the locals
: Jensen, 51; Mayo, 120; Ralph G. Martin,
The GI War, 1941–1945
, 41; Hilary St. George Saunders,
The Red Beret
, 81; Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division
, 51 (
“If they”
); McNamara, 30 (
“useless, worthless, illiterate”
).

At dawn, the promenade
: letter, Jack Pardekooper, Jan. 1943, MCC, YU (
“Every town over here”
); letter, Joseph T. Dawson, Nov. 21, 1942, MRC FDM (
“The sky is almost”
); Rame, 88 (
“She’ll be”
).

Thanks to Ultra’s decipherment
: Hinsley, vol. II, 466–67, 488–89 (
“low category”
and
“probable scale”
).

There was much talk
: Frierson, “Preparations for TORCH,” 1945, vol. I, CMH 2-3.7 AD, 46 (
primarily to the British
); Yarborough, SOOHP, 1975, MHI, 26; Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division
, 51–54.

Proverbially
: Eisenhower,
Crusade in Europe
, 119 (
“were not clearly understood”
); DDE to E. N. Eisenhower, Nov. 16, 1942, Chandler, 724.

“I get so impatient”
: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 11, 12, and 16, 1942; DDE to E. N. Eisenhower, Nov. 16, 1942, all in Chandler, 693, 703, 724.

Nor was he yet
: Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, abridged ed., 256, 263, 267; Jackson,
The Battle for North Africa
, 399.

Perhaps the biggest
: Leighton and Coakley, 438; Beck et al., 63; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” vol. I, II–40; AAR, Henry C. Wolfe, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Pre-Invasion Planning,” box 24348; Jordan, 40 (
“Inevitably there was chaos”
).

Ordnance officers wandered
: Mayo, 119; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” vol. I, IV–7; Lunsford E. Oliver, “In the Mud and Blood of Tunisia,”
Collier’s
, Apr. 17, 1943, 11; DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,”
London Gazette
, Feb. 3, 1948, 865.

Even success
: Russell F. Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI.

This muddle greeted
: DDE to Anderson, Nov. 12, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5 (
“I applaud”
); Parris and Russell, 155 (
“The German”
).

Anderson had been born in India
: CBH, Apr. 18–22, 1943, MHI (
“grinning preoccupation”
); Gregory Blaxland,
The Plain Cook and the Great Showman
, 28–29, 106, 167 (
“jutting chin”
); Jordan, 44 (
“moderately successful surgeon”
), 61.