General Dwight Eisenhower and General Sir Harold Alexander arrived on the battlefront—Eisenhower to confer with his Allied officers, Sir Harold to take personal command of the Allied troops retreating across central Tunisia. The situation early last week was that critical.
From Kasserine Pass, Major General Lloyd Fredendall's weary young U.S. infantrymen, artillerymen and tankmen had fled across the valley. They had lost their swagger. They had abandoned their dead and their good equipment along the muddy, bloody roads. They had been handicapped by a lack of motor vehicles. Some of them fought...