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The 10-Day Purge: How One General Saved an Army by Destroying Dozens of Careers

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In March 1943, the United States Army faced its darkest hour in North Africa. American forces had been routed at Kasserine Pass in the bloodiest defeat US ground troops had experienced in the theater. Morale was shattered. Discipline had collapsed. The world questioned whether American soldiers could fight.

Then came a general with ivory-handled revolvers and an iron will. In just ten days, he would fire dozens of officers, transform a defeated corps into an aggressive fighting force, and prove that sometimes saving an army requires breaking hearts and ending careers.

This is the story of the most ruthless leadership purge the US Army had seen—a transformation so complete that within weeks, the same soldiers who had fled in panic were defeating German counterattacks and advancing across North Africa. It reveals the brutal calculus of wartime command: sacrifice the few to save the many, demand perfection or face dismissal, and prove that leadership accountability can mean the difference between victory and catastrophic defeat.

Through newly examined records, this documentary explores how one commander's uncompromising standards created a culture of accountability that would shape American military doctrine for decades—and destroyed the careers of good men who simply weren't ready for the unforgiving crucible of combat command.