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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who wrote: "Would God I might die with my sword in hand / Ringed by dead foes all around."
(a) Ike.
(b) Brigadier General Ted Roosevelt.
(c) Commander Terry Allen.
(d) General George Patton.

2. Who did the American contingent meet in Cherchel?
(a) General Henri Giraud, a senior general capable of uniting the French cause.
(b) Benito Mussolini, Commander General of the Italian Africorps.
(c) General Mast, the French commander of the Vichy army's XIX Corps.
(d) The Desert Fox.

3. According to the author, what makes Medjez-el-Bab a strategically important location?
(a) Through it is the sole land route to Tunis.
(b) It is 30 miles from Tunis and straddles the Medjerda River.
(c) Located on a high plateau, it is easily defended.
(d) It has several large airfields and whomever controls the air, controls North Africa.

4. Why did Darlan revoke his order announcing to all French troops that further battle was futile?
(a) The position of the British above him in the command structure threatened French authority.
(b) Marshal Petain sacked Darlan as his military commander and repudiated the agreement.
(c) The arrival of General Giraud threatened his new position.
(d) French troops threatened revolt.

5. What was operation WATCHTOWER?
(a) A covert mission to convince Vichy France to join the Allied cause.
(b) A pre-emptive strike by the Royal Air Force against North African Axis bases.
(c) The first Allied counter-offensive against Japan at Guadalcanal.
(d) The name of the original U.S. plan to attack Germany through France.

Short Answer Questions

1. What decision by Rear Admiral Hewitt was considered "a brave decision, the decision of a commander," by Lord Lewis Mountbatten, the commander of British amphibious forces?

2. What is Ultra?

3. According to the author, many American officers were concerned that the British war plan was:

4. What encounter occurred on November 26th, one day after the successful raid on the airport in Djedeida, between newly outfitted Panzers and John Water's First Battalion, and is considered a 'draw' by the author?

5. What was the first town to be captured by the Allies?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Rear Admiral Hewitt's personal motto?

2. An aspect of TORCH that affected each layer of command was a lack of information about how the coordinated effort was going. According to the author, how was Patton's approach to this ambiguity different?

3. What was the motto of the Big Red One?

4. What particular naval skill in Hewitt know for?

5. Admiral Darlan did capitulate and surrender Algiers, but what order was he reluctant to make?

6. What caused the airplanes in Operation VILLAIN to miss their targets?

7. Describe the American military cemetery at Carthage, Tunisia.

8. Although Eisenhower professed "a violent hatred of the Axis and all that is stands for," the author doubts this. What does both Eisenhower and the American troops generally lack through much of the North Africa War?

9. What was the reasoning behind the American request that almost no British troops take part in the initial TORCH landings?

10. Who supposedly made the following statement? "Whoever has Medjez-el-Bab has the key to the door, and is the master of all Tunisia."

(see the answer keys)

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