Two hours later: H. Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 55 ("flay the idle"); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 108 ("nasty blue" and "beach was a mess").

One officer quoted Patton: Codman, 21.

Scourging would not: Taggart, ed., 29; Watters, ASEQ, MHI; Forrest K. Kleinman, "The Bizarre Battle for Casablanca," Army, Aug. 1997, 38; GSP to DDE, Nov. 14, 1942; "Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala," 60.

"Today has been bad": Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 109; DDE to GSP, Nov. 10, 1942, Chandler, 684.

Battle for the Kasbah

Of the nine major: LKT Jr. to MWC, Sept. 12, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 ("should not be"); Farago, 29; GCM to DDE, Oct. 5, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, box 1386 ("noon Dog Day").

"Beloved Wife": LKT Jr. to Sarah, Oct. 22, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib; Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Twilight of the Cavalry, xiiixv; John K. Waters, SOOHP, William C. Parnell III, 1980, MHI; Boatner, 574; Truscott, Command Missions, 71; Theodore J. Conway, SOOHP, Robert F. Ensslin, 1977, I-22; diary, Oct. 15, 1942, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 13 ("I am just").

Truscott's opening gambit: Author visit, April 2000; P. M. Hamilton, OH, Nov. 30, 1949, SM, MHI; P. M. Hamilton, OH, July 1945, "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia and the Port Lyautey Airdrome," ts, 1945, CMH, 23.7 AEI; Reck, 44.

The failed diplomatic: "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia," 27; "Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet," 1946, ts, vol. I, USNAd, 416 ("with cold steel"); AAR, Carl E. Bledsoe, Jan. 27, 1943, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 51 ("absolutely dumbfounded").

Nightfall made matters worse: Semmes, 121; "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia," 63.

On the broad: Truscott, Command Missions, 11314.

The troops ducked: LKT Jr. to GSP, Nov. 12, 1942, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 ("halfway to Bermuda").

Like Patton, Truscott concluded: Farago, 2930 ("disaster against"); Peter Andrews, "A Place to Be Lousy In," American Heritage, Dec. 1991, 100 (Truscott suspected); Truscott, Command Missions, 9798 ("One of the first lessons").

Yet only luck: Semmes, 125; Semmes, reply to Armored School queries, Dec. 1949, SM, MHI; Truscott, Command Missions, 118 ("not a cheerful one").

At first light: AAR, Gordon Browne, n.d., OSS files, NARA RG 226, E 99, box 39 ("Tout va bien"); "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia," 4; msg, GCM, Oct. 2, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, Special Staff, box 1385 ("rivet attention"); Malvergne Silver Star documentation, NARA RG 338, Fifth Army, box 56; Roul Tunley, "A Frenchman Returns," Sea Power, Jan. 1945, 13; AAR, Co C, 15th Engineer Combat Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 9th ID, box 7455.

Dallas yawed wildly: R. Brodie, Jr., OH, June 19, 1951, SM, MHI; NWAf, 165; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 131.

Two hours later: "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia," 122; "Adventures by Men of the 60th Infantry Regiment in WWII," ts, 1993, MHI, 9; Mittelman, 72; Truscott, Command Missions, 120 ("a beautiful sight"); Frederic A. Henney, "Combat Engineers in North Africa: The Capture of Port Lyautey," Military Engineer, Jan. 1944, 1; Landings in North Africa, 53 ("Beau Geste").

Enemy resistance: NWAf, 164, 170 ("a brightly colored pageant"); "Western Task Force: Attack on Mehdia," 96; Semmes, 139; Truscott, Command Missions, 123 ("Our parley").

The three-day fight: AAR, LKT Jr., Dec. 15, 1942, AFHQ G-3, NARA micro R-24-C; AAR, "Trip of Honduran SS Contessa," March 22, 1943, in Wheeler, ed., The Road to Victory, 76; Fowler, "Twelve Desperate Miles," 14.

In a final twist: AAFinWWII, 77; Astor, 282 ("war hysteria").

"It's All Over for Now"

Gray with fatigue: Clagett, "Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy," 72, 75.

Hewitt resumed: AAR, "Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard," Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WW II Action Reports, box 3; "Aircraft Operations during the execution of TORCH," March 30, 1943, CINCLANT, NARA RG 38, OCNO, box 3 ("No more Jean Bart"); Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 163; HKH, comment on Jan. 1950 Morison volume, HKH, NHC, box 1 ("Come a little closer").

For Patton, enough was enough: DDE to GSP, Oct. 13, 1942, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA Special Staff, AFHQ, box 1383; "Western Task Force: The Attack on Fedala," n.d., CMH, 23.7 WE.

At two A.M., about the time: 3rd ID field artillery officer, OH, n.d., SM, MHI; Codman, 40 ("Unless the French navy"); Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 109 ("Staff wanted me").

At dawn, the guns: Arthur R. Wilson to GCM, Dec. 12, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 13, OCS, classified general correspondence, box 106 ("Report whether"); Wordell and Seiler, 162 ("Boys, it's all").

Franco-American amity: Brooks, "Casablanca-The French Side of the Fence," 909 ("Chicago, I give up!"); Taggart, ed., 30.

At the Miramar: Geoffrey Keyes, OH, Feb. 15, 1950, SM, MHI.

"They drank $40 worth": GSP to Henry Stimson, Dec. 7, 1942, Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 112; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, appendix II, 285; HKH, "Reminiscences," 230.

The conquest of Morocco: NWAf, 173; Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 110 ("We are in"), 114 ("If you adhere").

Press dispatches: Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 19401945, 107 ("I realize"), 111, 116, 119.

After leaving: "Report on Material and Logistics, Commander Task Force 34," n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, "Special Files," box 24486; AAR, "Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard," Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WW II Action Reports, box 3; Wilhm et al., "Armor in the Invasion of North Africa," 47; HKH, "Reminiscences," 230.

And yet: AAR, "Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A.G. Shepard," Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3; NWAf, 175; war diary, German naval staff, Nov. 1942, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 645 ("Go after them").

"Good lads": letter, E. S. Johnston to SEM, Apr. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 16; Wordell and Seiler, 173; John Ellis, Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War, 528.

Blackout drapes: Davidson, OH, 182; Codman, 47; author visit, April 2000.

At 7:48 P.M., the festivities: Davidson, OH, 182.

The German submarine U-173: "Reminiscences of Vice Admiral Charles Wellborn, Jr.," 1972, USNI OHD ("you could see"); "Report on Material and Logistics, Commander Task Force 34," n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, "Special Files," box 24486; AAR, "Report on Operation TORCH by Capt. A. G. Shepard," Jan. 9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action Reports, box 3; Morison, Operations in North African Waters, 169; Clay Blair, Hitler's U-Boat War, vol. II, 110; uboat.net/ boats/u173.htm.

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, 23.7, 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, 19411945," 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, 19401945, 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.