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Operation Torch cost the Allies around 480 killed and 720 wounded. French losses totaled around 1,346 killed and 1,997 wounded

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Operation Torch cost the Allies around 480 killed and 720 wounded. French losses totaled around 1,346 killed and 1,997 wounded

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On 9 November, Axis forces started to build up in French Tunisia, unopposed by the local French forces under General Barré. Wracked with indecision, Barré moved his troops into the hills and formed a defensive line from Teboursouk through Medjez el Bab and ordered that anyone trying to pass through the line would be shot. On 19 November, the German commander, Walter Nehring, demanded passage for his troops across the bridge at Medjez and was refused. The Germans attacked the poorly-equipped French units twice and were driven back. The French had suffered many casualties and lacking artillery and armour, Barré was forced to withdraw

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After consolidating in Algeria, the Allies began the Tunisia Campaign. Elements of the First Army (Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson), came to within 40 mi (64 km) of Tunis before a counterattack at Djedeida thrust them back. In January 1943, German and Italian troops under Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, retreating westward from Libya, reached Tunisia.

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The Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery) advancing from the east, stopped around Tripoli while the port was repaired to disembark reinforcements and build up the Allied advantage. In the west, the forces of the First Army came under attack at the end of January, were forced back from the Faïd Pass and suffered a reversal at the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid on 14–15 February. Axis forces pushed on to Sbeitla and then fought the Battle of Kasserine Pass on 19 February, where the US II Corps retreated in disarray until Allied reinforcements halted the Axis advance on 22 February. Fredendall was sacked and replaced by George Patton.

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Tunis did not fall quickly to British and American forces. Their presence in North Africa and threatened assault of southern Europe also failed to draw away large numbers of Germans from the Eastern Front, a key strategic rationale given for the operation. At the tactical level, the assault upon Moroccan beaches revealed serious problems with the logistical, communication, and command-and-control approaches the Navy and Army employed for this major amphibious operation.

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Operation Torch was the Anglo-American invasion of French Morocco and Algeria during the North African Campaign of World War II. It began on November 8 and concluded on November 16, 1942. It resulted from an uneasy compromise between the Western Allies, and was intended to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union by imperiling Axis forces in the region and by enabling an invasion of Southern Europe in 1943.

Commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the operation was designed as a pincer movement with American landings at Morocco’s Atlantic coast and Anglo-American landings on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast. The primary objective was to secure bridgeheads for opening a second front to the rear of German and Italian forces battling the British in Libya and Egypt.

On the night of November 8, after undetected crossings from the United States and the United Kingdom, a great Anglo-American fleet consisting of 350 warships and 500 transports carrying some 107,000 troops assembled off the coast of French North Africa. The following morning, the Allied assault commenced as three task forces sought to seize key ports and airports at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers before advancing eastwards into Tunisia.

The invasion forces had to overcome French opposition in territories controlled by the Vichy Regime under Marshall Philippe Pétain. His government had some 125,000 soldiers stationed in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as powerful coastal artillery, numerous tanks, aircraft, and warships. Optimistic British intelligence suggested that the French would offer minimal resistance. This would prove wrong.

On November 7, Vichy forces thwarted an attempted coup d’etat by pro-Allied General Antoine Béthouart against the French command in Morocco. Stiff French resistance then caused significant losses at several of the Moroccan assault points before the Western Task Force achieved its landing objectives. On November 10, the Allied troops readied to assault Casablanca. After a brief naval engagement, the French surrendered the city before an all-out attack was launched.

At Oran, the Center Task Force also encountered stubborn French resistance before Oran’s surrender on November 9.

On the other hand, the Eastern Task Force was aided by a successful coup by the French resistance in Algiers, which neutralized the French XIX Corps before the Allied landings there. Allied troops quickly pushed inland, and General Juin surrendered the city in the early evening of November 9. Urged by General Mark Clark, Eisenhower's deputy, Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, Vichy High Commissioner for North Africa, and General Juin also ordered French forces to cease armed resistance in Oran and Morocco on November 10–11.

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It involved about 65,000 troops who landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran on the French North African coast. Operation Torch was the first time U.S. troops saw action against Nazi Germany, trapping Erwin Rommel’s army in a pincer as it fled from El-Alamein.

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It involved about 65,000 troops who landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran on the French North African coast. Operation Torch was the first time U.S. troops saw action against Nazi Germany, trapping Erwin Rommel’s army in a pincer as it fled from El-Alamein.

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It was the first time the British and Americans had worked on an invasion plan together, and the operation included the first large-scale American airborne drop when the 509th Parachute Regiment captured two airfields near Oran.

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It was the first time the British and Americans had worked on an invasion plan together, and the operation included the first large-scale American airborne drop when the 509th Parachute Regiment captured two airfields near Oran.

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Table of Contents

Operation Torch, first major Allied amphibious assault during World War II. It involved about 65,000 troops who landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran on the French North African coast. Operation Torch was the first time U.S. troops saw action against Nazi Germany, trapping Erwin Rommel 's army in a pincer as it fled from El-Alamein.

Although U.S. planners had favored a direct assault on Europe, the British argued that this was too risky given the limited forces available. Operation Torch offered the opportunity to end the desert war and open the Mediterranean, while trying to meet Joseph Stalin's demands for a second front. The operation was preceded by secret negotiations with Vichy representatives in a bid to minimize French and Allied bloodshed. Given French hostility to Britain, due to the Royal Navy's attack on the French fleet in 1940, the first wave was mainly American. U.S. Lieutenant General Dwight Eisenhower was in command. The 33,000 U.S. troops that landed on the Moroccan coast came directly from the United States. The rest of the British and U.S. force were brought from Britain.

Although some Vichy French forces surrendered, others resisted fiercely. At Casablanca, several French warships were sunk, and the town surrendered only an hour before the final assault began. In Algiers and Oran, operations to seize the harbor facilities were repulsed with heavy loss of life, but in Algiers resistance evaporated soon afterward and the town surrendered. Capturing the port of Oran took two days and a heavy naval bombardment. On November 10 Marshal Philippe Pétain's deputy, Admiral François Darlan, coincidentally in Algiers, concluded an armistice with the Allies, ending French resistance in North Africa and confirming the Allies' victory but provoking the Germans into occupying the rest of metropolitan France. Allied losses totaled 500 dead and 700 wounded, and Vichy French losses numbered 1,500 dead and 2,000 wounded.

Nick Hewitt

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Operation Torch, first major Allied amphibious assault during World War II. It involved about 65,000 troops who landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran on the French North African coast. Operation Torch was the first time U.S. troops saw action against Nazi Germany, trapping Erwin Rommel's army in a pincer as it fled from El-Alamein.

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Operation Torch, first major Allied amphibious assault during World War II. It involved about 65,000 troops who landed at Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran on the French North African coast. Operation Torch was the first time U.S. troops saw action against Nazi Germany, trapping Erwin Rommel’s army in a pincer as it fled from El-Alamein.

Although U.S. planners had favored a direct assault on Europe, the British argued that this was too risky given the limited forces available. Operation Torch offered the opportunity to end the desert war and open the Mediterranean, while trying to meet Joseph Stalin’s demands for a second front. The operation was preceded by secret negotiations with Vichy representatives in a bid to minimize French and Allied bloodshed. Given French hostility to Britain, due to the Royal Navy’s attack on the French fleet in 1940, the first wave was mainly American. U.S. Lieutenant General Dwight Eisenhower was in command. The 33,000 U.S. troops that landed on the Moroccan coast came directly from the United States. The rest of the British and U.S. force were brought from Britain.

Although some Vichy French forces surrendered, others resisted fiercely. At Casablanca, several French warships were sunk, and the town surrendered only an hour before the final assault began. In Algiers and Oran, operations to seize the harbor facilities were repulsed with heavy loss of life, but in Algiers resistance evaporated soon afterward and the town surrendered. Capturing the port of Oran took two days and a heavy naval bombardment. On November 10 Marshal Philippe Pétain’s deputy, Admiral François Darlan, coincidentally in Algiers, concluded an armistice with the Allies, ending French resistance in North Africa and confirming the Allies’ victory but provoking the Germans into occupying the rest of metropolitan France. Allied losses totaled 500 dead and 700 wounded, and Vichy French losses numbered 1,500 dead and 2,000 wounded.

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Operation Torch (8 November 1942 - 16 November 1942) was an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on a limited scale.

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Operation torch opened up a second front which diverted the resources of the axis powers to the second front, stretching the resources of the axis powers even more. Moreover, the allies defeated the axis forces in this operation and this proved that the joint operation by British and American was successful and paved the way for more joint operations in the future. The defeat of the axis powers also gave the allies a huge boost in confidence and morale. Furthermore, this allowed the allies to gain control of the Mediterranean sea which was a strategic point as they would have more sea routes to transport supplies.