Springboard to Berlin

Early on the morning of November 8th, 1942, Allied invasion forces struck simultaneously at half a dozen places in North Africa. From that moment news of the campaign poured out from innumerable points up and down the coast.

Obviously no one person could be everywhere at once, or could hope to tell the complete story. This could only be done by the collaboration of several of those who were there.

Springboard to Berlin is the work of four correspondents of the United Press.

John A. Parris, Jr. in the London office was in an excellent position to give us a glimpse of what went on before those convoys finally slipped through the Straits of Gibraltar (Part I). He also covers Oran (Part V), having gone in with the troops at Arzu. His familiarity with the whole picture has enabled him to also provide a portion on Casablanca (Part IV) and later a chapter on the Casablanca Conference (Part VII).

Leo Disher had the unique experience of actually sailing on H.M.S. Walney, which was sent to break the boom at Oran harbor (Part II).

Ned Russell covers Operations at Algiers (Part III), and the November-December dash for Bizerte and Tunis (Part VI). Attached to the British First Army, he went up the coast from Bône. He also witnessed the final knockout at Bizerte and Tunis (Part IX, sent to London). John Parris and Phil Ault, then in London, also contributed to the section and got it into the hands of a naval officer bound for New York. Finally, Ned Russell continued across the Mediterranean with the invasion forces (Part X), analyzing the breakdown of the Axis African army and describing the conquest of Lampedusa and most of Sicily.

Phil Ault was in the thick of the fighting at Kasserine Pass, El Guettar in Tunisia, and the other famous battles. In Part VIII he tells how the Americans won their spurs there.