Tunisgrad, Hollywood History and American Propaganda

“British troops are amongst the greatest of all warriors and were GREAT and BRAVE [in Afghanistan]…the bond between the British and American military was too strong ever to be broken”.

President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social, January 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSXiny5mEpg

The McNair Report

January 26^th.  Last week’s latest episode of “How America Won the World with Donald J. Trump” got me thinking.  Why do some Americans hold the British and their Armed Forces in contempt and where does it come from?  It would be easy to think that it is a contemporary phenomenon reflective of a frustrated America with a poorly-led Britain that really seems to have given up the fight. Sadly, it goes far deeper than that and is more the reflection of a whole raft of American society that sits at the cusp between patriotism and nationalism.  For such Americans America First is America Better.  To be fair, such contempt for Britain and other Europeans tends not to be shared by thinking Americans, but from my experience it goes surprisingly high in the American Establishment.  Such prejudice is so deep-seated it has become something of a cliché.  

August 1942 is probably the key date.  Nine months after America’s entry into World War Two, Generals Lesley McNair and Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a scathing report about the British military for the Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall. The report was written at a time when the US military were still novices in the grim business of warfare.  The reason for the report was the fall of a seemingly impregnable Tobruk in North Africa at a time when the British had complete naval superiority in the Mediterranean and were almost complete masters of the air.  The report, which was shared with President Roosevelt, said that the British had lost the capacity to win and all offensive spirit.  This belief came to permeate the upper ranks of the US military during World War Two and stuck.  It was reinforced by a political need to tell the American people why defeating Germany was as least as important as defeating Japan and that only the Americans could win the European war.

Tunisgrad

The biggest failing of the report was that it failed to realise the extent to which the British armed forces had learned since 1939 how to fight the Wehrmacht, as the Americans would do and rapidly between 1942 and 1944. In October 1942, just two months after the report was completed, General Bernard Law Montgomery launched the Second Battle of El Alamein (Operations Lightfoot and Supercharge).  Now, most Americans have never heard of El Alamein, President Trump has certainly not heard of it and there is a reason for that.  It was not conducive for American propaganda to have the British win very much.  And yet, during this ten day, four phase battle, DUKE (Dominion, UK and Empire) forces systematically destroyed the Afrika Korps and began a 1400 mile advance across North Africa which led to the surrender of 275,000 Axis troops at Tunis in May 1943.  “Tunisgrad” was the biggest single surrender of Axis forces during World War Two before May 1945 and was quite simply a war-changing British strategic victory which led soon thereafter to the defeat of Fascist Italy.

Proof?   The Afrika Korps itself. In a report to Hitler the newly-created Field Marshal Erwin Rommel described Montgomery’s conduct of El Alamein as “the professional execution of a comprehensive plan”.  The later Wehrmacht assessment of the comparative capabilities of American and British forces after Tunisgrad was clear. “American forces you could defeat, British forces you could only delay”.  Americans, the report said, would attack aggressively, take heavy casualties and then pull back. British forces would attack methodically, take less casualties, but maintain constant pressure until Axis forces had to pull back”. In 1950, Rommel’s own papers were released and his position was clear: “The defeat at El Alamein marked the real end of the Afrika Korp.  Everything afterwards was a fighting withdrawal. We were defeated by methodical British offensive operations. Everything followed from that”.

Unfortunately, the McNair narrative of American innovation and flair saving the British from their own military stodginess became a prejudice that was also reflected in both American press coverage of the European war and increasingly in Hollywood history.  The British would fight bravely in defence but lacked American dash and elan.  This was despite all the evidence to the contrary, most notably the invention and use of Special Forces and almost ALL the precision air attacks of the European war.

American prejudice was reinforced by Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942.  For propaganda purposes it was presented as an overwhelmingly American invasion of North Africa with Churchill even agreeing to British forces wearing US military uniforms to maintain the charade.  In fact, it was experienced British forces, most notably the Commandos who were in the vanguard because at that stage US forces were still very green.  The bulk of the air and naval support came from the RAF Desert Air Force and the British Mediterranean Fleet.  In other words, it was a joint operation with the British.  This made perfect sense given that by November 1942 the British had been fighting the Wehrmacht and Italians for over two years, knew the theatre, had established air and sea supremacy and, critically, had established command and logistics structures.

D-Day

Then came June 6, 1944, D-Day or Operation Overlord, together with all its supporting air, sea, land and deception operations. If someone with little knowledge of history were to watch American dramas and documentaries about D-Day they might be tempted to conclude that it was an American victory, planned by Americans, equipped by Americans and in which only Americans fought.  Stephen Spielberg’s Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan and Masters of the Air have reinforced the American narrative that only Americans fought and won the European war, although there is a certain irony that several of the leading ‘Americans’ were played by British actors.

The reality was very different.  The Combined Forces on D-Day comprised 61,715 British troops, 57,500 Americans and 21,500 Canadians. The Allied expeditionary naval forces were led by Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Royal Navy, the air forces by Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Royal Air Force, whilst the land forces were under the command of the same General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, the victor of El Alamein. Of the five landing beaches three were under British command, Gold, Juno and Sword, and two under American command, Omaha and Utah. The assault troops also included the forces of many other nations – Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Greece, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland.  There were also the 209 men of the Free French forces, including Kieffer’s 177 commandos, on their long, dangerous and distinguished way home.  There were some 1213 warships of which 892 were Royal Navy, with 3261 of the 4126-landing craft ferrying the troops ashore also British. In total, 7700 ships and craft were deployed in support of the landings. In the air, some 12000 aircraft sorties were flown by some 2000 aircraft some 70% of which are either Royal Air Force or Royal Canadian Air Force.

It is the British who are the great innovators of D-Day.  There were two giant ingenious floating British Mulberry Harbours without which the landings could not have happened. They launched their landing craft close to the beaches to prevent the assault troops becoming sea-sick, used highly effective specialist tanks (Hobart’s Funnies) to clear mines and beach defences as well as destroy any German bunkers that had survived the naval bombardment.  They also used the RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) as an extension of naval gunnery by employing Hawker Typhoons and other ground attack aircraft to great effect.

Throughout the subsequent campaign in Normandy British and Canadian forces maintained offensive pressure on elite German formations and blocked the Wehrmacht from getting through to the Americans to the west. They also deployed one of the best allied tanks of World War Two, the Sherman Firefly, which combined the chassis of a US Sherman tank with the Tiger-busting quick-firing British 17 pounder gun. British military stodginess? When the Germans tried to counter-attack in Normandy by launching Operation Luttich in August 1944 it was British and Canadian air power and armour that proved decisive in defeating it.  When the Falaise Pocket was finally closed that same month, the British breakout from Falaise to Brussels and Antwerp was the fastest military advance in history until the American advance on Baghdad in 2003.  

Why does history matter?

Why does this matter beyond irritating the Hell out of this ageing Oxford historian and millions of other Brits?  The real tragedy of Britain is that over time the power of Hollywood history began to be believed by the British themselves. Allied to Britain’s poor leaders, and inevitable decline, it has fostered a sense that Britain really does not matter and never did.  Worse, Hollywood war propaganda has been deliberate and done as much as any enemy action or rotten leaders to break the British spirit.  

There is also a profound lesson for Americans.  If you believe your own hype you will soon become Johnny No Friends. Yes, Europeans need to do more for collective security and the US does bear too much of the burden of NATO today.  And yet, Americans also want to maintain complete control over the Allies whilst demanding said Allies build up their military strength.  That ain’t gonna work. The more the American need allies, and they will, and the stronger those allies become the greater say they will have over both the Alliance and American policy and strategy.

By all means celebrate your great country Americans in this year of all years but stop belittling us.  What Britain achieved in World War Two in the face of decline and the many setbacks we suffered was quite simply astounding and you Americans need to do more to honour that and afford us the respect we deserve.  Start by getting Hollywood to tell the real story of our shared struggle and not the American propaganda that is too often passed off as history.  

History matters! When it is abused a large number of stupid people start believing stupid ideas and when they get into power do stupid things which leads to disaster.

Julian Lindley-French