Operation Torch (8-16 November 1942) was the codename given to a series of landings by the United States and United Kingdom in French North Africa during World War II. Without much resistance from Vichy France, the Allied Powers succeeded in liberating all of the pro-Nazi regime's territories in present-day Morocco and Algeria. The Vichy French commander, Admiral Francois Darlan, signed an armistice with the Allies, leading to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy occupying southern France and ending the autonomy of the Vichy regime; their troops took over from the Vichy troops in North Africa, and the Axis Powers lost a member.
Background[]
Prior to November 1942, the United States' involvement in World War II had almost entirely been devoted to fighting against Japan in the Pacific Ocean over island chains en route to the Japanese home islands. The United Kingdom had been fighting Nazi Germany and Italy in North Africa since June 1940, with the British and Germans repeatedly launching offensives against each other in Cyrenaica. Following the decisive British victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein, Bernard Montgomery's British 8th Army was able to advance from Egypt as Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps retreated towards Tunisia, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill gained President Franklin Roosevelt's backing for a joint US-British invasion of Vichy France's possessions of Morocco and Algeria to open a war on two fronts in North Africa. This would push the Axis forces into Tunisia and trap them there, which could allow an invasion of Europe from Africa. The plan, codenamed "Operation Torch", involved an armada of Allied ships carrying US, British, and Free French soldiers to North Africa, and they would land at several points in Morocco and Algeria in three task forces.
Battle[]
British soldiers near a disabled Axis tank
The Western Task Force landed at Safi, Casablanca, and Port-Lyautey on the western coast of Morocco, facing little resistance from the Vichy French forces there. Meanwhile, the Center Task Force assaulted Oran, and the Eastern Task Force assaulted Algiers, both targets in Algeria. Oran was the first airborne assault carried out in United States history, with two airfields near the city falling to the Americans without much resistance from the poorly-equipped Vichy troops. In Algiers, resistance was stiffer, and the British and Americans' Operation Terminal - in which they would land troops to capture the port facilities intact - led to the surrender of many Allied troops to the French. However, 400 Jewish French Resistance fighters rose up in the city and aided a larger Allied army in capturing Algiers from the French. Alphonse Juin, commander of Vichy French forces in French North Africa, surrendered to the Allies; Admiral Francois Darlan agreed to an armistice with the Allies and brought the French forces in North Africa to the Allied side. Operation Torch was a success in North Africa, with the Allies now pressuring German forces in Tunisia from two sides.
Aftermath[]
However, there were repurcussions elsewhere. When Marshal Philippe Petain reported on the surrender of the French forces in North Africa to the Allies, Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht and Royal Italian Army to occupy Southern France, ending the autonomous southern regime of the Vichy France in their "free zone". The French navy at Toulon was scuttled on the orders of Admiral Jean de Laborde to prevent the Germans, Italians, or British forces capturing the ships, and France was completely taken over by the Germans. In addition, Darlan was assassinated by a French student angered at Vichy France's alliance with the Allies.
A good result of Operation Torch was the encirclement of German forces in Tunisia. General George S. Patton, who commanded the American forces in the invasion, was greeted as a liberator by the Moroccans, who held a parade of their military for the American general. The Americans proceeded to move into Tunisia, and despite Lloyd Fredenhall's defeat at the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943, the Allies were able to push into Tunisia and defeat the Germans by May 1943.