Mediterranean Algiers Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1943, Algiers, Algiers Sunday May 30, 1943 the stars and stripes Page i Engineer corps experts had been testing the ground with machines that looked like vacuum cleaners to give the boys an even break a when the assault came. But it was impossible to cover every Inch of ground. The assault divisions knew they were taking a Chance but they went through Miles of untested country like heroes and Learned to treat mines with that Cool contempt the veterans of Amateur and Bizerte applied to shells and bombs and snipers. Just another of the big risks of War that done to get you unless death is gunning for you personally a group of artillery officers led the Advance into Hafsa by the simple method of walking straight Down the main Road. I was with them. They were the first to spot mines at the first Roadblock a few Miles ahead of the town. We Learned then that Road mines can usually be spotted by Day. They Only form a real peril by night. The mine off the Roadside is the Only real Daylight danger. That discovery meant our reconnaissance cars could now Speed Down Miles of Road in the Wake of the retreating enemy As fast As he could get away. Reconnaissance seeded up quite a bit after Hafsa. The boys did no to let Arn imps rearguard lose touch with them afterwards. We never had so much no Many a land Between our Forward divisions and the enemy follow through prom corps Headquarters to Hafsa was about too Miles then when corps moved to Feria a it was 60 Miles away. At Al Huettar corps was Only 16 Miles from the front line at Sidi a sir with All kinds of difficult country intervening Only 34 Miles. After Hafsa. Divisional Headquarters pressed up close on the heels of the advanced infantry. We were learning to follow through our drive. But Hafsa was much More than a discovery in dispositions. It was a dress rehearsal for the Quick capture of a town. The boys Learned then How quickly Jerry slips away if you give him a break. He got a big Start Over us when he pulled out for the Oasis. Gigs Learned that there were no souvenirs to be had if you gave the local arabs time to go Over the ground after Arnim had pulled a fast Retreat. Hafsa struck the first note of1 enthusiasm and optimism for a Quick Victory. It was a magical moment As the boys flocked into the Highway after scouring the Countryside for traces of the enemy and breasted the Rise that obscured the made to order Hollywood a a Beau Gestey town with its White minarets peeping above the Palm Trees. Lots of the boys had seen it before but to the majority it was their first View of an enemy occupied City that mattered. No one cheered but everyone panted with expectation and Delight in the hot Sun. If Victory was As easy As this then Roll on to bigger and better gains Arab and the Crater i was out with the Advance parties that made the Survey for the attack on Hafsa. Ill never forget the first time i went Down that Road. Tile Advance spearhead of the whole american corps was parked in a Sandpit in a Bank by the Roadside. About too Yards ahead was a big mine Crater that blocked the Road. The germans had Laid it for us to run into. It was touched off by an Arab driving his Donkey towards Feria a and bits and pieces of himself and his beast Lay All Over the place. Scraps of carpet bags Lay around with piles of scattered Corn that showed what the Burro had been toting on his Back. A jeep with a lot of 1st Divi Sion colonels and majors came by and offered to take me ahead to have a look at the enemy. They Hadnot seen the Donkey and i objected that if i went along with them i be Able to write their obits. The objection was overruled thus i came to be the first War correspondent to see the Axis positions outside Hafsa. The great Day luckily As it turned out for when the great Day came i knew just How far ahead i could go without being bumped off. That was where i parked myself in that historic morning when the u. S. Corps staged its comeback and i went along with the boys As if an Advance into enemy country was easy. But there were Many More opportunities for stage fright. Especially when we got into Hafsa itself and had to search the houses for enemy snipers. Fortunately there weren to any there and i plunged out on the Road to Al Huettar with that slight touch of overconfidence that makes women say what fools men Are a but the fighting soldiers of the Battlefront Tell me you be got to be that Way to win Gruel a Jerry was stopped by Frederick Painton readers digest correspondent Al Huettar the gigs walked and fought Over a lot of Tunisia but will anybody soon forget Al Huettar the Little whirlwinds that came from nowhere and cancer across the Valley like twirling Ballet Queens. The arabs who pointed to them gravely and called them Jinns ghosts and gave them names of dead friends. The violent gales that sprang up toward Sundown and took a Many a Pup tent to hell and gone across the country if tit. Quot a infantryman and Friend Wasny to Well pegged Down. The swimming Pool in Hafsa where the Lucky so and sos who got a Chance to dive into it could write Home that they had swum where roman emperors had bathed 2,-000 years ago. And there was Djebel Berda that Barren Rock pile to the South lot of Guys wont forget that. Called Hill 772, remember and the last thousand feet went straight up and a Guy had to be a Goat to hold his footing. The 9th division wont forget the the Djebel were Tough signal corps photo shoes that fell apart the clothes that Hung in rags and those Hermann Goering Guys that arrived before a Man could pick himself a Good spot to fight in. And the 1st division infantry wont forget the night attack. Pistol and Rifle shots. Flares blinding a Man. Screaming howling Jerries coming out of nowhere and concussion grenades popping in the darkness like chinese firecrackers. Al Huettar where the Jerry continued on Page 12 and this is what the air Force was doing the morning of nov. 8, 1942, a Bunch of american parachutists were mopping up an Ai drome outside Oran with the assistance of some spitfires and War Hawks overhead when a gun toting transport Pilot yelled. A a where the Hellas the Ai drome defense Force a meaning the army of course and it Wasny to Many Days ago that a certain army colonel remarked so front line gossip has it that the air corps could begin operations As his artillery was engaging the enemy air Force on their own Ai drome. Maybe the Allied air forces did no twin this Campaign All by themselves lowering Skyhook to drag the army along but that a what they a winningly maintain. Until you ask them seriously what they think of the Job the army did Well we won t go into that now or All you i Guys will be shooting lines longer than the air required it took the concentration and coordination of both ground and air to win this Campaign which is probably a secret Only to Hitler because he lacked Good swimmers for the sicilian Straits event. But it Wasny to always possible for you gigs slopping through mud and dust and Sand to see enough of the air forces efforts to appreciate fully their contribution to the Campaign. Once we had established our bases in Casablanca Oran and Algiers the armies and tile air forces faced their hardest test. It was a race eastward to try to beat German consolidation of Tunisia. We almost won but the enemy a air bases were too close and his Aerial strength at that time enabled him not Only to delay us but to pour sufficient troops and material into the Battle to Stop us Halfway across Tunisia. Many times when i was with you gigs and British mommies it Wasny to pleasant ill admit to dive for Foxholes from Stukas Junker 88�?Ts, Messe Schmitts or Foeke wolfs on bombing and strafing missions. Invariably wed curse and ask a a where the hell is the air Force a i tried to find out. Don t think the Glamor boys weren to trying they were doing a terrific Job. Early in the Campaign i snooped around Forward fighter domes trying to find the answer to the 64-Dollar question. The mud was just As bad on those Aird Romes or the Sand just As bitter As it was around your Foxholes. And the Chow was identical with yours. The rain was worse because it forced pilots and air Crews either to live in their aircraft constantly or get soaking shoes and clothes. So what you say Well if wet feet and clothes Are uncomfortable on the ground imagine what they must feel like in sub Zero temperatures 15,000 feet in the fancy the pilots and air Crews did no to have any fancy Layouts just i tents in the mud or bomb blasted buildings and hangars. Yet they had to maintain delicate equipment. To keep that equipment operating it was necessary for Many weeks to have All Crews double in brass not Only fight their planes but spend every spare second servicing them with Yankee ingenuity. One Field i was at had Only 12 operational aircraft at the height of Early frontline operations at Medvez and during the Luftwaffe a Daylight blitzing of Bone. Twelve planes serviceable out of 50 on the ground because the Luftwaffe still had air superiority in that area. Pilots of those planes serviced them because of the shortage of ground Crews. The mud was so deep it was necessary to scrape a runway after every series of takeoffs or landings and Jerry was strafing or bombing the Field every hour on the hour. That was up in the mud Down South it was no to quite so bad because Jerry was still concentrating his Southern air strength against the 8th army we sent air Force units South to get out of the mud and behind an air observer screen for defense. Planes operating around Rebessa and Bisk a flew Long hours to protect the Northern front or bomb the enemy Only because other Fields were unsuitable. And then the mud moved South too. It was fantastic mud that froze overnight into ruts hard enough to break a Landing gear. When it was at its goo Iest the air planes were literally stuck to the ground. By red Mueller news week correspondent but then the necessary equipment began arriving and service personnel and the air forces got cracking. Road graders Cut out Aird Romes nearer the front dozens of Aird Romes. Engineers started laying out tented cities. Grease monies began retuning worn planes carefully replacing tin can patches with pieces from the scrap piles. The spitfire nines arrived to take away the Altitude dominance of the enemy Over the spit five and the lightnings came in to help the War Hawks. The a-20�?Ts, the Mitchells and the marauders started blossoming All Over the landscape and fortresses got so common nobody would look up at one unless it was tied to a Cloud. Air marshal Tedder general Spaatz and air vice marshal con Ingham. After the Roosevelt Churchill conferences combining All forces in West Africa and All air forces in the Mediterranean began organizing their strength and concentrating. The Axis was being pushed into an Ever decreasing pocket As the 1st army maintained its Anvil pressure for the 8th to sledgehammer the enemy against. And the desert air groups were leap frogging their Way Over one another keeping up with the 8 h army s Advance to give the ground movement air information air cover and air support. Their movement was so rapid the enemy actually Laid mines on Aird Romes to halt the Allied domination of the air. But he did no to succeed. Maj. Gen. James h. Doolittle a strategic air Force mixed its operations against enemy Aird Romes first win the Battle of the Airano against the enemy a Supply lines reduce the enemy a strength against your own forces. There were Tedder a principles at work. The air was supporting the army although you Guys on the ground Seldom saw the cause or effect. There were some colourful episodes in those earlier Days. There was the ten for ten fight Over Feria a when american War Hawks wiped out a Ju-88 formation. There was the 15-for-15 score when British fighters cleaned up a Stuka formation a stunt an american Squadron almost copied later in getting 14 out of 15 at Al the Axis there were the two Days when strategic air Force formations on their Way to bomb Axis ships paused Long enough virtually to wipe out several Large German air convoys getting Over 70 on one Day and Over 53 engined transports on another. And the South africans came along and knocked Down All 20 of a Convoy of six engined air planes carrying troops and supplies to the germans in Tunisia. It was the Middle of february before the two air forces North african and Western desert really joined hands and began concurrent operations against the same enemy targets sweeping in with vicious attacks from both directions. The enemy put on his last real Aerial opposition then but gradually his planes were being destroyed on the ground his essential air supplies were being shot Down into the Mediterranean and his fighters and bombers were finding it too hot upstairs to operate effectively. But they operated and any i who Dove for a foxhole will agree to that but though the enemy made a lot of noise the sum total of the damage or casualties he inflicted was Small compared to our operations on the ground and what we were doing to Jerry from the of the mud by april air superiority was assured. We d overcome the a handicaps of shipping fighter planes gasoline spare parts ammunition Ai drome supplies and other equipment those thousands of Miles across the Atlantic. Jeny had lost the advantage of being close to his main Supply bases in Italy and we had struggled literally upward out of the mud to control the air. Then we began to dominate it. We pounded the enemy a entrenchments broke up his Road transport and his railways shattered the nerves of some of his Best troops and finally when the army gave the signal the whole air Force of West Africa moved into direct support of the army against the enemy a ground positions. It was a slow Start because the weather restricted the operations of Large bomber formations. But when the Rains lifted steel poured into the enemy a lines. The Pace was such that the air transports which All Winter moved emergency supplies and personnel to the front and wounded from it were needed to carry up such Odd loads As bomb fuses Wing Racks extra machine gun ammunition for strafing planes and according to the air Force tall stories club searchlights to enable our pilots to see through a a skies blackened by Allied the army when planes blasted a thousand Yard Hole four Miles deep through enemy lines and Gen. Alexander Cut Loose the armoured Force Blitzkrieg. The air Force had done its Job and done it Well. The pilots Are Only sore about one thing if 1hey Hadnot left so Many bomb Boles and wrecked enemy planes scattered All Over Tunis and Huerta airports they could have landed after their last missions looked around for the army and yelled a a where the Hellas the Ai drome defense Force a and Ever time you wonder where the Glamor boys Are just remember that on the ground you captured were 525 enemy air planes that did no to disturb you because your air planes knocked them out and a lot of ammunition and War material that Wasny to used because your air Force helped take away the enemy a desire to go on fighting without air cover or Hope of supplies. In North Africa the air Force As Jureine von Arnim will testify i a
