Torch

 

  

 Operation Torch - the invasion of French North Africa

by an army made up mostly of Yanks.  Investment in

this Mediterranean front made the invasion of France

unlikely before 1944.  Here was the first real test in 

collaboration between British and American forces.

A - Western Task Force invades Morocco, securing a 

supply route for Allied forces were the Nazis to block

the Straits of Gibraltar.  British oppose this U.S. plan

because the landing is too distant from their objective -

Tunisia.  The Task Force is given the 'go' because this

objective was nonnegotiable for Americans.

B, C - Everyone generally agrees on the objectives of

Algiers and Oran.  They are both French held and a

bridgehead here would provide the Allies with a quick

dash to Tunis, crippling a critical Axis supply port for

their forces in North Africa.  Strike now while the Axis 

forces are most vulnerable.  Delay, and your quick

victory stretches out your efforts for over a year

in the desert.  Instead of France.

D - A landing at Bone puts American forces next door

to Tunis.  Right now the port is there for the taking.

A U.S. landing here puts their troops under the 

Luftwaffe umbrella and near Axis forces.  The reward

for landing here was tempting but the Allies chance

of success was a minimal, unacceptable risk.

General Eisenhower was given until early November, 

about 30 days, to put together an attack on North Africa.

Though plans were made in haste, rational

decision-making guided those launching their

troops toward an uncertain reception that awaited

them on distant, overseas shores.

The big advantage to landing in Vichy North Africa was 

the likely chance American troops would face only token

resistance from the French.  But the French were

divided among themselves about their loyalty to Petain,

head of the Vichy government, or de Gaulle, working

with the Allies as leader of the Free French.

Green.  Untested.  Up and down the ranks you wouldn't find

a single soul with combat experience.  Could these GIs 

be a cohesive team under duress?  They were barely trained.

Navigating your landing craft to the proper beach was

challenging.  Avoiding a collision with other novice landing

craft drivers would likely be uppermost on your mind. 

It was on the job training for crew and commanders alike.

Transporting a hundred thousand troops to their destination

was not subtle.  A thousand plus ships were headed

your way.  The question on every Axis leader's

mind was, "Where are they going to land?"

The answer wasn't obvious.  Some thought 

southern France was likely.  Or maybe Sicily.

A couple squadrons of U-Boats were ordered to the

Straits of Gibraltar to disrupt this Allied Task Force.

Every type of ship imaginable collected in the harbor

of Gibraltar.  Just outside waited the U-Boats.

What a feast the Germans would have when those

ships loaded with Allied troops sailed into the 

sub-infested Mediterranean waters.  In actuality

this never happened.  There were just too many

warships between U-Boat periscopes and their

tender-sided transport targets.  The Task Forces sailed 

undaunted to their assigned beachheads...

to be welcomed by French hugs

or deadly Axis shelling.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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good morning justin

  

O P E N I N G     N I G H T

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   dad 

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Amphibious Assault

  

 Landing your troops on a shore heavily defended by 

your enemy - a suicide mission more often than not.

Pearl Harbor reset the stage when it provoked the world's 

industrial giant into the war.

America had to transport its troops across thousands

of miles of ocean to take it to its enemies.

 You better know what you're doing when you 

set off to war or have your head served on a 

platter in just some plain field of nothing.

Be smart about it.  What best works always costs less

than the purchase of status or nostalgia.

 Dieppe.  There were problems in the planning.

This is what 'learning from experience' can look 

like.  Next up would be an American assault on

the beaches of North Africa.  They didn't yet

know what they were doing.  God help us.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

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good morning jacob

  

W I T N E S S

love

   dad

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Happy Birthday Jack

  

R O M A N S

 

 

H A P P Y     B I R T H D A Y     J A C K !

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   dad

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Retreat

  

Defeat was inevitable.  It was just a matter of time.

Rommel's forces were being ground to the point of 

collapse by Montgomery's overwhelming military

advantage.  After twelve days of battle, Rommel 

chose to save the remnants of Panzerarmee Afrika

and withdraw from Alamein, retreating west.

 The string of military defeats by British forces would

come to an end with their win at El Alamein.  The victory

over Rommel restored Churchill's political support,

which had been dwindling to a dangerously low level.

He could not lead effectively if his military competence

were in doubt.

Three months before the Germans surrendered to Allied

forces in North Africa, Hitler's military in Russia would

suffer the loss of an entire army, twenty divisions, in the

battle of Stalingrad.  This defeat would prove to be the

turning point in the war for Europe, with blame for this

catastrophe being placed on the hubris and incompetence

of the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. 

Desperate to regain the military initiative over Russia,

Hitler launched a late summer offensive on Stalin's

forces that fortified the farmland around the Soviet

town of Kursk.  This battle would end what small chance

Hitler had of winning his war in the East.  From here on

the best the German Wehrmacht could do was slow

the Red Army's advance on Berlin. 

The only way to dispose of a tyrant is by killing him.

Plots to cancel out Hitler circulated among his generals.

Those closest to the Fuhrer would later be found to have

planned his murder.  Germany's leader had good reason

to be paranoid.

Four days following Axis defeat at Alamein, Rommel

gets word of the Yanks flowing ashore to his rear, 

in Morocco and Algeria.  With the British 8th Army

pursuing his forces from the east, Rommel must now

also prevent the Americans from capturing Tunisia 

in the west.  German and Italian presence in North

Africa could not be supplied without the port of Tunis 

being under Axis control.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

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Jessicca and Kyle Klembara

  

H A P P Y    A N N I V E R S A R Y !

J E S S I C C A    AND    K Y L E

H  A  L  L  E  L  U  J  A  H 

love

   dad

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good morning jack

  

C R A C K E R S

love 

   dad 

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Alamein

  

Montgomery, Monty, was in charge of the 8th Army

when the final, deciding conflict at Alamein began.

An 850 gun barrage erupted the night of October 23rd,

devastating Axis forward positions, manned mostly

by Italians.  More than a million rounds will sail into

a twelve mile front over the next dozen days.

Still, the British advance met stiff resistance.

Rommel's Panzer Army HQ was flying blind.

Radio jamming Wellington bombers knocked out

communication from the front.  Hitler's general's

knew there were multiple attacks, but the question 

remained, which one had the lights out punch?

 It was infantry versus infantry.  The Axis minefields

needed clearing before British armor would come

into play.  The British objective could not be reached

without the force of tanks delivering their high explosive

justice to the contents of their targeted bunkers.

There wasn't to be some brilliant end-around tactic.

It was a solid, fortified line between the sea and an

impassable salt marsh that needed to be penetrated.

There wasn't enough fuel for German armor to do

anything but sit around and wait until 

the British made a major breakthrough in the line.

The strategy was one of attrition.  Everything the

German's had as weapons, the British had twice

as much.  Men, tanks, aircraft - the numeric

advantage was overwhelming.  Logistics was 

also a deciding factor.  While Rommel's panzer 

army closely rationed fuel and ammo, the British

had unlimited use of both.

They would wear down Rommel.

Churchill insisted on Rommel's defeat before the Yanks

arrived.  It would be much easier for Vichy officials of 

French Morocco and Algeria to back the American 

invasion of their land if the Germans were 

on the run.  

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

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good morning jessicca

  

 T H R E E' S     A     C R O W D

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   dad

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The Tide Turns

  

German intelligence sends an urgent dispatch to Rommel.

A British convoy carrying a hundred thousand tons of 

military supplies will arrive in Alexandria in early September.

That's only a couple weeks away.  It's clear the one path

to victory is for the Afrika Korps to strike now,

before the Eighth Army takes control as the force

with overwhelming military power.

Rommel's plan relied upon his tried and true actions.

It's what got him here.  First, he strikes his opponent's

more fortified positions in the north as a distraction

while Rommel's armor swiftly turns the 8th's southern

flank.  The Brits then find Nazis attacking their back.

Panzers dash to the coast. surrounding the Eight Army.

Strangled of their supplies the war in North Africa

comes to an end for the British.

On the morning of the attack, as Axis forces assembled

their formations, a fleet of British bombers flew overhead,

dropping bombs as they breezed by.

The Brits were on to them.  So much for 

Rommel's hoped for surprise.

German armor became bogged down in unexpectedly

complex fields of mines.  They were hit with artillery

and, always, there were the bombers overhead. 

Casualties were heavy but they were making progress.

The problem was this intense fighting had put them

far behind their critical time schedule. 

When you look at it now, Rommel's plan was a 

real roll of the dice.  For starters, he had only

two days worth of petrol when he needed seven.

He had to count on unreliable sources to provide

his tanks the petrol needed to continue their attack.

Fuel was in short supply.  Delivery was sporadic.

His armored punch stumbled.

The desert became increasingly hostile 

for Rommel and his Afrika Korps.

The Americans would arrive soon.

Africa was to become even more harsh,

forbidding.  It was to be a death sentence

for Axis forces.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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