CHAPTER 5: PRIMUS IN CARTHAGO

"Go for the Swine with a Blithe Heart"

From the tall windows: Raymond H. Croll, ts, n.d., MHI, 116; CBH, Feb. 1942, MHI; minutes, commander-in-chief staff conference, Oct. 26, 1942, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-79-D (had intended to move).

"How weary I am": DDE to MWC, Nov. 20, 1942, and Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 745, 750.

He was hardly: Croll, 99, 116.

Eisenhower's own office: Three Years, 199.

A few days before leaving: DDE to MWC, Nov. 20, 1942, Chandler, 744; Robert Murphy, Col U OHRO, David C. Berliner, OH-224, Oct. 12, 1972, 67; "History of AFHQ, Part One, Aug.Dec. 1942," n.d., NARA RG 331, box 63 (400 offices); Butcher diary, DDE Lib, A-43 (as much meat); "Tactical Communication in World War II," part 1, "Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns," 1945, Historical Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, MHI, 54 ("reasonable estimate"); Hansen, 3/40 ("huge, chairborne force"); Dickson, "G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe," n.d., MHI, 30 ("never were so few"); Jordan, 180 ("it's worth fifty divisions").

Algiers already showed: Croll, 116 (electric razors); Moorehead, 65; MacVane, Journey into War, 85 ("I am married"); Rame, 206; both in NARA RG 338, Fifth Army awards and decorations, A 47-A-3948, box 56 ("Valor, Patience").

Oranges: Carter, "Carter's War," ts, 1983, CEOH, III-2, III-14; Lowell Bennett, 295; Jensen, 50.

Indiscipline overwhelmed: AAR, Dec. 28, 1942, Center Task Force, Staff JAG, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG, WWII Ops Reports, box 244; AAR, II Corps JAG, Dec. 22, 1942, and AAR, HQ II Corps, JAG, Sept. 9, 1943, both in NARA RG 338, II Corps JAG, box 157.

There was folderol: DDE, Crusade in Europe, 128 (Eisenhower was a Jew); Milton S. Eisenhower, The President Is Calling, 145 ("Ike"); Butcher diary, Nov. 25, 1942, DDE Lib (Clark gave); DDE to GCM, Nov. 21, 1942, and DDE to MWC, Nov. 21, 1942, Chandler, 748; John D'Arcy-Dawson, Tunisian Battle, 66 (correspondents advised).

"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, 19423, 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, 300301; author visit, Apr. 2000; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 68; Daubin, 129; Waters, SOOHP, 611 ("a beautiful column").

The approaching Mk IV: ffrench Blake, A History of the 17th/21st Lancers, 19221959, 97; Belton Y. Cooper, Death Traps, 25.

From the ridge: Daubin, 129 ("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, 129.

"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, 22324 (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, 15357; Lowell Bennett, 21215; Ford, 2728 ("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, 8486; 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, 8486 ("horribly wounded"); Jervois, 11922; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 7273 ("fought in each other's presence"); Robinett, Armor Command, 7576; 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, 20910 ("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, 1942Jan. 18, 1943, and 5th FA Bn journal and operations report, Nov. 20, 1942March 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, 2738 ("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, 4145 ("People who fight a war").

The southern prong: Malcolm, 8991 ("no more menacing"); author visit, Apr. 2000; Ray, 1415; Austin, 19, 35.

Both presumptions: Carell, 313 ("a Tunisian Verdun"); Jean-Yves Nasse, Green Devils: German Paratroops, 19391945, 7274; James E. Mrazek, The Fall of Eben Emael, 18091.

The Argylls stopped: Malcolm, 9195 ("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").