World War II had many superlatives, but none like Operation Torch-a
series of simultaneous amphibious landings, audacious commando and
paratroop assaults, and the Atlantic's biggest naval battle, fought
across a two thousand mile span of coastline in French North Africa. The
risk was enormous, the scale breathtaking, the preparations rushed, the
training inadequate, and the ramifications profound. Torch was the first
combined Allied offensive and key to how the Second World War unfolded
politically and militarily. Nonetheless, historians have treated the
subject lightly, perhaps because of its many ambiguities. As a surprise
invasion of a neutral nation, it recalled German attacks against
countries like Belgium, Norway, and Yugoslavia. The operation's
rationale was to aid Russia but did not do this. It was supposed to get
Americans troops into the fight against Germany but did so only because
it failed to achieve its short-term military goals. There is still
debate whether Torch advanced the fight against the Axis, or was a
wasteful dispersion of Allied strength and actually prolonged the war.
Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory is a fresh look at
this complex and controversial operation. The book covers the fierce
Anglo-American dispute about the operation and charts how it fits into
the evolution of amphibious warfare. It recounts the story of the
fighting, focusing on the five landings-Port Lyautey, Fédala, and Safi
in Morocco, and Oran and Algiers in Algeria-and includes air and ground
actions from the initial assault to the repulse of Allied forces on the
outskirts of Tunis. Torch also considers the operation's context within
the larger war and it incorporates the French perspective better than
any English-language work on the subject. It shows how Torch brought
France, as a power, back into the Allied camp; how it forced the English
and the Americans to work together as true coalitions partners and forge
a coherent amphibious doctrine. These skills were then applied to
subsequent operations in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, and
in the Pacific. The story of how this was accomplished is the story of
how the Allies brought their power to bear on the enemy's continental
base and won World War II.
