Operation Torch: Why Did America Fight French Forces in 1942?
Instead of welcoming American troops with brass bands, Vichy France’s colonial forces fought back with everything they had.
Here s What You Need to Know: Early in the North African campaign, American tankers battled the Vichy French.
Lucian Truscott needed a cigarette. The 47-year-old brigadier general was having the worst night of his life. Earlier that day, American troops under his command charged ashore on the Atlantic coast of French Morocco as part of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. From the start, though, almost nothing went right.
“As far as I could see along the beach there was chaos,” Truscott recalled. “Landing craft were beaching in the pounding surf, broaching to the waves, and spilling men and equipment into the water. Men wandered about aimlessly, hopelessly lost, calling to each other and for their units, swearing at each other and at nothing.”