An Army at Dawn

by Rick Atkinson

  Their triumph at Sidi bou Zid: “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” 1945, Historical Section, Special Activities Branch, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, “Tactical Communication in World War II, Part 1,” MHI, 166 (“unbelievably low”); Philipsborn report to Robinett, CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 16, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427; Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” 1980, U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, WWII, vol. I, NARA RG 457, NSA files, SRH 391, box 114, 29–30; war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 16, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, (mislabeled “Fifth Panzer Army”), CMH; Destruction, 292; NWAf, 425–26.

  Rommel’s staff car: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 398–400 (“Hitler! Rommel!”); Messenger, 50.

  Arnim had: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 400 (“I had never gambled”); war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 18, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 270; Arnim, “Recollections of Tunisia,” FMS, C-098, 55; minutes of conference with Kesselring, Arnim, et al., war diary, 10th Panzer Div, Feb. 15, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2.

  Allied intelligence detected: Hugh Skillen, Spies of the Airwaves, 274; Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 206–207.

  Kesselring dithered: war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 18, 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; NWAf, 440; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 402 (“appalling and unbelievable”), 411 (“old war horse”).

  Not since A.D. 647: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 178; Robinett, Armor Command, 165–66 (“indescribable confusion”); Howze, “The Battle of Sidi bou Zid” Schrijvers, 63 (“slapping us around”).

  Panic built slowly: Martin, 47; Cowdrey, 117 (“a ghastly word”); Roberta Love Tayloe, Combat Nurse: A Journal of World War II, 39; letter, unsigned, Feb. 23, 1943, MCC, YU (“Americans never retreat”).

  Night deepened: letter, unsigned, Feb. 17, 1943, MCC, YU (“Shooting. Have to go”); “Account of Carleton S. Coon,” NARA RG 226, OSS records, E 99, box 39, folder 8 (“We didn’t want to”); “Signal Communication in the North African Campaigns,” 1945, Historical Section, Special Activities Branch, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, “Tactical Communication in World War II, Part 1,” MHI, 100, 164 (pigeon platoon).

  At 8:30 P.M.: Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 172; Philipsborn report to Robinett, CCB, 1st AD, Feb. 16, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427; NWAf, 432; letter, R. I. Stack to G. F. Howe, March 8, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226; Rame, 253; Ankrum, 221 (“I’ll be damned”); Robert M. Marsh, ASEQ, ts, notes to G. F. Howe, Sept. 23, 1952, 81st Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, MHI (“We were next”); Oswald Jett, ASEQ, “As I Saw the War,” ts, n.d., 47th Medical Bn, 1st AD, MHI, 287 (“Get that junk”).

  The fog of war: McCurtain Scott, OH, March 1976, Gugeler, OW, MHI (“annoyed and rattled”); diary, Feb. 16, 1943, OW, MHI; Gugeler, ts, OW, MHI, x-85.

  Ward was further discomposed: CCA, “Narrative of Events from 23 January 1943 to 26 Feb.,” NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCA-0.3, box 14825; Ben Crosby, OH, March 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; letter, R. I. Stack to G. F. Howe, March 8, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 226 (“I told General Ward”); author visit, Apr. 2000; NWAf, 432.

  Fredendall immediately: phone memos, Feb. 16–17, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; Truscott, Command Missions, 159–62 (“tanks were fighting”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 191; PMR, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 7; II Corps provost marshal journal, Feb. 19, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126.

  This farrago: Kriegstagebuch, 21st Panzer Div., Feb. 16–17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 172–73; war diary, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 17, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH.

  “Move the big elephants”: Robinett, Armor Command, 165–69 (“When things are going badly”); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia,” lecture, n.d., PMR, LOC MS Div.

  In truth: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 192 (“Everything is going badly”); phone transcript, Feb. 17, 1943, 1055 hrs., LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9 (“I have had”).

  Ward and Robinett braced: L. C. Gates, The History of the 10th Foot, 1919–1950, 135; letter, T. Riggs to parents, June 25, 1943, PMR, LOC MS Div, box 4 (“We stood in the cactus”).

  Fifteen minutes: Tank Destroyer Forces World War II, 27 (“Everybody was throwing”); Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,” 8 (“I counted thirty-five”); Robinett, Armor Command, 167–75 (“let them have it!”); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia,” lecture; n.d.; Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 175–79; NWAf, 434–36; CCB log, Feb. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 601-CCB-0.3, box 14825.

  “War is cruelty”: Foote, The Civil War, vol. III, 602; Rame, 252, 254 (“The night was heavy”); Tobin, 82 (“You need feel”).

  “This Place Is Too Hot”

  Two formidable sentinels: author visits, Sept. 1996 and Apr. 2000; NWAf, 348, 446 (“gigantic, crudely corrugated”).

  Kasserine Pass is not impregnable: NWAf, 446 (“offers such advantages”); phone transcript, Feb. 17, 1943, 1340 hrs. (“I am holding”), and phone memo, Rooks to Truscott, Feb. 18, 1943, LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; AAR, 19th Engineers, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; Beck et al., 96–98 (failed to complete); Conway, SOOHP, MHI (“trying to draw a line”).

  Just beyond: NWAf, 440–42, 453; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 171; war diary, Panzer Army Afrika, Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2; Kesselring, Memoirs, 151; Destruction, 295.

  Even at his distant remove: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 8/14–16 (“pull a Stonewall Jackson”); phone transcript, Feb. 18, 1943, 1022 hrs., LKT Jr. Papers, GCM Lib, box 9; Heller and Stofft, eds., 255–57 (hold back more than 200); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineers, RG 407, box 19248; author interview, Hans von Luck, May 1994, Hamburg; Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander, 113; war diary, Afrika Korps, Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2.

  And, soon, on the right: Davis, “The Battle of Kasserine Pass,” 22; “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” MRC FDM, 8/19; NWAf, 451.

  Shadows swallowed: memo, Charles A. L. Dunphie, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229 (“out of his depth”); “Report of Operations,” II Corps, May 2, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. 1, part 2, CMH (“well in hand”); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI (“that blockhead”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/21.

  Even as this puff: diary, Charles M. Thomas, Co. C, 19th Engineers, possession of Roger Cirillo (“The worst of it all”); letter, George F. Hertz, published in Iowa City Daily Iowan, May 19, 1943, MCC, YU; Ellis, On the Front Lines, 89 (“women sobbing”).

  Night fever spread: AAR, 19th Engineers, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (“A considerable number of men”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/22; NWAf, 452; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, box 19248; II Corps provost marshal journal, report from William A. Seitz, Co. A, 26th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 3126 (“In some instances”).

  Bad as the bad night: NWAf, 454–55; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 171.

  The American collapse: “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/24–25; diary, C. M. Thomas, possession of Roger Cirillo (“Forget about”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 249–52; “Historical Record of the 19th Engineer Regiment,” Oct. 1942–Oct. 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248 (“This place is too hot”).

  The “uncoordinated withdrawal”: AAR, 19th Engineer Regt, March 8, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; “History of the 26th Infantry,” MRC FDM, 8/22–25 (French gunners and “action shots
” and “Fight to the last man”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 255 (Casualties just among infantrymen); NWAf, 455; Conway, SOOHP, MHI (Washington on horseback); letter, Stark to OW, Jan. 28, 1951, OW, MHI (“We had to crawl”).

  “Order, Counter-order, and Disorder”

  Demolitionists laid: Rame, 263 (slabs of guncotton); McNamara, 57; “Tébessa Tableaux,” ts, n.d., Samuel L. Meyers Papers, MHI (slaughtering every chicken).

  As always in the great clash: letter, TR to Eleanor, Feb. 24, 1943, TR, LOC; Renehan, 234; Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, 441.

  Little buoyancy: Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” MRC FDM (“head in hands”); These Are the Generals, 227 (“I like that man”); James R. Webb, “First Waltz with Rommel,” ts, n.d., James R. Webb Papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“If I were back home”); Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, 603 (“I saw his attitude change”); Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 280.

  Fredendall repaired: “Diary Covering the Activities of General Fredendall and Supporting Players, Dec. ’42-March ’43,” James R. Webb Collection, DDE Lib (“Dabney, open up the bottle”); Clift Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM (“Dinner!”).

  “I’m going to be”: Hal Boyle, “Brass Seen at Fault at Kasserine Pass,” Associated Press, Feb. 11, 1948, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Fredendall to DDE, Feb. 19, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 42 (“Ward appears tired”).

  While Eisenhower pondered: NWAf, 457–58; Robinett, Armor Command, 175–77; Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture; Robinett, letter to G. F. Howe, March 4, 1952, PMR, LOC MS Div., box 4; letter, Philipsborn to G. F. Howe, Feb. 18, 1952, PMR, LOC MS Div., box 4 (“There is no use”); Dunphie memo, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; Porter, SOOHP, MHI (“Get hold”); letter, F.A.V. Copland-Griffiths to A. F. Smith, March 19, 1943, 1st Guards Bde, PRO WO 175/186 (“the most perfect example”).

  Into the muddle: Alexander, “The African Campaign from El Alamein to Tunis,” 869; DDE to Alexander, Feb. 7, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-5-C; Blaxland, 160; Alexander to DDE, Feb. 19, 1943, 1920 hrs., Alexander files, DDE Lib, box 3, folder 8; Alexander to Montgomery, Feb. 22, 1943, in Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 152 (“very shocked”).

  He cut a dashing: Austin, 105; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 332–37 (“natural good manners” and “able more than clever”); Boatner, 4–5; Doherty, Irish Generals, 32, 36 (“At the worst crises”), 38 (Churchill’s favorite); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 650 (mss) (“Our position is catastrophic”); Rupert Clarke, With Alex at War, xii–xiii; Brian Holden Reid, in John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 105 (“archetypal Edwardian hero”).

  Some thought him stupid: Reid, in Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 104 (“Wellington without the wit”), 108 (“empty vessel”), 109 (“Intellect was not”); Rolf, 25; Clarke, With Alex at War, xii (tap dancing); Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell, Tug of War: The Battle for Italy, 1943–1945, 36 (“the campaigns of Belisarius”).

  Brilliantly slow: Alexander, OH, n.d., G. F. Howe, SM, MHI (“solid soldier” and “allowing the Germans”); Hamilton, 166 (“The poor body”); Destruction, 304 (“Real fault” and “My Main anxiety”); “Reminiscences of Hanson Weightman Baldwin,” OH, 1976, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD (“old school tie”); Reid, in Keegan, ed., 114 (“quite useless”).

  First, Rommel’s northern thrust: war diary, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 19, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Benjamin Caffey, OH, Feb. 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; NWAf, 452–53; Johnson, One More Hill, 37 (“If they attack us”); Howard and Sparrow, 119; “18th Infantry, Draft Regimental Wartime History,” Stanhope Mason Collection, MRC FDM; Camp, ed., 23 (“taking shoe boxes”).

  A renewed assault: author interview, Clem Miller, Jan. 4, 2000; author interviews, Edward Boehm, Nov. 26, 1999, and Jan. 4, 2000; Edward Boehm, “My Autobiography in WWII,” ts, 1997, possession of Roger Cirillo, 36; “The Fragrance of Spring Was Heavy in the Air,” account of 185th FA Bn, Trail Tales, Boone County (Iowa) Historical Society, No. 35, 1979, 37; Vernon Hohenberger, “Retracing My Footsteps in World War II,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM, 37; “The Tunisian Campaign, 34th Division,” Iowa GSM, 5.

  Checked on the right: AAR, 10th Bn, The Rifle Brigade, PRO, WO 175/518; Destruction, 297; Davis, “The Battle of Kasserine Pass,” 22 (“like caterpillars dropping”); The Rifle Brigade in the Second World War, 1939–1945, 217; Austin, 90; D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis,” Blackwoods, June 1945, 399 (“We were forced” and “as hard as stiff legs”); ffrench Blake, 118.

  Rommel again held: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 405; NWAf, 458, 460; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 13, 16.

  A reconnaissance report: author visit, Apr. 2000; NWAf, 461.

  The scouts were wrong: Stanhope Mason and F. W. Gibb, OH, Apr. 26, 1951, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; letter, Joseph T. Dawson to brother, Feb. 21, 1943, Dawson Collection, MRC FDM (“this is our sector”); Hazen, 104; Steven Clay, Blood and Sacrifice: The History of the 16th Infantry Regiment from the Civil War Through the Gulf War, 33 (mss); Edwin L. Powell, Jr., OH, 1982, Lynn L. Sims, CEOH, 130; Robinett, Armor Command, 181; letter, Philipsborn to G. F. Howe, Feb. 18, 1953, with PMR comments, PMR, LOC MS Div, box 4 (“simply written on the ground”).

  Anderson on this very Saturday: “Personal Diary of Lt. Gen. C. W. Allfrey, the Tunisian Campaign (with 5 Corps),” Feb. 21, 23, 1943, Allfrey Collection, LHC (“American fighting value”); Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalions in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 121 (“a hairy-chested commander”); Altieri, The Spearheaders, 236 (“Onward we stagger”).

  The tanks came: Robinett, Armor Command, 183; NWAf, 462–64; Howe, Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 191; “Combat Command B, Operations Report, Bahiret Foussana Valley, 20–25 February, 1943,” “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; II Corps, “report of operations,” May 2, 1943, “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Clay, 35 (mss); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 166.

  Repulsed on the right: NWAf, 463–64; Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture, LOC MS Div.

  Undeterred, two grenadier battalions: Robinett, Armor Command, 185; Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM; Clay, 35 (mss); Robinett, “The Axis Offensive in Central Tunisia, Feb. 1943,” lecture, LOC; Robinett, “Comments on Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson,” PMR, MHI, 13; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 279; Rolf, 139 (Panic Sunday).

  Yet something had hardened: Andrus, notes on Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story, n.d., MRC FDM (“air was full” and “An artilleryman’s dream”); Andrus biographical file, compiled by Albert H. Smith, MHI (“most skillful and practical”).

  A single battalion: “Combat Command B, Operations Report, Bahiret Foussana Valley, 20–25 February, 1943,” “Kasserine Pass Battles,” vol. I, part 2, CMH; Gardiner, “We Fought at Kasserine,” 8 (“A column of prisoners”); Robinett, Armor Command, 187 (“captured a whole flock”).

  “Lay Roughly on the Tanks”

  As this action in the west: Messenger, 54; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 274 (“He suddenly”).

  By midafternoon all euphoria: AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineers, May 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, box 19248; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 405 (“They did not seem”); 10th Panzer Div. intelligence report, “Re: the advance of the 10th Panzer Division through the Faïd Pass to Thala,” Feb. 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225; Hoffman, Stauffenberg, 172.

  The British had: Cameron Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine, February 1943,” Nicholson collection, IWM, micro DS/MISC 7, 4 (“no full-blooded orders” and “I found it difficult”); Dunphie memo, forwarded to G. F. Howe from Cabinet Office historical section, Sept. 11, 1951, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 229; memo, S. L. Irwin to P. M. Robinett, June 23, 1949, NARA RG 319, OCMH, b
ox 229 (“usual story”); Nigel Nicholson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 176 (“He’s right behind us”).

  Absent full-blooded orders: Dunphie memo; Blaxland, 163 (“beautiful to watch”); ffrench Blake, 119; NWAf, 465; D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis,” 399 (“erect in his scout car”).

  Dunphie was a gunner: Dunphie memo; Nicholson, Alex, 176 (“empty but heavy”); author visit, Apr. 2000; Herman Walter Wright Lange, “Rommel at Thala,” Military Review, Sept. 1961, 72.

  Almost on Dunphie’s heels: war diary, 2/5 Leicestershire Regiment, Feb. 1943, PRO WO 175/513; Blaxland, 163; C. Nicholson, “The Battle of Kasserine” ffrench Blake, 119; Hastings, 219 (“Keep away”); Macksey, Crucible of Power, 169; Tätigskeitbericht, 10th Panzer Div., Feb. 21, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 225.

  Two thousand yards: D.G.A., “With Tanks to Tunis” (“German tracers”); Dunphie memo (“tank fight in the dark”); AAR, F Battery, 12 (HAC) Regt, RHA, appendix C, and “The Battle of Thala (North Africa) with F Bty 12th (HAC) Regt,” RHA, appendix E (“Lay roughly”), and war diary, “Operations of Nickforce, 20–23 Feb. 1943,” appendix D, all in Nicholson collection, micro, DS/MISC 7, IWM; Irwin memo to Robinett, June 23, 1949; war diary, 2/5 Leicestershire Regiment, Feb. 1943, PRO WO 175/513; Hastings, 219 (“alarms were many”); Watson, 143; Heller and Stofft, eds., 259; Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 270, 275.

  Dawn came: Dunphie memo (“Irwin himself”); memo, Irwin to Robinett, June 23, 1949 (“extremely critical”); Irwin, OH, Jan. 1950, G. F. Howe, SM, MHI; AAR, “Thala Engagement, 21–24 Feb. 1943,” 9th ID artillery, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7424; AAR, 60th FA, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, box 7471; Phillips, Sedjenane: The Pay-off Battle, 28; Phillips, The Making of a Professional: Manton S. Eddy, USA, 91; William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 20.

  It served: Blumenson, Kasserine Pass, 275; Austin, 91 (“I’m sorry”).

  The field marshal had shot: NWAf, 469; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 406–407.