Editing Operation Torch (section)

== Battle ==
===Eastern task force===
{{For|other battles in the same place|Battle of Algiers (disambiguation){{!}}Battle of Algiers}}

In the early hours of 8 November, [[French Resistance]] fighters staged a coup in the city of Algiers. They seized control of the city, but when no American troops appeared in the morning, they quickly lost control to Vichy French forces. Meanwhile, the American consul Robert Murphy attempted to persuade General [[Alphonse Juin]], the senior French Army officer in North Africa, to side with the Allies and place himself under the command of General Giraud. Murphy was treated to a surprise: Admiral [[François Darlan]], the commander of all French forces, was also in Algiers on a private visit, and Juin insisted on contacting Darlan at once. Murphy was unable to persuade them to side with the Allies right away, and Darlan contacted Pétain, who instructed him to resist.{{Sfn|MacCloskey|1971|pp=105-106}}

The invasion commenced with landings on three beaches, two west of Algiers and one east. The landing forces were under the overall command of Major-General Charles W. Ryder, commanding general of the U.S. 34th Infantry Division. The [[11th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters South East|11th Brigade Group]] from the British 78th Infantry Division landed on the right-hand beach; the US [[168th Infantry Regiment (United States)|168th Regimental Combat Team]], from the 34th Infantry Division, supported by 6 Commando and most of 1 Commando, landed on the middle beach; and the US [[39th Infantry Regiment (United States)|39th Regimental Combat Team]], from the US 9th Infantry Division, supported by the remaining 5 troops from 1 Commando, landed on the left-hand beach. The [[36th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|36th Brigade Group]] from the British 78th Infantry Division stood by in floating reserve.{{sfn|Playfair|Molony|Flynn|Gleave|2004|pp=126, 140–41, map 18}} Though some landings went to the wrong beaches, this was immaterial because of the lack of French opposition. Only at [[Bordj El Bahri|Cape Matifou]] a coastal battery opened fire, and in the forenoon some resistance was offered at the fortresses of Cape Matifou, Duperre and L'Empereur. At 06:00 the airfield at [[Houari Boumediene Airport|Maison Blanche]] was captured and at 10:00 [[Hawker Hurricane]] and [[Supermarine Spitfire]] aircraft from [[Gibraltar]] started to flow in at the airfield. A second airfield at [[Blida Airport|Blida]] surrendered the same day to a British plane landing on the airfield.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=63-80}}[[File:Near Algiers, "Torch" troops hit the beaches behind a large American flag "Left" hoping for the French Army not fire... - NARA - 195516.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|American soldiers land near [[Algiers]]. The soldier at the dune line is carrying a flag because it was hoped the French would be less likely to fire on Americans.]]The only fierce fighting took place in the port of Algiers, where in [[Operation Terminal]], the British destroyers {{HMS|Malcolm|D19|6}} and {{HMS|Broke|D83|6}} attempted to land a party of US [[United States Army Rangers|Army Rangers]] directly onto the dock, to prevent the French destroying the port facilities and scuttling their ships. Heavy artillery fire hit ''Malcolm'' and forced her to abandon the operation, but ''Broke'' was able to disembark {{nowrap|250 Rangers}} which secured the power station and oil installations. At 9:15 however she too had to recall the Rangers and abandon the operation due to the heavy artillery fire. As a result of the damage received, ''Broke'' foundered the next day in bad weather.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|pp=209-210}}{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=63-80}}

By 16:00 the US troops had surrounded Algiers and held the coastal batteries defending the harbour. At 18:40 Juin made an agreement with Ryder to stop the fighting. The next day on 9 November a local cease-fire was negotiated and Darlan authorized the Eastern Task Force to use the harbor of Algiers, but in Oran and Morocco the fighting continued. Giraud arrived the same day in Algiers and at noon on 10 November after negotiations with General Clark, Darlan ordered all hostilities to end and to observe neutrality. On secret orders from Pétain, on 11 November he ordered the forces in Tunisia to resist a German invasion.{{Sfn|MacCloskey|1971|pp=106-107}}

=== Western task force ===
The Western Task Force landed before daybreak on 8 November 1942, at three points in Morocco: In the South at [[Safi, Morocco|Safi]] ([[Operation Blackstone]]), in the North at Mehdiya-[[Kenitra|Port Lyautey]] ([[Battle of Port Lyautey|Operation Goalpost]]) and the main thrust was at the centre in [[Mohammedia|Fedala]], close to Casablanca, ([[Operation Brushwood]]).{{Sfn|Pack|1978|p=43}} Just like in Algiers, there was a failed attempt to neutralize Vichy French command in the morning of 8 November: General [[Antoine Béthouart|Béthouart]] was unable to convince Admiral [[Frix Michelier|Michelier]] nor General [[Charles Noguès|Noguès]] to side with the Allies. Instead they ordered the Army and Navy to oppose the invasion.{{Sfn|Breuer|1985|pp=110-113}} 

[[File:Seatrain Lakehurst after discharging tanks at Safi North Africa.png|thumb|[[USS Lakehurst (APV-3/APM-9)#Ship usage in World War II and Vietnam|USS ''Lakehurst'']] (formerly ''Seatrain New Jersey''), after discharging medium tanks at [[Safi, Morocco]]]]
At Safi the objective was to capture the port facilities intact and to land the Western Task Force's medium [[M4 Sherman|Sherman]] tanks, which would be used to reinforce the assault on Casablanca.{{sfn|Howe|1993|pp=97, 102}} Two old destroyers, {{USS|Cole|DD-155|6}} and {{USS|Bernadou}}, were to land an assault party in the harbor, whilst troops landed on the beaches would quickly move to the town. The landings were begun without covering fire, in the hope that the French would not resist at all. However, once French coastal batteries opened fire, Allied warships returned fire. Most of the landings occurred behind schedule, but met no opposition on the beaches. Under cover from fire of the battleship {{USS|New York|BB-34|6}} and cruiser {{USS|Philadelphia|CL-41|6}}, ''Cole'' and ''Bernadou'' landed their troops and the harbor was captured intact. Safi surrendered on the afternoon of 8 November. By 10 November, the landed troops moved northwards to join the siege of Casablanca.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=91-92}}

At Port-Lyautey, the objective was to secure the port and the airfield, so that aircraft could be flown in from Gibraltar and from aircraft carriers. The landings were delayed because of navigational problems and the slow disembarkation of the troops in their landing ships. The first three waves of troops were landed unopposed on five beaches. The cruiser {{USS|Savannah|CL-42|6}} bombarded coastal batteries at [[Kasbah Mahdiyya]]. The next waves came under fire from coastal batteries and Vichy-French aircraft. A first attempt by the old destroyer {{USS|Dallas|DD-199|6}} to bring a raiding party inshore on the [[Sebou River]] to the airfield, failed on 8 November.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=92-95}} Vichy French reinforcements coming from Rabat were bombarded by the battleship {{USS|Texas|BB-35|6}} and the cruiser ''Savannah''. A second attempt on 10 November to take the airfield was successful and over the next two days, the escort carrier {{USS|Chenango|CVE-28|6}} sent 77 [[Curtiss P-40 Warhawk]] to the airfield.{{Sfn|MacCloskey|1971|p=130}} With the support of aircraft from the escort carrier {{USS|Sangamon|CVE-26|6}}, the Kasbah battery was taken and ships could come closer to shore to unload supplies. On 11 November The cease-fire ordered by Darlan halted all hostilities.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=92-95}}

[[File:Operation Torch - message from the president of United States to the citizens of Casablanca.jpg|thumb|A flyer in French and Arabic that was distributed by Allied forces in the streets of [[Casablanca]], calling on citizens to cooperate with the Allied forces]]At Fedala, a small port with a large beach {{convert|15|mi}} from Casablanca, weather was good but landings were delayed because troopships were not disembarking troops on schedule. The first wave reached shore unopposed at 05:00. Many landing craft were wrecked in the heavy surf or on rocks. At dawn the Vichy French shore batteries opened fire. By 07:30 fire from the cruisers {{USS|Augusta|CA-31|6}} and {{USS|Brooklyn|CL-40|6}} with their supporting destroyers, had silenced the shore batteries. At 08:00 when Vichy-French aircraft appeared and attacked, one battery reopened fire. Two Vichy-French destroyers arrived from Casablanca at 08:25 and attacked the American destroyers. By 09:05 the Vichy French destroyers had been driven away, but all available Vichy French ships sortied from Casablanca and at 10:00 renewed the attack on the American ships at Fedala. By 11:00 the battle was over, the two American cruisers had either sunk or driven ashore the light cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Primauguet|1924|2}}, two flotilla leaders and four destroyers. Only one destroyer escaped back to Casablanca. Fedala surrendered at 14:30 and transport ships could move closer to shore to speed up the unloading.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=95-98}} Meanwhile the American Covering force with the battleship {{USS|Massachusetts|BB-59|6}} had appeared before Casablanca and when coastal batteries opened fire at 07:00, the American ships responded at once and damaged the Vichy-French battleship ''Jean Bart'' with five hits, putting its one operational turret out of action.{{Sfn|MacCloskey|1971|p=122}} Of the eleven submarines in port, three were destroyed but the other eight took up attack positions. These submarines attacked ''Massachusetts'', the aircraft carrier {{USS|Ranger|CV-4|6}} and the cruisers ''Brooklyn'' and {{USS|Tuscaloosa|CA-37|6}}, but all their torpedoes missed and six submarines were sunk.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|p=210}}

On 9 November the small port of Fedala was in use and troops advanced on Casablanca. Despite having lost 55 aircraft the previous day, attacks by Vichy-French aircraft continued all day.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=95-98}} On 10 November, ''Jean Bart'' was repaired, but when she opened fire, she was attacked by dive-bombers from the aircraft carrier ''Ranger'' and heavily damaged by two bomb hits.{{Sfn|Morison|1947|pp=162-163}} The Americans surrounded the port of Casablanca by 10 November but waited for the arrival of the tanks from Safi to start an all-out attack planned for 11 November at 07:15. Orders from Darlan, broadcast on 10 November, to cease resistance were ignored until 11 November 06:00, the city surrendered an hour before the final assault was due to take place.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=95-98}}

===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}}

=== Axis reaction ===
In the central and eastern Atlantic, U-boats had been drawn away to attack trade [[convoy SL 125]],{{sfn|Edwards|1999|p=115}} and troop convoys between the UK and North Africa went largely unnoticed. A [[Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor]] detected on 31 October a task force of aircraft carriers and cruisers, and on 2 November a returning [[U-boat]] reported a troop ship convoy.{{Sfn|Blair|1998|pp=88-89}}

On 4 November the Germans became aware of an impending big operation, they anticipated another convoy run to Malta or an amphibious landing in Libya or at [[Béjaïa|Bougie Bay]]. Seven U-boats of the Atlantic force were ordered to break through the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and go to the North African coast. Nine Mediterranean U-boats were also deployed to the same region.{{Sfn|Blair|1998|pp=89-97}} A total of nineteen U-boats were stationed between the [[Balearic Islands]] and Algiers, whilst the Italian Navy deployed twenty-one submarines East of Algiers.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|pp=208-209}} On 7 November five German submarines made contact with the British invasion forces but all their attacks missed their target. On 8 November most of these U-boats were operating near Bougie and missed the landings at Algiers.{{Sfn|Blair|1998|pp=89-97}} When receiving news of the landings, [[Karl Dönitz|Dönitz]] ordered twenty-five of the Atlantic U-boats to move towards the Morocco area and Gibraltar, leaving only ten U-boats in the North Atlantic and bringing the U-boat [[Battle of the Atlantic|main offensive]] against the convoy lanes to the United Kingdom to a virtual standstill.{{Sfn|Blair|1998|p=107}} The first wave of nine U-boats to arrive off Morocco ran into a well-prepared defense and achieved little. Only {{GS|U-130|1941|2}} sank three large transport on the anchorage of Fedala, forcing the port to close and ships to divert to Casablanca.{{Sfn|Blair|1998|p=110}} The second wave of fourteen U-boats was sent to the area West of Gibraltar, trying to block all traffic in and out the Straits. They sank the escort carrier {{HMS|Avenger|D14|6}} and the destroyer tender {{HMS|Hecla|1940|6}} with heavy loss of life. In both theaters of operation, the Mediterranean and Atlantic, the Germans lost eight U-boats,{{Sfn|Blair|1998|pp=111-115}} and the Italians two.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|p=209}}
[[File:North Africa Operations. 12 November 1942, Bougie, North Africa. A13019.jpg|thumb|The Karanja and Cathay on fire off Bougie after Axis air attacks]]
Between 8 and 14 November German bomber and torpedo aircraft attacked ships along the North African coast. They sank two troop transports, one landing ship, two transport ships and the sloop {{HMS|Ibis|U99|2}}. The aircraft carrier {{HMS|Argus|I49|2}} and the monitor {{HMS|Roberts|F40|2}} were damaged by bombs.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|p=210}}

=== Assault on Bougie ===
There were limited land communications to move quickly from Algiers eastwards to Tunisia. The Allies had planned additional landings at Bougie and Bone in order to speed up that advance, but there were not enough resources available to execute these landings together with the main landings at Oran and Algiers. On 10 November the British 36th Infantry Brigade was boarded on three troop transports which landed unopposed, under the cover of a bombardment force in the harbor of Bougie on 11 November. A further troop transport was to land commando's, RAF personnel and petrol at [[Jijel|Djidelli]], with the goal to capture the airfield there and provide air cover over Bougie. Due to the heavy surf, this landing was delayed and finally diverted to Bougie and as a consequence air cover was only available from 13 November onward. The Axis air force based in Sardinia and Sicily exploited the lack of air cover between 11 and 13 November to execute heavy attacks on the harbour of Bougie.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=99-104}} They sank the empty troop transports {{SS|Cathay|1924|2}}, {{HMT|Awatea||2}} and the landing ship ''Karanja''.{{Sfn|Rohwer|2005|p=210}}