Army & Navy - Lessons of Combat

The Marines who came back from Guadalcanal could have told them. So could the 32nd and 41st Division troops who fought at Buna. But by last week it was evident that the American troops in Tunisia had to learn for themselves the hard and inescapable way—in bloody combat. They had proved an old Marine maxim: "No troops are much good in their first battle."

Said a sergeant veteran of Tunisia to New York Timesmsm Drew Middleton: "Listen, brother, when we get back in there against those krauts we're gonna be just twice as good....