The Battle of North Africa

^{THE STAGE:} OPERATION TORCH

After suffering catastrophic losses in 1941–42, the Soviet Union pressured the Allies to open a new front against Nazi Germany. The Allies weren’t ready to invade Germany via France, so they planned to attack Axis forces in North Africa.

Operation Torch called for 100,000 troops landing in French Morocco and Algeria to liberate more than a million square miles of territory. This done, the British would push east to Tunis to trap the Afrika Corps between the invaders and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army, which was advancing through Libya. By securing North Africa, the Allies hoped to secure Mediterranean shipping lanes and expose southern Europe to invasion.

French loyalties remained an open question. After Germany overran France in 1940, its armies occupied the northern part of the country, while the French government moved from Paris to Vichy and adopted its own form of fascism. The sixty thousand French troops in North Africa were loyal to Vichy, but it was hoped they would join the Allies in their fight to liberate France.

On the night of November 7, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcast a message calling on the French to free themselves from the Axis yoke. The U.S. Navy shot salvos of fireworks over Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran that burst in the sky to reveal the Star-Spangled Banner. The message was clear: America is coming. Don’t resist. Join us in the fight against Nazi Germany.

The next morning, the landings began.