An Army at Dawn (111 page)

General Anderson ordered: NWAf
, 378, 382; “Report of Ousseltia Valley Campaign, 19–29 January 1943,” CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 12, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCB-0.3 (
“An excellent example”
); Rame, 218–19 (
“a lake of morning mist”
); “The French Army of North Africa in the Tunisian Campaign,” lecture, 1943, Fort Hood, William S. Biddle Papers, MHI; Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
111–13; Truscott,
Command Missions,
138 (
400 Germans
).

French casualties
:
NWAf,
382, 386n, 387; “Report of Liaison Officer on French Troops,” Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (
“French can no longer”
); memo, DDE, Jan. 19, 1943, Chandler, 909; “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign,” Jan. 13, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa” G-1 report, HQ II Corps, Feb. 14, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 263; Eisenhower,
Crusade in Europe,
489; DDE to Anderson, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 922.

He had no sooner: Three Years,
244–45, 255; DDE to W. B. Smith, Jan. 26, 1943, Chandler, 923 (
“barracks used by our soldiers”
); DDE to T. Handy, Jan. 28, 1943, Chandler, 927 (
“As much as we preach”
).

Orlando Ward, who ostensibly commanded
: Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, X-62; diary, Jan. 23, 28, 1943, OW, MHI; Truscott,
Command Missions,
142;
NWAf,
387–88; Fredendall to LKT Jr, phone transcript, Jan. 24, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9, folder 5 (
“Remember that force”
); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, Russell Gugeler, OW, MHI; “Report of Operation, 27 January–3 February 1943,” 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; Knickerbocker et al., 59, 82 (
“bits and pieces”
).

General von Arnim duly noted
: author visit, April 2000; Carell, 333 (
“my nightmare”
); Wilson, “The Operations of the 509th Parachute Battalion in North Africa” James B. Carvey, “Faïd Pass,”
Infantry Journal,
Sept. 1944, 8.

That was about to change
: Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid,” lecture, n.d., Cavalry School, MHI (
“Do not fire”
); Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, SM, MHI; Truscott,
Command Missions,
150; Hansen, 2/80 (
“the most important point”
); Blumenson, “Kasserine Pass, 30 January–22 February 1943,” in Heller and Stofft, eds., 245.

Prompt, decisive action
: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; Blumenson,
Kasserine Pass,
108.

McQuillin’s nickname
: R. E. McQuillin, Army biographical files, MHI; Robert Simons, OH, July 1976, Gugeler, OW, MHI (
“As a man he was”
); Howze, OH, Aug. 1976, OW, MHI.

Having granted the enemy
: A. N. Stark, Jr., Army biographical files, MHI; author interviews, George Juskalian, Feb. 25, 2000 (
“It was nerve-racking”
), and Paul F. Gorman, Feb. 7, 2000; Akers, OH, July 27, 1949, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; Truscott,
Command Missions,
148; Blumenson,
Kasserine Pass,
109; Raphael L. Uffner, “Recollections of World War II with the First Infantry Division,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 245–50 (
“strongly rejected”
); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 7/1–2; Robinett,
Armor Command,
143.

Truscott and Ward drove
: author visit, Apr. 2000; Jordan,
Jordan’s Tunis Diary,
175 (
“that half-world”
); Truscott,
Command Missions
, 148–49.

The American force
: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/1–2; Laurence P. Robertson, ts, 1988, ASEQ, 1st AR, 1st AD, MHI (also, earlier draft in Laurence Robertson papers, USMA Arch); “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14767; G. C. Kelleher, Army biographical files, MHI; Uffner, 250 (
French toast
).

For Company H
: Robertson, ts, MHI, 184 (
“The velocity”
and
heavy black bread
); Truscott,
Command Missions,
149; Uffner, 248; “Catalogue of Standard Ordnance Items, Volume I,” in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. II, part 3, CMH.

The failed counterattack
: “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 February,” CCA, 1st AD, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767; OW to McQuillin, Jan. 31, 1943, 2115 hrs., NARA RG 407, E 427 (
“I am counting on you”
); “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” 7/2–3 (
“held their fire”
);
NWAf,
393–94;E. C. Smith, Feb. 14, 1943, MCC, YU (
“shook us”
); AAR, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, and S-2 report, CCA, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 14767.

Faïd Pass was gone: NWAf
, 392 (
scathing message
), 394n (
more than 900
); Heller and Stofft, eds., 246 (
McQuillin bitterly
); Hansen, 2/80 (
“To retake it”
); Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
135; Rudolf Lang, “Battles of Kampfgruppe Lang in Tunisia,” 1947, FMS, D-173; Carell, 331 (
“It will soon be over”
).

“This Can’t Happen to Us”

Fredendall’s attention
: Liebling,
Mollie & Other War Pieces,
76 (
“draw the pucker string”
);
NWAf,
392–96.

Infantrymen from the 1st Battalion
: Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH, 102–107 (
“Sunday School picnic”
); author interview, Aurelio Barron, Oct. 19, 1999 (
“All down the road”
); “History of the 168th Infantry,” Jan. 31, 1942, NARA RG 407, E 427, boxes 9575–77; Rame, 229; Rolf, 79 (
“It was the most terrible thing”
);
AAFinWWII,
142; Lauren E. McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station,”
Infantry Journal,
Apr. 1945, 30 (
“Maimed and twisted”
).

Three different colonels
: Stewart, “The ‘Red Bull’ Division: The Training and Initial Engagements of the 34th Infantry Division, 1941–43,” 1; Dennis B. Dray, “Regimental Commander of the 168th Infantry, Colonel Thomas Davidson Drake: Battle of Sened and Sidi bou Zid, Tunisia,” ts, Nov. 1977, Iowa Military Academy, Iowa GSM; memo, Jan. 12, 1943, in William F. Beekman, “A Diary of World War II as Observed Through the Eyes, Ears, and Mind of Bill Beekman,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM (
“Neither will good table manners”
); Green and Gauthier, eds., 76 (
Quack-Quack
).

As his 1st Battalion huddled
: Thomas D. Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry,” Apr. 1945, Charles W. Ryder Collection, DDE Lib, container 4; Ankrum, 174; Curtiss, ed., 276.

But first, Sened Station
: Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427, Moynihan, ed., 57.

a cakewalk
: author interview, Aurelio Barron (
“Go on up there!”
); Ankrum, 174 (
“all those bees”
); Hougen,
The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division
; McBride, “The Battle of Sened Station” (
“I saw his canteen”
); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” (
“Men were dying everywhere”
).

At midafternoon
: Berens, 5, 47 (
“Kill them all!”
); “168th African History,” in “168th Infantry Publications,” Iowa GSM; Rame, 235.

Fredendall was considerably less charmed: NWAf,
397 (
contradictory orders
); “Historical Record, HQ,” March 1, 1943, CCD, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCD 0.3 (
“Too much time”
); Carter, “Carter’s War,” CEOH, IV-13 (
“There has been a breakthrough!”
); Drake, “Factual Account of Operations, 168th Infantry” Camp, ed., 55 (
“A sort of hysteria”
); Powell, OH, CEOH, 110 (
“hightailing it”
); letter, James McGuinness to parents, May 23, 1943, Co. F, 168th Inf, World War II Letters, 1940–1946, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri–Columbia, Missouri (
“Some of the fellows”
).

The American attack was spent
: “History of the 168th Infantry,” NARA RG 407, E 427 (
“Your outfit”
); AAR, 1st AD, Jan. 27–Feb. 3, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part I, CMH (
“no decisive objective”
); Howe,
The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division,
129;
NWAf,
398; Ankrum, 174.

“One of the things that gives me”
: DDE to Fredendall, Feb. 4, 1943, Chandler, 939; Truscott,
Command Missions
, 150 (
Fredendall was too rash
);
Three Years
, 254 (
“futile rushing around”
); diary, Feb. 8, 10, 1943, OW, MHI (
“spherical SOB”
).

As recently as February 1
: “Meeting, 1000 hours, 1 Feb. 1943,” NARA, AFHQ micro, R-188-D;
NWAf,
399.

“We could not help wondering”
: “701st Tank Destroyer Battalion: North African Campaign Diary, B Company,” 1943, MHI.

“The Mortal Dangers That Beset Us”

At eight
A.M.
on February 12
: David Irving,
The Trail of the Fox,
267.

The trailer door
: Fritz Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” n.d., FMS, D-046, MHI, 9 (
“My dear young friend”
); Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (
“The very last armored”
); Forty,
The Armies of Rommel,
176; B. H. Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers,
394 (
“It’s two years”
).

“Rommel, Rommel, Rommel!”
: Bryant, 450 (
“What else matters”
); Boatner, 461; Matthew Cooper,
The German Army
,
1939–1945,
352; Charles Douglas-Home,
Rommel,
110; Macksey,
Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe,
101; Kesselring, “The War in the Mediterranean,” part II, “The Fighting in Tunisia and Tripolitania,” 49–50 (
“one good division”
); James J. Sadkovich, “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North Africa, 1940–1942,”
International History Review,
May 1991, 284; Bruce Allen Watson,
Exit Rommel,
56, 158–59 (
“fugitive leading”
).

“Day and night”
: Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers,
390–91; Bennett,
Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy,
373–74; Krause, “Studies on the Mareth Position,” 9 (
“a broken man”
).

Rommel understood
:
NWAf,
370, 372; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 1948, supplement to
London Gazette,
868; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”

Yet Rommel’s German units
: “Rommel to Tunisia,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 227; war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 3–4 and Feb. 10–17, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH; Hellmuth Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16, 1943, and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 1949, FMS, #C-075, 17 (
“hypnotic influence”
);
NWAf,
370.

True, Rommel’s army included
: Boog et al., 801n (
350,000 Axis men
);
NWAf,
371; Anderson, “Operations in North West Africa.”

Rommel increasingly blamed
: Domenico Petracarro, “The Italian Army in Africa, 1940–1943: An Attempt at Historical Perspective,”
War & Society,
Oct. 1991, 103 (
tied bandannas
); Enno von Rinteln, “The Italian Commmand and Armed Forces in the First Half of 1943: Their Situation, Intentions, and Measures,” 1947, FMS, #T-1a, trans. Janet E. Dewey, MHI (
“was in agony”
); Westphal,
The German Army in the West
, 130; Kesselring, “Italy as a Military Ally,” n.d., FMS, #C-015, 9 (
“three fashionable passions”
); war diary, Panzer Army Africa, Feb. 11, 1943, in “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 1, CMH.

In these and other matters
: Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” 48–49 (
“sober cal-
culations”
and
“a second Stalingrad”
); Greiner diary notes, Feb. 16 (
“house of cards”
) and March 10, 1943 (
brigade of homosexuals
), and personnel report, Panzer Armee Afrika, Feb. 1, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Jackson,
The Battle for North Africa
, 415;
Destruction
, 274.

talk of decampment
: Kesselring, “Final Commentaries on the Campaign in North Africa, 1941–1943,” 28, 31; Kesselring,
Memoirs
, 143, 149; Warlimont, 310, 284 (
restricted rations
).

to avoid a similar diet
: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 868;
Destruction
, 273, 283–84; OKW to Comando Supremo, Jan. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Irving,
The Trail of the Fox,
253 (
English dictionary
); Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers
, 397 (
“break up the American”
).