Surprise tactic saw troops arrive in their thousands
On the day after Armistice and the day before Remembrance Sunday, historian Malcolm Goode looks at events from 1942 and remembers those who lost their lives 80 years ago this month.
BETWEEN November 8 and 11, 1942, three Allied Task Forces, including five Aircraft Carriers, landed 34,000 US troops near Casablanca, 39,000 US and British troops near Oran (accompanied by a parachute assault) and 33,000 troops (known as the Eastern Task Force) near Algiers – this was Operation Torch.
US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander, aimed to seize Vichy French North Africa as a springboard for future operations to clear the whole of North Africa of Axis forces.
Admiral Francois Darlan, the Vichy commissioner in Africa, caused diplomatic turbulence by arranging a ceasefire and agreeing to support the Allies.
This surprise invasion was a product of successful inter-service planning, and as a result, German commander Rommel was now fighting on two fronts.
On November 11, German and Italian Forces occupied Vichy France to prevent an Allied invasion from the former Vichy French territories in North Africa.
Between November 17 and 28, British paratroopers landed at Souk-el-arba and joined a limited Allied advance towards Bizerte.
Thousands of German reinforcements were arriving daily, but the Allies were not yet ready for a large offensive.
By November 28, they were within 20 miles of Tunis, but were halted by Axis counterattacks. Allied reinforcements from Algiers were also slowed by rain and mud. A stalemate developed across much of Tunisia.
On November 27 in the Meditteranean, Vichy French naval forces in Toulon were scuttled with the loss of 72 vessels, including three battleships, before the Germans could seize them.
It should be noted that in what was known as French North Africa, everything was controlled by the Vichy French Government.
The Vichy French Government came about in June 1940 when Germany and Italy successfully forced the French government to surrender at what we recognise in Britain as the Battle of Dunkirk.
From June 1940, France was not totally occupied by the invading German forces, but was allowed to continue to govern French territory by means of a puppet government, under Hitler’s control and described as Vichy France.
This also included North Africa.
For those Frenchmen who managed to escape out of France at Dunkirk to England, they became known as the Free French Forces and came under the command of General de Gaulle.