21 October 1942: H-Hour minus 18 Days
Over the next two days, a stream of troop trains arrived
in Glasgow and Liverpool, amidst a cold steady rain.
Tens of thousands of American GIs transferred to
waiting transports that were to deliver them to a
destiny unknown.
22 October 1942: H-Hour minus 17 Days
The commander of this 100 ship convoy believed
the mission successful if only half of them were to make
it to their objective. He feared a gauntlet of dive bombers
and U-boats waited in ambush along their perilous trip
to North Africa.
24 October 1942: H-Hour minus 15 Days
Dusko Popov was a top Nazi spy celebrated among his
peers in the intelligence community. He had high-placed
information that revealed Malta as the armada's destination.
The people there were starving and this was Churchill's
desperate attempt to save this critically important British
Mediterranean bastion.
To the spies at MI-6, Popov was code-named Tricycle,
a British double agent. This Malta ruse was cooked
up by a secret committee known as XX - Double Cross.
The report contributed a good deal of confusion that
flowed all the way up to the Fuhrer himself.
30 October 1942: H-Hour minus 9 Days
Just across the border from Gibraltar, Hitler's spymaster
was discovered to be hiding out in a Spanish stucco
home, right under the nose of British MI-6 agents. They
quickly devised a plan to kidnap this snooping Nazi,
sending him to London in shackles as a POW.
Churchill couldn't cancel this abduction quick enough.
These MI-6 agents were unaware Wilhelm Canaris
was a British mole and far more valuable to the Allies
as their agent in Berlin, delivering bad advice
to Adolph.
5 November 1942: H-Hour minus 3 Days
The Allied command for Torch flew to Gibraltar divided up
among a formation of six B-17s, making sure that even if
more than one plane was shot down there would be enough
generals available to ensure the invasion went forward.
They flew in fog at an elevation that rarely exceeded
one hundred feet above the waves. They were never
detected by Luftwaffe fighters patrolling nearby.
7 November 1942: H-Hour minus 1 Day
Torch commanders thought they likely ensured a peaceful
Allied landing in North Africa when they slipped Henri Giraud
out of France, despite Gestapo surveillance of his Lyon villa.
Eisenhower brought the popular four star general to Gibraltar
because the French hero's endorsement of Torch might
result in the Vichy military holding their fire on the Allies.
To get his approval for the Allied invasion, Giraud was led
to believe, falsely, he was to become Supreme
Allied Commander of all forces in North Africa.
The French general, indignant at this insult to his honor,
refused his further cooperation with Allied leaders.
General Eisenhower, as Torch commander, nonetheless
had a forged message of Giraud's support presented
to the public in its place.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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