John Schettler - Lions at Dawn

“Very well,” said Eisenhower. “Gentlemen, here’s what’s at stake as we look at BLADERUNNER. First off, if we do this right, the enemy is looking at the complete loss of all his forces in North Africa—either that or he’ll simply have to pull them out. Beyond that, when General O’Connor is through with him, we’ll have all of Tripolitania in hand and maintain an occupation of all the former French and Italian colonies in Africa. That gives us a perfect base to stage a landing on Sicily and get started on the effort to knock Italy right out of the war. Beyond that, we’ll have fertile ground here to recruit new troops into the Free French Army, and I expect we can establish an entire Corps here when we’re done. There are some very good airfields on Sicily, and with Crete still under British control, we can then move heavy bombers to those islands to begin a concerted bombing campaign aimed at southern Germany by mid-year. And of course, once we have Sicily, we can move from there to either Italy or Southern France.” Always diplomatic, Eisenhower had thrown bones to the British 8th Army in the east, both air commanders, and the Free French, even though they had no representative present.

“Now,” he continued. “First things first. I know Generals Montgomery and Patton are eager to get started, but I wanted General Doolittle and Air Marshal Welsh here for a very good reason. The plain fact of the matter is this. If we’re to advance on either side of this operation, the air force must lead the way. We’ve simply got to establish air superiority at both ends.”

“Damn right,” said Patton, an aggrieved look on his face. “The Krauts took after me the other day and ran my ass into a ditch!”

“Well they must have seen that third star you’ve got on that jeep, George,” said Bradley with a smile, and there was a restrained chuckle all around the table.

“The point is,” said Patton, “we need better tactical coordination from the ground up. When our troops call for air support, I want it thick and hot. None of this shillyshallying about with the planes arriving 24 hours later.”

That set Welsh to shifting uncomfortably in his seat, but Doolittle only inclined his head in Patton’s direction. He had already spoken privately with Eisenhower about this topic, and he knew what was coming.

“Well and good, George,” said Eisenhower. “Support for the troops on the ground is part of it, but I disagree with that ground up approach. I want the air arms operating independently. Yes, we’ll have liaisons and ground officers working on the front lines, but they’ll be there to coordinate, not control. I want overall control of the air forces to remain right with the tactical officers who are best at that job. That would be Tedder, Coningham, and I’m bringing in a good man on our side as well, General Carl Spaatz. We call him ‘Tooey,’ and he knows his game. The way I see it, and both Welsh and Spaatz agree, is that we need to focus on a more strategic application of our air power, and not simply see it as a tactical support for the Army. Don’t worry George, you’ll get the support you need, but I want the real emphasis to be on overall air superiority operations and interdiction, not ground support.”

“General Spaatz is a good man,” said Welsh. “He’s been in the UK since 1940, and I daresay he’s well thought of by everyone there. He’s of the opinion that 8th Air Force in the UK could help us out a good deal by transferring bombers to overall command of ANAA.” He pronounced that ‘Anna,’ which was short for the Allied Northwest African Air Force. “I can’t underscore the importance of using them heavily in the interdiction effort, and applaud the concept of keeping the reins with the air force commanders. No offense, General Patton, but we can’t be Johnny on the spot everywhere. The situation on the ground changes a good deal hour by hour, yet if we do seize control of the airspace above your battlefield, the likelihood that you’ll have to get after German Heinkels with your pistol will diminish considerably.” Everyone laughed at that again, for they had heard that Patton did exactly that, standing his ground defiantly with a pistol in hand during a German strafing attack.

“So I don’t want a regimental Colonel out there thinking he’s got his own private air force just because we post an air liaison with his HQ.” Eisenhower underlined his point.

“The trouble we’ve had to date,” said Doolittle, “is keeping fighter squadron strength up. Joe Cannon has done a good job at Casablanca setting up machine shops for repairs, but we’ll need to move those forward into Algeria.”

“I spoke to him recently,” said Patton. “Hell of a good man. He says we took some decent fields as the Army advanced, but only three are any good for all weather operations.”

“Correct,” said Doolittle. “That would be Port Lyautey at Kenitra on the Atlantic coast, Tafaraoni south of Oran, and Maison Blanche just east of Algiers. If we could take Bone, we’d get another good field there. Aside from that, we’ve a lot of reserve fields being thrown together with PSP reinforcement.” That stood for Pierced Steel Planking, which had arrived from the states in abundance as part of the engineering effort required to operate in this terrain. The steel planks provided a sturdy under-bed to prevent the secondary fields from becoming unusable mud holes in the heavy January rains.

“The problem,” said Welsh, “is that all but one of those fields are behind the action now. The field at Port Lyautey is 700 miles to the rear, and not good for much of anything. That gives us the two fields at Oran and Algiers, the former being just over 300 miles behind the front. That will do for the bombers, but not the fighters. They’ll have to fly from Maison Blanche, or the smaller secondary sites. That field gives us a little edge over the battlefield just now, as the good German fields around Tunis and Bizerte are 250 miles east of the front. Yet if we advance as planned, their air situation will get better, and we’ll push farther and farther from Algiers.”

“Then we’ll need the field at Bone,” said Montgomery. “Perhaps we can use a combination of para units and Royal Marines to take it at an opportune time.”

“I like that,” said Patton. “Audacity. Keep the other fella on his toes. I’ve also got my eye on Tebessa near the Tunisian Border. There’s a good field down there at Les Bains.”

“Both are on our objective list,” said Eisenhower. “The bottom line in all of this needs to be kept in mind. This whole affair is about logistics. Whoever controls the air, controls the supply routes to North Africa—period. We’ve got the advantage there, but the Luftwaffe has made it hurt. Jerry knows where this game is really going to be won, and that’s why they’ve been going after our biweekly supply convoys with a passion. To date they’ve already sunk over 75 merchantmen, and damaged another 150 ships. That’s half a million tons they put under the sea, and another million sent back to the shipyards since we hit the beaches at Casablanca and Lisbon. They moved in some very experienced torpedo plane squadrons from Norway, and it’s been hell out there. The rest of our difficulties have been our own damn fault. Shipments have been misallocated, ships loaded, unloaded, and then loaded again; equipment buried in warehouses when it’s needed at the front. The Germans have held us off here with four damn divisions against the dozen we have at hand, and Tunis and Bizerte have everything to do with that.”

“There’s our problem in a nutshell,” said Doolittle. “We’ve got to mount standing air patrols over both those harbors, and also cover the sea lanes. That doesn’t leave us a lot left over for close support, but we’re figuring to hold the line at 20%.”