Twelve Desperate Miles: The Epic World War II Voyage of the SS Contessa

334 Pages·2012·2.72 MB·English

by  Tim Brady

Copyright © 2012 by Tim Brady All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brady, Tim, 1955–
Twelve desperate miles : the epic WWII voyage of the Contessa / Tim Brady.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. World War, 1939–1945—Riverine operations—Morocco. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Riverine
operations, American. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Africa, North. 4. Operation
Torch, 1942. 5. Contessa (Steamer) I. Title.
D766.99.M6B73 2012
940.54′234—dc23 2011026090
eISBN: 978-0-30759039-8
Maps by David Lindroth, Inc.
Jacket design by Whitney Cookman
Jacket photography: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS (top); Bettman/CORBIS (bottom)
v3.1
To Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Wallace A. Brady, U.S.N.,
Navy Cross, 1945, at Iwo Jima
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Dramatis Personae
Map
Prologue: A Good Citizen of Mehdia Morocco, 1940
P I
ART
Chapter 1 New York, June 1942
Chapter 2 Airborne to London
Chapter 3 Incorrigible
Chapter 4 Claridge’s
Chapter 5 Halifax to Belfast
Chapter 6 Walking the Tightrope
Chapter 7 D.C.
Chapter 8 The Apostles
Chapter 9 The Hazards of Port Lyautey
Chapter 10 “I should like to embrace you”
Chapter 11 Snatching the Shark
Chapter 12 Romping
P II
ART
Chapter 13 Hollywood
Chapter 14 Tangier to Gibraltar to England
Chapter 15 Needs and Wants
Photo Inserts
Chapter 16 Meeting Gruenther
Chapter 17 SOS
Chapter 18 Amphibians
Chapter 19 Monsieur Prechak
Chapter 20 Looking for a Ship
Chapter 21 The Pieces in Place
P III
ART
Chapter 22 Dry Dock
Chapter 23 “Our Worst War Town”
Chapter 24 Off to Sea
Chapter 25 Uncle Sam Wants You
Chapter 26 Convoy
Chapter 27 Crossing
Chapter 28 “Je m’engage et puis je vois”
Chapter 29 Rendezvous
Chapter 30 “Viva la France eternelle”
Chapter 31 “Crack it open quickly”
Chapter 32 The Dallas Goes First
Chapter 33 Twelve Desperate Miles
Chapter 34 Armistice Day
Epilogue “The little Contessa did the trick”
Notes
About the Author
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
(in order of appearance)
René Malevergne (aka “The Shark,” “Monsieur Prechak”)—River
pilot of the French Moroccan Port Lyautey. When France fell to Hitler’s
army in the summer of 1940, he joined the French “underground” forces
in Morocco, subverting the Vichy regime in Africa. He was ultimately
tapped by Allied forces for a special mission. Husband to Germaine;
father to Claude and René.
Paolantonacci, Brunin, Ravel, Brabancon, and Rocca—Colleagues of
Malevergne in Port Lyautey.
Captain William Henry John—Welsh-born master of the SS Contessa,
veteran of the British Royal Navy in World War I, for more than twenty
years a resident of New Orleans, and longtime employee of the Standard
Fruit Company. He and his ship were called to duty by the U.S. War
Shipping Administration in the spring of 1942 and began transporting
U.S. troops and supplies from New York to North Ireland that summer.
Husband to Bessie; father to Peggy and Betts.
Rear Admiral Karl Doenitz—Leader of Germany’s U-boat campaign. He
would also briefly succeed Adolf Hitler as the last führer of the Third
Reich in the waning days of the war.
General George Patton—Appointed commander of the I Armored Corps
in July 1942, Major General George Patton received another command
come August, when he was tapped by Eisenhower to head the Western
Task Force of Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
General George Marshall—Appointed Army Chief of Staff by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt in September 1939. He would remain in that
post, based in Washington, throughout the war. In 1944, Marshall
became the first five-star general in the U.S. Army in World War II.
General Dwight David Eisenhower—In late May 1942, General Dwight
David Eisenhower flew to London, where he assumed command of the
European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA). From offices there, he would
oversee the pending invasion of North Africa.
General Lucian Truscott—Newly promoted Brigadier General Lucian
Truscott was in England, charged with the development of an Army
Ranger unit patterned after British commando forces, as the invasion of
North Africa evolved.
Captain Harry Butcher—Naval aide to General Eisenhower in London.
Butcher was ordered by his commander to keep a diary of the activities
of Eisenhower’s office. Butcher published My Three Years with Eisenhower
after the war.
General Alan Brooke—Chief of the Imperial General Staff; essentially,
head of the British army; Marshall’s counterpart in initial discussions on
where to attack the Axis. Brooke argued strenuously against Operation
Roundup, the American plan to invade France in 1942.
Vice Admiral Wion de Malpas Egerton and Commodore Lennon
Goldsmith—Royal Navy commanders of the first and second convoys in
which the Contessa sailed.
Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt—A thirty-five-year veteran of the U.S.
Navy. Admiral Hewitt commanded the Atlantic Fleet amphibious forces
in the summer of 1942. He would soon butt heads with General George
Patton as they planned together (and separately) the combined navy and
army operations of the Western Task Force of Operation Torch.
The Apostles—Nickname given to the OSS operatives who arrived in
North Africa in the wake of the February 1941 Murphy-Weygand
Agreement, which allowed for trade between the United States and
Vichy North Africa. These spies slipped into North Africa in the guise of
U.S. customs agents charged with making sure American goods were not
shipped to Germany.
Colonel William “Bill” Eddy—World War I vet, scholar, and expert on
Middle Eastern affairs, Eddy was sent to Tangier in 1941 to serve,
nominally, as a naval attaché. His actual duties were to gather
intelligence for the OSS and serve as the overseer of the Apostles in
northwest Africa.
Robert Murphy—American consul in Paris in the 1930s. Murphy
became FDR’s man in North Africa—liaison to the Vichy government
and collector of information at the onset of the war.
David King—Having served in the French Foreign Legion and the U.S.
Army during World War I, King came to Casablanca as an OSS operative
in 1941.
Gordon Browne—An archaeologist by trade, Browne was a relatively
new OSS recruit stationed in Tangier. He and Franklin Holcomb
happened to be in Casablanca at a propitious moment for René
Malevergne and the future of Operation Torch in September 1942.
Franklin Holcomb—Son of Marine Corps Commandant Thomas
Holcomb. Franklin worked out of Tangier as assistant naval attaché to
William Eddy. He was on assignment with Browne on a tour of the
interior of Morocco when the pair came to Casablanca.
Hal Wallis—Chief of production at Warner Brothers Studios in
Hollywood, Wallis was overseeing the editing and promotional campaign
of a new film called Casablanca in the late summer of 1942. He was
completely unaware of any Allied plans involving North Africa.
General Alfred Gruenther—Called over to London in August 1942 from
a station in San Antonio, Texas, to assume the post of chief of staff for
Eisenhower, Mark Clark, and the North African campaign, Gruenther
had a steep learning curve in order to catch up to fast-developing plans.
Major General Mark Clark—Appointed by Eisenhower as overall
deputy commander in chief of Allied forces in North Africa.
Carl Clopet—Casablanca hydrographer exfiltrated from Morocco to
London in order to aid Allied planning for the invasion of Africa.
Goalpost planning team—Included British members of Louis Lord
Mountbatten’s staff and American officers serving under General Lucian
Truscott. Both were brought together in Washington in mid-September
1942 to help coordinate the Port Lyautey attack force in the invasion of
Morocco. British members were Commanders Dick Costabadie and John
Homer and Major Robert Henriques. American members of Truscott’s
planning team included Majors Ted Conway and Pierpont Morgan
Hamilton. Hamilton was the grandson of the famed financier J. P.
Morgan and the great-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton.
Western Task Force Transportation group—Army Services of Supplies
was headed by Lieutenant General Brehon Somervell, who would hold
the position for the duration of the war. Somervell’s chief duties in the
fall of 1942 were to supply the needs of the first major operation of the
Allied command, Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Serving
as chief of transportation in the Army Service Forces, directly beneath
Somervell, was General Charles P. Gross, whose principal task that fall