Word: 34th
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...divisions had been used in Sicily, the hill-taking 78th. There was U.S. Lieut. General Mark Wayne Clark's Fifth Army, built and trained behind the lines during the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns, undoubtedly poised. Possibly included in the Fifth: two infantry divisions, the 9th and the 34th; and the 1st Armored Division, which have not been heard from since they fought Arnim south of Bizerte. There was Lieut. General George Patton's great Seventh Army-three infantry divisions, an airborne division and an armored division thoroughly experienced in overwater invasion. There were also General Henri Honore Giraud...
...there was more to it than that, as this correspondent learned later-not from able General Ryder, who knew his men too well to make excuses for them. The tactical plan, as devised by the British IX Corps, called for a frontal assault by the 34th on its objective while the hill to the north of the pass, which dominated the 34th's objective, was still in enemy hands. U.S. infantry works better in enveloping tactics. If the hill to the north had been taken first, and then the southern hills attacked from either flank, the story of Fondouk...
...Mateur, Bizerte. One criticism made of U.S. troops is that they do not begin to fight their best until they get mad. If that is true, what happened to the 9th Division at El Guettar and to the 34th at Fondouk (or perhaps what was said about them) made them first-class divisions. The history of the last three weeks of the Tunisian campaign, of Hill 609 and Mateur and Bizerte, is too fresh to need repeating, but these facts should not be forgotten...
...capture of Djebel Tahent, Hill 609, which rises like a flat-topped fortress above the lower hills near by, that cracked the German positions south of Bizerte and started the withdrawal that became a collapse. The 34th Division took 609 in a bloody battle and held it against savage counterattacks...
...These two actions, and the work of the incomparable 1st farther south, opened the way to Mateur; and with the fall of Mateur began the collapse which spread across the entire German line. If the 9th and 34th had not learned their lessons so well, the Battle of Tunisia might not yet be over...