An Army at Dawn (102 page)

The lieutenant was deceived
: Morison, “The Approach to Fedala,” ts, n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16 (
“One plot showed”
); “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 426 (
“center of Times Square”
).

Despite this irrefutable evidence
: 3rd ID, “Brushwood Final Report,” Dec. 8, 1942, NARA micro, AFHQ G-3 Operations, R-24-C; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 426 (
“as though one switch”
); AAR, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24430; Morison, “The Approach to Fedala,” ts, n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16; Truscott,
Command Missions,
93 (
“To be perfectly honest”
).

Destroyers tacked
: “Operations, 3rd Bn., 60th Combat Team, 8–11 Nov. 1942,” NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7540; Ernest D. Whitehead, Sr.,
World War II: An Ex-Sergeant Remembers,
33 (
impaled his thigh
); Wallace, “Africa, We Took It and Liked It,” 20; Randle,
Safi Adventure,
27 (
“Don’t harass”
).

Then the loadmasters bellowed
: AAR, U.S.S.
Charles Carroll,
n.d., U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 24490.

At Fedala, the first wave
: “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 430 (
“indescribable confusion”
); “CSI Battlebook 3-A: Operation TORCH,” CSI, 53; AAR, J. T. Hagglove, “Report of Operation at Fedala,” U.S.S.
Leonard Wood,
Nov. 28, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, Box 24490; “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 436; Kerwin, SOOHP, MHI, 123 (
scavenging life jackets
).

Eighty miles north
: Truscott,
Command Decisions
, 97; Mittelman, 48 (
“like a yacht race”
); AAR,
Henry T. Allen,
n.d., SEM, NHC, box 16; “Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia and Port Lyautey Airdrome,” 1945, ts, 2–3.7 AEI, CMH.

The third and final
: Karl Baedeker,
The Mediterranean,
109; Justin McGuinness,
Footprint Morocco Handbook,
203; Oscar Koch, ts, n.d., MHI (
picture postcards
); lecture, Louis Ely, Feb. 5, 1943, SEM, NHC (
Jew’s Cliff
).

To seize Safi port
: AAR, 47th Infantry, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7514; Karig, 184 (
“sawed-off”
); SEM, NHC, box 4, folder 2; George Bastedo, “K Goes to Africa,” ts, n.d., in Chester H. Jordan file, 3rd Bn, 47th Inf, ASEQ, MHI; Randle,
Safi Adventure,
appendix A (
“Violent, rapid”
).

The usual muddle
: Harmon, 84 (
stretched a huge net
); “Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet,” 1946, vol. I, USNAd, 408.

Machine-gun rounds
: lecture, C. G. Richardson, “The Attack on Safi,” Aug. 20, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 164.

Unsettled, the troops
: James Adams, “Observer’s Report on Landing Operations of Task Force BLACKSTONE,” Jan. 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 52 (
They flopped
); Bastedo, “K Goes to Africa” Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa.”

Three more waves
: Adams, “Observer’s Report” (
“A soldier would snake”
); Randle,
Safi Adventure,
45, 58.

By early afternoon
: Mittelman, 65; Erbes, “Hell on Wheels Surgeon,” 15 (
“with a welder’s torch”
).

It was all too much
: “Official Report Submitted by Commander of the Safi Garrison,” Nov. 14, 1942, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1;
NWAf,
109.

Eisenhower had trusted: Three Years,
173–76; DDE to GCM, Nov. 8, 1942, Chandler, 673 (
“Everything appears”
).

Besides that
: DDE to John S. D. Eisenhower, Oct. 13, 1942, Chandler, vol. I, 617.

“this business of warfare”: Three Years,
176–77; DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 678 (“
That I do
not
believe
”).

“Worries of a Commander”
: DDE memo, Nov. 8, 1942, Chandler, 675.

CHAPTER 3: BEACHHEAD

A Sword in Algiers

This was war
: Martha Gellhorn, quoted in Paul Fussell,
Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic,
298 (
“our condition”
); Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach.”

East of the Algerian
:
Destruction,
144;
The Landings in North Africa,
13; “5 Corps Lessons from TORCH,” extract from letter, Nov. 26, 1942, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 472 (
“all very friendly”
).

Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Doyle
: letter, John O’Daniel to OW, Jan. 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Berens, 36–37 (
Ignoring orders
and
“at the beach”
).

Luftwaffe pilots
:
The Landings in North Africa,
104;
Baltimore Sun,
Dec. 17, 1942; Karig, 220; Morison,
Operations in North African Waters,
213.

Pleasing as such retaliatory
: AAR, Jan. 3, 1945, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40; Pendar, 112.

In Juin’s limousine
: Charles W. Ryder, OH, March 1949, SM, MHI (
“I will go anywhere”
); Murphy, 132.

A bugler perched
: AAR, July 17, 1945, and Jan. 3, 1945, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40 (
“I don’t like blood”
); Pendar, 114; Hougen,
The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division
(
hunting trophies
); Ryder, OH, March 1949, SM, MHI (
“Are you”
); AAR, C.W. Ryder, Nov. 19, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, box 244; Murphy, 133.

At dawn on Monday
: Roskill, 325; Fergusson, 213; S.W.C. Pack,
Invasion North Africa 1942,
80 (
“Everyone lie down!”
).

So, too, did General Giraud
: Langer, 350 (
“his presence”
); DDE to GCM, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 680 (
“stupid Frogs”
).

The authorities in Vichy
: Langer, 356 (
“a rebel chief and a felon”
); memo, J. J. McCloy to L. J. McNair, March 31, 1943, NARA RG 165, Plans and Ops, box 1230; Funk, 234; Tompkins, 116 (
uniform had gone missing
).

Three hours later
: Murphy, 135 (
“messes things”
); Darryl F. Zanuck,
Tunis Expedition,
39, 48.

The Hôtel St. Georges
: Baedeker, 221; Middleton, 191 (
spinsters touring
).

Clark found General Ryder
: Berens, 38 (
“shoot their butts off”
); “Record of Events,” Feb. 22, 1943, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 1, 1–13; Clark,
Calculated Risk,
108.

“We have work”
: Clark,
Calculated Risk
, 108–13; “Record of Events” (
“All my associates”
); Langer, 352 (
“Pétain is nothing”
); log, Nov. 10, 1942, Jerauld Wright Papers, LOC, box 2 (
“That is your decision”
); Murphy, 138 (
“Would you mind”
).

The Americans retreated
: Murphy, 138 (
Clark’s tacit threat
); Funk, 243 (
“in the name”
); Tompkins, 121 (“J’accepte”); “Record of Events,” 13.

He immediately
: Alan Moorehead,
The End in Africa,
61 (“
He appeared
”); Funk, 240 (
“I issued”
); Tompkins, 123 (
“I am lost”
); “Record of Events,” 13; Morison,
Operations in North African Waters,
217; Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” 29 (
“Mon Admiral, by order”
).

At Gibraltar, Eisenhower thumbed
: Chandler, 679 (
“War brings”
); Butcher diary, Nov. 8 (
“good assassin”
) and 13 (
“in a neutral country”
), DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 165.

But it was Oran
: DDE to GCM, Nov. 9, 1942, Chandler, 680 (
“My biggest”
).

A Blue Flag over Oran

American soldiers had converged
: Field Order #1, Oct. 11, 1942, 26th Inf., MRC FDM (
Brooklyn, Brockton
).

Terry Allen and a larger portion
: Rame, 16 (
“scrofulous”
); author interview, Eston White; Downing, 92 (
When the mule
).

A wounded soldier lay
: Downing, 89 (
“Don’t kick”
); Fred W. Hall, Jr., “A Memoir of World War II,” ts, 1997, Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans (
“The fallen wire”
).

St. Cloud was a buff-tinted
:
NWAf,
220n; AAR, Leland L. Rounds, July 13, 1944, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, box 40; Field Order #1, intel. annex, Oct. 11, 1942, 26th Inf., MRC FDM (
“second- or third-class”
); Rame, 16.

At 3:30
P.M.
, the battalion
: Marshall, ed.,
Proud Americans,
31–40 (
“Keep going, Mac”
); Robert W. Baumer,
Before Taps Sounded,
64.

Now French artillerymen
: Marshall, ed., 26 (
“Please, please,”
), 31 (
“Stop!”
), 35 (
goats stampeded
).

Night slipped down
: Russell F. Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI.

By seven
A.M.
on November 9
: Parris and Russell, 193; Rame, 28–31.

“I’m going to put”
: Rame, 29; Knickerbocker et al., 46.

At that moment
: Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” 14, 16; “Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves,”
Saturday Evening Post,
Aug. 17, 1946, 20; Frye, “‘Terrible Terry’ of the 1st Division Is Getting Tougher as He Goes Along.”

Standing beneath a fig tree
: John K. Waters, SOOHP, 1980, William C. Parnell III, MHI, 683; Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” MRC FDM; “A Factual Situation and Operations Report on the Combat Operations of the 1st Infantry Division,” n.d., TdA, MHI (
“There will not be”
); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” n.d., TdA, MHI; Ramsey, 55 (
“I just couldn’t do it”
).

The circumvention of St. Cloud
: Rogers, 15; Knickerbocker et al., 50 (
“You will not talk”
); Rame, 40; Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
45 (
flood the port
). (George Marshall later sent FDR a copy of Allen’s field order no. 3 as a model of brevity.)

Festive crowds
: Joseph S. Frelinghuysen,
Passages to Freedom,
26; letter, William B. Kern to PMR, Jan. 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH.

For more than five hours
: “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental History,” n.d., Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Lida Mayo,
The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront,
117 (
a large blue pennant
).

Beyond the killed
:
NWAf,
227, 228n; Observer Report, #41, March 5, 1943, NARA RG 337, Box 52 (
Allen and Roosevelt also relieved
); author interview, Juskalian, Feb. 25, 2000.

The liberators immediately
: McNamara, 22; Pyle,
Here Is Your War,
83 (
“to make them feel”
); Waters, SOOHP, 171; Edward J. Josowitz,
An Informal History of the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion,
7 (
threw a jolly party
); Pearlman, 249; author interview, Juskalian.

Almost 37,000 men now occupied
: Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
47 (
“Everything is rosy”
); DDE to W. B. Smith, Nov. 10, 1942, Chandler, 686 (
“rush and rush”
).

“An Orgy of Disorder”

Casablanca provided
:
Landings in North Africa,
27–39; Auphan and Moral, 230–36; Morison,
Operations in North African Waters,
93–114 (
“fire-away Flannagan”
).

hardly a syllable
:
Three Years,
182.

Hewitt considered
:
New York Sun,
Jan. 30, 1943, HKH, LOC Ms. Div., box 9, folder 6; Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” part 2, 83; U.S.S.

Brooklyn
war diary, Nov. 8, 1942, SEM, NHC, box 15 (
“Have noticed”
).

Within ten minutes
: Brooks, “Casablanca—The French Side of the Fence,” 909.

The
Jean Bart: AAR, Carl E. Bledsoe, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 51; Mason, 181; Godson, 51.

The commander of the French
: Auphan and Moral, 230; Tompkins, 162–65 (
black cassock
and
wives and children
).

French shells
: AAR, R. E. Ingersoll, “TORCH Operation, Comments and Recommendations,” March 1, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24486; AAR, USN, “Participation in Operation TORCH Action off Casablanca,” Nov. 19, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, “Special Files,” box 24488;
Landings in North Africa,
35; “Signal Communication in the North African Campaign,” ts, 1945,
Tactical Communication in World War II,
Part I, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 17.

concussion
: HKH, “Reminscences of a World War II Admiral,” ts, NHC, box 21; letter, Edward S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16; Farago, 35–36 (
“I hope you have”
); Blumenson,
The Patton Papers, 1940–1945,
103, 105 (
“I was on”
).