Editing Operation Torch (section)

===Center task force===
[[File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War- Operation Torch, North Africa, November 1942 A12667.jpg|thumb|American troops landing in Arzew, with troopships in the background]]
The Center Task Force was split between three beaches, two west of Oran and one east. Landings at the westernmost beach were delayed because of a French convoy which appeared while the minesweepers were clearing a path. Some delay and confusion, and damage to landing ships, was caused by the unexpected shallowness of water and sandbars. On all beaches the landings met no resistance.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=81-90}} An airborne assault by the 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which flew all the way from England, over Spain, to Oran, to capture the airfields at [[Tafraoui]] and [[Es Sénia|La Sénia]] failed.{{sfn|Playfair|Molony|Flynn|Gleave|2004|pp=146–47, map 19}}{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=81-90}} Aircraft from three British carriers attacked these airfields in the morning and destroyed seventy airplanes which were armed and ready to take off to attack. In the afternoon the Tafraoui airfield was captured by the quickly advancing troops from the beachheads, and immediately Spitfires were flown in from Gibraltar. The [[1st Ranger Battalion (United States)|U.S. 1st Ranger Battalion]] landed east of Oran and quickly captured the shore battery at [[Arzew]].{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=81-90}}

At the same time of the landings, in the early morning of 8 November, an [[Operation Reservist|attempt]] was made to land U.S. infantry by the sloops {{HMS|Walney|Y04|6}} and {{HMS|Hartland}} at the harbor of Oran, in order to prevent destruction of the port facilities and scuttling of ships. But both sloops were sunk by Vichy-French destroyers in the harbour and the operation failed.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=81-90}} The Vichy French naval fleet consisting of one flotilla leader, three destroyers, one minesweeper, six submarines and some smaller vessels, broke out from the harbor and attacked the Allied invasion fleet. Over the next two days all these ships were either sunk or driven ashore, only one submarine escaped to Toulon, after an unsuccessful attack on the cruiser {{HMS|Jamaica|44|6}}.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|pp=209-210}} French batteries and the invasion fleet exchanged fire throughout 8–9 November, with French troops defending Oran and the surrounding area stubbornly; bombardment by the British battleship {{HMS|Rodney|29|6}} brought about Oran's surrender on 10 November.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=81-90}}