8 a.m. to Noon

Promptly at 8 a.m., Radio Vichy news announces its version of events, saying that Admiral Darlan and General Juin, on the scene in Algiers, are commanding the defense. "Oran and Algiers have been heavily bombarded, with attempted landings in their harbors, but all landings have been repulsed."

At Oran, the American build-up is moving out fast. M3 Stuart tanks of the 13th Armored regiment clatter out of landing craft and rumble down the main road to the junction at St. Barbe-du-Tlelat, to cut Oran off from reinforcements. The village is four miles from Tafaroui Airfield.

Meanwhile, a flying column of 1st Battalion/1st Armored Regiment and 6th Armored infantry rumbles behind them. The Americans reach the village and set up defenses on its five road outlets. The tanks drive on to Tafaroui Airfield, reaching it at 11:15, expecting to find American paratroopers present. Instead the Americans find French defenders. The American tanks waste no time and attack the airfield. The lightly-armed French airmen surrender quickly, and the Americans have the airfield and 300 PoWs in the bag by noon. American radiomen signal the St. Leu beachhead that the airfield is secure, start sending in fighters. The 31st and 52nd Fighter Group, both flying Mark V Spitfires (under reverse Lend-Lease), start taking off from Gibraltar, wings heavy with fuel tanks. They are followed by the HQ of the 12th US Fighter Command, and the HQ of the 31st Fighter Group.

All morning, the Americans advance. Armored units move from Beach Z towards Misserrhin and the La Senia Airport. The 26th Infantry moves toward the Djebel Murdjajdo and Ain el Turk on Oran’s western side. From Arzew, the 18th and 26th Regiments move toward St. Cloud and Oran from the East. Despite poor communications, and widely scattered and unsupported forces, the Center Task Force is achieving its objectives.

In Vichy, S. Pinkney Tuck, America’s chargé d’affaires in France, faces Marshal Henri Petain. Tuck reads a personal message from FDR to the old marshal, which discusses the warmth of Franco-American relations as far back as the War of Independence. The letter’s point, however, is that the Americans are conducting a preventive occupation of French Northwest Africa to prevent Hitler from doing the same thing. The letter asks Petain not to oppose the invasion.

Petain makes no reply. Tuck thinks Petain is confused and senile.

A hussier hands Petain a prepared statement, and the aged Marshal of France signs it and hands it to Tuck.

The statement reads, "It is with stupor and sadness that I learned of the aggression of your troops against North Africa. I have read your message. You invoke pretexts which nothing justifies…France and her honor are at stake. We are attacked; we shall defend ourselves; this is the order I am giving."

Tuck places the response in his briefcase, and rises to depart. Suddenly, Petain asks Tuck to remain for a while and talk about the glory days of Verdun. Stunned, Tuck sits and listens to the old man’s reminiscences.

At the Villa des Oliviers, Pendar returns with shaving material, a clean shirt, and a bottle of Scotch for the exhausted Murphy, who takes the opportunity to freshen up. Across town, in brown suit and fedora, Darlan plays a triple game. By fighting the Americans, he strengthens his position with the Germans and his Vichy bosses if the invasion fails. But if it succeeds, Darlan’s resistance shows the Americans his power to control the French military and colonial rulers.

Around 8:30 a.m., Darlan receives a message from Petain: "I am happy that you are there. You may act and inform me. You know you have my full confidence."

Around Algiers, the Allied advance continues. On the left flank, 11th Infantry Brigade hikes inland. At 9:30 a.m., a detachment of Lancashire Fusiliers hooks up with the American and British commandos surrounding Blida. As Trevor and the Fusiliers puzzle out what to do next, an F4F Martlet from HMS Victorious pops out of the sky and lands on the airfield. The pilot saw white handkerchiefs fluttering on the ground. The French General de Monsabert, facing increasing Allied force, decides that he will continue to let Allied planes land at Blida, but not take off, until further orders.

The 168th Infantry Regiment, moving in on Algiers from Cap Sidi Ferruch, enters the Labiridi suburb of Algiers by 8:30 a.m. The endless delays have slowed the 168th’s advance, and the men struggle forward. Nobody can find the vehicles to carry the heavy equipment, so infantrymen lug machine guns, mortars, shells, and ammunition boxes up and down the hills.

Scouts enter Lambiridi to find empty streets and ornate homes and villas, all shuttered. Company K of Lt. Col. Stewart Vincent’s 3rd/168th nears the town’s center square, to be greeted by a French armored car and its machine guns. As the Americans scatter to take cover, French riflemen open up from nearby houses. For two hours, American and French forces battle for the town square. A lone French ambulance races about picking up both sides’ wounded.

Col. Doyle, commanding officer of the 1st/168th, keeps heading into Algiers, seeking the main gendarmerie.

In Algiers harbor, Col. Swenson’s battered British and American commandos are dug in around the harbor’s mole, tank farm, and seaplane base. A few minutes after 8 a.m., a delegation of Algiers city officials approach Swenson under a cease-fire and ask that arrangements be made for the surrender of Algiers. Swenson thinks victory is at hand, and sends the French delegates back with his proposals. A few minutes later, Swenson’s scouts report that French Senegalese troops described as "definitely hostile" have taken advantage of the cease-fire to surround the Anglo-Americans.

As Swenson figures out what to do, French guns on the Jetee du Nord open fire on the moored HMS Broke, driving her to another berth…and then another…away from Swenson’s soldiers. Broke’s skipper, Lt. Cdr. Layard, realizes that his ship is in mortal danger, and must head to sea. Layard sounds his ship’s siren, which is the recall signal, and 55 American and British soldiers dash through machine-gun fire and onto the destroyer. Swenson and the rest stay behind, hoping Algiers will surrender soon. At 9:40 a.m., HMS Broke sails into the Bay of Algiers, and meets up with the destroyer HMS Zetland. The Zetland sprints over to Broke, takes off her passengers, and tows the battered tincan out to sea.

In the port, Senegalese troops rain heavy fire on Swenson’s Anglo-American defenders. Six Albacore dive-bombers swoop in to stem the tide, but the French increase the pressure, moving in tanks. Swenson and his men have no communication with any headquarters, no means of evacuation, and no hope of reinforcement. They fight on as their ammunition dwindles.

At the Battery du Lazaret on Cap Matifou, east of Algiers, French marines and heavy guns stand off British and American troops of 1st Commando. The light cruiser HMS Bermuda and Albacores from HMS Formidable subject the fort to a one-hour bombardment that silences her guns. With the artillery muzzled, the Commandos storm the position on foot, and seize the fort, taking 50 French marines prisoner.

As the Allied assault unfolds, Pierre Alexandre, a leader of the Algiers coup, drives out to Sidi Ferruch to find the invaders. His message is urgent: The 500 Algiers revolutionaries are outnumbered and outgunned, and Vichy is mobilizing its 42,000 reserves in the city. Unless the Americans change their plans and move into Algiers, the coup will be crushed. Alexandre’s task is a tall order, but on the road he luckily meets with a friend, Consul John Knox, who has returned with the Americans, in a colonel’s uniform.

Knox is able to bring Alexandre to see Maj. Gen. Charles "Doc" Ryder, commanding the 34th Division and the Algiers invasion. "Why aren’t you in the city," Alexandre pleads. "By noon it will be too late."

"Impossible," Ryder retorts. "At least till tomorrow. I have only 2,400 men with which to insure all of the Algerian Department, and no heavy equipment."

"If you act immediately," Alexandre says, "the city is still in our hands. In 48 hours, the Germans can land parachute forces in support of Vichy."

Ryder is convinced by Alexandre’s pleading and Knox’s support. At 10 a.m., he orders his troops to head straight for the center of Algiers.

A wise move – by 11 a.m., the insurgents are besieged. At the Central Post Office, a young officer named Dreyfus leads the insurgents against Vichy troops. A Vichy officer comes out with a flag of truce, and Dreyfus goes to meet him. The Vichyite demands Dreyfus’s surrender. Dreyfus politely refuses. The two part, and a shot rings out. The bullet hits Dreyfus in the back, killing him. The Vichy sniper who commits this crime is later given the Croix de Guerre by his Vichy bosses.

At the Central Commissariat, a Vichy colonel, Jacouin, fires off his machine gun at a young rebel, Captain Pilafort. The dying Pilafort empties his revolver at Jacouin. By noon, however, Vichy forces recapture their buildings, and the insurgents are hurled into dungeons and jail cells.

Messages are flying in to Eisenhower’s headquarters on Gibraltar fast and furious… Hewitt reporting the Morocco invasion proceeding on schedule…Vichy radio reporting that Darlan and Juin are in Algiers, directing the defense, and that assaults on Algiers harbor have been repulsed. No word from Patton, which worries everyone. They don’t know that Patton’s communications team is hopelessly overloaded.

At 9 a.m., Maison Blanche’s capture is reported. Then comes a slew of miscellaneous messages: Darlan is captured. No, he isn’t. French coastal batteries are shooting back at Oran, HMS Rodney engaging with main armament. Oran airport reported on fire. Blida airport captured. Nobody knows the fate of the paratroopers.

At 10:30 a.m., Eisenhower and Clark meet with Giraud again.

In Morocco, despite poor communications, Patton’s men advance. At daybreak, Safi’s harbor, railroad station, post office, and roads entering the town from the south are in US hands, and the local police department has been disarmed. But north and east of the town, determined French troops maintain machine-gun and rifle fire on the Americans from the cliffs.

On shore, General Harmon watches his engineers struggle to unload the seatrain Lakehurst, loaded with M3 Lee medium tanks, more powerful than any French machine. Behind that is the Titania, loaded with M3 Stuart light tanks. The two ships tie up at adjacent piers. A Lakehurst crane lifts a Lee over the side – and the winch seizes up. The tank is trapped, suspended in air, unable to move. It takes thee engineers five hours to solve the problem.

Titania is doing no better. A hoist lifts an M3 a foot off the deck and the cable snaps. It takes seven hours to locate another.

Lacking armor, the exasperated Harmon calls up Rear Adm. Lyal Davidson on USS Philadelphia, only to find that ship-to-shore radio has broken down. Irritated, Harmon has to leave his men on the beaches and go back to the transport Harris to use their radio.

When Harmon clambers aboard the transport, he gets word from the American vice-consular spy network ashore that 70 trucks carrying about 1,000 French troops are heading from Marrakech, 60 miles inland, straight for Safi. And Harmon doesn’t have any tanks to throw at them. He radios Davidson, who in turn contacts the escort carrier Santee 60 miles offshore. The escort carrier launches its F4F Wildcat fighters, SBD dive-bombers, and TBF Avenger torpedo bombers to intercept the convoy. In their first action, the American aviators spot the column of trucks rolling down a road amid bleak desert terrain. The American aircraft swoop down on the column, guns blazing, and strafe the column of trucks. As American bullets rip through French canvas, the French troops leap out to find cover. But there isn’t any, and the Americans take a fearsome toll, destroying 36 trucks and stopping the counterattack cold. Slaughtered French troops and burning vehicles litter the road.

At Port Lyautey, French coastal guns and American warships spend a busy morning trading salvos. On the transport Allen, General Lucian Truscott watches men disembark, when French shells explode a few hundred yards from the ship. Commodore Gray orders Allen and her sisters to head out to sea, to avoid enemy fire. Truscott’s men haven’t finished unloading yet. Truscott dashes up to the flag bridge and argues with Gray. The commodore says he can’t risk his ships being sunk.

"We have to take chances!" Trsuscott shouts. Gray agrees to continue the unloading. No reaction is recorded from the enlisted bystanders who get to see two flag officers bellow at each other.

However, the Allen’s lookouts are jittery and nervous, reporting clouds and seagulls as enemy planes. At 10 a.m., a twin-engine airplane does arrive from the north, heading straight for the transports. Nobody sounds the alarm. Every gunner in the fleet opens fire on the plane. It bursts into flames and crashes into the ocean. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the plane is a British Hudson, sent to check on the invasion’s progress.

There’s chaos ashore, too. Heavy surf has slowed the landings, and tanks, ammunition, and supplies are all heading to the wrong beaches. Ship-to-shore communications are a mess, so the American warships can’t effectively squash French defenders. Maj. John Dilley’s 2nd Battalion/60th Infantry advances off of Green Beach in a disorganized manner to its objective, Mehdia, and its lighthouse and Casbah. The GIs slog through 600 yards of heavy brush, and then stop when they see Navy shells slam into the ridge 200 yards ahead of them. The green troops, terrified, run away, a movement that will later be called the "bug-out."

Dilley, irritated by the sorry display, scans the defenses with his binoculars, and sees the lighthouse is only manned by a few French sailors. He orders the attack resumed. 2nd Battalion tries again, struggling up the brush-covered slope under French automatic fire. E Company is pinned down. Then Lt. Charles Dushane, Cpl. Frank Czar, PFC Theodore Bratkowitz, and another private, leap to their feet, charge across barbed wire, and into the lighthouse. There are shots, then silence. A few minutes later, the Americans emerge, with 12 prisoners.

With the lighthouse lost, the French defenders retreat to the Casbah through their trenches. 2nd Battalion attacks again and charges into the trenches, clearing them out with heavy casualties on both sides. Col. De Rohan, commanding the 60th, turns up and orders his men to attack the Kasbah once more.

The troops attack, and come under fire from the Moroccan 1st Infantry Regiment’s 75mm field pieces. The Americans are halted, and three French R35 tanks clank onto the scene, backed by infantry. The Americans have neither tanks nor artillery, and start scrambling away. But Corporal Czar and Lt. Dushane spot a nearby abandoned French anti-tank gun, which lacks part of its breech. The two load a shell, and Czar aims the gun while Dushane fires a bullet from his Tommy gun at the percussion cap at the base of each shell. That sends the shell hurtling into the lead tank, halting it. The French storm the American gun, killing Dushane, and gravely wounding Czar, who has to crawl away under fire. The battle rages on.

At Fedala, American invaders are busy sorting out the remains of 62 wrecked landing craft of 116 that went in. Lt. Col. Roy E. Moore sets up headquarters of 1st Battalion/7th Infantry at the Miramer Hotel, even though the Navy is continuing to shell the town. Moore signals the 3rd Division’s assistant commander, General Eagles, to ask him to stop the shelling. General Anderson thinks the message is a phony, and the bespectacled, mild-mannered Eagles barks, "For God’s sake, stop shelling Fedala. You’re killing our own men and friendly French troops. Shells are falling all over town. If you stop, they will surrender." The bombardment stops.

Lt. Col. Fred W. Sladin’s 1st Battalion/30th Infantry, marching south from Blue Beach, heads for high ground. Scouts ahead of the battalion throw up their hands, ordering the men to halt. An electric passenger train is approaching along tracks parallel to the battalion’s route. Sladin’s men take positions on both sides of the tracks. When the train appears, the Americans leap out, rifles aimed, in best Jesse James fashion. The French engineer is amazed and hits the brakes. Sladin’s men search the train, heading from Rabat to Casablanca, and find 75 French army, navy, and air force officers, heading for their duty stations. The Americans take the Frenchmen prisoner and move on.

As George Patton comes ashore in Fedala, the French Navy in Casablanca defends its city, its unfinished battleship, and its honor. With American ships offshore, the Jean Bart opens up with a salvo of its 15-inch guns at 8:07, which fall just short of the American battleship USS Massachusetts. Jean Bart can’t fire for very long. She has only 100 rounds in her magazines.

For the only time in the Second World War, a US Navy battleship duels with an opposing dreadnought in the Atlantic, European, or Mediterranean theaters. The new battleship Massachusetts, battle ensigns flapping in smoke and haze, answers the immobile Jean Bart with her own 16-inch guns, silencing the French vessel in 21 minutes – but only for the rest of the day. The American battlewagon’s shells shred a variety of French ships, but manage to miss two fully-loaded oil tankers.

Seven French destroyers sprint out of Casablanca harbor to attack the American invaders. Rear Adm. Gervais de Lafond flies his flag in the destroyer leader Milan. Behind sail Albatros, Frondeur, Fougeux, Brestois, and Boulonnais. The French destroyers bear down on the American anchorage, and find the cruisers Augusta and Brooklyn as well as destroyers Wilkes, Swanson, Bristol, and Boyle in the way, along with Ranger’s SBDs and F4Fs.

Outgunned, De Lafond’s ships spread a smokescreen and open fire, chasing the destroyers Ludlow and Wilkes away. Dodging smoke and shell, the French play cat-and-mouse with the Americans. But Wilkes hurls a shell into Milan, driving her onto the beach. Massachusetts fires a broadside of 15-inch shells that sinks Boulonnais. Massachusetts and the heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa train their guns on Fougeux and sink her as well. After that, Massachusetts checks fire, having used up 60 percent of her main battery ammunition. A French shell from El Hank scratches Massachusetts, but causes no casualties. Massachusetts and Tuscaloosa both narrowly avoid a spread of torpedoes from French submarines.

At 9:35, the French Navy tries again once more, as the light cruiser Primauguet (which required more time to raise steam than the destroyers) leads three destroyers and eight submarines in to support De Lafond’s battered group. A French priest, Father Lenner, stands on the breakwater amid the bombs, "a solitary black figure, blessing the French units as they passed on their way to certain death." By now, the sun has burned off the haze and the ocean glitters. De Lafond plans to advance between the coast and the Americans, putting the sun in their eyes. He will use the breeze to spread a smoke screen toward the Americans. De Lafond has used the tactic before with success against the British off Syria, in 1941.

Unfortunately for De Lafond, the Americans have installed SG fire-control radar on their ships, and smokescreens are no longer the protection they were a year ago. Worse, De LaFond mistakes the American ships for Cap Fedala, and doesn’t immediately attack.

The mixed force sails in three parallel lines into a wall of radar-directed American naval gunfire, but manages to get to within five miles of the transports off Fedala. The Americans refuel their SBDs and F4Fs and hurl them against the French ships, which lack modern anti-aircraft guns and directors.

Battered by 8-inch and 6-inch shellfire as well as bombs, the French attack collapses. Shells and bombs shred Milan and the blazing destroyer goes aground on Roches Noires. SBD bombs damage Brestois and Frondeur – both sink later – and Albatros takes two bombs and an 8-inch shell that leave her dead in the water, her bridge crew riddled by strafing. On Milan, de Lafond is wounded by tracer. De Lafond tries to lure the American destroyers back to Casablanca, hoping the big guns of Jean Bart can blast the tin cans. But De Lafond is out of radio range, and doesn’t know that Jean Bart’s guns are out of commission.

American radar-directed gunnery pumps out a stream of metal at the French ships. Two shells hit Boulonnais, decapitating a French bluejacket and knocking out a boiler. Boulonnais keeps advancing to 12,000 meters, torpedo range. But before Boulonnais can launch her fish, five American shells hit the tincan, tearing her apart.

At 10:35, an American salvo hits the Fougeux’s bridge, setting it ablaze. The ship sinks immediately.

"On shore, the families of the French crews watch their husbands die." He's right...too flippant.

The eight French submarines also struggle to make various escapes. Four of them are sunk, one disappears with all hands, and another escapes to Cadiz, where she is scuttled. One returns to Casablanca, and the final one flees to Dakar.

Primauguet, battered by American ordnance, staggers back into harbor, pursued by SBDs. Among the casualties are the ship’s pigsty, and the porkers wander around the ship, chewing on wounded and dying men. She staggers up to a jetty at the harbor’s entrance to halt. The Americans pour bombs into the cruiser. Despite massive fires, French machine-gunners blaze away at the dive-bombers. Eventually the inferno is too great, and Primauguet’s sailors abandon ship, leaving the wrecked cruiser to burn all night. More than 1,000 French bluejackets are casualties.

On the pier, Admiral De Lafond, leaning on a cane, passes his weary men in review. Then the survivors are issued rifles and five rounds each of ammunition, and formed into battalions to defend Casablanca.

While French bluejackets scramble ashore, Wichita, having taken several hits, maneuvers away from shore to care for its 14 wounded sailors. The French, however, have lost more than 500 dead and 1,000 wounded sailors.

Meanwhile, Col. Wilbur, Patton’s emissary to Admiral Michelier, has returned to the Fedala beaches to report to Patton offshore. While waiting for a boat, he realizes that the French gun battery atop Cap Fedala is blasting at Navy ships, and decides that knocking them out would be a better use of his time, training, and rank, than waiting for a boat. He summons four tanks of the 765th Tank Battalion and Capt. Albert Brown’s A Company of the 1st Battalion/7th Infantry, and leads them into the assault. Wilbur himself jumps on the lead M3 Stuart tank, and waves them forward.

At 10:30 a.m., the battle group deploys in front of Cap Fedala battery’s fire-control bunker, defended by machine guns and barbed-wire entanglements. The infantry open fire to pin down the defenders while Lt. John M. Rutledge’s tanks crash over the barbed wire. Angry French troops fire their Hotchkiss machine guns at the Stuart tanks, but the bullets bounce off the rivetted monsters. The tanks rumble forward, infantry behind them, and capture the fire-control bunker and its’ plotting tables, binoculars, and telephones.

The Americans charge on past the bunker into the gun battery, surprising the French coast defense artillerymen. The complex’s commanding officer appears, and with Gallic sang-froid, demands that the battery be transferred formally to American control. Wilbur is willing to do anything that will end the battle.

In less than an hour, American and French troops line up shoulder to shoulder, and with hand salutes, present arms commands, and full ceremonial, the French tricolor is lowered from a pole while the Stars and Stripes is hoisted in its place. For these feats, Wilbur later receives the Medal of Honor.

There is far less ceremony, however, for C Company of 1st/7th, which his pinned down on the outskirts of Fedala at a racetrack, by French anti-aircraft guns. American troops crawl through paddocks, stables, and shellfire, and manage to fire their bazookas into the French defenses, shredding the AA guns.

The defenders seem to get the point, and hoist a white flag. An American lieutenant and sergeant rise to take the surrender…and are gunned down by fire from the French position. The Americans are horrified. They let the French have it with full force. A few minutes later, another white flag appears. This time the GIs stay under cover and order the French to come out with their hands up. The Frenchmen do so…meekly.

In his headquarters at Frascati, Italy, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, top German officer in the Mediterranean, assesses the meager information coming in from French North Africa. The aggressive and cheery Kesselring’s first idea is to counterattack. Unfortunately, he hasn’t got much – the U-boats are elsewhere, and his bombers haven’t the range to hit Oran or Casablanca. The Italian Navy is unwilling to risk its fuel-starved ships against overwhelming Anglo-American sea and air power. Kesselring asks his officers for an airstrike on Algiers, and they tell him it can’t be done until nightfall. The Luftwaffe lacks long-range fighters to escort his Ju 88s and He 111s on the long trip, and sending unescorted bombers in by daylight against British Seafires and Sea-Hurricanes would be suicide. Kesselring puts in orders to reinforce Tunisia with Luftwaffe paratroopers and Wehrmacht ground troops, and ruminates on the failure of Goering and Field Marshal Ernst Udet to provide the Luftwaffe with a four-engined bomber. The Allies, he notes tartly, have not been so inefficient.

At 10:30 a.m., Ike meets again with Giraud. Now the French general has lost a great deal of his pomposity and arrogance, as the Allied invasion is streaming ashore. Clark, Eisenhower, and Giraud make an agreement. Giraud will be supreme commander of French forces in the region, working in close collaboration with the British and Americans. The French will cease resistance and assist in the drive into Tunisia. Giraud will fly to North Africa to stop resistance and organize the French forces. Ike passes all this good news on to Washington and London, then naps for an hour.

When Ike rises, Giraud is back, asking for a personal transport plane and modern fighters to replace the shot-down French De 520s and MS 400s.