HOW THE E I G H T H ARM y. DID I T

The Story if the Mareth Victory

GRANT PARR

HE Eighth Army was used as a stalk. war was spelled in English, fought in khaki. ing horse in the final battle of Africa; With equipment built in the United Tits Enfidaville attacks pinned down States; Britain, Canada, India, and Aus- large forces of the enemy until the real tralia, men from the four corners of the drive could go in elsewhere. Yet Eighth globe fought as a unit, a well-oiled ma- Army units were in on the kill. The chine which swept the Axis out of half of Eleventh Hussars were among the first North Africa. It was no fair-weather into Tunis, and the Seventh Armored Di- machine either. At Mareth it was stuck vision-the famous Desert Rats-took the when the mistake of two field officers surrender of the Fifteenth Panzer Divi- made it possible for the Germans to hold sion; up a well-planned frontal thrust. Yet The Eighth Army's story is significant without a pause the Allied battering ram to-day because it stands as irrefutable proof extricated itself and struck again in an- that democratic nations can create fight- other place. This article is an account of ing organizations superior to any the Axis what I saw as a correspondent for the has produced. The Eighth Army was a National Broadcasting Company with an small army of course; butit was the spirit- Eighth Army that was victory bound and ual first-born of the forces that welded the would not be denied. victorious Anglo-American army of North Africa. And what we have done can be After the repulse at Mareth, 'General done again on a much larger scale. We faced a situation have experienced officers and an experi- that might have stumped lesser men. enced nucleus of men. We have the Many thoroughly competent generals equipment. By the time this is published would have settled back to reorganize, these other, greater armies may already be thus throwing the African timetable off on the move. schedule. Others would have hammered I want to tell the story of the Eighth blindly at the barrier, succeeded at a high Army as I saw it roIling on in the last great price in lives, and lost equipment or failed days of its African conquest-at the end of once more. the longest advance in the history of war- Montgomery did not hesitate. His fare. Our imaginations have been too right-hand blow had not broken the much peopled with the feats of enemy's jaw, therefore he would hit with gray-clad hordes. Montgomery's lightning his left. But war being no Marquis of 472 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

Queensberry affair Monty determined to Now Montgomery determined to make weight that left with steel knuckles. Freyberg's outflanking operation the main Marshal faced a far show. He ordered the First Armored more difficult dilemma. He was fighting Division to swing around the Gebel Mat- the entire Mareth operation under the mata and join Freyberg, and sent the constant threat of an American advance Fourth Indian Division into Hallouf pass from Maknassy which might have cut off opposite Medinine in order to shorten his entire force. (The Americans were communications lines to the New Zealand not strong enough to do this, but the Ger- forces and provide a secondary outflank- mans could scarcely have been sure of it.) ing movement. He was also aware of a threat to his imme- The First Armored Division didn't leave diate flank at the gap south of El Hamma the Mareth area until Wednesday, March between the east-west Tebaga ridge 21st, the day the Nazis used the last-gasp (parallel to and just south of the Chott strength of their Fifteenth Panzer Division Djerid) and the Gebel Melab at the ex- to force the Fiftieth Division to pull back treme north of the ridge of hills called across the Wadi Zigzau in front of Ma- Matmata which protected the inland side reth. The trek that ensued made the old of the Mareth line. He dared not with- covered-wagon migrations seem picayune. draw his Tenth Panzer Division from the From start to finish the desert tracks (there American front for use against Mont- was never a decent road and the vehicles gomery. He dared not concentrate his usually made their own trails) looked like two other weakened armored units (the great winding snakes as the endless stream Fifteenth and Twenty-first) either at of trucks came on. Mareth or the Melab- Tebaga gap, lest the The tanks had rushed up first to be ready Eighth Army strike the unguarded alter- for battle when called. The trucks forgot nate. dispersal for the sake of speed and the Holding the long British line curved enemy air forces turned out to be so busy around Medinine and abutting the Mareth elsewhere that this risk proved justified. position, Montgomery had the Fiftieth or I made the journey through the desert in Northumbrian Division, the Fourth Indian the foremost part of the transport section Division, the Fifty-first or Highland Divi- and I have never spent two more unpleas- sion, the Tenth Corps, consisting mainly ant days. The Eighth Army's trucks of the First Armored Division, and finally were by and large rickety affairs, having on the extreme left flank, opposite Medi- crossed myriad miles of desert in more nine, certain Guards regiments. than one campaign. Precious water Before the attack on Mareth was boiled out of our radiators and we were launched, Monty had sent the New Zea- limited to half a gallon per man per day land brigades and the Eighth Armored for washing and drinking. In actual Brigade around the hills of the German practice we didn't wash. "Shan" Sedg- salient and up through the desert to strike wick of the New Tork Times said, "Euro- at the Melab-Tebaga gap. The New pean peasants get so dirty that eventually Zealanders had moved only by night and they become clean, like a tree." That dispersed their forces in the desert by day, was the state we attempted to gain, but but on the day of the Mareth attack an when we finally reached water at El enemy plane flew close overhead. Gen- Hamma we were still dirty. The white eral Bernard Freyberg, oft-wounded, gal- dust was the worst. Men who rode in lant New Zealand veteran, believed his jeeps, trucks, or tanks got their faces pow- column to have been observed and pro- dered with it until they looked like weird ceeded to move both by day and by night. clowns. There was no water to wash it By the time the Northumbrian men had off with so they just retained their strange driven a salient into the Mareth defenses, complexion. the New Zealanders had stormed and While the Mareth battle was swinging gained vantage points on either side of the in favor of the Nazis, the New Zealanders Melab- Tebaga gap on the vulnerable attacked the center or" the German de- flank of Rommel's salient. fenses at "the gap" and drove in a wedge. HOW THE EIGHTH ARMY DID IT 473

TRIPOLITANIA

General Map of Tunisian Coast, with Insert Map Showing Eighth Army Thrusts Through and Around Mareth Line 474 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

The Kiwis' next move was a one-two aid of glasses, distinguish the forward punch of their own, first to the left and surge of the tanks. They went up over then to the right. The initial drive in the the hills at the end of the plain toward the center had taken the Kiwis through mine- twisting white scar on the horizon that fields that the Nazis had occupied for two was an old Roman wall and marked the months. The "old one-two" put the first enemy defenses. Line by line the En Zeds (for N.Z.) onto the hills on either tanks crossed the horizon and went on. side. But one high hill in front still ~ave The infantry followed but these I could the Nazis an observation post which en- not see. Then a friend shouted and abled them to shell the New Zealanders pointed to the left. unmercifully. The Maoris-native Poly- Strung out along the plain and just ap- nesian-Melanesian New Zealanders-got proaching the first hill crests was a sight the job of taking this observation point. calling to mind the Biblical connotations These little brown warriors hate the of the word host. In the midst of a pall of Germans and love the bayonet. In the dust rumbled thousands of vehicles of last war at Gallipoli they are said to have every description-tanks, Bren carriers, fought uphill with bayonets alone, and armored cars, jeeps, troop-transporters, because they were short and stocky they gun lorries and limbers, gasoline trucks, tossed skewered Turks back over their infantry-bearing trucks. Inexorably the shoulders and fought on up. The Ger- host rumbled forward; it was literally mans never bring things to such a pass if hours before the vast parade had moved they can help it. Soon the Maoris had past our vantage point. this observation point and the Kiwi line As reconstructed from the account of was straight and tenable. Then General General Freyberg himself, the attack Freyberg brought up his artillery and hid looked something like this to the enemy. his tanks in the wadis. The stage was set Waiting in his defensive trenches about for battle. 3:30 P.M., Fritz automatically scanned the skies as he heard the drone of airplane II motors. Then he spotted them, eighteen ROM a hill in the Gebel Melab on Fri- dim shapes in the dusty sky, and a moment day, six days after the first attack on later bombs fell all around him. Cower- FMareth, I peered through a swirling veil ing in his slit trench, he heard the sicken- of dust to watch part of the decisive en- ing thud and zoompfh as the Bostons con- gagement as it unfolded itself in the great tinued to rain destruction. He breathed flat plain before me. I could see the a sigh of relief at being alive as his tor- Shermans and Crusaders of the Eighth mentors thrummed off again. But not Armored Brigade moving up to the line. for long. This time it was the diving Then the infantry went forward in trucks Kittybombers which made him press his and debussed, to be lost from view in the face to the dusty earth. All during the dust eddies. Despite the terrible weather battle the Allied air forces furnished we had noted flights of Bostons and Kitty- bombers at the rate of three squadrons an bombers going over at regular intervals hour to make .the first zone of the barrage. most of the afternoon. Then on the in- Fritz never really got out of his slit trench stant of four o'clock the bombardment at all, for shells were soon falling all began. around him. It was a creeping barrage The mediums-"Long Toms" tossing many yards deep, with the Long Toms 50- and tOO-pound shells-were operating laying down the first line, howitzers churn- on each side of us and I could hear the ing up the middle, and 25-pounder bursts eerie rumble of their missiles hell-bent for preceding the tanks. the enemy lines. Ahead I could see al- When his instincts told him the tanks most continuous flashes from the 25- were coming Fritz stuck his green helmet pounders, and I learned afterward that out of the slit trench and tried to man his the lateral concentration of fire was one gun. But he found that he was little bet- gun to every thirty yards. Almost as soon ter than a blind man. The strong south- as the barrage started I could, with the west wind was whipping dust into his face HOW THE EIGHTH ARMY DID IT 475 in thick white clouds, murkier than any armed the crews and told them to walk smoke screen. When the dust cleared for back and give themselves up. There was a moment the setting sun was in his eyes. no time to bother about prisoners. Soon Some of Fritz's companions didn't be- the German Twenty-first found itself lieve there were tanks coming because caught between the New Zealanders and they were so sure that the British attacked the First. When the German tanks then only at night. Freyberg had counted on attacked the British rear, American-built, that as an element of surprise. mobile lOS-millimeterguns, calledi'Priests," Then the British tanks opened fire. moved back and shot up a few of these The Shermans came first, then the Cru- enemy machines. In eleven minutes the saders. It was about this time that Fritz British antitank guns were unlimbered, threw in his hand. The barrage alone mounted, and ready for action. A Ger- was usually enough for the Italians. man attack would have been welcomed The New Zealand infantry-gallant but it never came. veterans of Greece, Crete, and EI Ala- All day Saturday the Long Toms shelled mein and probably at that moment the a pocket of Germans on the right of the best-troops, man for man, in the world- gap, a gradually draining inkspot ringed went in with the Crusaders to dispatch re- on the south by a tank rear guard. The calcitrant Huns and take prisoners. The Nazis counterattacked and took a hill whole attack went on schedule and de- which enabled them to shell the El Hamma sired objectives were taken. road. The Maoris promptly swarmed up the hill and took it back again. French General Le Clerc came to con- III gratulate Freyberg, who was even then SAW the prisoners marching back the standing beside the American light tank Inext day, dusty, thirsty, and woebe- in which he travels. The New Zealander gone. The Germans were silent and mis- was directing operations over the field- erable; the Italians were voluble about the telephone system which the almost miracu- injustice of their thirst, the foolishness of lous work of the signals section always the war, and the sad fate which had forced provided a few hours after any unit them to fight in the first place. reached a new location. General Le The New Zealanders believe it was the Clerc, slight and weather-beaten, simply sight of the First Armored host coming dressed in olive drill, somehow seemed over the horizon on the heels of their own close kin to big, bluff, powerful Bernard crunching attack which finally convinced Freybcrg. They were, after all; both the Nazis that it was hopeless to hold out great warriors, superbly tough. Le longer. Thejob of the First Armored was Clerc's Fighting French and an "all- to break through, and, as one British offi- officer" Greek commando unit had played cer put it, "run like a scalded cat for El an important part throughout the battle Hamma." The division started its run by holding the hills to the right of the gap as the moon came up around midnight and thus protecting the Kiwis' flank. after the battle. It turned once, even as The French were often heavily shelled but a cat will do, and clawed up the German hung on grimly and never complained. tank units when they attacked its rear, While the New Zealanders and the then it sped on toward the Gabes corridor. British armored units were attacking In thus driving entirely through the through the Melab- Tebaga gap, the In- Twenty-first Panzer Division in a moon- dians had forced the Hallouf pass. The light advance, the First Armored made Divisional Commander, Major General mechanized-warfare history. The Ger- F.1. S. Tuker, said later that had the Ger- mans had mounted many antitank guns mans held the gap, the Mareth positions in the wadis, but in the dim light the gun- would still have been outflanked by the ners did not realize what was happening sixty-hour drive made by the Indians until too late. through the pass and the Matmata hills. Some tanks were lost but the British The pass was actually used to shorten the soon shot up the antitank guns or dis- lines of communication to the British and 476 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

Dominion force moving through the more swung to the east, toward Gabes, and northerly gap. fought a rear-guard action as they with- The Gurkhas, small hill men who seem drew northward to the Gabes gap, later incapable of fatigue while climbing or known as the Wadi Akarit position. descending, clambered through the hills Other Germans held up the First Ar- clearing out gun positions on either side of mored's advance for a time north of El the pass while a British unit of the regi- Hamma. The German strategy per- ment marched straight down the road. mitted most of the Mareth defenders to Another unit went through farther south withdraw and escape. Monday morning by way of the Kreddeche pass and drove the Highland Division rode through the across heavily mined areas. abandoned Mareth line without firing a Once when the Italians dropped mor- shot and reached Gabes shortly after noon. tar bombs from a 2,000-foot peak, the Montgomery's quick thinking, combined British 25-pounders lobbed shells up and with the courage and endurance of his covered the heights with a ring of smoke. troops, had eliminated the Mareth line, While the enemy was thus blinded the turned the Germans out of their best Indians moved on. Human chains of stronghold south of the "Tu'nis shell," and Gurkhas handed thousands of stones up partially demoralized the routed enemy. cliff sides to repair road demolitions. "They are done," General Freyberg The· most serious road breaks were re- said bluntly of the Nazis and predicted the paired in less than eight hours. The end of the African battle within a month. Italians never stood for long. Once, He was nearer right than the pessimists at when a group halted, the Indian gunners that. put down a barrage; then a bayonet IV charge was begun and 80 Italians came out with their hands up. The Indians LHAMMAwas the usual sort ofArab vil- took nearly 500 prisoners and suffered E lage with numerous palms and build- less than 100 casualties. ings of whitewashed mud or stone, but it There were almost miraculous escapes • was as welcome to the thirsty British from mines. Volunteer ambulance driver troops as the troops were to its French Edward C. Briggs of Port Edwards, Wis- population. After days on half a gallon consin, of the American Field Service, hit of water per man, the soldiers were quick a Teller mine, had his ambulance blown to strip and plunge into the cool waters of twenty feet in the air over two other mines. a shallow little stream near the village or The vehicle landed upside down-yet he to take dips in the hot sulphur spring for and an M.D. riding with him were un- which the town enjoyed local fame. hurt. Five men in a jeep were blown up Small French children stood in the like flushing partridges. None was hurt. doorways at El Hamma and at the urging A British officer on foot stepped on an S of their mothers gave the V for Victory mine. He fell flat; the mine popped up sign as a British armored division rumbled in the air, but didn't explode. Another through the streets of the village in pursuit officer driving a jeep was blown fifty feet of Axis units. -and broke a small bone in his foot. My party of correspondents reached After getting through the Twenty-first Gabes in the afternoon on the day of our Panzer Division, the G.D.C. led the First morning entrance into £1 Hamma, March Armored directly to EI Hamma but found 29th. It proved to be a small town, out- it defended. He could have attacked the wardly French, with buildings crumpled town at once but he had outstripped his and gutted by bombs and German demo- ammunition trucks and did not want to litions. It looked much like the towns of accept unnecessary casualties by throwing France itself after the horror of the First in tanks and infantry unprotected by guns. World War had passed over them. But His judgment proved correct, as the Ger- parts of Gabes remained fairly intact to mans evacuated the village a few hours witness the charm it had once possessed. later. It had had' modern movie houses, res- Both German panzer divisions now taurants with grandiose French names, HOW THE EIGHTH ARMY DID IT 477 and a Hollywood "tailleur." But all these the more snobbish resented his origin as places were closed. The Germans had the son of a schoolmaster. taken all the food and wine and left the The Italians had meanwhile adopted a local population only what stocks they prize system in an attempt to bolster wan- could keep privately. ing morale. A captured document read: The Germans and Italians were now "The Commander in Chief has laid down holding the narrow gap between the salt that a money prize of 2,000 lire be granted marshes and the sea which became known for every enemy jeep captured or de- as the Wadi Akarit line. The German stroyed. C.O.'s may at their discretion units included the Panzer Grenadiers, the grant special leave for cases of special 90th Light, and the two panzer divisions. merit. [Signed] Emilio Giglioli, Chief of The 164th Infantry had borne the brunt of the General Staff." the New Zealand assault and been dam- Probably the two American war engines aged almost beyond recognition. The most admired by friend and foe alike were unit had had an unhappy history in the jeep and Sherman tank. The jeeps Africa. It was originally intended to be a were the best possible vehicle for desert garrison division in Greece but was rushed travel and the Italians feared them be- across to reinforce the Afrika Korps at EI cause they enabled British patrols to carry Alamein, where it was so badly mauled in out all sorts of deadly hit-and-run raids. the early night attacks by Australians and A British brigade commander who was Highlanders that it was never able to take wounded in the battle of the gap called an active part in the fighting until the the new Diesel-Sherman" as fine a tank as day the New Zealanders struck the gap. anyone could ask for" and added that That day one battalion lost about half gunners were amazed at the range of its its men and then surrendered when its 75-millimeter gun. In the desert it ammunition ran out. The colonel proved proved fast and, as tanks go, economical. to be a German of the old school, a veteran The Eighth Army now underwent a of the last war. Most of the 164th were brief period of consolidation while suppli .8 older men and few were rabid Nazis. were brought up and men rested. The The adjutant asked the New Zealand Germans made feeble attempts to upset officer in charge for permission to hold a Montgomery's preparations but they could last parade and the request was granted. muster only a few bombers for "single The group, some 300 strong, lined up, file" attacks by night or for flights of four drew to attention, and at a signal doffed or five in the daytime. Meanwhile our their caps in honor of their comrades who Bostons and Mitchells were still going had been killed. They then marched off over in flights of eighteen. Tankbusters- quite happily. Hurricanes mounting cannon-s-continued Captured Germans painted Rommel as to pare enemy armor. The Luftwaffe's a leader loved by his men and hated by attempt to hit back was pitiful. most senior officers. He was an adept showman and the men thought him a "regular soldier." He often appeared v unannounced in an enlisted men's mess, N THE morning of April 6th, Mont- spoke to the men as a friend, and asked O gomery struck again. about the food and their welfare in gen- The thrust was not against the Wadi eral. If the food was bad he would raise Akarit itself, for this defile is on the sea- hell with the battalion commander until it ward side a small inlet and quite impass- was improved. Rommel, they said, liked able, and from a point some five miles in- to tinker and used the hobby to create the land is a shallow, flat-bottomed ravine "regular soldier" idea. He once greeted which is no barrier at all. The German a nattily dressed, perfumed Italian officer defenses were based on two hill features, by crawling from under a tank, wrench in Roumana and Fatnassa, just beyond the hand and covered more or less from hood wadi itself. Rournana barred the way at to foot with grease. The officers thought about the point where the wadi bed the Marshal stole most of the kudos and turned dry. Fatnassa and a small range 478 HARPER'S MAGAZINE joined to it formed a barrier all the way ously selected ridge. Off to the left we west to the salt marshes. Between the two could hear a German plane go into a dive was a three-mile gap of comparatively and then we heard bombs burst. But the flat country reinforced by the Germans enemy bombing was sporadic and we with machine guns, an antitank gun doubted ifit did much damage. We were screen, and an antitank ditch. more worried about the possibility that the The Allied barrage opened at 4:15 A.M. attack was anticipated. and the actual attack went in two hours During the barrage we were most im- later, just before first light. Even earlier, pressed by two things-the noise and the Indian hill fighters-mostly Gurkhas- cold. The entire horizon was a sheet of had slipped stealthily up the slopes of flickering, reddish flame and at times the Fatnassa and neutralized most of the noise merged into an almost continuous garrison there-using their deadly, silent roar. It was hard to distinguish, the knives called kukris, bursts from flashes of our 25-pounders up The plan of the main attack was for the ahead, but sometimes a shellburst silhou- Highlanders to drive straight forward to- etted the top of Roumana ridge or a peak ward Roumana, take the peak, and then of Fatnassa. swarm down the opposite side onto the We had been told that a Very signal at flank of the German antitank gun screen 5:20 A.M. would indicate the capture of in the gap. Roumana ridge by the Highlanders. While the Scots were going over the We did not see it. So, when dawn broke top, the Northumbrian Division was to and we saw shells bursting on the slopes of storm the gap and -overrun the antitank Roumana, in the gap, and along the Wadi ditch. They were to have the assistance Akarit to the right, we feared that the at- of "I" tanks, mostly Crusaders. As soon tack had been delayed. But then a liai- as the German defenses were carried, the son officer on a motorcycle stopped to tell First Armored Division and the New us that Roumana had actually fallen at Zealanders, truck-borne infantry, were to 5:15 and that only the Very pistol had rush through and deploy as the situation misfired. The shells falling this side of demanded. Roumana had been German. This offi- That was approximately how it all cer said his Brigadier felt everything was worked. going fine, that he was doubly jubilant in German nervousness was apparent fact because he had found two lark's eggs. throughout the night before the push. Such was the continual contrast of peace Reconnaissance planes came over fre- and war. quently but failed to raise any ack-ack or All through the day enemy shellbursts otherwise to break the black silence in created agate-gray smoke puffs in the gap which the Eighth Army's front was between Fatnassa and Roumana. Occa- shrouded. Then, just before the bom- sional bursts pocked the near side of Rou- bardment began, these Nazi planes began mana's slopes and to the right, toward the dropping parachute flares which lighted sea, between Roumana and the coast the whole area like a night football field. road, the bursts bloomed in lines-evil I hoped the light had not revealed the in- crops to replace the young grain trampled fantry which I knew must now be shiver- down by hundreds of vehicles and the feet ing in the cold up near the starting line. of fighting men. In the dawn hours the I had watched them move forward just at smoke puffs mixed with the morning mists dusk, silhouetted against the dull red sky and drifted slowly seaward. The smoke -steel-helmeted men on foot, bearing on Roumana gave it a sort of unholy halo. empty stretchers; trucks loaded with men; The smoke and mist were so mixed sea- Bren carriers loaded with men. They ward of the ridge that the smoke screens were all forward by 3:30 A.M. and under actually laid down there could scarcely be the merciless light of these enemy flares. identified. Then the cold morning wind Three of us, two British correspond- turned warm and strong and whipped up ents and I, started out after the flares had fine yellow dust. The smoke puffs blew settled to watch the battle from a previ- away quickly and the whole battle area HOW THE EIGHTH ARMY DID IT 479 was shrouded in choking, blinding eddies sprawled in grotesque postures beside of flying sand. Only toward evening did their gun positions or near trenches where the wind subside and the smoke puffs re- they had sought shelter from the British turn to their morning tricks, at last free 400-gun barrage. They were not inviting from the competition of dust and mist. objects for inspection, but it appeared that Both Fatnassa and Roumana were all some had died of shrapnel wounds; others, clear of the enemy by early morning and less badly battered, -had apparently been our forward troops were everywhere across shot by the Highlanders who stormed the the Wadi Akarit. But in the gap and to steep, stone-covered crest. Every square the right of Roumana the machine guns foot of the ground on the.ridge and around yammered on. Northumbrian troops it contained one or more shell fragmcnts- fought in the gap until 3 P.M. and finally and many of the stones were spattered with ousted stubborn Italians from a second, blood. rougher wadi, the antitank ditch, and the To the north we could see the German gun screen which blocked the gap at the retreat in progress, or rather the British northern end. A little earlier Highland- pursuit. The rivers of dust branched out ers and British Armored fighting at the in the brown-green landscape like the right of Roumana gained their objectives. streams dividing in a flat delta. There was Prisoners-ragged, dirty, unshaven, mot- a huge black blotch on the bank of one ley Italians-trudged back all day. stream-prisoners of war, we learned Meanwhile Rommel was busy. He had later. Near the horizon the dust spread only about twenty tanks left in the Fif- into a flat horizontal line, like a seashore. teenth Panzer, not many more in the But through the glasses it showed indi- Twenty-first. But he was still true to his vidual wisps and moved in ranks like apparent motto-"The best defense is Napoleonic battle lines. It was the start a good offense." He had moved his of a small battle-two brigades of Sher- Twenty-first over to support the Tenth mans were rumbling inexorably forward Panzer on the American front and there anticipating a clash with German Tiger was evidence that he had planned to at- (Mark VI) tanks sent south by Rommel to tack United States forces on the same day guard his retreat. that Montgomery struck. Beaten to the The Germans never fought long. As punch, he shifted the Twenty-first back we drove northward later we saw little and using the Ninetieth Light Infantry sign of them save rows of white crosses and the Fifteenth he counterattacked to- among the fields of daisies and poppies ward Roumana and Fatnassa. Both at- that disguised the brownish, semi-desert tempts failed. The Wadi Akarit line was prairie. gone and it was a rear-guard fight once VI more. From the peak of Roumana ridgc on NATIONAL holiday could never have the day after the battle ended we could see A evoked the jubilance and general air for twenty miles in both directions, and of celebration that pervaded Sfax on the on the ridge itself as well as on the plains day the Allied troops arrived. The peo- on either side was the crude mark of war. ple turned out flower-laden and in force To the south, toward Gabes, the Eighth almost before the last Germans had left Army's soft body was hunching forward to the town. cross the gap and continue the trek north. British tanks, shepherded by an impa- The thousands of trucks turned the tracks tient colonel anxious to pursue the enemy, into winding rivers of dust. Just below entered first. Small boys, then young we could see the endless stream moving men, and eventually their sisters literally through the gap. swarmed over the huge war machines Around us were the stone sangars and handing flowers to the crews. The the dug-in emplacements of the Nine- colonel tried to clear the streets but he was tieth Light. The Italians had held points helpless. Finally the tanks proceeded lower down. Some of the dead Germans slowly through the town laden with groups were still there. Like wax dummies, they of cheering citizens. "Vive la Grande 480 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

Bretagne!" "Vive la France!" "Vive and Nebraska. They are simple, un- de Gaulle!" spoiled men with a great sense of democ- The Eighth Army fought no more until racy and, as far as I could discover, no it reached Enfidaville on the south of the fear whatever, The Australians had gone "Tunis shell." Its long trek of 1,600 before the last great month, but you can miles, the longest advance in history, was see men like them in the range country of virtually over. The Germans entered the Texas panhandle. their last battle with scant tank strength The Indians wore a dozen faces-Pun- and a decimated, demoralized infantry- jabis, Gurkhas, Sikhs, Mussulmans-but thanks to the Eighth Army. all fought magnificently when their pecul- What then of the men who composed iar specialties were required. this army? They came from all over the The South Africans were also absent at world, though most of them were English. the last except for some technical units and English, yes, tough, uncomplaining, in- their fliers, those tireless young men who domitable Englishmen. They were shy, flew the Bostons hundreds of times across soft-spoken, drawling lads with straw- the Mareth line, the Melab- Tebaga gap, colored hair, straight from the vales and and the Wadi Akarit. South African Ne- moors of Yorkshire; and small, tough, gro troops were excellent as drivers and desert-blackened Cockneyswho had learned supply men. to take care of themselves on the sidewalks There were never any Americans in the of London as many an American champ ground army proper, but American air- has learned on the sidewalks of New men flew the Mitchells along with the York. Officers, too, of course, but lead- South African Bostons and R.A.F. Balti- ers who not only were free of the "old mores. American fighters bombed and school tie" but wore no tie at all. The strafed enemy troops, and out heavy Eighth Army was a democratic army in bombers played a part in decimating manner and in dress-e-spit-and-polish had Rommel's supplies. been forgotten long before in the press of The Allied air forces are of course a important matters like fighting the enemy. story in themselves. Their greatness and The Scots didn't wear kilts in the desert the greatness of the Eighth Army stemmed but some kept them in their bed rolls for from the perfect co-operation between the special occasions. They still spoke with two. the rough brogue of the uplands, and the But the spirit of the Eighth Army always hearts that made their forefathers the liv- seemed to me typified in a little, sun-black- ing emblems of courage beat again in the ened driver named Vaughn. Vaughn men of the Seaforth Highlanders, the had been in the last war, had spent three Black Watch-in every unit of the High- years in the desert during this. He still land Division for that matter. The divi- had a sense of humor. sion was badly mauled at Dunkirk and its Once in the middle of a searing day, losses were made up in part by English amid clouds of blowing sand and dust, in troops. These recruits measured up to what was incontestably desert country, the Highland standard, a great achieve- Vaughn grinned and said, "It's all right. ment in itself. Don't you remember how Winston The New Zealanders are men much like Churchill said, 'You're out of the desert those you meet on the dairy [arms of Wis- now, lads'?" consin, the grain and cattle farms of Iowa They weren't then, but they were soon.

For information concerning the contributors to this issue, see Personal and Otherwise among the following pages.