WW2 North Africa The Tunisia Campaign
Drawings of Carol Johnson
Censor stamps, required for publication of these drawings
In 1943, at the age of 26, Carol Johnson went to the News Enterprise Association office in New York City where he was told to get a uniform and report to the docks in two days. He was being sent overseas as a war correspondent, as an artist sketching what he saw for publication in newspapers in the USA. His destination was Algeria, where the North African Campaign was ramping up.
For the next eight months, the young Mr. Johnson worked diligently to report on the North African flank of the War, and to record the daily life of the American GIs through his sketches. The drawings, in pencil and/or ink and wash, were published in daily newspapers across the United States as Carol Johnson’s North African Sketch Book. But first they had to be approved by US and English censors.
Johnson’s sketches captured everyday scenes of Army life as well as the grimmer realities of the War. His subjects included life in the barracks and tents, and he made fine, sensitive portraits of some of the men who served around him. In addition, several of the sketches show glimpses of the local Arab culture as well as the French Algerian Zouave infantry who were encamped in the area. And when the fighting occurred, Johnson was on the spot to record the action.
Mr. Johnson traveled for some months with the writer Ernie Pyle, who was also known for reporting stories that emphasized the personal experiences of the young men engaged in the conflict. Pyle’s book Here Is Your War contains illustrations by Mr. Johnson. With the relative difficulty of reporting on a War which was occurring all the way across the world, these intimate stories and sketches served as a lifeline of information for a news-starved American public.
First coverage of Carol Johnson drawings, from NEA Daily News Service
New York, May 3, 1943.
“This is a different kind of war reporting ... These drawings--recording humor, detail and
atmosphere that cameras cannot catch nor words convey ...”
WW2 Situation at this time
From the time that WW2 started in 1939, the Allied forces had received a long series of losses and setbacks through 1941. Much of Europe fell to the Germans, and Italy entered WW2 expanding the war to the entire Mediterranean. Then with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and America’s formal entry into the war, the conflict became truly worldwide, in both major oceans, and involving people throughout the world. By mid 1942 the US had some successes, especially the Battle for Midway Island in the Pacific. There was no progress in Europe, though Britain had withstood the Germans’ air power in The Battle of Britain, and the Axis push into Greece had failed.
The North African Campaign took place from June 10, 1940 to May 13, 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign).
The early days of the North African Campaign pitted the Italians against 100,000 British forces. In December 1940, a Commonwealth counter offensive, Operation Compass, destroyed the 250,000 troop Italian 10th Army. Then the German Afrika Korps— commanded by Erwin Rommel, "The Desert Fox," was dispatched to North Africa. A see-saw series of battles for control of Libya and parts of Egypt followed, reaching a climax in the Second Battle of El Alamein, when British Commonwealth forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery delivered a decisive defeat to the Axis forces and pushed them back to Tunisia. This set the stage for Operation Torch, the massed Allied Invasion of west North Africa.
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa. On November 8, 1942, Operation Torch landed troops in North Africa under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It would be General Eisenhower's first major operation, and the first massed sea and air assault of the war in Europe. The initial Axis opponent was the forces of Vichy France in Morocco and Algeria.
Allied forces of Operation Torch landed in Morocco and Algeria with 65,130 US troops. Altogether three amphibious task forces land—one American, two British—are to seize the key ports and airports of Morocco and Algeria simultaneously. These would support subsequent coastal military operations in order to capture Casablanca as a base.
From the moment the Allies landed, the campaign in Northwest Africa and the race for Tunisia would be a logistical battle. The side that could mass and supply forces the fastest would win. To illustrate the logistic challenges: a German motorized division needed 360 tons of supplies per day. With seven Axis divisions, air and naval units, 71,000 tons of supplies per month were needed.
Operation Torch (from ww2-weapons.com)
For the Germans, control of Tunisia was also critical to prevent Rommel from being trapped between Montgomery in the east and the newly formed British First Army in the west.
The Western Task Force was created, made up of American units, with Major General George S. Patton in command and Rear Admiral Henry K. Hewitt heading the naval operations. It was aimed at Casablanca. The Western Task Force consisted of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 3rd and 9th Infantry Divisions—35,000 troops in a convoy of over 100 ships.
Overall, for Operation Torch, the entire invasion force consisted of over 400 warships, 1,000 planes, and some 107,000 US & British troops, including a battalion of paratroopers jumping in the U.S. Army's first airborne attack.
Operation Torch was a major success. Landings were made with little resistance at Casablanca, Oran, Algeria, and Algiers, Algeria. By Nov. 16, 1942, Operation Torch was considered to be finished. The Allies had invaded North Africa. They had overcome the Vichy French. Next were the German forces and Rommel.
In January 1943, the winter rains and resulting mud brought mechanized operations to a halt in northern Tunisia. Waiting for better weather in the spring, the Allies continued to build up their forces. This is the period in which these soldiers and Carol Johnson are to ship out.
Between 1943 and 1944 about 3 million troops moved from the USA to Europe and North Africa by naval convoy. New York was the major departure point for all US convoys. Fort Dix, In New Jersey, was a major gathering point for these departing troops.
They would not stay long in camps, just a few days. During this time they would make final preparations for their mission: getting new equipment and uniforms as needed, getting a GI haircut, receiving final training. They would be sleeping in barracks, eating at chow halls, getting some last minute rifle practice, then drinking at the base PX or going to a movie in the evening. And waiting.
Then they would ship out, about 5,000 per convoy, to play their part in the North African Campaign.
Camp life in the USA: drinking at the PX, getting uniforms and haircuts
Camp Life in the USA
Rifle training, baking bread, in line for a movie. Caps for every occasion.