World Battlefronts: The First Army

(2 of 2)

Perhaps the most colorful of his charges are the Goumiers. These are Berber warriors from the Atlas Mountains, who take their name from their unit, roughly equivalent to the company, called Goum. Each Goum has a French captain, two or three French lieutenants, about 15 French sergeants. Goumiers are tall and well built, with square foreheads and dark faces. They are expert woodsmen, live in the mountains and can fight there as if fighting were everyday existence. Their standard weapon is a French rifle of a design that was old at the time of the Boer War. Last week they were supplied with a few tommy guns. When they went into action they fired their new toys with screams of delight.

General Anderson also commands the II Corps of U.S. troops. Most of them were last week engaged in mopping up behind the advance, in garrisoning towns, and in gathering north of Kairouan for future action. They had had their bad moments, but they were blooded now (see p. 15).

Potential Army. The First Army's record has so far been: one bold failure, a few bitter but minor setbacks, one efficient but limited thrust forward. If the setbacks, including those suffered by the Americans, have in any degree been Anderson's fault, the successes in the same degree have been to his credit.

His Army is so far potential. It is certainly eager to convert its potentialities into success. Wrote TIME Correspondent Charles Wertenbaker last week of some men of the First: "I remember one sergeant who stopped at our car for an instant and all he could say was: 'We're frightfully keen for it. . . .' The tanks were bursting out of a pine grove on to the road, where they churned up huge billows of dust, then charging down the road toward battle stations. The officers in the turrets were waving and shouting as if they were off to a steeplechase. The major I was with kept calling to them by name and saying, 'My God, they look bloody good, don't they?' And my God, they did."