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Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. II Corps in Tunisia between 30 January and 25 February offer valuable lessons for commanders preparing to take units into combat. One facet of this preparation involves the reading of written historical accounts. They also know that participants seldom grasp the Big Picture and often lack the eloquence and opportunity to tell their stories.
Frequently seen as a short quote, the longer text of his comment is more apropos: If facts are hurriedly issued, fresh from the mint of battle, they cannot be expected to supply an account which is either well balanced or exhaustive.
On the other hand, it is equally certain that, when once the fight has been fairly lost or won, it is the tendency of all ranks to combine and recast the story of their achievement into a shape which shall satisfy the susceptibilities of national and regimental vain-glory. It is then already too late for the painstaking historian to set to work. He may record the orders given and the movements which ensued, and he may build hopes and fears which dictated those orders, and to the spirit and method in which those movements were executed, he has for ever lost the clue.
