Mediterranean Algiers Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1943, Algiers, Algiers                                Sunday May 30, 1943 the stars and stripes Ernie Pyle describes Odyssey answers leading cd questions Page 9 so the stars and stripes wants some of us correspondents to write some pieces for you Guys to read the idea i think is for us to write about you. Well i done to know Why we should be telling you about yourselves. If you done to know where you re at and How you feel by this time you must be too dumb to read anyhow. So for Lack of a better subject ill break All the rules and write about myself. In be been away from Home for a whole year now. Practically All that time has been spent nosing around Odd Corners of the Earth with you gigs looking in vain for Colleen in Ireland trying to keep dry in England and a Allez Inge the poor arabs to death Here. In be travelled 20,000 Miles in Africa got myself shot at once or twice and died a thousand deaths from freezing. I know three generals by their first names and have almost been court Martiale once. In be stolen one jeep and had two stolen from me. Ernie makes a living since leaving Home in be sent Back nearly 300,000 words about you and your current careers to Coin a phrase. You did no to suspect you were that interesting did you Well maybe you Arentt but brother in be got a living to make sure Hope i done to run out of words. In my rambles through darkest Africa in be come to know hundreds of you by name and a Good Many thousands of you by sight or Chance meeting. So far in be always got along Fine with you and you Veall been Nice to me. But i m a Little leery about facing you in the future. For in be just qualified As the biggest idiot in North Africa. From now on in a afraid you la All Point and jeer when i come around and say a a there goes that half witted  if you done to believe. By Ernie Pyle Scripps Howard columnist in a idiotic Here Are my credentials in be just turned Down a Chance to go Home done task Why i did it for i really done to know. Maybe in a afraid to go Home and find things Arentt like i remember them. Maybe in a too curious like the cat and afraid 111 miss something Over Here. Or maybe ifs just Plain Contra riness. I done to know. At any rate in a still Here. At the moment in a in a tent Camp on the Beach kind of half work ing and half shirking waiting for the next Cue. Even a correspondent imagines he needs a rest after a thing like Tunisia. Just like Miami out Here its practically the same As being at Miami. Our Cabana has running water when when you tip up a five gallon can the water runs out we have clean Linen on our Beds at least i suppose we do it was clean the last time i looked inside my Bedroll last november. We have electric lights and my boudoir lamp that hangs from the Ridge pole is shaded by a delicate beige cardboard pasteboard cover off a White horse whiskey bottle. The covering i regret to say was empty when it came into my life. If i Ever see another bottle of White horse in a not going to drink it. In a going to eat it Glass stopper and All we have Mediterranean surf Blue skies land Terrapin spam and a full society life every morning three Little boys Chase a Herd of goats through my tent ifs truly a wonderful vacation easily afforded by any Spring vacationer who is willing to let the government foot most of the Bill. Of course i have to pay a Little extra for the ants that keep crawling up my legs but hell you can to get ants like these at Miami Beach for any Price. In my travels around the Djebel and wadis with you soldiers there Are three main questions you always ask me. These questions Are 1. When will the War be Over 2. When Are we going Home 3. When and where will the next move be being a correspondent in a blessed with a sixth Wisdom and of course i always have a great Deal of inside information. So Here Are my answers for what they Are Worth 1. I done to know. 2. Jene Sais Pas. 3. Ich Weiss Nicht. I really done to know and except for no. 3 f course i done to think anybody else does either. But if you want my jailbird opinion i  make dates to meet anybody at the Comer of main and Vine for at least two years yet if i were you. I know that crack will make me very unpopular with you but what the hell at least the arabs love me. About going Home and speaking of this going Home business i think the main difference along that line Between you soldiers and us correspondents is psychological. We know we can go Home therefore we done to mind staying. You know you can to go Home consequently you think about it All the time. One night i got to talking with some soldiers about this and we arrived at this conclusion if you were All suddenly put in the same position we Are that is if you were suddenly offered the Chance of going Home for Good i done to mean a few select ones to be used for training i mean everybody just up and quit and go Home merely because you want to go Home ill bet not one of too of you would vote to go until the War is won. Or would you of lets drop it in a getting homesick myself. Guarding stars and the Harbor a stripes photo by soft. Phil Stem Viec Leq Al 73ab six months of Djebel by William l. White if Auris Story of a jump l by John h. Thompson Chicago Tribune correspondent it was a Gamble but then what part of the Early Days Wasny to Headquarters said go Down and capture that Airfield. Col. Raff that a Edson d. Raff then of the Parachute battalion said what Field someone dragged out a map. You  paste it on a lamp Alhade. It was Only on a scale of one to fifty thousand. A magnifying Glass showed the name of the town nearby yours Les Bains. Any identifying features on the terrain yeah some roads and a Railroad line. That looked like a big town nearby Rebessa. So Raff said okeh and we went. At 7 of clock on the morning of november 15, 33 troop carriers took off from the Algiers Airport with an escort of hurricanes. Three and one half hours later we were Over what the French Call a Landing Fields a Barren Plain topped by a Hij lying Between two fairly High Mountain chains. How the Pilot of our planet i was flying in col. Raff a ship Ever found this spot was never explained. In fact we made two passes Over the area before he and col. Raff were satisfied. Our Mission was to secure the Field and deny its use to the enemy. This was just a week after our landings and wed had some intelligence reports that enemy patrols were within 25 Miles of the Field. French troops were said to be nearby. But no one Wras sure if they were Friendly. And if they were whether they knew the american parachutists were coming. The station As the military boys say was Uncertain. But we jumped. For this reporter. It we As a first jump. Quite a thrill too but that a another Story. This one belongs to the fighting men. They hit the dirt and came up ready for Battle. But there was t any a then. It turned out that third zouave were holding the Field we Ere in fact in position in trenches on the Hill. And if they wanted to could have Cut us to pieces. Instead it is a hands across the sea love feast. And we moved into Rebessa leaving some of the paratroopers to guard the Field. That was rugged. Those boys done to jump with Pup tents. Or blankets. Or even me skits. They had a few k rations and a spoon. And those nights the Dew froze wherever it collected. Well col. Raff decided to push South to gather More information. And we went to Hafsa. That was november 17. It took us All Day to get there one ancient tunisian bus after another breaking Down. But they reached Hafsa found some More Friendly French troops the Chasseur d Frique. Back to Rebessa those were Days when reports came in every few minutes of enemy tank columns or motorized troops coming up from Tri Politani and moving our Way. Once two columns threatened to Cut us off and we had to pull out Back to Rebessa. But the utile band of paratroops we Cut Back reinforced by a company of tank destroyers and a company of infantry which had been flown in by air. And they retook Hafsa driving out some 200 enemy troops in the morning. And in the afternoon capt. Gilbert Ellman s tank busters knocked out four of the six tanks that came up the Road. Then they drove North All night to Sbei la and at noon destroyed ten or eleven More. By this time the outfit had become sort of a task Force. Very soon it was joined by a battalion of infantry from the 1st division. And we took a id pass on december 3 and with the help of some French artillery and infantry. That was the first and really Tough Battle. Everything before had been sort of a Beau Geste War. This Tussel was 1943. We we on it. From then on the Force roamed All Over the territory from the Southern end of the Ouss Eltia Valley to Al Huettar. While the Northern fighting plugged alone this Southern task Force charged up and Down and fought bitter patrol activity. Tile enemy never made a serious threat after that until the task Force gradually became absorbed by its Parent Girup and ii corps set up shop. N. Y. Herald Tribune correspondent Medvez Al Bab taken on a shoestring held with a prayer and used As a dam until a steel jacketed tidal wave could be a loosed in the med Jerda Valley to race triumphantly into Tunis stands As a Symbol of the entire North african Campaign Medvez itself its stately eucalyptus Trees contrasting strangely with its Battle scarred buildings has been the focal Point of More fighting in this Campaign than any other of North africans ancient smelly towns. It was just East of Medvez. Under a sunny Messe Schmitt filled sky that the last surveys the Lancashire Fusiliers and some american Armor irom combat command a by met the germans at their mor Taring worst in the first major defensive stand the germans made in this Campaign. That was november 24. Artillery opens up it was there that the germans got their first taste of the artillery fire that in the next six months was to leave them punch drunk bewildered and beaten. It was from North of Medvez that the germans had to sit and watch the British forces grow from brigade swaddling clothes into a full grown army and dig their defences Ever deeper. It was to make Medvez untenable As an Allied springboard that the germans launched their heaviest Northern attacks from a Djenane to sued Zara. And finally it was through Medvez the British army poured its massive offensive that swept up the Lush Green med Jerda Valley when the Pupil was ready to show the teacher something about a Blitzkrieg. That in Broad outline is the Story of Medvez and the British army in this Campaign. To the veterans of Dunkirk and the shopkeepers from Rural England who were aching to repay Jerry for the Aerial pounding head Given their Homes and shops the Campaign was one of months Long frustration costly attacks against superbly prepared defences and vexatious waiting through pouring rain cold nights and sultry Days until the debt of Dunkirk could be wiped off the history books. Race against Jerry the British army and in a purposely leaving out the heroic part played by the american army to someone who knows its detailed Story More intimately than i do in those Days ran risks that must make military experts shiver even now. The race to bring Jerry to grips involving longer and longer lines of communication with every step increasing the danger of leaving both flanks exposed and out distancing its air cover was certainly Foolhardy often Brilliant a but always Gallant. In those Days the British fought with platoons we Hen they needed companies with companies where battalions were demanded. They literally held onto a mile Long front with a handful of men and prayed that Jerry would t guess How weak they were. The Bluff worked until the february March unpleasantness but by Theu it was More a ques Tion of shifting to meet the Axis thrusts than it was of a Campaign prolonging German breakthrough. By april it was evident to everyone but Gen. Jurgin last Cartridge von Arnim that the show was about Over. The classic punishing attack on a a Long Stop Hill a the hours Long creeping barrage by 400 guns a Liberal application of bombs and an overpowering infantry attack showed the pattern the British were to follow right into Tunis. But Jerry in his infinite ignorance either  or  believe it and still ii Ling onto other Heights across the Valley and even committed 32 of his tanks in a desperate last minute attack near Peters Corner. That was another mistake the mighty German machine made for it was then Clear that he still held Gen. Montgomery a eighth army in More respect than the first army so Gen. Alexander switched three divisions from in i Davilien a impossible and impassable Barrier to the Medvez area. Push to Tunis on May 5, two infantry divisions the British fourth and the fourth Indian a established firm bases and Alexander sent his Armor through so fast that the German forces before Tunis never recovered it was a Victory for British arms almost beyond their wildest dreams this crushing rout of a foe so cocky he used literally to sunbathe atop his Hill positions daring the British to try and drive him off. This Complete Victory paid Back Many of Britain a Early humiliations gave britons Ai Home War weary after three and a half years a solid basis for Hope and it Tore another Nasty rent in the myth of German army invincibility. It was a time for jubilation and understandable boasting. But instead Gen. Anderson commander of the first army passed it off in the be tallied tradition. Never he said has any general a finer body of British troops under his command but what pleased him More was the development of the american army a a into a magnificent fighting  of Cassenie the acid test by Hal Boyle associated press correspondent the Battle of Kasserine Gap turning Point in the struggle Tor Tunisia proved that although you can kick an american army in the pants you can to make careers of it. The rough Tough nazi tank pilots of those dark Days in mid february when they were pushing the yanks Back from Faid pass 60 Miles in seven Days have become the Pansy panzers of May time and now they gulp their g rations behind barbed wire. The Champion in any Field shows his real stuff when the go continued on Page to a a St i ski i life 4jtji