Short Story re Combined Ops - North Africa

Operation TORCH, November 8th, 1942

Map reveals locations where many Canadians were involved

Photo Credit - As found in Combined Operations, Page 66

The following excerpt is found in Combined Operations, pages 67 - 69, by Londoner Clayton Marks:

NORTH AFRICA 

All information regarding Operation Torch was a very guarded secret, so secret that only a handful of men in the highest planning circles knew it's details. Along with a sketchy outline of the plan, some of the requirements and conditions were made known. Assault convoys and reinforcement convoys moving from the United States and the United Kingdom to the Mediterranean were expected to come under heavy attack by submarine and from the air. The escort forces much larger than usual, would be required; and it was hoped that Canada could furnish some of her Corvettes to assist.

The first objectives of the great Armada which got underway during the late days of October were the ports of Algiers, Oran and Casablanca. The Germans were well aware of the preparations for Torch, and were completely misled as to the objectives. Apparently convinced that Dakar was to be the point of landing, they had disposed their large submarine forces well to the south of the actual routes taken by the convoys; and the long processions of Allied ships passed to their destinations almost unmolested.

The French Navy was known to be much bitter against the Allies, and especially the British, than the other services; the destruction of their fleet at Mers el Kebir, the Naval base a few miles west of Oran, in 1940 was not easy to forgive. It was almost certain the port installations at the last moment would be sabotaged. To anticipate this a couple of ships - former American Sloops, now under the White Ensign and manned by the Royal Navy - carrying American troops were sent into each of the harbours of Oran and Algiers in the early hours of the morning. Both attempts failed with heavy losses. At Oran, first the Walney, which charged the Boom at 15 knots, and then the Hartland, which followed her, were fired on, burst into flames and later blew up; in the former out of 17 Officers and Ratings on the bridge, only Captain Peters survived, and the landing party waiting to go ashore, only five. The crew of the Hartland were more fortunate, and although they suffered heavy losses, were able to abandon ship before the end. Peters was awarded the V.C. and was killed in an air crash on the way home.

At Algiers the two ships were the destroyers Broke and Malcolm. The Malcolm was hit in the boiler rooms off the entrance and had to withdraw; the Broke got in at 0530 at her fourth attempt, and managed to berth safely, though under fire. For the next few hours, apart from some small arms fire all was calm, and some French Officials came on board and suggested that the American Officer take over the town, but at 0915 she was heavily fired on by a howitzer, and had no option but to pull out. She got clear and was hit repeatedly as she moved across the harbour. She was taken in tow by the "H.M.S. Zetland", and sank the following day on the way to Gibraltar. Despite these two operations, no sabotage was carried out by the French. The French General Juin, who was representing Admiral Darlan said that all resistance would cease at 1900, November 8th.

At Oran resistance was more prolonged, and the town had to be fought for before surrendering at noon on the 10th. The way was now clear for a clear thrust into Tunisia.

At Oran landings were made on three beaches covering a front of fifty miles - two to the west of Oran and one to the east at Arzeu (Arzew). At each of the three landings at Oran something went wrong. The westerly force encountered a small French convoy a few miles short of the beach, in a fashion somewhat similar to Dieppe. This caused delay to the minesweepers who were leading the way in, so that they were overtaken by the Personnel ships. Captain Allen (S.N.O.L.) decided to take a chance and go ahead without them, but there was some confusion, which was added to by a westerly current, and the non-appearance of a Motor Launch which was supposed to pilot the Landing Craft to their allotted beach. As a result, the second wave got ashore before the first, but there was no opposition and it did not matter. The Bachequero, superbly handled, beached on a tiny strip of sand between two rocky headlands, and proceeded to pour a stream of tanks and other vehicles to the African shore. By the 11th, 430 tanks and other vehicles and nearly 1200 tons of stores had been landed at X beach.

At Oran's Y beach, Les Andalouses, there was a false beach of sand running the whole length of the sector, five or six yards off shore, with five feet of water inside it. Air photos had not revealed it and it came as a complete surprise. Many Landing Craft damaged their rudders and propellers as they bumped over it and many broached to. Captain Lees (S.N.O.L.) in "Glengyle" was thankful that he also had no opposition.

Jeep headed inland over steel matting near Les Andalouses

Photo credit - Oran and the Provisional Ordnance Group, Ch. 7

At Arzew, Z beach had been selected for the biggest of the three landings - here the S.N.O.L. was Captain Q. D. Graham. The assault craft lost cohesion, and instead of touching down simultaneously they arrived piecemeal over a period of more than twenty minutes.

American troops climb into assault landing craft (incl. LCA 428

and LCA 447) from the liner REINA DEL PACIFICO during

Operation 'Torch', the Allied landings in North Africa. 

Photo - Imperial War Museum (IWM), London UK

US troops and ammunition for light guns being brought ashore from

LCA 428 (ramped, manned by Canadians in Combined Ops, incl.

D. Harrison, centre) on Arzew beach, North Africa. Photo - IWM 

American troops making their way inland after landing at Arzeu. Several small

landing craft can be seen in the foreground whilst in the distance can be seen

some of the troopships that helped transport the men. Photo - IWM

The American Commander insisted on sending so much gear ashore with his men that the landings from the LCM Flotilla were delayed by nearly two hours and the whole program fell more and more behind the clock. The troops went ashore greatly overloaded, and here again, any opposition would have been disastrous.

At Casablanca, the sea was rising, the wind in the most dreaded quarter and the forecast for surf 15 feet high. The Meteorological Officer prophesied that conditions would improve. He was rewarded, in that the wind at once began to veer and the weather to moderate; but even so, the two more northerly landings suffered considerably from surf and swell, which on several beaches was six feet. At Fedala, a number of troops, heavily burdened with their equipment, were rolled over and drowned in the undertow, and on one beach 18 Landing Craft were lost out of 25. At another beach it proved too soft so that only tracked vehicles could get off of them; and they were soon chock-a-block with stores, with stranded lorries and light tanks and with Landing Craft, which were unable to draw off the beach against the surf and were left there by the ebbing tide. There was three days of hard fighting, but all resistance ceased on the 11th of November.

The six Flotillas of Canadian Landing Craft included in the forces which made the landings at Oran and Arzew had an easier time than expected; and their heaviest casualties occurred after all resistance was over, when the ships returning to England were torpedoed. The H.M.S. Ettrick lost 18 Canadians and many Royal Navy personnel, and the sinking of the S.S. Clan MacTaggart, with the loss of one Canadian seaman, and two Lascar seamen.

S.S. Clan MacTaggart. Photo Credit - Clyde built database

The Canadian Landing Craft ferried in American and British troops almost without incident, although they were occasionally under sporadic fire from French ships and shore batteries. After the nervous initial stage was over, the men were inclined to make a picnic of the work. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the landings it was reported that it had actually been difficult to get the men out of their craft to be relieved. The assault landings were followed by a week during which reinforcements and supplies had to be ferried ashore. Some of the beaches were blessed with good weather; and the men worked stripped to the buff, resulting in a thick Mediterranean tan.

Naval ratings off duty enjoying a bathe on the North African coast at

Oran or Mers-El-Kebir. Photo by Royal Navy photographer, IWM

A host of minor complications ran down through all the graduations of rank. Canadian Ratings, often less sea-wise than their British counterparts, were better paid. Their mechanical aptitude, on the other hand, was often higher, and they were not reluctant to admit it. They were explosively volatile ashore; and there was a free-and-easy character about their discipline which at first sight caused the raising of some "pussers' eyebrows." The cousinly difficulties were long in unraveling, however, an increasing familiarity and improving teamwork wove the groups together. Within a month or so, as the convoys ploughed back and forth, air attacks, submarine attacks and every variety of emergency had proved the essential quality, and among both the veterans and the newcomers and a gusty harmony reigned.

Link to Short Story re Combined Ops - DIEPPE