An Army at Dawn (122 page)

“Germans were everywhere”
: Pyle,
Here Is Your War,
273; Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, 1989, ts, 81st Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD; Nicholson and Forbes, 341 (
“Champagne rather dry”
), 285 (
“British Tommy!”
); Howard and Sparrow, 141 (
dental instruments
); Jensen, 75; Linderman, 331.

A few escaped
: Luck,
Panzer Commander,
122; Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War,
abridged edition, 292; “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch,” 48; Nicholson and Forbes, 342 (
“they sat astride”
); Clarke,
The Eleventh at War,
303; Rame, 291–94; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” May 12, 1943, LHC (
“The anguished of yesterday”
); McCorquodale et al., 235; Austin, 153; letter, Raymond Dreyer,
Fenton
(Iowa)
Reporter,
Nov. 4, 1943, MCC, YU.

As recently as May 5
: DDE to GCM, May 5, 1943, Chandler, 1114 (
“the Axis cannot”
), 1146n; memos, MTOUSA, May 1943, NARA RG 492, Records of the Office of the Commanding General, box 56.

Carefully calibrated
: memo, B. M. Sawbridge to W. B. Smith, July 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, Office of the Commanding General, box 332; Schrijvers, 51 (
“like sardines”
); Kurowski, 121.

For some
: “Records Relating to Prisoners,” MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, Provost Marshal General, box 2245; “Observation of Provost Marshal Activities in Oran Area,” “memo for Gen. Dillon,” Nov. 25, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, box 2209; Penney, ts, LHC (
“using their prisoners”
).

Neither starvation
:
Destruction
, 445–46;
NWAf,
662; Hansen, 5/104; Parris and Russell, 348 (
“fought like sportsmen”
).

The biggest fish
:
Destruction,
458–59; Hunt, 181; Parris and Russell, 357 (
“He had tried”
).

With fuel scavanged
: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 113–15; Carell, 353;
Destruction,
457–58.

He soon returned
: Stevens,
Fourth Indian Division,
255; Tuker, 374–78; D’Arcy-Dawson, 245–46 (
“a Potsdam parade”
); Allfrey diary, May 12, 1943, LHC (
“He took this badly”
); Eisenhower,
Crusade in Europe,
157 (
snubbed Arnim
); J.B.A. Glennie, ts, 1988, in papers of R. de L. King, IWM, 96/29/1 (
a Steyer Daimler
); Martin, 51 (
“an iron-plated monocle”
);
Destruction,
459.

EPILOGUE

Roses perfumed
: Signal Corps footage, NARA film, ADC-1113 and ADC-2407; Bailey, 119; letter, Joe Farley, n.d., MCC, YU (
“too damn hot”
); Macmillan,
War Diaries,
88–91 (
“football crowd”
).

Shortly before noon
: Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 151–52 (
“same precision”
); Nicholson and Forbes, 349; diary, May 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 (
“French ecclesiastic”
).

At noon, the crowd’s mood
:
Three Years,
312; Moorehead, 65; Hougen,
The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division
; Bailey,
Through Hell and High Water,
119.

After the French
: Bailey, 119 (“
Arkansas backwoods men”
); diary, May 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 (
“lack pride”
); Harmon,
Combat Commander,
141; Davies, 110–11.

Then pipers
: memo, 24th Guards to 1st Irish Guards, May 17, 1943, PRO, WO 175/488 (
“Brasses will”
); Macmillan,
War Diaries,
90–91; Gardiner, ts, USMA Arch, 151–52 (
“much the better show”
).

The parade straggled
: Nicholson,
Alex,
193 (
“Hundreds of Italians”
); Nicholson and Forbes, 349; Macmillan,
War Diaries,
91–92;
Three Years,
313; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story,
109 (
“waste of time”
).

Even after two and a half
: McMillan,
Mediterranean Assignment,
319 (
“lean, bronzed”
);
Three Years,
310, 312; DDE to GCM, May 13, 1943, Chandler, 1129; DDE to Fox Conner, Aug. 21, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 485 (
“too simple-minded
); D.K.R. Crosswell,
The Chief of Staff: The Military Career of General Walter Bedell Smith,
151; F. E. Morgan, OH, FCP, MHI (
“One of the fascinations”
and
“a well-trained”
); Larrabee, 427 (
“Before he left”
).

The tiny Mediterranean island
: Roskill, 444 (
“salvage firstly”
); memo, B. M. Archibald, AFHQ G-3, to G-4, July 15, 1943, NARA RG 331, micro, R-141-C (
“not a great deal”
);
Register of Graduates and Former Cadets,
USMA, 1998 (
Arnold
); lecture, Col. Mohamed Ali El Bekri, May 14, 2001, Army-Navy Club, Washington, D.C. (
Sixty years later
).

The French high command
: “French Policy Toward Arabs, Jews, and Italians in Tunisia,” Dec. 1943, OSS, Research and Analysis Branch, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, box 895.

Preoccupied with the imminent invasion
: Miller,
Some Things You Never Forget,
126; “History of the 168th Infantry,” Iowa GSM; Davies, 111; Carver, ed.,
The War Lords,
572; Fussell,
Wartime,
264 (
“I am Jesus’ little lamb”
), 139 (
“When you figure how many”
); letter, Joe Spring,
PM,
n.d., in MCC, YU (
“Dame Rumor”
); Harold B. Simpson,
Audie Murphy, American Soldier,
18, 47, 66–67; Kennett, 136–37; “Dennis Frederick Neal, Soldier,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 72–73 (
“There are many rumors”
and
“Ol’ General Ryder’s”
).

Most of their leaders
: Anderson to DDE, May 12, 1943, Anderson file, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 5; Boatner, 9; “World War II War Hero Fights Final Battle,” Apr. 1991 newspaper clipping, no citation, Iowa GSM; “An American Story: The Life and Times of a Midlands Family,” Nov. 9, 1997,
Omaha World-Herald,
1; letter, Robert R. Moore to family, May 12, 1943; author interview, Robert R. Moore, Jr., June 2000.

Young ones do
:
Destruction,
460;
NWAf,
675; D’Arcy-Dawson, 24 (
“Mort!”);
letter, Joseph T. Dawson to family, June 1, 1943, J. T. Dawson Collection, MRC FDM; Doubler, 240; Blaxland, 253 (six battalion commanders), 265.

Axis casualties
: Blaxland, 265; Messenger, 120;
Destruction,
460; Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” MHI, 115; Westphal, 124; Kühn,
German Paratroops in World War II,
179; Parkinson, 104.

“one continent”
: Churchill,
The Hinge of Fate,
780; Doubler, 13; Gelb, 320; “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” vol. 4, March 1946, CMH, 124 (
“high-grade stock”
).

Truscott worried
: Truscott,
Command Missions,
192; Larrabee, 436 (
“a place to be lousy”
).

It was the discovery
: Richard Wilson, “The Gallant Fight of the 34th Division in the North African Campaign,” 1943,
Des Moines Register and Tribune,
Iowa GSM (
“three things”
); Middleton, “We’ll Take ’Em Apart and Then Get Home,”
New York Times Magazine,
July 18, 1943, 8 (
“grudge fight”
); letter, Stephen Dinning,
Des Moines Register and Tribune,
March 21, 1943, MCC, YU (
“There’s nothing over here”
); letter, Bernard Kessel, n.d., MCC, YU (
“In years to come”
); letter, n.d., submitted by James D. Buckley, MCC, YU (
“We didn’t know”
); Essame, 55 (
“unlike anyone else”
).

“I am not willing”
: letter, Ray Salibury to sister, July 6, 1943, in Tapert, ed.,
Lines of Battle
; letter, anonymous, Apr. 1943,
Minneapolis Tribune,
MCC, YU (
“We all feel”
).

Africa was the first step
: Gelb, 319; Bryant, 419; Warlimont, 277–78; Churchill,
The Hinge of Fate,
779.

Hitler had lost
: “An Interview with General Field Marshal Albert Kesselring,” May 1946,
World War II German Military Studies,
vol. 3, ETHIN 72, MHI (
“It was in Tunisia”
); Kesselring,
Memoirs,
157; Gelb, 320 (
“walking around”
); “Estimate of the Present Combat Value of the Italian Armed Forces,” May 6, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (
“only one Italian”
); Howard,
Grand Strategy,
vol. 4, 338 (
milk and rice
).

Yet Tunis—like Stalingrad
: Goodwin, 437; Warlimont, 314 (
“postponing the invasion”
); Howard,
Grand Strategy,
vol. 4, 337, 355.

The protracted campaign
: Fraser,
Alanbrooke,
336; Roger Barry Fosdick, “A Call to Arms: The American Enlisted Soldier in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 1985, Claremont Graduate School, 22 (
“War is a burden”
); Bennett,
Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy,
371; Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe,
85;
AAFinWWII,
50 (
“the purest gamble”
); Churchill,
The Hinge of Fate,
778.

“Together we had all faced death”
: P. Royle, ts, IWM, 66/305/1, 77; Caleb Milne, n.d., in Tapert, ed.,
Lines of Battle
(
“a vivid, wonderful world”
).

SOURCES

BOOKS

The AAF in Northwest Africa
. Washington, D.C.: Center for Air Force History, 1992.

Abbott, Harry P.
The Nazi “88” Made Believers
. Dayton, Oh.: Otterbein Press, 1946.

Adams, Henry H.
1942: The Year That Doomed the Axis
. New York: Warner, 1973.

Altieri, James J.
Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers
. Durham, N.C.: Ranger Book Committee, 1945.

———.
The Spearheaders
. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960.

Alvarez, David.
Secret Messages: Codebreaking and American Diplomacy, 1930–1945.
Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2000.

Ambrose, Stephen E.
Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President Elect, 1890–1952. Volume 1
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.

———.
The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
. New York: Doubleday, 1970.

Ambrose, Stephen E., and Richard H. Immerman.
Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981.

Ankrum, Homer.
Dogfaces Who Smiled Through Tears
. Lake Mills, Ia.: Graphic Publishing, 1987.

Armstrong, Anne.
Unconditional Surrender
. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1961.

Arnbal, Anders Kjar.
The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers
. New York: Vantage Press, 1993.

Ashcraft, Howard D.
As You Were: Cannon Company, 34th Infantry Division, 168th Infantry Regiment
. Richmond, Va.: Ashcraft Enterprises, 1990.

Astor, Gerald.
The Greatest War: Americans in Combat, 1941–1945.
Novato, Calif.: Presidio, 1999.

Auphan, Paul, and Jacques Mordal.
The French Navy in World War II.
Trans. A.C.J. Sabalot. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1959.

Austin, A. B.
Birth of an Army
. London: Victor Gollancz, 1943.

Ayer, Fred, Jr.
Before the Colors Fade
. Dunwoody, Ga.: Norman S. Berg, 1971.

Baedeker, Karl.
The Mediterranean
. New York: Scribners, 1911.

Bailey, Leslie W.
Through Hell and High Water
. New York: Vantage, 1994.

Baily, Charles M.
Faint Praise: American Tanks and Tank Destroyers During World War II
. Hamden, Conn.: Archon, 1983.