The French Problem and Operation “Torch”
8 NOVEMBER 1942
THE FRENCH PROBLEM AND OPERATION “TORCH”
After the fall of France to the wehrmacht in June of 1940, der Fuhrer was content to allow France to be divided. A German puppet government centered in the city of Vichy controlled the economically important and populated areas of France. This left as unoccupied, certain “free” areas of France, including Toulon, where French Navy was based (Hitler had little interest in naval forces). As well, France’s extensive worldwide colonies in Indochina, northern and western Africa, Madagascar, the Caribbean, and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland, remained free. This concerned US military planners, for if Hitler did gain access to far-flung French colonies, or if the impressive French naval fleet was to fall into German hands, our national security could be compromised. American policy makers therefore elected to maintain relations with the Fascist Vichy government in the hopes they could be convinced to deny Hitler these key resources.
French possessions in North Africa were particularly worrisome. If U-boat bases were built in French North Africa (Algeria and Morocco), Germany might cut US trade with South America and the Mediterranean. Suspicions that the Nazi’s were planning an assault on North Africa through Sicily were confirmed when Erwin Rommel landed in Tunisia and pushed the British nearly to Egypt by the Spring of 1942. The US planned to support British resistance with an invasion of North Africa through free French territory. Then in April 1942, Pierre Laval, a known Nazi collaborator, was appointed to the second highest position in the Vichy government. Convinced Vichy might soon extend Nazi control to French North Africa, President Franklin Roosevelt acted.
One question that vexed the coming American invasion was how the French would react. Many free French leaders were still loyal to Vichy President Marshal Philippe Pétain. In fact, on May 5th, Pétain called on free French forces in Madagascar to resist a British landing there, for “…the honor of France.” The last thing Roosevelt wanted was for our troops landing in Operation “Torch” to be fighting those with whom we shared a common enemy! Political intrigues were employed to bring control of the French forces in Africa under generals and admirals sympathetic to the American cause. Then on this day Operation “Torch,” a three-pronged Anglo-American assault, struck Casablanca in French Morocco, and Algiers and Oran in French Algeria.
At Casablanca, our fears proved valid as French naval forces counterattacked. The unfinished battleship JEAN BART opened fire from her berth in the harbor. The French fleet sortied, but shellfire from vastly superior American warships and bombing from F-4 Wildcats sank the destroyers BOULONNAIS, BRESTOIS, FOUGEUX, and FRONDEUR, and eight submarines. The cruiser PRIMAQUET was disabled and run aground. The action claimed 490 French sailors.
Continued tomorrow…
Breuer, William B. Operation Torch: The Allied Gamble to Invade North Africa. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.
Goralski, Robert. World War II Almanac, 1931-1945: A Political and Military Record. New York, NY: Bonanza Books, 1981, p. 215.
Langer, William L. Our Vichy Gamble. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol II Operations in North African Waters. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1950, pp. 88-114.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 155-56.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Only three American sailors aboard USS MURPHY (DD-603) died and 25 more were wounded in this one-sided naval battle of Casablanca. In addition to their 490 killed, the French suffered 969 wounded.
