An Army at Dawn (106 page)

“After leaving where we were”
: Dale Allen Hawley,
New York Herald Tribune,
July 3, 1943, MCC, YU.

In a message on November 22
: Chandler, 767n; Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-50 (
“Go for the swine”
); DDE to MWC, Nov. 19, 1942, Chandler, 740; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 18, 1942, Chandler, 736.

In truth, he spent
: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 18, 1942, Chandler, 732.

No distraction tormented
: DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 677 (
“these Frogs”
); DDE, “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign,” 17 (
“morbid sense of honor”
); DDE to GCM, Feb. 4, 1943, Chandler, 937 (
“volatile”
); Kennedy, 282 (
“a dog about religion”
).

But the commander-in-chief lacked
: CCS, “Minutes of Meeting,” Jan. 15, 1943, 1430, NARA RG 218, “Records of U.S. JCS,” box 195 (
132 desertions
); Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It,” 20; “The Reminiscences of Rear Adm. George W. Bauernschmidt,” 1991, USNI OHD, appendix B, 9 (
French supply requests
).

More distracting
: Crawford,
Report on North Africa,
83 (
“like a Tammany scan-
dal”
); Milton Eisenhower, 137 (
“fighting Nazis”
);
Three Years,
192 (
“stinking skunk”
); Chandler, 739n (
“We are fighting”
); Langer, 368.

Darlan’s repressive actions
: MacVane,
On the Air in World War II,
121; Macmillan,
The Blast of War,
184; Middleton, 242; Tompkins, 132, 136, 139 (
hoarded coffee
).

Eisenhower averted
: DDE to GSP, Nov. 26, 1942, Chandler, 775; DDE to GCM, Nov. 17, 1942, Chandler, 729; DDE to CCS, Nov. 14, 1942, Chandler, 708; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 14, 1942, Chandler, 712.

Roosevelt had authorized: Three Years,
206 (
“I am but a lemon”
).

All this was folderol
: Ramsey, 111 (
“For Christ’s sake”
); Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair,
A General’s Life,
133; Hanson Baldwin,
New York Times,
March 29, 1969, 1 (
“best damn lieutenant colonel”
); Piers Brendon,
Ike: His Life and Times,
96 (
“fatchist”
); Macmillan,
The Blast of War,
174 (
“I’m no reactionary!”
).

At the end
: Hatch,
General Ike
, 130; McKeough and Lockridge, 51, 61; Merle Miller,
Ike the Soldier,
435;
Three Years,
199, 206.

Even an officer as strong
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 17, 1942, Chandler, 731; Kay Summersby Morgan,
Past Forgetting,
110 (
“lonely man”
); DDE to H. H. Arnold, Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 751.

He regretted, too
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 781; Ismay,
Memoirs,
289; Bryant, 527, 528, 534 (
“far too busy”
);
Three Years,
201 (
“The whole thing”
).

The low moan
: Ramsey, 236; Paul Semmens, “The Hammer of Hell,” ts, n.d., CMH, 94;
Three Years,
306, 200.

To his son
: DDE to John S. D. Eisenhower, Nov. 20, 1942, Chandler, 747 (
“I hope”
); Morgan, 101; Davis,
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy,
399.

“The Dead Salute the Gods”

no roasted peacock
: Daubin, “The Battle of Happy Valley” AAR, T. A. Seely, includes OH w/ J. K. Waters, Dec. 29, 1942, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, #46, box 52; Rame, 120 (
“swallows diving”
); Fergusson, 96 (
“Like all things German”
); Charles W. Eineichner, ASEQ, Rangers, MHI (
“any weapon we had”
); “Lessons of the Tunisian Campaign, 1942–3, British Forces,” n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 56.

On the rare occasions: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II,
22; Howe,
Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
69; Rame, 138; Robert S. Cameron, “Americanizing the Tank,” diss, Temple Univ., 1994, 772 (
any airborne object
); Robert A. Brand, ASEQ, 16th Inf, MHI; Relman Morin,
Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Gauge of Greatness,
81 (
“WEFT”
).

Despite such demoralizing episodes
: H. B. Latham to G. F. Howe, June 13, 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 228; AAR, T. A. Seely, NARA RG 337, Observer Reports, #46, box 52.

Before dawn on November 26: NWAf,
300–301; author visit, Apr. 2000; Howe,
Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
68; Daubin, 1–29; Waters, SOOHP, 611 (
“a beautiful column”
).

The approaching Mk IV
: ffrench Blake,
A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 1922–1959,
97; Belton Y. Cooper,
Death Traps,
25.

From the ridge
: Daubin, 1–29 (
“long searing tongues”
); minutes, “Meeting of the Subcommittee on Armored Vehicles of the National Research Council,” June 1943, 9; John Ellis,
On the Front Lines,
153 (
“like a finger”
).

Wreathed in gray smoke
: Messenger, 21 (
“snapped like a cap pistol”
and
“power-driven grindstone”
); Daubin, 1–29.

“Our losses,”: Kriegstagebuch,
Nov. 26, 1942, Div. Lederer, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.

“The Americans had done well”
: ffrench Blake, 97.

Ten miles south
: Parris and Russell, 223–24 (
eggs and a beefsteak
); Middleton, 209 (
“dusty and empty”
).

Tucked into an oxbow
: author visit, Apr. 2000; Blaxland, 111; Robinett,
Armor Command
, 75 (
“haunting memory”
).

The Surreys were spread
: Jordan, 237 (
twelve hours
); Daniell,
History of the East Surrey Regiment,
vol. IV, 153–57; Lowell Bennett, 212–15; Ford, 27–28 (
“My good man”
); Middleton, 215 (
“We’ll be in Tunis”
); war diary, XC Panzer Corps, Nov. 27, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.

There was not a moment
: Gardiner, ts, 1970, USMA Arch, 84–86; Gerald Linderman,
The World Within War,
58;
Destruction,
177.

For two miles
: Gordon A. Baker,
Iron Knights: The United States 66th Armored Regiment,
136 (
“looked like a damned cathedral”
); Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,”
Armored Cavalry Journal,
March/Apr. 1948, 8.

Perfectly camouflaged
: Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 84–86 (
“horribly wounded”
); Jervois, 119–22; Howe,
Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
72–73 (
“fought in each other’s presence”
); Robinett,
Armor Command,
75–76; AAR, n.d., PMD, LOC, box 6; Linderman, 25 (
“burns like twenty haystacks”
); Lowell Bennett, 298 (
“As soon as I get well”
).

British soldiers, stone deaf
: Middleton, 209–10 (
“When they reached”
and
“sixpence for a Spitfire”
); ffrench Blake, 98; Jordan, 65 (
“a pack of lies”
); Rame, 141 (
“The dead salute”
).

Toward midnight
: Jervois, 121 (
recognized as witless
);
Destruction,
177.

Regrettably, this decision
: AAR, 5th FA Bn, Nov. 13, 1942–Jan. 18, 1943, and 5th FA Bn journal and operations report, Nov. 20, 1942–March 1, 1943, and letter, R. N. Tyson to Clift Andrus, Dec. 3, 1942, all in NARA RG 407, E 427, box 5879; Robinett,
Armor Command,
71 (
“looked like street lights”
); Frelinghuysen, 27–38 (
“Frederic Remington painting”
); 10th Panzer Div., intel report, Dec. 17, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 227.

Dawn on November 29
: Jervois, 122; Middleton, 211 (
“Drag ass”
); Frelinghuysen, 41–45 (
“People who fight a war”
).

The southern prong
: Malcolm, 89–91 (
“no more menacing”
); author visit, Apr. 2000; Ray, 14–15; Austin, 19, 35.

Both presumptions
: Carell, 313 (
“a Tunisian Verdun”
); Jean-Yves Nasse,
Green Devils: German Paratroops, 1939–1945,
72–74; James E. Mrazek,
The Fall of Eben Emael,
180–91.

The Argylls stopped
: Malcolm, 91–95 (
“Look, George”
and
“If only I had”
);
Kriegstagebuch,
Nov. 28, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Lucas,
Panzer Army Africa,
147;
NWAf,
308n; Ford, 22; Richard Doherty,
Only the Enemy in Front,
7, 35; Blaxland, 117 (
“gaunt and gangling figure”
).

The commandos departed
: Jack A. Marshall, ASEQ, 34th Div, 168th Inf, “The Battle That Wasn’t,” ts, n.d., MHI; Jack A. Marshall, “Tales of a Timid Commando,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (
“a tall, Dracula-like figure”
); AAR, 1st Commando troops, n.d., C. W. Allfrey Collection, LHC, 3/5/3; Jordan, 88–93; “British Commandos,” Aug. 1942, Military Intelligence Service, WD, 7; Fussell,
Wartime,
284 (
“Never give the enemy”
); H. Marshall,
Over to Tunis,
82 (
“ant in a hairbrush”
); Lowell Bennett, 99;
Kriegstagebuch,
Div von Broich, Dec. 1, 1942, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225 (
“decimated in a short fire fight”
); Coon,
A North Africa Story,
68 (
“tall, Dracula-like figure”
); Hougen,
The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division.

Five hundred and thirty
: AAR, “Report by Lt. Col. J. D. Frost, MC,” 2nd Bn, the Parachute Regiment, n.d., PRO, WO 175/56; John Frost,
Nearly There,
1; Frost,
A
Drop Too Many,
74 (
“We were not”
); Robert Peatling,
Without Tradition: 2 Para, 1941–1945,
73–87 (
“traveling circus”
and
“a medieval look”
); Warren, 17; Saunders, 93–99; Tugwell, 144.

At five
P.M.
the 180 men: Destruction,
177n;
NWAf,
309; Rame, 179 (
“Dr. Livingston”
);
AAFinWWII
, 87.

“Jerry Is Counterattacking!”

In late November
: chronology, Chandler, vol. v, 99;
Three Years
, 204–208 (
“Boy Scout trip”
).

the shocking news
: Auphan and Moral, 255–66 (
“Scuttle!”
); Cunningham, 158, 255–65; Jean-Paul Pallud, “The French Navy at Toulon,”
After the Battle,
1992, 1 (
“The ship is sunk!”
); De Gaulle,
Memoirs,
359; Boatner, 301;
Three Years,
203–204.

Of greater concern
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 700 (
“apparently imbued”
); Clark,
Calculated Risk,
134 (
“the Anderson setup”
); Eisenhower,
Crusade in Europe,
48 (
“nothing is more difficult”
).

Some things about the war
: Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War,
vol. II, 487 (
exceeded 850
), 491; DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779;
Three Years,
208; Abbott, 64 (
“There’ll be Stukas”
).

To Eisenhower’s surprise
: Huston, 478 (
U.S. Army doctrine
and
Regulations had prohibited
); Chandler, 968n (
until 1941
); Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 44 (
“only way to hurt a Kraut”
);
NWAf,
480 (
“Purple Heart box”
); Linderman, 25 (
Ronsons
); Cameron, “Americanizing the Tank,” 764; Jensen, 60 (
“light every time”
); Robinett,
Armor Command,
157 (
“rat racing”
).

“My immediate aim”
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 30, 1942, Chandler, 779.

Even as this pretty delusion
: Ulrich Bürker, “Einsatz der 10. Panzer Division in Tunisien,” Dec. 1947, FMS, #D-310, MHI, 15; Boog et al., 805 (
“definite change”
and
“play for time”
);
NWAf,
310; Lucas, 151; Ralph Bennett, 194; Heinz Pomtow, “The Campaign in Tunisia,” FMS, #3-A, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; 10th Panzer Div, “Combat Report of the Tébourba Engagement, 1–4 December 1942,” n.d., PMR, LOC Ms Div box 4; Kühn,
German Paratroops in World War II,
174 (
only thirty German
).

From decrypted German messages
: Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War,
vol. II, 504 (
“special priority signal”
); Ford, 31 (
“All around us”
); Rame, 164–65 (
“incandescent, enormous”
). Rame was the nom de plume of A. D. Divine.

Fischer’s tanks had closed
: war diary, Blade Force, Dec. 1–2, 1942, PRO, WO 175/179; “At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army,” NARA RG 111, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, No. 1001, Dec. 1942; AAR, 78th Div, Dec. 2, 1942, PRO, WO 175/168.