Patton's Tactician: The War Diary of

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PATTON’S TACTICIAN
American Warriors

Throughout the nation’s history, numerous men and women of all ranks
and branches of the US military have served their country with honor and
distinction. During times of war and peace, there are individuals whose
exemplary achievements embody the highest standards of the US armed
forces. The aim of the American Warriors series is to examine the unique
historical contributions of these individuals, whose legacies serve as
enduring examples for soldiers and citizens alike. The series will promote
a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the US armed forces.

Series editor: Joseph Craig

An AUSA Book
PATTON’S
TACTICIAN
The War Diary of Lieutenant General
Geoffrey Keyes

Edited by James W. Holsinger Jr.

A note to the reader: General Keyes’s war diary includes
references to race and ethnicity that contemporary readers may
find insensitive. This volume reproduces the original, unedited
language to present an accurate record of General Keyes’s thoughts
and opinions in their full historical context. Discretion is advised.

Copyright © 2024 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,

serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Spalding University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky,
University of Louisville, University of Pikeville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.

Frontispiece: Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes (Keyes Family Archive)

Maps by Richard Gilbreath

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky

663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com

Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-0-8131-9871-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8131-9874-3 (epub)
ISBN 978-0-8131-9873-6 (pdf)

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting

the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Member of the Association

of University Presses
 For my band of brothers:

Dr. Bill T. Arnold

The Reverend Daniel B. Baer
Robert J. Benvenuti III, Esq.
The Reverend Keith D. Boyette, Esq.
David W. Brock
Dr. Erik L. Carlton
Phillip F. Connolly
David E. Fleenor, Esq.
Dr. George H. Freeman
Dr. Joel B. Green
Dr. Jeffrey E. Greenway
Dr. W. W. (Tim) Havens
Dr. George G. Hunter III
Dr. Emmanuel D. Jadhav
Dr. Bruce A. Lucas
Dr. Stephen W. Wyatt

and in memory of
Dr. Terry L. Birdwhistell (1950–2023)
Major General Joseph G. Gray (1935–2021)
Dr. George C. Herring Jr. (1936–2022)
Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield (1942–2022)

and in honor of
Brigadier General James W. Holsinger (1905–1994)
 Contents

Abbreviations xi
Keyes Family xv
List of Maps and Map Symbols xvii
Note on Military Units xix
Editor’s Note xxi
Introduction: A Biographical Sketch of Lieutenant
General Geoffrey Keyes 1
1. Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 5
2. Operation Husky and the Sicilian Campaign 25
3. Crossing the Rapido 52
4. On to Rome 87
5. The River Crossings 124
6. The End of the War 171
7. The Occupation of Germany 190
8. High Commissioner for Austria 275
Conclusion 369
Appendix A 375
Appendix B 379
Notes 385
References 431
Oral History Interviews 443
Index 445

Illustrations follow page 251

 Abbreviations

AAA Antiaircraft Artillery

ACC Allied Control Council
AAI Allied Armies, Italy
AES Army Exchange Service
AFHQ Allied Force Headquarters
AFN Armed Forces Network
Ammo Ammunition
ARC American Red Cross
ASR Adjusted Service Rating
ASW Assistant Secretary of War
BOWD Budget Office, US War Department
Br British
CCA Combat Command A
CCB Combat Command B
CEF Corps Expéditionnaire Français (French Expeditionary
Corps)
CFM Council of Foreign Ministers
CG Commanding General
CI Civilian Internee
CIE Civilian Internment Enclosure
CIC Combat Information Center
CO Commanding Officer
COPRA Comparative Postwar Recovery Analysis
COS or CoS Chief of Staff
CP Command Post
CPX Command Post Exercise
DD Destroyer
DivArty Division Artillery
DP Displaced Person
DSC Distinguished Service Cross
DSM Distinguished Service Medal

xi
 xii Abbreviations

ECA Economic Cooperation Administration

ERP European Recovery Plan
ETOUSA European Theater of Ooperations, US Army
FAITC Fifth Army Invasion Training Center
FDR President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FEC French Expeditionary Corps
FO Field Order
fwd Forward
GBK Geoffrey B. Keyes
GCM General George C. Marshall
“George” George Harrison (Keyes’s brother-in-law)
GO General Order
GOC General Officer in Command
GSP General George S. Patton Jr.
HQ Headquarters
I&E Inspiration and Encouragement
IG Inspector General
ISB Information Service Branch, USFA
INS Immigration and Naturalization Service
IRO International Refugee Organization
KT “Happy Hour”
LCI Landing Craft, Infantry
LO Liaison Officer
LCT Landing Craft, Tank
LHK Leila Harrison Keyes
LM Legion of Merit
LST Landing Ship, Tank
LT Lieutenant
MTO Mediterranean Theater of Operations
METOUSA Mediterranean Theater of Operations USA
MG Machine Gun
MP Military Police
NATOUSA North African Theater of Operations, US Army
NCO Noncommissioned Officer
NE Northeast
NW Northwest
NZ New Zealand
OEEC Organization for European Economic Cooperation
OI Operations Instructions
 Abbreviations xiii

OLC Oak Leaf Cluster

OMGUS Office of Military Government, United States
OP Observation Post
OPD Operations and Plans Division, War Department
General Staff
Office of Defense Planning (after July 1947)
OSS Office of Strategic Services
PM Prime Minister (Winston Churchill)
PRO Public Relations Office or Officer
PW Prisoner of War
RAF Royal Air Force
RCN Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron
RCT Regimental Combat Team
SA South Africa
SANACC State-Army-Navy-Air Force Coordinating Committee
SGS Secretary, General Staff
SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
SO Special Order
SP Self-propelled
SS Silver Star or Special Services
SWNCC State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee
TD Tank Destroyer
TDY Temporary Duty
TF Task Force
TFA Task Force Alpha
TFB Task Force Bravo
T/O Table of Organization
TSSET Theater Services Support European Theater
UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration
US United States
USACA United States Commission for Allied Austria
USAT United States Army Transport
USEUCOM United States European Command
USFA United States Forces Austria
USFET United States Forces European Theater
USGCC United States Group Control Council
USS United States Ship
V V-Mail
 xiv Abbreviations

VAC Vienna Area Command

WAC Women’s Army Corps
WD War Department
WTF Western Task Force
ZI Zone of the Interior; i.e., United States
88 German 88 mm antiaircraft and antitank artillery gun
 Keyes Family
CPT Alexander S. B. Keyes Virginia Maxwell George F. E. Harrison Mary Ross Ray

LTG Geoffrey Keyes Leila Harrison George Leslie Ross Ray

Berenice May Keyes (Bev) (Geoff) (LHK, Leila) Harrison (George) Harrison (Ross)
M1. Maximiliano Luna
M2. Howard Anderson

Maximillian Maxwell Keyes Virginia Maxwell Keyes COL Roberts Sherwood Demitz
(Ginger, Ginge) (Bob)
Lucy Beatrice Keyes
Jacqueline Harrison Keyes LTG William Robertson Desobry
(Jackie) (Bill, Des)
Edward Keyes
(Jack) Mary Leslie Keyes COL James Fuller McKinley Jr.
(Les) (Jimmy)
Ethel Keyes
Geoffrey Brooks Keyes
(GBK, Geoff, Buster)

Leila Harrison Keyes COL Levin Barnett Broughton

(Leila Jr.) (Barney)
 Maps and Map Symbols

List of Maps

1. Operation Torch, November 8, 1942 11

2. Tunisian Campaign, January 24–May 13, 1943 15
3. Sicilian Campaign, July 9–August 16, 1943 30
4. German Defensive Lines in Italy 54
5. The Battle for Cassino, February 4–12, 1944 82
6. Liberation of Rome, May 11–June 4, 1944 111
7. Breakthrough into the Po Valley, April 14–21, 1945 183
8. The Drive across the Po Valley, April 21–26, 1945 185
9. Occupation Zones in Austria 193
10. Occupation Zones in Germany 203

xvii
 Map Symbols

River Axis Allies

Highway Advance

Railroad Retreat

xxx Corps boundary

Infantry

Mountain peak
Armor

Landmark Infantry
(Mechanized)

City/town
Airborne

Urban area
Unit Size
Flags Company

United States Battalion

Brigade

USSR x Regiment

xx Division
France
xxx Corps

xxxx Army
Great Britain
xxxxx Army Group
 Note on Military Units

For World War II military units, the theater of operations was the geo-
graphic area required for conducting offensive or defensive military oper-
ations and for the administration of combat units.1 An Army Group
consisted of two or more armies and was a tactical unit with few supply
or administrative functions. A numbered army was the largest self-con-
tained unit, consisting of a headquarters, organic army troops, with corps
and divisions assigned based on its mission, the terrain of operations, and
the enemy forces. The numbered army was the fundamental unit of stra-
tegic maneuver, and it planned and executed strategic and tactical opera-
tions, having in addition territorial, tactical, and administrative functions.2
A numbered corps was a tactical unit consisting of a headquarters, certain
corps troops, and divisions assigned depending on the mission, terrain,
and combat situation. During combat, the corps commander influenced
the outcome of the battle by maintaining close contact with the engaged
divisions, coordinating or changing their disposition as necessary.3 The
division, an administrative and tactical unit, was the basic large unit. It
consisted of a headquarters and assigned infantry, cavalry, or armored
units, as well as field artillery and other organic units.4 The regiment was
both an administrative and a tactical unit, consisting of a headquarters
and two or more battalions.5 The battalion was the basic tactical unit,
composed of a headquarters and two or more companies of similar type.6

xix
 Editor’s Note

While speaking to Sherwood Demitz, my boyhood friend and the grand-

son of Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes, I discovered that General
Keyes had maintained a diary throughout World War II and the Cold War
occupation of Germany and Austria. My father, Colonel (later Brigadier
General) James W. Holsinger, served with General Keyes as the assistant
chief of staff, G-4, Logistics, for II Corps and during the Italian campaign,
then as the assistant chief of staff, G-5, Civil Affairs, for the Seventh
Army. As I have worked through the diary, it has become clear to me
that my father modeled himself as an Army officer on General Keyes.
Many of the terms used to describe Keyes’s attributes could likewise be
ascribed to my father, particularly in the final four years of his thirty-
three-year military career, when he served as commander for the 2nd and
3rd Armored Division artillery and V Corps artillery. Both men were
highly regarded commanders who cared deeply for their soldiers. They
took their religion seriously and were beloved by their spouses and
families.
As a youth, while living in Arlington, Virginia, I vividly remember the
visits of General and Mrs. Keyes, and subsequently at the Armed Forces
Staff College in Norfolk, as our family lived next door to General Keyes’s
daughter, Virginia, and her husband, Colonel Robert Demitz. These visits
number among the very few times that I remember my father talking
about his three years of combat, from the landing of II Corps at Oran
until the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. As a consequence, the
opportunity to edit the diary of Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes has
been a remarkable experience, drawing me closer to both my father and
a mentor and friend whom he deeply admired.
In researching the details of the diary and inserting the various Edi-
tor’s Notes, I have been cognizant of the need to utilize primary and sec-
ondary sources produced in close temporal proximity to the events
related in the diary. General Keyes did not have access to the German or
Soviet archives that have become available in more recent years. He was

xxi
 xxii Editor’s Note

in a position of only knowing what he knew firsthand, especially during

his time as high commissioner in Occupied Austria. Based on that knowl-
edge, he carried out his duties to the best of his and his staff’s ability.
Various Editor’s Notes appear throughout the book in italics and
provide context to General Keyes’s diary. Additional explanatory inser-
tions are noted with brackets. The full names of senior officers as well as
endnotes indicating their official positions have been added to provide
context. Ranks have been written out to enhance the readability of the
diary. Abbreviations are spelled out when they first occur and are found
in the List of Abbreviations. The spelling of proper names and geographic
locations have been checked and, where necessary, corrected.
I am grateful for the assistance of research librarians at several insti-
tutions. Lynn Smith, video archivist at the Hoover Presidential Library
and Museum, provided an introduction to Linda K. Smith, archivist spe-
cialist at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, who gra-
ciously assisted me in obtaining letters written to then General Eisenhower
by Generals Patton and Keyes. Bruce Kirby, reference librarian at the
Library of Congress, provided an important letter written by General
Keyes to General Patton. Justine Melone and Thomas Buffenbarger, staff
members at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, facilitated my
visit to its archive. Elizabeth Fink accurately transcribed much of the
diary, for which I am grateful. Richard Gilbreath, an extraordinary car-
tographer, graciously provided his expertise in creating the outstanding
maps. Ashley Runyon, the director of the University Press of Kentucky,
greatly encouraged me to engage in this project and consistently provided
her support to bring it to a successful conclusion. Natalie O’Neal Clau-
sen, acquisitions editor, and Tatianna Verswyvel, acquisitions assistant,
provided expert assistance, encouragement, and support throughout the
project. I am indebted to Derik Shelor for his outstanding copy editing of
the manuscript. I am indebted to my friend and colleague for many years
at the University of Kentucky, Dr. George Herring, a remarkable and tal-
ented historian, for reading, editing, and critiquing the manuscript as it
was being written and making important suggestions for revisions and
additions to the notes. I am grateful for the financial support of the Uni-
versity of Kentucky College of Public Health. Without the strong support
of the family of General Keyes, this book would not have been com-
pleted. Sherwood Demitz played a key role in not only providing a copy
of General Keyes diary, but in coordinating his family’s response to the
effort to produce it for publication. I am grateful for his personal contri-
bution to the project. In addition, the family provided insight, photo-
 Editor’s Note xxiii

graphs, and encouragement, making it possible to complete the project.

Finally, my spouse of sixty years, Dr. Barbara Craig Holsinger, once again
supported the use of my time for this book. Without her love, care, and
encouragement, this project would not be finished.
James W. Holsinger Jr.
Major General, AUS-RET
June 4, 2023
 Introduction
A Biographical Sketch of Lieutenant
General Geoffrey Keyes

Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes was born on October 30, 1888, at

Fort Bayard, New Mexico Territory, into what an Albuquerque newspa-
per called “one of the distinguished military families of this country.” His
father, Captain Alexander S. B. Keyes, served as a cavalry officer, and his
mother, Virginia Maxwell Keyes, was the eldest daughter of a legendary
New Mexico landowner, Lucien B. Maxwell, a former hunter, trapper,
and US Army scout for John C. Frémont, explorer of the American West,
Army officer, and presidential candidate. As a young man, General Keyes
was said to idolize his older brother Maxwell, who fought in the Spanish-
American War in 1898 as a lieutenant in the Rough Riders, Theodore
Roosevelt’s famed 1st US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Lieutenant Max-
well Keyes was killed in the Philippine Insurrection in 1899, and a week
later his brother-in-law, Captain Maximiliano Luna, was killed in the
same conflict.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Keyes enrolled at the US Military
Academy at West Point, New York, on March 2, 1908. He was outstand-
ing in several sports, and excelled as a football player. An account of a
1912 game against Syracuse University reads: “This contest . . . belonged
to Army’s Geoffrey Keyes. Scoring two touchdowns, kicking two conver-
sion points and booting a 43 yard field goal, Keyes accounted for 17 of
the Cadets’ points.” Marty Maher, the West Point football team trainer
for fifty-five years, later said that Keyes “was the only man who could
stop Jim Thorpe.” His 1913 class yearbook, The Howitzer, stated “if
there is a man in the Corps who is more universally liked than he, we
have yet to find him. . . . His standing among his classmates and the
Corps is a natural consequence of his sterling character and qualities
which are admired among men.”1

1
 2 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

General Keyes graduated from the US Military Academy on June 12,

1913, and was commissioned a cavalry second lieutenant in the US Army.
He married Leila Harrison on December 1, 1914. They would eventually
have four daughters, Virginia, Jacqueline, Leslie, and Leila, all of whom
would marry Army officers, and a son, Geoffrey B. Keyes, who graduated
from the US Military Academy in the class of 1945.
Following his graduation from West Point, Keyes was assigned to the
6th Cavalry Regiment, where he served until October 1916, participating
in General John J. Pershing’s Mexican Expedition (1916–1917). During
World War I, he was assigned as an instructor of the French language at
the US Military Academy, where in addition in 1917 he coached the Army
football team to a season of seven wins and one loss. Between World War
I and World War II, Keyes served as assistant chief of staff (G-3) with the
Panama Canal Division, as chief of the Department of Tactics at the US
Army Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, and as chief of the Supply
and Transportation Branch, Supply Division, US War Department. He
graduated from the US Army Command and General Staff School in
1926, the École Supérieure de Guerre (French War College) in Paris,
France, in 1933, and the US Army War College in 1937.
In 1940, Keyes served as chief of staff of the 2nd Armored Division,
commanded by General George S. Patton Jr. Following the attack on Pearl
Harbor, he was promoted to brigadier general and assumed command of
Combat Command B (CCB) of the 3rd Armored Division. In July 1942,
he was promoted to major general and commanded the 9th Armored
Division. At the onset of Operation Torch (the invasion of North Africa
on November 8, 1942) he was assigned as deputy commander of the
Western Task Force (I Armored Corps) under the command of General
Patton. He negotiated an armistice with Vichy French commanders, two
of whom he knew from his days at the École Supérieure de Guerre.
Following the North African landings, the Western Task Force was
again designated I Armored Corps under General Patton’s command.
Following the capture of Tunisia, the I Armored Corps was redesignated
as the US Seventh Army for the invasion of Sicily and commanded by Pat-
ton, with Keyes as his deputy. During the initial period of Operation
Husky (the invasion of Sicily, July 9–August 17, 1943), Patton divided the
Seventh Army, and Keyes commanded the “Provisional Corps,” com-
posed of the 2nd Armored Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 82nd
Airborne Division, and two Ranger battalions along with supporting
units. The “Provisional Corps” advanced 125 miles in five days through
mountainous terrain, capturing western Sicily, including Palermo, the
 Introduction 3

capital of Sicily, with only three hundred casualties. General Keyes

accepted the Italian surrender from Major General Giuseppe Molinero.2
The “Provisional Corps” was disbanded on August 20, 1943, following
the conclusion of the campaign.
In September 1943, Keyes assumed command of II Corps and com-
manded it through the remainder of the war in Italy. He landed in Italy in
October 1943, serving under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark’s US
Fifth Army. II Corps fought its way north through rugged Italian terrain,
including the battle to cross the Rapido River, the first Battle for Cassino.
The corps breached the Gustav and Hitler Lines of fortification in the Liri
Valley, capturing Rome on June 4, 1944, only the second time in history
that the city had fallen to an attack from the south. The Arno River was
crossed and the Gothic Line breached as II Corps fought its way north
following the winter of 1944. On May 2, 1945, the German army in Italy
surrendered.
During the years of the Cold War, General Keyes commanded the US
Seventh Army in the occupation of Germany, controlling the German
states of Württemberg-Baden and Greater Hesse (1945–1946). Following
the unit’s decommissioning, from 1946 to 1947 he assumed command of
the US Third Army, serving as the military governor of the US zone of
occupation in Germany. He was assigned as US high commissioner on the
Allied Council in Austria during its four-power occupation as well as
commander of US Forces Austria, and served in that role for three and
half years. He earned the respect and gratitude of the Austrians for his
efforts on their behalf in the face of Soviet intransigence during the Berlin
Blockade of 1948–1949. He is credited with saving Austria from Soviet
control by insisting in the face of US State Department efforts that US
forces remain until Austria could establish a military force and regain its
sovereignty, which it accomplished in 1955. General Keyes retired in late
1950, only to be recalled to active duty from 1951 to 1954 as director of
the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group.
General Keyes’s military credentials were distinguished. “General Pat-
ton rated him ‘the most tireless, most loyal subordinate, and possessed of
the soundest judgment and best tactical mind of any officer I know’3 and
‘the only officer that I have ever rated ‘Superior’ in all categories.’”4 But it
was as a warm and humane person that he made his greatest impression
on others. “A deeply religious man, he was never sanctimonious; he prac-
ticed what some merely preach. Possessed of great dignity, he was never
arrogant. He gained loyalty and respect based on his own ability and
integrity, never relying on his rank. He used a keen sense of humor to
 4 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

make others comfortable or to relieve tension, never at the expense of oth-

ers’ feelings or dignity. He had the courage to show compassion, and over
the years he earned the devoted friendship of many, in high stations and
low, not because he courted them but because they were drawn to him.”5
Upon his retirement in 1954, General Keyes and his wife, Leila,
returned to his beloved Southwest at Tucson, Arizona, where he enjoyed
life with his family and friends until his death on September 17, 1967.6
General and Mrs. Keyes are buried at the US Military Academy Cemetery
at West Point, New York.
General Keyes’s decorations and awards included the Distinguished
Service Cross, the Army Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf
Clusters, the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit, the
Bronze Star Medal, Honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath (UK),
Commander of the Legion of Honor (France), Croix de Guerre with Palm
(France), Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alauouite (Morocco),
Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy), Silver
Medal of Military Valor (Italy), Grand Officer of the Military Order of
the White Lion (Czechoslovakia), Czechoslovak War Cross (1939–1945),
Military Order of Savoy (Italy), Papal Lateran Cross (Vatican), and Offi-
cer of the Legion of Honor (France).7
 1

Operation Torch and the

North African Campaign
November 1942–June 1943

Editor’s Note: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Decem-

ber 7, 1941, and the German declaration of war on the United States only
four days later, the United States and Great Britain through the Com-
bined Chiefs of Staff began developing plans to engage the Axis alliance
by bringing US forces into combat. At the first heads of state conference,
Arcadia, (December 22, 1941–January 14, 1942), the British suggested
an invasion of North Africa in order to seize the initiative from the
Germans, while Roosevelt was searching for an early entry of American
forces into combat. Stalin was pleading with the Western allies to launch
a second front in an effort to draw thirty to forty German divisions from
the Eastern Front. For political reasons, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston
Churchill favored an attack on North Africa in an effort to control the
Mediterranean Sea and the British lifeline to the Suez Canal and the
Indian Ocean. The American chiefs of staff, however, favored a cross-
Channel invasion of Western Europe. “In April 1942, Roosevelt sent
Marshall and Hopkins to London to secure British agreement to a crash
program to launch a cross-Channel attack. Russia’s needs loomed large in
Roosevelt’s thinking.”1 Although seeming to agree with the Americans,
Churchill soon expressed little agreement for a cross-Channel invasion.2
Roosevelt pressed the issue and Churchill hastened to Washington to dis-
suade him. He was able to convince Roosevelt of his view even though
the American chiefs of staff considered North Africa to be a marginal,
inconsequential theater, far from the German heartland.
As a result, General Sir Alan Brooke, chief of the Imperial General
Staff, stated concerning a cross-channel attack: “The prospects of success
are small and dependent on a mass of unknowns, whilst the chances of
disaster are great.” The American planners considered the British position

5
 6 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

on Operation Torch to be “persuasive rather than rational.” “Direct

attack was premature; its adherents exemplified an amateurish quality of
American strategic thinking that would ripen only as the war ripened.”3
Following Roosevelt’s emphatic requirement that American troops “be
brought into action against the enemy in 1942,” the Americans had little
choice but to agree to the British plan to invade North Africa, and Opera-
tion Torch was born.4
Major Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mark Clark arrived in
Great Britain at the end of June 1942. On June 25, General Eisenhower
assumed command of the European Theater of Operations US Army
(ETOUSA).5 The plan for Operation Torch consisted of Allied amphibi-
ous landings stretching from Casablanca, Morocco, to Algiers, Algeria.
The attacking force comprised approximately 65,000 men divided into
three groups. The Western Task Force of American troops, under the
command of Major General George S. Patton Jr., with Major General
Geoffrey Keyes as his deputy,6 landed in and around Casablanca and
included the 3rd and 9th Infantry Divisions, the 2nd Armored Division,
and various armored and support units. The Center Task Force, consist-
ing of the US II Corps, commanded by Major General Lloyd Fredendall,
landed at Oran, Algeria, and was composed of the 1st Infantry Division,
Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division, 1st Ranger Battalion, and
one battalion of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The Eastern
Task Force, with the American 34th Infantry Division and the British
78th Division, under the command of Major General Charles Ryder,
landed at Algiers.7 The Eastern Task Force was originally commanded by
the Americans due to the animosity between Great Britain and Vichy
France that resulted from the destruction of the French naval forces in
harbor at Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940, in order to keep the fleet from
falling into the hands of the Germans.8 Once the landing was complete,
command of the Allied force passed to the British under General Kenneth
Anderson and was designated the British First Army.
A major issue facing the Americans and British in effecting Opera-
tion Torch concerned the reaction of the Vichy French forces garrisoning
French North Africa. Since the United States maintained diplomatic rela-
tions with Vichy, it was hoped that the French would not resist the Allied
landings. “In the diplomatic dance that ensued, the Americans stumbled
repeatedly. Their first effort was to convince the French that Torch was an
American operation even though nearly half the troops and virtually all
the ships were British, although the overall commander was American.
Vichy refused, and an effort was made to find an amenable French leader
 Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 7

who could induce the French forces not to oppose the landings. Eventu-
ally, a Nazi sympathizer, Admiral François Darlan, at last arranged a gen-
eral cease-fire, bringing opposition to the landings to a halt.9
Following the invasion of French North Africa, the Allies planned to
move expeditiously eastward to control Tunisia so as to deny German
reinforcements for Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s German/Italian forces
in Libya. Unfortunately, the German High Command immediately dis-
patched reinforcements to Bizerte on November 9, following the start of
the North African landings, to maintain control in Tunisia and to support
Rommel’s withdrawal from Libya.
Due to confusion within the Vichy government whether French armed
forces in North Africa would defend against the German encroachment
and/or surrender to the Allied forces, “the French army commander in
Tunisia, General Georges Barré, gradually withdrew his forces westward
into the mountains as Vichy tried to force him to collaborate with Ger-
mans.”10 The Allies’ original plan, to secure airfields at Bone, Bizerte, and
Tunis, was not carried out due to the uncertain French reaction. As a result,
paratroop commando landings occurred at Bone and Allied forces pressed
forward into Tunisia to contact the French. British forces began moving
overland from Algeria, and by November 17 Allied and Axis forces were
closing in on northern Tunisia. The race for Tunis was underway.
By November 16, General Walther Nehring had arrived in Tunis to
take command of the German-Italian forces. The 10th Panzer Division,
Hermann Goering Division, and 334th Infantry Division arrived soon
after. The British First Army under command of General Kenneth A. N.
Anderson, along with elements of the US 1st Armored and the British 6th
Armored Divisions, attacked the German-Italian forces on November 25
with no success. As 1942 drew to a close, efforts were made on both sides
with little result. On December 8, 1942, Colonel General Jürgen von
Arnim assumed command of the newly formed Fifth Panzer Army in
Tunis to maintain control of the French Protectorate of Tunisia.11 The
Atlas Mountains made possible the easy defense of western Tunisia by the
German-Italian forces.
As 1943 opened, the US II Corps under the command of General
Fredendall moved into position south of the British First Army and the
French XIX Corps. On January 2, 1943, General von Arnim attacked
and penetrated the French line. To bolster the situation, the XIX and II
Corps were subordinated to Anderson’s First Army. German attacks con-
tinued in the French zone, and by the middle of February “II Corps units
were badly intermingled, the 1st Armored division was widely dispersed,
 8 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

and Rommel was about to join Arnim in an attack on II Corps.”12 On

February 14, 1943, the battle of the Kasserine Pass was initiated by the
Axis forces, including both the Fifth Panzer Army and the German Afrika
Corps (now at divisional strength). II Corps withdrew to the Western
Dorsal of the Atlas Mountains, and on February 19 Rommel attacked the
Kasserine Pass but failed due to a tenacious British defense. By February
22, he conceded failure and withdrew his forces. “Primarily because of an
unduly complicated II Corps chain of command—the Allies had handled
the matter poorly since 14 February—Rommel was able to withdraw
unmolested. On the 23rd, he became overall commander in Tunisia—two
weeks too late.”13
On February 19, Britain’s General Harold Alexander took command
of the newly inaugurated 18th Army Group, consisting of the British First
Army in the north commanded by General Anderson14 and the British
Eighth Army commanded in the south by General Bernard Montgomery.
His mission as stated by General Eisenhower was “the early destruction
of all Axis forces in Tunisia.” Alexander found the front so disorganized
that he assumed command a day early. He found that there had been “no
policy and no plan. The battle area is all mixed up with British, French,
and American units.”15 As a consequence, his most immediate task was to
“sort out the scattered troop units, organize distinct national sectors, and
create a mobile reserve.”16 In addition, he had to coordinate offensives by
the forces in Tunisia and by Montgomery’s Eighth Army en route from
Libya. The First Army was composed of the British 5 Corps along the
Mediterranean coast, the French XIX Corps further inland, and the US II
Corps now commanded by Patton centered on the Kasserine Pass, while
the Eighth Army was positioned south and east of Mareth, Tunisia. Dur-
ing March and early April 1943, after a German offensive had stalled, the
US II Corps advanced to Gafsa and on to El Guettar,17 and Montgomery
linked up with Patton’s forces north of El Hamma. However, the Axis
forces escaped. The Allies continued to advance, and by April 13 Axis
control of Tunisia had shrunk to the area surrounding Bizerte and Tunis.
On April 15, General Omar Bradley assumed command of the US II
Corps. By the next day, the II Corps had been shifted to the north along
the Mediterranean coast, relieving the British 5 Corps, which was then
shifted to the south. From north to south, II Corps was composed of the
French Corps d’Afrique, and the US 9th Infantry, 1st Armored, 1st Infan-
try, and 34th Infantry Divisions.18 On May 7, Bizerte was captured by the
9th Infantry Division, while Tunis fell to the British 7th Armored Divi-
sion. North of Tunis, 40,000 Axis soldiers surrendered to Bradley’s II
 Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 9

Corps. The last remaining Axis forces, commanded by Italy’s General

Giovanni Messe, surrendered on May 13, 1943. With the collapse of the
Axis forces in North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea was cleared for Allied
shipping and air bases were acquired for bombing missions against south-
ern Europe.19 The way was now clear for the invasion of Sicily (Opera-
tion Husky).

October 1942
Editor’s Note: The invasion of North Africa was scheduled for November
8, 1942. General Keyes’s diary begins as he leaves Washington, D.C., to
join the Western Task Force in Norfolk, Virginia, as its deputy
commander.

22 Left Bolling Field [Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.] 2:30
p.m. Arrived Norfolk 3:30. Dinner with the Halls. Observed loading.
23 Conference on center operations. On board USS Augusta20 about
3:00 p.m. Observed loading of USS Calvert.21 Saw Blanchard, Stokes,
and Nason. Sumptuous quarters on Augusta.

Editor’s Note: On October 23, 1942, the British Eighth Army surprised
the Germans and Italians at the Second Battle of El Alamein and, after a
difficult fight over a twelve-day period, pushed the Axis forces back
toward Tripoli. The eastern arm of the North African Allied pincher was
launched.22

24 Left Norfolk 8:00 a.m. Wonderful sight. Five columns of four each
with Augusta head of third column. All covered by destroyers. Not
seasick.
25 General orders battle stations 5:20 a.m. Convoy practice in changing
course and signaling. Wonderful mess (Turkey dinner). Conference
on our landings. Went to “church.” No priest on board.
26 General quarters each a.m. at 5:30. Sea sick in p.m. Missed supper.
Other convoys joined. [Editor’s Note: “The entire task force of more
than 100 ships was too large to be sent from any one port in the
United States without attracting undue attention.”23]
27 Navy Day.24 Fine weather. Still a little shaky. Combined convoy
impressive. Will total over 107. Carriers join tomorrow.
28 Carriers joined about 11:30. Two depth charges dropped during the
night. False alarms. Believe purpose behind Jap attack on the Philip-
pines was to get our cook! Bakery and baked Alaska today.
 10 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

29 Beautiful day. Feeling fine. USS Calvert and her escort joined. USS
Boyle25 brought mail and transferred it to Augusta.
30 Birthday. 54 years old. Convoy is refueling. An interesting operation
at sea. Special air and surface security measures.
31 Radio intercept indicates someone reporting our position. Suspect
subversive activities from within. (Probably not true).

November 1942
1 All Saints Day. No priest. No mass. General Patton gave me Leila’s
birthday letter, which he had brought in an unopened trunk. A
mighty welcome birthday present in spite of delay!
2 Perfect weather. No unusual events.
3 Unfavorable weather predicted. We seem to have passed through
enemy submarine patrol screen. News of attack on an allied convoy
a few days ago must have alarmed home folks thinking it was our
convoy. CPX [Command Post Exercise] on assault phase. Have initi-
ated plans on future actions. Also on possibility of prompt entry into
Casablanca.
4 Wednesday. Rough going last night and most of today. Rolling of
ship almost wrecked lunch. We were apparently surrounded by subs
last night but not close enough to justify attack by them. Fueling
except for old destroyers postponed. In spite of roughness I went up
to observe the radar. (Four decks up). Advice from War Department
re negotiations with French not too encouraging. Looks like a fight.
[Editor’s Note: On October 21, 1942, Major General Mark Clark
and a party of fewer than a dozen men went ashore from the subma-
rine USS Seraph to negotiate with French military leaders to forestall
a battle between their forces and the American and British forces to
be shortly landing in North Africa.26] The Spanish question again
pops up. Think our plans sound and flexible but means none too
generous.
5 Continued rough all last night and most of today with little prospect
for change. Unable to refuel destroyers. Missed lunch. Only second
meal missed so far. Second CPX. Another scheduled for tomorrow.
Finished my seventh book!
6 A good night’s sleep. Weather and sea fine. Refueling almost com-
pleted. Weather forecast for landing quite favorable! Met Portu-
guese merchant ship in middle of night. Shooed her south. Radio
indications subs all around last night but they haven’t bothered us
yet. Repacking my stuff for landing Sunday. Everyone in fine spirits
 MEDITERRANEAN SEA
PORTUGAL S P A I N
EASTERN TASK FORCE
Gen. Ryder
(from Great Britain)
ATLANTIC CENTER TASK FORCE
OCEAN Gen. Fredendall
(from Great Britain)
Algiers Constantine
WESTERN TASK FORCE Gibraltar
Gen. Patton Tangier Blida
(from US)
SP. M Oran
ORO
CCO
Port Oujda
Lyautey Biskra
Fez A L G E R I A
Rabat
Casablanca
M O R O C C O 0 10 0 200
Safi km
0 100 200
Allied landings and subsequent operations mi

Map 1. Operation Torch, November 8, 1942.

 12 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

and optimistic! Talked to Commander Butler RN who was on the

Madagascar expedition. [Editor’s Note: On May 4, 1942, Great
Britain invaded Vichy Madagascar, and the French surrendered on
November 6, 1942.27]
7–8 A fine day. Hard to realize we are on the eve of a fight. Talked over
final plans with General Patton. Paid our mess bill at 75 cents per
day! Would like to board the whole family at that rate. Everything
quiet up to 10 p.m. Went to bed with orders to wake me at 12. Up
at midnight all in transport area. Sea like Lake Como. Stars out.
Lights of Fedala, Morocco visible. Some ships out of place. Landing
boats strayed. Landing delayed nearly hour and a half. Very costly.
Presidential proclamation and news cast from London announcing
our landing before we had started! Shore battery started and opened
fire. The war was on. The destroyers opened up. From then until
daylight all we could see were gun flashes. At dawn a huge bank of
smoke from some warehouses or oil tank hid the whole coast. Mea-
ger reports. Some reports of boat losses. USS Augusta entered the
fight on the shore battery. About 9 or 10, the French squadron came
out of Casablanca fighting and attempted to go north then under a
smoke screen turned south towards Dakar. They put up a game fight
but were driven back to the harbor. They came out again about 1:00
p.m. and another fight ensued. Their splashes around us were col-
ored red, green and blue or purple.

* * *

Editor’s Note: Following the North African landing, General Keyes con-
tinued to serve as General Patton’s deputy after the Western Task Force
was redesignated as I Armored Corps on January 9, 1943, and redesig-
nated as the Seventh Army on July 10, 1943. Major General Lloyd R. Fre-
dendall was “chosen by the US Army to lead its inaugural corps in combat
against the Third Reich.” Prior to World War II, he had “earned a reputa-
tion as a capable trainer and a skilled handler of troops.” He established
the II Corps headquarters in a ravine officially called ‘Speedy Valley” sev-
enty miles behind the lines. Prior to the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, he
divided his forces, including the 1st Armored Division’s two combat com-
mands. Following the Kasserine debacle, General Eisenhower asked Gen-
eral Bradley to assess Fredendall’s ability to command at the corps level.
Bradley replied: “It’s pretty bad. I’ve talked to all the division command-
 Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 13

ers. To a man they’ve lost confidence in Fredendall as the corps com-

mander.” On March 5, 1943, Eisenhower relieved Fredendall, who
“would receive his third star, command of a training army in Tennessee,
and a hero’s welcome home.”28

Editor’s Note: “Speedy” Became the nickname for II Corps throughout

World War II. It was based on the II Corps call sign: “Speedy is the tele-
phone exchange name of II Corps and became as well known as the Corps
itself.”29 As the war progressed, “Speedy” was used to designate a variety
of II Corps functions: “Speedy” justice, “Speedy” spa, “Speedy” Navy, etc.
The term was also used in the lyrics of the II Corps Marching Song.

January 1943
Editor’s Note: The second conference of Anglo-American military and
political leaders, code-named Symbol and known historically as the Cas-
ablanca Conference, was held in the suburban coastal city of Anfa. The
hotel and neighboring villas were requisitioned, a barbed wire barrier
thrown around the area, and the site officially termed the “Anfa Camp.”
From January 13 to January 23, 1943, the Combined Chiefs of Staff and
their national organizations, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British
Chiefs of Staff Committee, met separately. “On three occasions during
the conference, the Combined Chiefs of Staff met with President Roos-
evelt and Prime Minister Churchill to consider the agenda, to discuss the
matters at issue, and to arrive at a final report of decisions taken.”30 The
results of the conference included agreement for a combined Allied bomb-
ing offensive against Germany, initial planning for the invasion of France
(Operation Overlord), and the requirement for “unconditional surren-
der” of the Axis powers.31 In addition, efforts were made to bring about
a rapprochement between Generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle,
rivals for leadership of the Free French forces, in an effort to demonstrate
a public display of French unity.32 The initial planning for Operation
Husky, the invasion of Sicily, was also endorsed by the American chiefs of
staff and their British counterparts.33

10–24 
Anfa Conference [Casablanca Conference], House and dinner
guests: President FDR, Prime Minister, Generals Marshall, Arnold,
Sommerall, Andrus, Sir John Dill, Brooke, Montbatten, Admiral
Cunningham, Sir Dudley Pound,34 Generals Giraud,35 Noguès,
Admiral Michelin, Generals Hull,36 Wedemeyer.
 14 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

Editor’s Note: The Axis occupation of Tunisia made little sense militarily
since by the beginning of 1943 time was no longer in their favor. Rommel,
originally sent to Africa on a defensive mission, had held the British at
bay for two years, but now was not the time to reinforce failure. Musso-
lini refused to withdraw his forces from North Africa, insisting that vic-
tory for the Axis was “mathematically certain” and that Hitler could not
afford to abandon his closest ally. “By seizing Tunis ahead of the Allies,
the Axis commanded the central position, which the Anglo-Americans
would have to attack, and supply, from opposite directions. Axis forces
would be operating close to their bases . . . [the Axis] brought together an
experienced command team of Kesselring, Rommel, von Arnim, and
eventually Messe at the head of tough, battle-experienced troops. In con-
trast, the Allied effort, especially on Tunisia’s western front, remained
very much a work in progress divided among a coalition of inexperienced
generals.”37 Early January, Germany’s General von Arnim attacked the
Allied forces moving into Tunisia. In the meantime, Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel, having retreated across Libya, was in position to attack the
Allied forces, having prepared defenses in his area to hold the British
Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery.38

February 1943
6 Flew to Gibraltar and back in B-25. 1 hour 20 minutes up and 1 hour
8 minutes return.
8 Flew to Algiers and return in B-25. 3 hours each way (about).
11 Flew to Port Lyautey with General Raymond-Charles-Emile Desre.39
Met General Meigs, Governor of Gibraltar and party on return. They
spent night.
12 General John CH Lee40 arrived as guest. General Edmund B. Greg-
ory41 and Colonel Robert W. Wilson42 for lunch.
13 General Patton and Lee left for Oujda and Algiers.

Editor’s Note: Battle of the Kasserine Pass: On February 14, 1943, the
German Fifth Panzer Army attacked the US II Corps between Faid Pass
and Gafsa and drove it back fifty miles. The German offensive was not
halted until February 22. Eisenhower counterattacked on February 26,
and by March 3 the Allies had regained their original positions.43 Follow-
ing the withdrawal of the Fifth Panzer Army, Rommel became the overall
Axis commander in Tunisia.44

14 Flew to Agadir and back—3½ hours.

 Sicily
Mediterranean (Italy)
Marsala
Sea

Strait
of
22 Apr.
14 Feb. Bizerte Sicily
Gulf Cape
of Bon
Tunis
Bône Tunis
Pantelleria
Beja
xxxx (Italy)
FIFTH
xxx PANZER
xxxx 5 BR
22 Apr.
FIRST BR Enfidaville
L

S
A

Sousse
xxx R
XIX FR
O
D

Kairouan
N

TE
R

DORSAL

Tebessa E S xxx
Speedy W II Sbeitla
Valley
Kasserine
Thelepte
14 Feb. Sfax
N
ER

0 25 50
S
T

EA
Gafsa
km
Gulf
El Guettar of 0 25 50
Gabes
mi
Tozeur
TUNISIA Gabes

Mareth
Mareth xxxx Médenine
Line
BR EIGHTH

Map 2. Tunisian Campaign, January 24–May 13, 1943.

 16 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

15 Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy and party arrived. Wilson

and Tate for dinner.
16 Luncheon for ASW [assistant secretary of war], General Auguste
Noguès,45 Admiral Emile Muselier.46 Sidi Manieri. Paelin Casa, etc.
17 With ASW to Rabat. Audience with Sultan. Luncheon with General
Nogues. Flew back. Dinner guests [. . .] Quenda, Mr. and Mrs.
Stanton, Mrs. Billot.
18 ASW to 2nd Armored Division and 3rd Infantry Division.
19 ASW left. Colonel Cuthbert Starnes arrived.
20 General Patton returned. General Ernest N. Harmon47 forward to 1st
Armored Division
21 Flew to Sale to see Harmon off.
23 General Jonathan W. Anderson48 left for US. General Clark49 and
party presented to Sultan. A big celebration. HQ 1 Armored Corps
opened at Rabat.
24 Flew to Rabat re HQ and emergency planning 2nd Armored
Division.
25 General Patton, Colonel William H. Wilbur50 and myself moved to
Rabat. Flew to Port Lyautey re emergency plans 3rd Division. B-25
burned up just after I left it at Salé.
26 On exercise with French Division (General Desre).

Editor’s Note: From February 26 to March 31, 1943, the Allied forces
took the initiative by driving the Axis back into Tunisia, reducing its
enclave. The attackers included the British First Army under the com-
mand of General Anderson, the US II Corps under the command of Gen-
eral Patton, and the British Eighth Army under the command of General
Montgomery.51

March 1943
4 Firing problems with 2nd Armored Division. Casa in a.m.

Editor’s Note: During the invasion of North Africa, General Omar

Bradley trained the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania National
Guard. As he was being considered for corps command, he was sent to
North Africa to serve as General Eisenhower’s troubleshooter at the
front, arriving just after the American defeat at the Kasserine Pass. After
the relief of Fredendall as II Corps commander following the Kasserine
Pass debacle, Patton temporarily assumed command of II Corps from
March 6, 1943, to April 15, 1943, with Bradley serving as his deputy
 Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 17

commander. Following Patton’s return to command of I Armored Corps,

Bradley was assigned as II Corps commander.52 During this period, Keyes
served as acting commander of I Armored Corps and “oversaw the prep-
arations for Husky while Patton was busy in Tunisia, and even after
Patton returned he left most of Husky’s planning in Keyes’s hands.”53

5 General Patton left for front. Temporary Assignment. I assumed com-

mand 1 Armored Corps. General Cannon54 arrived.
6 American and British Consul Generals called. General Lucian K.
Truscott55 returns to command 3rd Division; M. Sidi Manieri called;
Called on General Noguès at his request (apparently a courtesy visit
only).
8 Air Marshal Arthur Tedder56 and Brigadier William Welsh and Gen-
eral Carl A. Spaatz57 arrived.58

Editor’s Note: After a widely distributed disparaging message by New

Zealand’s Air Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham concerning the battle
worthiness of II Corps under Patton’s command following Patton’s wasp-
ish comments complaining about Allied air support, Tedder and Spaatz
were dispatched to Patton’s headquarters at Gafsa on an appeasement
mission. During their visit Patton’s headquarters was strafed and bombed.
“Dusting himself off, Tedder asked how such a flamboyant demonstra-
tion had been arranged. ‘I’ll be damned if I know,’ Patton replied, but ‘if
I could find the sonsabitches who flew those planes, I’d mail each one of
them a medal.’”

10 Archbishop Francis Spellman59 spent night with us. Lunch and din-
ner at our villa. Lunch next day at Residency.
11 Went to HQ 5th Army at Oujda.
15 Went to Lyautey for conference with Admiral Henry K. Hewitt.60
16 To Algiers in connection Force 141.61 Stayed with Rooks and Nevins.
Conference on operations.
16–19 Conference on operations.
20 Flew to Youks-les-Bains airfield, Algeria and drove to Fériana (CP II
Corps).
21 Visited front with GSP [General Patton]. 1st Division and CCA
[Combat Command A] 1st Armored Division. Gafsa–El Guettar–
Sened Station.
22 Kasserine—saw Eddy Gibson—Lewin—Baldwin. Returned to Algiers
with Bradley. Plans changed.
 18 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

24 Submitted reclama on charges [request for reconsideration of denial

of charges] and started home. Stranded at Oran. Saw Colonel James
W. Holsinger.62
25 Visited Arzew, Algeria FAITC [Fifth Army Invasion Training Center]
and Mostaganem, Algeria. Continued to Oujda.
26 Arrived at Rabat, Morocco in rainstorm. Glad to be home.
27 Went to airport to meet General Juin.
28 General Henry C. Wolfe63 arrived.
29 Lunch at Residency in honor of General Juin. Filled with ABS [?] and
head of American Legion!!! All the old timers seemed glad to have
me back. Noguès, General G-E-J Lascroux,64 Desre, etc.
30 DSC [Distinguished Service Cross] to lieutenant of MPs [military
police]. Wounded in Casablanca landing November 9th.
31 To Lyautey re 3rd Division matters. Heard Peter Ward was
wounded.

April 1943
1 General Adam Richmond65 JA [judge advocate] arrived for dinner.
2 General Ernest N. Harmon66 and staff left for Tunisia. Relieved from
2nd Armored Division.
  General Otto F. Lange 36th Division Deputy Commanding Gen-
eral arrived. Called on General Lascroux re withdrawal of troops in
north.
3 To Oran—Conference General Ernest J. Dawley,67 Nevins, Colonel
Paul D. Harkins [Patton’s deputy chief of staff].
4 Agree FAITC. Truscott, Wolfe; Admiral John L. Hall, Commander,
Amphibious Force, North African Waters (Eighth Fleet).
5 Algiers; General Walter Bedell Smith (Chief of Staff), Allied Force
Headquarters, General Ben M. Sawbridge, Assistant Chief of Staff
G-1, North African Theater of Operations about further plans—
continued to Thelepte, Algeria. Met by Speed Perry. Drove to General
Patton’s HQ at Gafsa. (General Harold R. Bull,68 Bradley, three
Turkish generals) Jensen absent.
6 Anti-Aircraft fired on 2 Messerschmitts, Visited OP 47th Infantry
near Hill 369. Lunch with Randall the CO Benson Force.69 Contin-
ued to km 80 a few miles from where contact with British 8th Army
was met half hour later. Benson Force withdrawn by order!70

Editor’s Note: By April 6, the US II Corps and the British Eighth Army
had made contact with each other near the Gulf of Gabes. Throughout
 Operation Torch and the North African Campaign 19

the month of April the Allied forces significantly reduced the Axis enclave
to the region surrounding Bizerte and Tunis.71

7 Returned to Algiers. Lunch with Force 141. Continued to Oran. Din-

ner with Turks.
8 Returned to Rabat.
11 Dedicated Red Carpet Service Club Rabat.
11–14 General Maxwell D. Taylor72 82nd Airborne arrived.

Editor’s Note: “By 16 April, the United States II Corps had moved to the
Allied north flank and had relieved the British V Corps, which then
shifted south. Alexander had reluctantly authorized the redeployment of
the II Corps, having done so only after Eisenhower had indicated a desire
to see it assigned an aggressive role. Major General Omar N. Bradley had
assumed command of II Corps on the 15th so that Patton could return to
Morocco and complete the planning for the Sicilian invasion. The transfer
of the 100,000 American troops across the rear of the British lines and
the creation of a new logistical base were considered administrative
feats.”73

17 General Patton returned to I Armored Corps.

19 Dinner at Residency in honor of Governor General Pierre F. Boisson
of Dakar, French West Africa.
20 General Lascroux called.
21 General Troy H. Middleton74 45th Division arrived.
22 Luncheon at General Lascroux.
23 Conference Generals Ernest J. Dawley, Lucian K. Truscott, Fred L.
Walker,75 Maxwell D. Taylor, Troy H. Middleton, Paul D. Harkins,
Henry C. Wolfe, Cushman, Allen F. Kingman.
24 Luncheon at Residency (farewell) Middleton and Nevins left.
25 Easter. Drove to Meknes, Morocco.
26 Left Rabat 1:30 p.m. via Flying Fortress for Oran and Mostaganem.
Final call on General Lascroux. Witnessed 7th RCT in landing exer-
cise. Not too satisfactory.
27 FAITC. Saw Admirals Henry K. Hewitt, Hall, Richard L. Conolly.76
Villas here not as nice as Casablanca or Rabat. HQ located in Col-
lege Communal. Fine setup.
28 General Patton to Ain El Turk, Algeria to see General Leslie J. McNair
wounded. General Hospital No. 12. [Editor’s Note: On April 23,
1943, General McNair, chief of the Army ground forces, was wounded
 20 PATTON’S TACTICIAN

while observing US troops in action in Tunisia. “One steel fragment

sliced through the rear lip of McNair’s helmet, slowing enough that
it lodged in his skull instead of penetrating his brain; another gouged
an eight-inch gash in his neck and shoulder, severing an artery.”77]
Then to Algiers—Force 141. I attended services for 300 Senegalese
lost on torpedoed ship recently. Generals Yves de Boisboissel,
Commander-in-Chief French West Africa, Roger Blaizot, Com-
mander, 1st Motorized Colonial Division, etc. called. Blaizot’s COS
[chief of staff] Colonel Landouzy my group École de Guerre.
29 General McNair flew from Oran to Marrakesh en route home. Gen-
eral Patton returned from unsatisfactory conference.
30 3rd Division ordered to the front. 15th RCT left about dark.

May 1943
Editor’s Note: From May 3 to 13, the Allied forces commanded by Gen-
eral Harold Alexander (18th Army Group), composed of the US II Corps
(General Bradley), British First Army (General Anderson), French XIX
Corps (General Koeltz), and British Eighth Army (General Montgomery),
steadily tightened the noose around the Axis forces.78 In the final effort
the US II Corps made steady progress along the coast toward Bizerte,
while the British First Army in the center drove forward toward Tunis. By
May 7, the 34th Infantry Division (II Corps) made contact with the Brit-
ish First Army and British units entered Tunis. Bizerte was soon occupied
by elements of II Corps. By May 13, both Germany’s General von Arnim
and Italy’s Field Marshal Messe surrendered, with 250,000 Germans and
Italians becoming prisoners of war. A major result of the collapse of Axis
control of North Africa was the loss of the entire Axis force committed to
North Africa following the Allied invasion.79

1 Critique of 7th RCT landing exercise among those present Generals

Patton, Dawley, Walker, Truscott, Clarence R. Huebner,80 Russell P.
Hartle,81 Leonard T. Gerow.82 Admirals Hall and Conolly.
2 Visited General Dawley at HQ VI Corps Ain Temouchent, Algeria.
3 General Patton called to Algiers re change in Plans.
4 General W. H. Walker here for lunch. General Patton returned. Brit-
ish scored another victory over us.
5 Alternate plan made in draft form. VI Corps attached to I Armored
Corps.
7 To Algiers with General Patton re planning Conference at AFHQ
[Allied Forces Headquarters]. General Smith, General Montgomery
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exception, as you know, for an industrial city of some hundred
thousand population. But everything was different, even the people
seemed different and more friendly.”
“Yes, I know it,” was Carl’s dry answer.
“But as I said, it was an exception. Otherwise I found all over the
same streets, the same railway stations, the same houses, the same
stores, and the same people in the same dress. They asked me the
same questions, using the same diction and the same expression, in
the same mechanical voice, accompanied by the same sort of smile.
Nothing individual or original. Do all Americans think the same, act
the same?”
“Not by any means. You barely scratched the surface. You did not
see what was underneath.”
“Perhaps not, but to me it seemed that everything, animate and
inanimate, bore the same mark of standard uniformity imprinted on
all with rubber stamps cast from the same die. Why, in every city I
visited one could see on the sidewalks, floors of public buildings,
even in churches, the same round marks of cast-away chewing gum.
And in every city it stuck to my shoes in the same way.”
She paused awhile, but Carl was too deep in thought for words, so
Sana continued:
“Yet, there is no other country on the face of the earth that could be
made so interesting in every walk of life as your own, for, as you say,
it is made up of people from all lands—they have given it the
greatness it possesses. But what is so contradictory of the general
state of life is the unique way in which all the people seem to seek
notoriety—the underdressed women of the street and ballroom—the
sensational divorces and murders—the demands of the blackmailers
and the numerous clever ways in which unassuming persons are
cheated out of their hard earned dollars by fraudulent schemers and
consummate rogues. Seemingly, this condition appears to be a
paradox, and so it would be if entirely separated from the general
plan of life, but it is inextricably interwoven in the cosmic scheme—
the whole. Because someone has been successful in a certain line,
oblivious of its virtue or its evil, others will pursue the same path in
quest of wealth equal to their brother. Yet considering all, I greatly
admire your country. It holds a spell of fascination for me, although I
cannot define it.”
“It is indefinable,” replied Carl, gazing far in the distance.
Carl, although one could not say he was unattentive to Sana in her
discourse, was thinking of things other than the subject of her
remarks. Turning to the girl, he asked, “Where did you learn the
fascinating dance you performed last night?”
“Oh that? Just a few steps which de Rochelle taught me while I was
under hypnotic influence. A friend of mine, Count von Sarnoff, called
it the ‘Vampire Dance,’ after he had seen it.”
“Von Sarnoff? A Russian?”
“Why, yes. A young Russian fellow—sporty to an extreme I
discovered, and deadly in love with me.”
“Hmm. How did you get along with him? The temperatures and
temperaments of Russia and the Sahara are two very different things
and hardly to be reconciled.”
“That is just what made it so fascinating—for a time. Love speaks an
international language, you know,” she smiled.
“Indeed? Quite interesting”—coldly, then changing his manner
quickly, “But it would be most charming to hear your story of the
‘Vampire Dance’.”
“If you promise not to say nasty things, or get angry at what I tell you,
I shall tell you all about it.”
Carl was but too anxious to learn anything and everything relating to
Sana, not to yield compliance to this mild request. Her musical voice,
her manner and ways had already worked their charm. He was even
more in love than he imagined.
“Please tell me. I promise to be good.”
“Bear that in mind, then. It is not to everyone I tell such things as
this.
“After de Rochelle had disappeared I returned to Europe where in
Paris I met the Princess Cassandra, a Russian. I traveled with her,
as companion, over Europe, visiting the various resorts and cities. At
Monte Carlo, while we were trying to lose our money, I suppose, at
one of the roulette tables, the Princess recognized her nephew, von
Sarnoff, who had been winning steadily. He came over to our table
and after the usual introductions, played for me. He seemed to have
lots of luck and I won more money than I had ever seen before. Then
we went to Baden-Baden, where de Rochelle put in an appearance. I
had him arrested while he was fighting a duel because of me, and
then I returned to my desert home.”
“But I thought you were going to tell me the story of the dance. How
did you learn it?”
“The dance itself was an exotic movement that had its birth in the
mind of de Rochelle, who taught it to me when I was in a trance. But
he has passed from my mind—he proved himself to be nothing but
an impostor—that is all.”
“But the dance you did last night would have been impossible while
wearing the long dresses and clothes of civilization.”
Sana looked at Carl with pleading eyes, “Why do you say that? The
whole thing is distasteful to me now when I think of it.”
Anxious though he was to hear the whole story, Carl did not wish to
force it from the girl, so kept silent, looking out over the desert sands.
Sana, however, read his thoughts. Patting his hand ever so lightly
she resumed, “We are friends. I can tell it to you. I know you will
understand. Perhaps it is for the best. Who knows?”
Carl, letting his gaze rest on her face, objected with, “No—if it hurts
you to tell it, I would rather you would not.”
“But I promised I would. I shall keep my promise. Only, please,
please, do not think ill of me. That would hurt more than the story.”
Before Carl could give voice to his thoughts, Sana continued:
“As I said the dance was taught me while under hypnotic influence.
Upon coming out of the trance I found that I had partly disrobed
myself. I did not realize it then, but I knew later that de Rochelle was
using me as a plaything. Not that he ever harmed me. No. He always
respected me.
“However, I would not advise any woman to subject herself to
hypnotic influence, even if the man be her lawful husband, as I
believed de Rochelle would some day be to me. It is wrong, very
wrong. The victim does just as the hypnotist wishes—tells him
everything—lets him analyze every feeling or passion. Just how far
he went with me I shall never know, but I have shed many a bitter
tear thinking of the state I found myself in when coming out of a
trance.”
“Poor girl. I wish I had that devil here.”
“Please God, I shall never see him again. But I have learned my
lesson. A lesson I shall never forget.”
“Tell me about the dance. Forget him, and tell me that. You know I
have never seen anything like it. Was it not improved upon by you?
I’m sure it was.”
“Yes, it was. You know my blood—gypsy blood—wild and free. After
having been taught the first few steps the rest was easy. It was quite
natural that my gypsy blood should come to the fore when I dance.
“It was at Baden-Baden that I first danced in public. I was at a private
entertainment given by the young von Sarnoff. All of us had been
drinking more or less, and most of us were, as you Americans would
say, ‘a little tipsy.’ We were there to enjoy ourselves and gave little
heed or thought to the morrow.
“Had I been sober I should never have let myself be persuaded by
flattering words and praise. But the wine had gone to my head and I
was easily led. Von Sarnoff had been making a fool of himself
generally, drinking champagne from my slipper and making ardent
love to me. Then he asked me to dance for them. There had been
several quite risque performances that evening and in my madness I
knew I could outdo them all. So I got on the table, threw aside my
remaining slipper and danced for them. Without realizing it, I
dropped my outer garment while dancing. At the end of the dance I
found myself standing there in my little pink combination suit.
“Von Sarnoff refused to return my gown, but I managed to wrap
myself in a table cover. It was von Sarnoff who christened me the
‘virtuous vampire dancer.’ Just how much vamping I do in my dance I
never know. No doubt you and the other watchers last night could tell
it better than I. But the name lingered in my mind, and so I have
named it the ‘Dance of the Vampire’.”
Carl, eager-eyed, “Really I must confess I did not pay much attention
to the dance. My eyes were on the dancer. Suppose you show it to
me now.”
“No, not now. Some other time. Perhaps after you return once more
to our great desert.”
“Then I suppose I shall have to wait. But tell me, dear, why did you
come to this out of the way corner of the earth after spending so
much of your time in the great cities and resorts of the world?”
“Oh, I soon tired of that false life. So I decided to join my mother,
who, after my father’s death had moved here from the Gurara Oasis.
This used to be her old home, you see. Here at least I can live a
natural life, free from what you call civilization. Of course, even here
one must make a living, so that is why I dance. They look at such
things differently here. A woman can be a dancer and still be
considered good, but in Europe—well you know. Besides it is great
fun to be able to ride around free as the air, in native dress, although
sometimes I masquerade in European style.”
“Sana, I admire the frankness with which you have related your
experiences to me. I am glad, for your sake, that you have returned
here. I hope, too, that you believe me when I say I know none of
those happenings were brought about through fault of yours.”
“I do believe you.”
“As for your dance,” resumed Carl, “it is worthy of all the praise
bestowed upon it, and I....”
“Oh, your American girls are equally as good dancers. I learned, too,
that they were very clever in ridding themselves of their stays when
at dances. ‘Parking them,’ I believe they call it. Of course, we of the
desert do not wear such things at all. We have our own mode of
costume and dress.”
For a moment she hesitated and then continued, “I have often
wondered why in America, such a large good-natured country, full of
foreign elements, the very forefathers of the country did not do
something to maintain their national costumes in the mode of dress.
How much more interesting it would be to see the dress of the
American Indian, the true American, and that of the earlier settlers,
instead of everyone trying to pattern their clothes after the so-called
latest European fashions?
“How much more interesting and picturesque it would be to see
Turks, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Greeks and Swedes in their
national costumes, instead of appearing as if all are of a single mind.
“Many of your people travel through foreign lands to study foreign
ways, while, in fact, you have everything in your own country, so far
as peoples and their customs are concerned. Why deny it?
“I noticed too that you have but one official language. Perhaps it is
best, but then take the case of Switzerland, much smaller in
population than the city of New York. There they have three official
languages and get along wonderfully. Everyone has the opportunity
of learning three languages, which is a great thing to be sure.
German, French and Italian are not called foreign or alien tongues in
Switzerland. The very word ‘foreign’ specifies the limits of one’s
knowledge.”
All this while Carl had been thinking of just one thing. That was to
secure Sana for himself. Sana, he was sure, brought up under the
strict discipline of her father and with her broad views of life, would
be a safer wife to him than the cold blooded, calculating New York
propositions, as he called them, most of whom do not know what
they want, and flit from man to man as occasion demands.
To suit his purpose, he changed the conversation, taking her hand
into his. To his delight she made no attempt to prevent his doing so.
“Do you intend staying here in this wilderness?”
“Yes, for some little time. Sooner or later, mother and I shall return to
the Gurara Oasis, where I was born.”
“You mean you will never leave the desert?” Carl asked anxiously.
“No, not that I know of. I do not care for European life.”
“Well, then, how about America, New York?”
“I confess I do like New York, with its shops, and plays and
excitement. Oh, yes, I like those funny little places in Greenwich
Village, I believe you call it.”
“Oh, that ‘nut section.’ They are rather unconventional there. Who
took you there?”
“My friend, Mrs. O’Brien, myself and two men friends of hers visited it
one night, strolling from place to place. We had dinner and danced at
the ‘Greenwich Village Inn’ and went also to the ‘Black Cat’ and the
‘Pirates’ Den’—the pirates there were rather tame, though.”
“Wouldn’t you like to return to America, to New York, to the Village, in
company of a great admirer of yours?”
“I do not know who that could be,” turning her head away from him.
“Assume that he would be sitting at present at your side, holding
your hand.”
Sana tried to withdraw her hand at this, but Carl held it the tighter.
He leaned toward her, taking the other hand too, and whispered
softly, “Sana, dear, look at me. Ever since I met you on the bridge
that afternoon you have filled my dreams. I despaired of ever seeing
you again, and life did not seem worth the living. When I saw you
again last night it was in a dream. Thoughts of you kept me awake
all night. Will you return to America as my wife? You know I love you
and love you dearly. And I think you care for me too.”
The girl was a little uneasy, as if at a loss to know what to do or say.
Her gaze ranged the distant horizon as she slowly replied, “You may
be right with regard to the last—I cannot say. But I will admit I
couldn’t sleep last night myself. That we should meet here I do not
understand.”
“Sana, dear, answer my question,” pleaded Carl, trying to draw her
to him gently.
The question was never answered, for, with a sudden jerk Sana
freed one hand and slapped herself on the neck. A bee, stunned by
the blow, fell into her lap.
Sana made a grimace and touching carefully the spot where the bee
had left its sting, remarked, “I believe it is swelling.”
Carl now took matters into his own hands. Drawing her gently to him,
her shoulder against his bosom, he studied the red mark, saying, “I
don’t think it is poisonous, but it certainly is swelling.”
With Sana’s body quivering in his arms he pressed the spot tenderly
with his fingers. A sudden thought shot through his mind and he
added softly, “Let me take out the poison.” Without waiting for
response he bent over her, pressing his lips upon her neck to suck
out the poison.
The warmth of her velvet-like flesh made his head swim to the music
of the gods.
Sana was blushing a brilliant red, like a poppy, Carl thought, and she
tried to get free. He held her all the closer now; his hand
inadvertently upon her breast which was, he felt, beginning to move
stormily. Her resistance did not last long. Soon she lay quite still, her
shoulder against his bosom. His bosom, too, was heaving mightily as
he pressed his lips tightly against her neck, while Sana slightly
parted her quivering lips, breathing heavily and slowly, her body
exhaling a sweet fragrance like the aroma of a sun-kissed rose.
Carl knew it as that of an untouched blossoming flower and he was
happy! Her heart, under his hand, told him too, of her feelings, and
lifting his lips slightly, he murmured, “Sana, I love you. Be mine,” and
his cheek brushed against her warm neck.
His passionate kisses upon her neck startled Sana for a moment.
She became conscious of his hand upon her rising breast, but in her
ecstasies of bliss, she did not resist.
Her long drawn breaths became more passionate; her limbs were
rigid with fire. Finally, stretching her body slowly, she turned around
in his arms. Her loving eyes which had changed from their grayish
blue to pure blue, were shining with fire, as she looked at Carl, who
holding her before him, whispered, “Honey, dearest, be mine.”
In answer to his plea, she crept closer to him and threw her bare
arms around his neck and drew him gently closer. But Carl clasping
her body feverishly in his arms, held her, looking steadily into her
starry bright eyes, as if dissecting the passion raging in her body,
and he drank the breath of her sighing emotion. With a soft “my
desert star,” his lips covered her quivering mouth. In a passion of
fire, clasping their arms still tighter, they experienced that moment of
ecstatic bliss when passing time leaves no trace. Heart to heart, lips
to lips, they lay there, tight in each other’s arms, in an ecstasy of
happiness.
In his glory, Carl could think of nothing more sensible to say that
“That little bee surely left sweet honey upon your neck.”
“As sweet as me?” she asked mischievously.
Bending over and kissing her neck once more, he answered,
“Sweeter than sugar, but only half as sweet as you.” With that he
showered her neck and shoulders with kisses.
Forgotten in a moment was the past with its many trials, unthought of
was the future—the present alone existed for the two so closely
clasped in love’s embrace. Those moments of rapture were like
premeditated bits of eternity. The world and all its vain dreams could
not give the supreme madness of joy which they experienced in
silence and solitude. The kisses they drank from each other’s lips
were sweeter than the honey of Hymettus. Their corporal beings
seemed to vanish and dissolve away, while their souls merged into
one whose aspirations were boundless, whose thoughts knew not
words and whose pleasures were not of this earth.
The sun was high in the heavens when Sana at last released herself
from Carl’s arms.
“Come, Carl dear. We must be going. I shouldn’t wonder but what
mother is already very anxious for me.”
Arm in arm they sauntered homeward, along the quiet shore of the
Niger—that river of history, Sana’s horse following behind them,
puzzled, no doubt, over the strange being who came and caused his
mistress to neglect him so.
They had strolled but a short distance, when they heard a woman’s
cry. Their soaring flights of fancy were brought quickly to earth by the
almost unearthly yells and shrieks.
Looking around they perceived a negro girl chasing a large monkey
that was running away with her clothing. It had chosen an opportune
moment for its mischief while the dark damsel was enjoying a swim.
Carl and Sana hurried toward the scene of the chase, but as they
neared the spot, they saw the monkey suddenly turn and attack the
girl. Flashes of livid flame sparkled maliciously in its small beady
eyes, as it made the fatal spring. It was about to rend the throat of its
victim, when it observed Carl coming toward it, revolver in hand.
Crazed now with fear, the animal leaped from the prostrate negress
and lunged at Carl, its new enemy. A well directed shot, and it was
over. The hairy thing fell dead at Carl’s feet, while the negress,
recovering from her fear, and embarrassed at the presence of the
man, got up quickly and without so much as stooping to pick up her
clothing, rushed away into the water, resembling nothing so much as
an animated puppet of ebony.
Sana’s mother, a gypsy not of the type Carl had often seen traveling
through America, was waiting at the door of her modest home. She
greeted Carl in friendly fashion when introduced by Sana. She had
heard of him, she said, and thanked him profusely for the aid he had
given her daughter.
She was quite surprised when Carl asked her for Sana’s hand in
marriage. That would be up to Sana entirely, she told him, and if
Sana was satisfied she would be satisfied also.
Upon hearing this, Sana threw herself into Carl’s arms exclaiming
that that had already been settled.
Much to Carl’s delighted surprise he found that his future mother-in-
law was a woman of distinct culture and refinement, something he
had not expected to see in a gypsy. Together they spoke for quite a
time, discussing many things of mutual interest.
The talk reverted to Sana’s father, of whom the mother had only
words of praise. Apparently he had tried hard in the last years of his
life to make up for the foolishness of his youth. Excusing herself,
Sana’s mother left the room, returning shortly with a manuscript in
pencil. Handing it to Carl, she explained, “My husband wrote this just
before his death. He was a great student of astronomy and this data
he compiled as the basis for a book, but he died before he could
have it published.”
Noting that Carl perused the manuscript with great interest she
continued, “You may have it, if you wish. I understand you are a
writer and it may be of inspiration to you. Take it and use it. Perhaps
he who wrote it will sometime know that his work did amount to
something.”
Urged by Sana, Carl readily accepted the data, thanking the mother,
and promising to read it carefully during his travels across the desert.
He was sure, he said, that it would prove of great help and value to
him sometime.
Carl was about to take his leave to return to the hotel, when Sana,
recalling something to mind, said, “Mother, read Carl’s hand, please.”
This the gypsy consented to do, motioning to Sana to go outdoors,
as they would have to be alone.
“Shall I cross your palm with silver?” Carl laughed.
“No, that is necessary only with professionals.”
Taking Carl’s hand in hers, she studied the lines carefully, and in an
earnest tone, began, “I see danger—great trouble for you—very
soon—you are going to lose your best friend. Yes. Some man is
going to take that friend away from you!”
She paused for a while, then seriously, “You are going to have a
serious accident, but you will recover. I also see another dark girl
coming into your life, whom you should not trust. You are going to
take a long journey across the water, and that girl will be with you.”
Carl, thinking the girl to be Sana, interrupted with “What will become
of her?”
“You will cast her away after you have crossed the water and you will
have a great deal of worry over the other girl, whom you really love.”
Carl did not know what was what, nor who was who, and asked for a
description of both girls, to which the gypsy replied, “Both are dark
haired and beautiful. The one means well, the other does not.”
Carl, desirous to learn as much as he could, asked to be told the
final outcome, but the only answer he got was, “That, one cannot
say. But everything will turn out as you want it to be.”
This in a measure satisfied Carl. He knew how he wanted things to
turn out. At any rate he was of too practical turn of mind to give much
weight to a palm-reading.
Taking leave of the mother he joined Sana outdoors. They chatted a
while, making plans for a trip on horseback the following day.
After Carl had gone, Sana was told by her mother that she was sorry
that she had read Carl’s future and warned Sana of the danger
ahead. While Sana believed devoutly in her mother, she dismissed
the fear that harm might come to herself, but she was worried in
regard to Carl.
Upon learning of the proposed excursion into the desert the following
day, her mother tried to persuade Sana not to go, but the girl only
answered, “If it is predicted that certain things will happen, they will
happen; all one can do is to await the time and take it good
naturedly.”
Arguments were useless, for Sana simply said, “Your reading of the
future would not be of any value if the happenings you predict could
be prevented in time,” adding, with a little smile, “You don’t want to
be considered a faker, do you dear?”
To which there was no answer.
 CHAPTER VIII
IN THE CLUTCHES OF AN AMOROUS
CAVE MAN
SANA in breeches and short riding jacket, stood at the side of her
restless steed when Carl arrived on horseback. It was an ideal day
for an outing and spiritedly they trotted off to the desert.
Sana was radiantly happy at the prospect of enjoying the freedom of
the desert with her lover. Too soon, far too soon, he would have to
leave her and she was glad to have him alone for the day.
Her horse, the white Arab, was an exceptionally fine but nervous
beast. Carl’s mount was a tame mare in comparison and Sana
teased him, saying, “I bet that you cannot catch up with me.”
“All right. I’ll bet you a kiss,” Carl retorted.
“But if I win?”
“It will suit me.”
“But if I lose?”
“That will suit me also.”
“I must say, you are some sport, Carl. Don’t you want to hold the
stakes too, so that you will surely be on the safe side?”
With that she chuckled to her horse and it leaped ahead with wide
swinging strides, leaving Carl to follow suit. Try as he would, it was a
useless task. He had to content himself with the dust clouds from the
flying heels of the Arab, as it carried Sana far ahead over the burning
sands.
A few miles of this and Sana slowed up a bit, so that Carl might
catch up with her. With a smile she reminded him of his lost wager,
which Carl promptly paid her with interest.
Proceeding again, they moved swiftly northward over the level plain.
Here and there they came upon an isolated group of palm trees and
small bushes, partly burned up by the hot rays of the desert sun.
Otherwise, there was nothing but sand before them and a clear
cloudless sky overhead. But the sand and the heat mattered not to
the lovers, as riding side by side, they paved the road of their future
with bricks of shining gold!
At last it was time for them to turn back. Sana knew of a shorter
route home and suggested that they take it.
 Enjoying the freedom of the great desert, they paved the
road of their future with bricks of shining gold.

They trotted along for several hours, when Carl saw a dwelling in the
distance. As they drew nearer they heard strains of music and Sana
suggested going in and asking for refreshments.
At the gate a Berber woman asked them what they wanted. Sana
told her, whereupon she led them into a dimly lighted room. They
found places on the floor, apart from a group that sat near a small
platform, at the side of which lounged a fierce looking fellow, playing
a strange musical instrument.
Wine and cakes being served, they paused to watch a dancer who
had stepped on the platform. The dancer, a girl of hardly sixteen,
was very scantily clad and her dance consisted mainly of twistings of
the body, accompanied with meaningful flashes of the eyes. At first
she seemed rather timid, but at the shout “Cintani, put some life in
it,” she distorted her body until there was no doubt as to the meaning
of the emotions she was endeavoring to express—much to the
delight of the Arabs in the room.
The one whose command she had so eagerly obeyed was, as Sana
whispered to Carl, Amshied, a Berber chieftain, and the three husky
females at his side were known to be his consorts.
After the dancer had gone, the musician placed a snake on the
platform. He then commenced to charm it with the whistling of a fife,
to which the snake responded readily, much to the surprise of Carl,
who, not believing it would be noticed in the darkness, took Sana’s
hand and pressing it to his lips, said, “That is more than a man can
do to a woman.”
His act, however, was noticed by Amshied, who turning to his
women said, in a low voice, “Watch that pair. One of them is a
woman. If I am right, I know who she is and who wants her. At any
rate they shall not leave. I’ll take care of the woman, and you three
can share the man.”
Saying this, he arose from the floor and went into another room,
where he knew de Rochelle was waiting. Motioning de Rochelle to
the door, he nodded at Sana, asking, “Is that the one you spoke of
this morning?”
“Yes. Can you manage to secure her?”
“Have I not managed many things? It shall be done. But first the
gold.”
De Rochelle paid him his price and sat down to wait, believing that at
last Sana was in his hands. Little knew he, however, of the plans
lurking in Amshied’s skull.
When Amshied returned to his place, he spoke a few curt words to
the women, who now stepped to the platform and performed
amazing feats of strength, revealing the while their muscular limbs
and bodies.
Sana was astounded and turned to Carl, saying, “They are regular
amazons—desert amazons.”
This exhibition finished, Carl looked at his watch and seeing that it
was quite late, helped Sana up from the floor and prepared to leave.
Seeing this, Amshied stepped forward, as if to escort them to the
door.
Stepping on a small carpet, Sana and Carl felt the floor beneath
them give way. Carl made a vain effort to throw Sana to safety, but
failed when Amshied gave him a shove that sent man and woman
headlong into the pit beneath. Their fall was broken by a heap of
rugs beneath the trap, so that neither suffered any physical harm.
The room in which they found themselves was in total darkness.
Besides, it was filled with a suffocating smoke that crept into their
lungs, burning and stifling them. In vain they sought means of
escape, falling at last insensible to the ground.
Some minutes later, or so it seemed to him, Carl, who, although he
had recovered his senses was unable to move, owing to the effects
of the drugged smoke he had inhaled, saw a small door open,
through which entered Amshied and the three women. The chieftain
tossed Sana, who was still unconscious, over his shoulder, as if she
were a mere bundle of rugs and carried her off, whither Carl knew
not.
As for himself, he was left to the mercies of the three amazons.
Chatting gaily among themselves, in a language unknown to Carl,
they carried him upstairs to a small room. Here they threw him upon
a rough couch like bed, fastening his legs and arms with shackles
attached to the four legs.
Helpless, he lay there, thinking of what would happen to his beloved.
What fate was in store for her? Desperately he struggled to free
himself from his chains, but it was useless. He was as helpless as a
pig trussed for the butcher’s knife.
To his disgust, his own position was brought clearly home to him,
when the three women commenced pawing over his body, in the
same way as one would examine an animal on the auction block.
Resist he could not; he was forced to submit to their intimate
inspection, which, he thanked his stars, did not last long. Satisfied as
to his physical make-up, the women suddenly assumed various
poses about his couch, vying with each other for Carl’s attention.
Carl, however, rolled his head from side to side, closing his eyes to
convey to them as clearly as he could his desire to have nothing to
do with them.
Determined they were, however, to show their charms to their
captive. One by one they came over to his corner, each trying harder
than the other to arouse in him some indication of desire. Carl
managed to keep his eyes tightly closed for a time, but his thoughts
were too bewildered, his mind too much filled with Sana, to allow him
to do so long. Opening his eyes, he saw one of the women still
moving around before him. With a rage caused by disgust, Carl gave
vent to a string of oaths. These had the desired effect. Perhaps the
woman did not understand their meaning, but the meaning of his
voice was clear. At any rate she decided not to make him any angrier
and left through a small side door and bolted it.
He lay gazing around the room as best he could. Did that drapery in
the far corner move? He watched closely. Yes, it was moving. What
now? It was pushed aside, and through a small opening crept a
figure. A woman, he perceived, but who? Coming into the light he
recognized the dancer whom the Berber had called Cintani. Was he
to go through another ordeal of the kind he had just been subjected
to?
Maddened by his helplessness, he was about to scream out a curse,
when the girl whispered, in poor French, “Keep quiet—I will help
you.”
Tip-toe she crept towards him. To his relief, Carl saw that she had
other intentions than to charm him. From her girdle he saw her take
a key. With quick fingers the shackles were unlocked and Carl set
up, free!
He could but look his thanks—he had no time for words, for again,
with cautioning finger the slave-girl whispered, “The girl—the one
you came with, come!”
Taking Carl’s arms she led him across the room, stopping before a
great rug, suspended curtain-wise from the ceiling.
“In there,” she whispered, and was gone.
Carefully Carl moved the rug aside. It concealed a heavy wooden
door. And on the other side!
Peering through a small hole in the door Carl saw Sana lying on a
heap of cushions, while Amshied, back to Carl, knelt beside her,
caressing and fondling her. Sana was still happily insensible to her
predicament.
With an effort, Carl suppressed a cry. He felt for his revolver. He
recalled, then, that the women had taken it away from him. He
looked about the room. Not a thing that would serve as a weapon
was to be had.
He tried the door. To his relief it was unlocked. Slowly he slid it open.
A low growl, coming from somewhere at his side made him jump
back in alarm. No, there was nothing in the room with him. Again a
growl, accompanied with the sniffing of an animal. Desperate, Carl
pulled the rug aside. To his horror he saw an iron-barred door,