An Army at Dawn

As Allied forces fought and marched across territory once ruled by Ancient Carthage, the symbol of the renowned general Hannibal is introduced. During the Punic Wars of 3rd century BC, Hannibal led the North African empire of Carthage against the Roman Republic over control of the Mediterranean region. Legend has it that Hannibal's wisdom trickled down through the ages all the way to the Allied troops of the 20th century. Atkinson writes, "'Whoever has Medjez-el-Bab has the key to the door, and is the master of all Tunisia,' Hannibal supposedly declared […] The quotation has the tin ring of apocrypha, but the sentiment had been true in the centuries before Christ and it was true in 1942" (178).

Hannibal is also among Eisenhower's childhood heroes: "Just forty miles south. Eisenhower's boyhood hero, Hannibal, had been smashed at Zama […] He hoped to visit the site someday, to understand by walking the ground what had gone wrong for the Carthaginians" (253). While Atkinson doesn't answer this question explicitly, parallels can be seen between Carthage and the Allies. While Hannibal's forces possessed a significant numerical advantage, many of them were ill-trained or mercenaries. Considering the Allies' own ultimate numerical advantage in North Africa and the fact that many of the American troops still felt like they were "fighting someone else's war" (538), as Atkinson puts it, the parallels between Hannibal and Eisenhower are justified.