Campaign 312 - Operation Torch 1942. The Invasion of French North Africa (2017).pdf

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OPERATION
TORCH
1942
The invasion of French North Africa
BRIAN LANE HERDER
ILLUSTRATED BY DARREN TAN
CAMPAIGN 312
OPERATION TORCH
1942
The invasion of French North Africa
BRIAN LANE HERDER
ILLUSTRATED BY DARREN TAN
Series editor Marcus Cowper
CONTENTS
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
VICHY FRANCE 1940–41
n
ANGLO-AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY 1941–42
OPERATION
TORCH
TAKES SHAPE, JULY 25–NOVEMBER 7, 1942
5
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
ALLIED
n
FRENCH
n
AXIS
12
13
OPPOSING FORCES
ALLIED
n
FRENCH
n
AXIS
n
ORDERS OF BATTLE, NOVEMBER 8, 1942
17
OPPOSING PLANS
ALLIED
n
FRENCH
n
AXIS
26
THE CAMPAIGN
FRENCH NORTH AFRICA, D-1
n
EASTERN TASK FORCE
n
CENTER TASK FORCE
n
WESTERN TASK FORCE
POST-INVASION BEDLAM
n
THE RACE FOR TUNIS
n
THE END OF
TORCH
30
AFTERMATH
THE BATTLEFIELDS TODAY
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
88
91
91
93
95
Germany
German satellites and occupied areas
Italy
Ge
7
Dollman
OCCUPIED
FRANCE
XXXX
GERMANY
SWITZERLAND
HUNGARY
Italian colonies
France
French colonies
10
11
Spain
Spanish colonies
British colonies
XXXX
VICHY
FRANCE
ITALY
12
Corsica
XXXX
Ge
1
Blaskowitz
9
20
Marseille
Toulon
YUGOSLAVIA
ANDORRA
Ge
5
von Arnim
ALBANIA
GREECE
PORTUGAL
Sardinia
XXX
SPAIN
XXX
Br
Eastern
XXX
XXX
Ge
It
II
Sicilia
Loerzer
Scaroni
XXX
XXX
Welsh
XXX
12
Doolittle
XXX
Operation
Torch,
October 21–December 25, 1942.
Eastern
Anderson
13
15
16
Tabarka
Bizerte
It
Ge
XXX
XC
Sogno
Nehring
8
XXXX
XX
AFHQ
Fredendall
Center
Sicily
12
Air Support
Cannon
Eisenhower
XXX
Gibraltar (UK)
XXXX
Cherchell
Algiers
3
Bougie
1
14
Bône
21
Tunis
Djidjelli Souk el Arba
XX
18
Fr
Tunis
Western
Patton
Fr
XIX
Koeltz
XXX
XXX
TANGIER
SPANISH
MOROCCO
4
Juin
Oran
Fr
Afrique
7
Fr
1
Mendigal
17
Tebessa
Barré
MALTA
19
Gafsa
Port Lyautey
Fr
Maroc
Noguès
Casablanca
5
XXX
TUNISIA
XXXX
Safi
6
ALGERIA
Axis movements
Allied air movements
Allied sea/land movements
Ge/
It
Rommel
2
22
El Alamein
FRENCH
MOROCCO
0
0
250 miles
250km
LIBYA
Br
Eighth
Montgomery
XXXX
ORIGINS OF THE
CAMPAIGN
VICHY FRANCE 1940–41
On June 22, 1940, Nazi Germany formalized its rapid victory over France
with the Armistice of Compiègne. The Wehrmacht was to militarily occupy
three-fifths of the country, including Paris and the Channel and Atlantic
coasts. The French government would maintain civil administration of the
nation, though subject to German direction in the occupied zone. The French
army in metropolitan France, to be known as the Armée de l’Armistice,
was confined to the unoccupied
zone libre
in southeast France, stripped of
heavy weapons, and restricted to a strength of 94,200. The Gendarmerie was
limited to 60,000, plus a 10,000-strong antiaircraft corps.
Germany abstained from confiscating the French fleet or colonies.
France would keep both under conditions of strict neutrality, monitored
and enforced by the Axis. France was allowed to keep 150,000 men under
arms to defend its overseas empire against foreign incursion: 55,000 in
Morocco, 50,000 in Algeria, and 40,000 in the Armée du Levant (Lebanon
and Syria). The Compiègne terms were not as severe as the Allies’ later
“unconditional surrender” imposed on Germany and Japan. The Nazis were
motivated to quickly and cleanly conclude hostilities in the West to prepare
for Hitler’s showdown with the Soviet Union. More crushing terms may
have driven the French to continue fighting at home and overseas. As it was,
the Armistice of Compiègne offered the French an illusion of maintaining
national sovereignty.
Germany’s refusal to claim the powerful French surface fleet was partially
intended to mollify the British but this gesture failed. British national security
depended on control of the sea and French promises to never surrender the
Marine Nationale to Germany were insufficient. On July 3, 1940 Churchill
regretfully ordered the Royal Navy’s Force H to destroy a major part of the
French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. The French government was outraged at
the apparent treachery and severed relations with Britain.
The following week, on July 10, France’s National Assembly convened
at the unoccupied spa town of Vichy to ratify the Compiègne armistice.
Additionally the National Assembly voted by 569 to 80 to amend the French
constitution and effectively confer dictatorial powers to new premier Phillippe
Pétain. The following day, Pétain dissolved the Third Republic (République
française),
and replaced it with a new far-right national government, the
French State (Étât
français).
1. Cherchell Conference,
October 21–22, 1942.
2. Second battle of El Alamein
(in Egypt), October
23–November 11, 1942.
3. Landings at Algiers,
November 8, 1942.
4. Landings at Oran,
November 8–10, 1942.
5. Landings at
Fedala/Casablanca,
November 8–11, 1942.
6. Landings at Safi,
November 8–10, 1942.
7. Landings at Port Lyautey,
November 8–10, 1942.
8. Axis begin landing at
Tunisia, November 9, 1942.
9.
Case Anton
(German 1.
Armee), November 11, 1942.
10.
Case Anton
(German
7.Armee), November 11, 1942.
11.
Case Anton
(Italian
occupation of southeast
France), November 11, 1942.
12.
Case Anton
(Italian
occupation of Corsica),
November 11, 1942.
13. British First Army’s 36th
Brigade Group lands at Bougie,
November 11, 1942.
14. British 36th Brigade
Group lands at Djidjelli,
November 12, 1942.
15. British 3rd Battalion,
Parachute Regiment and No.
6 Commando occupy Bône,
November 12, 1942.
16. Advance elements of 36th
Brigade Group occupy Tabarka,
November 15, 1942.
17. US 2nd/509th Parachute
Infantry Regiment occupies
Youks-les-Bains Airfield and
Tébessa, November 15, 1942.
18. British 1st Battalion,
Parachute Regiment
drops on Souk el Arba,
November 16, 1942.
19. US 2nd/509th Parachute
Infantry Regiment occupies
Gafsa, November 22, 1942.
20. Operation
Lila,
scuttling
of the French fleet at Toulon,
November 27, 1942.
21. Main Tunisian
campaign, November
25–December 25, 1942.
22. Western Desert
front movements,
December 25, 1942.
5

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