Hull straft Roosevelt Lügen –
Angriff auf Franz.-Nordafrika seit 1940 geplant
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U.S. War Department (November 10, 1942)
Communiqué No. 235
At 3 p.m. EWT, November 8, the occupation of Algiers and immediate vicinity was started, arrangements for capitulation of the city were made at a conference between Maj. Gen. Charles W. Ryder, USA, commander of the Eastern Assault Force, and Gen. Alphonse Pierre Juin.
To the east and west of Oran, U.S. forces which landed under the command of Maj. Gen. Lloyd R. Fredendall, USA, have penetrated a considerable distance to the rear of the city.
At several points, stiff local resistance has been met. Now in our hands are three of the four airfields in this region. We have taken more than 2,000 prisoners.
At all selected points on the Atlantic coast of French North Africa, landings have been made under command of Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, USA. In this region, French aircraft have been more active than elsewhere.
All forces have been given naval supporting fire against forts. Countermeasures were taken where our ships met with resistance from enemy naval forces.
In the area concerned, Adm. Sir Andrew Cunningham, Bt., GCB, DSO, has assumed command of all naval forces.
The Pittsburgh Press (November 10, 1942)
U.S. TROOPS CAPTURE ORAN; FALL OF CASABLANCA NEAR
French battleship wrecked
Naval resistance ended off West Africa; land cleanup near
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
Bulletin
Madrid, Spain –
Reports from La Línea today said the British aircraft carrier Furious, six destroyers and a convoy of 22 large merchantmen had arrived at Gibraltar from the Atlantic and were anchored in the bay.
Allied HQ, North Africa – (5 p.m.)
Lt. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower announced late today that U.S. troops had occupied Oran, the last major Algerian center of French resistance, and had left the 35,000-ton French battleship Jean Bart a blazing hulk in a blow which crushed French naval resistance at Casablanca.
A communiqué issued in London simultaneously with Gen. Eisenhower’s announcement said that the cities of Safi, Fedala and Mehdya in Morocco were in American hands.
The full power of the U.S. Fleet operating off the West African coast was turned against French naval units which sought to oppose the American landing at Casablanca, Gen. Eisenhower revealed.
In the ensuring naval and dive bomber bombardment, the French destroyer fleet was wiped out, the Jean Bart was left a blazing hulk in the Port of Casablanca and a French cruiser was damaged.
Gen. Eisenhower’s report and Allied communiqué issued in London made it evident that U.S. land and naval forces virtually had control of Algeria and were on the verge of mopping up Morocco.
The attack on the French destroyer fleet off Casablanca was ordered by RAdm. H. E. Hewitt, commander of U.S. naval forces off the African coast, when a strong French naval force attempted to interfere with the American landing operation.
U.S. Fleet units opened fire on the French destroyers while naval dive bombers attacked the Jean Bart and a cruiser in Casablanca Harbor, setting the Bart afire and damaging the cruiser.
The naval action enabled the American commanders to land all their troops successfully in the Casablanca area.
The attack on Oran was launched in force at 7:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET). U.S. tanks broke through the outskirts of the city and filtered in toward the heart of the most valuable town on the coast of French North Africa.
Oran’s harbor facilities are the best of any in Algeria.
Earlier, around midnight, a U.S. task force of infantry and tanks started moving in from the west on the city. By 7:30, the force had reached a point about three miles from the heart of the city, just west of Fort Mers El Kébir.
At the same time, a similar combat team pushed in from the east and, at 7:30 a.m., was even a few miles from the center of the city and driving forward rapidly.
One column of the force east of Oran swung sharply to the east and pushed down the coast toward Saint-Cloud and La Macta to deal with a French counterattack. There has been no report of the outcome of this counterattack, but heavy fighting was in progress.
The U.S. 12th Air Force under Brig. Gen. James Doolittle played a prominent part in the operation at Oran.
It occupied all four airfields in the Oran area.
The final airfield to give up was La Sénia which fought for two days but was taken over by a U.S. armored force.
The 12th Air Force immediately took over the field.
South of the city, a U.S. armored force was on the alert against an expected heavy French air attack.
Gen. Eisenhower’s announcement was made at a special press conference at Allied headquarters.
He did not reveal any details of the occupation.
The arrival of Gen. Henri Honoré Giraud, one of France’s greatest military heroes to rally French forces on the Allied side, greatly enhanced prospects of an early and complete success.
Eisenhower pleased
Maj. Gen. George S. Patton’s forces were having the toughest fight around Casablanca, but he was progressing “faster than expected.” His campaign was considered the most difficult because of French strength in the Casablanca area and because of high seas.
Gen. Eisenhower told correspondents last night that he was “most pleased” with the outcome of operations so far.
Gen. Eisenhower looked confident and fresher than anyone present at his first press conference since the campaign started. He has not had more than a few hours sleep since Saturday, but joked about it, saying:
I had the best sleep last night since July 24.
He said:
I was very disappointed that the French Navy has been so obstinate. It became necessary to meet this resistance, which, of course, delayed the entire operation to some extent and kept these vital units busy when they could have been busy somewhere else.
Navy delivers goods
Our Navy, as well the Royal Navy, has delivered the goods. One thing that struck me as remarkable was the job naval commanders, both American and British, did in working out their tasks in connection with the movements of such tremendously large convoys, timing weather conditions, enemy action and other factors.
He frankly discussed each phase of the campaign. Algiers, he said, was about written off as the scene of any major military developments.
Fort given pasting
Turning to Oran, he said:
You know, there was one fort there that wanted to hold out. Well, we put our mortars into action and pretty soon put it out of commission. The fact that this fort held out caused casualties on both sides [they were minor].
A combat team brought up mortars and gave this fort a pasting which would not have been possible with the mortars of the last war. It surrendered almost at once but not before 15 enlisted men and one officer had become casualties.
The prisoners apparently wanted to be captured. We don’t want to fight with friends. But we cannot let them shoot at us and not shoot back. War is a serious business and people get hurt.
Praises new mortars
You know, these new mortars are about the finest thing I’ve ever seen. Much superior to anything I ever saw in the last war. You know, it’s a streamlined shell, almost like an airplane bomb. You can put them on a dime.
He thought the lack of Axis air interference was due to inability to withdraw planes and fuel from other vital fronts.
High French officials may join Allied camp
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, England –
As U.S. tanks pounded into Casablanca and U.S. troops occupied Oran today, a high-speed mobile column raced out of Algiers toward the Tunisian border and dramatic moves appeared to be underway which may bring Adm. Jean François Darlan and other high French officers back into the Allied camp.
Frantic efforts were underway by Vichy and the Axis to counteract the fast-moving Allied operation. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain assumed the supreme command of all French Armed Forces and Premier Pierre Laval was reported attempting to negotiate a full peace with Germany, probably preparatory to an effort to take France openly into the war as a Nazi ally. One rumor circulated that Laval, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini might hold a joint conference on ways and means.
Marshal Pétain announced he had assumed the supreme command “in the absence of Adm. Darlan,” the radio said.
He ordered all forces to do their duty.
On the fighting front, Vichy reported the situation was this:
Vichy said U.S. tanks had battered into Casablanca and there was every indication this key city of Morocco would fall shortly.
Governor-General Auguste Noguès, in charge of Moroccan defense, fled his headquarters at Rabat for some interior point.
Vichy also reported that an American column striking southeast from Algiers was racing toward Bou Saâda, 115 miles en route to Tunisia.
It was believed in London that U.S. forces would soon hold the entire Mediterranean coast of French Algeria.
In connection with the drive on Tunisia, the possible adherence of Darlan and other French military chiefs to the Allies was regarded as of great significance.
It was announced with emphasis that Darlan “is being entertained” by the Americans in Algiers. The language was said to have been chosen carefully.
The announcement was believed to mean Darlan is considering throwing his lot with the Allies. Gen. Alphonse Pierre Juin, French land commander, is probably pondering the same decision.
With the famous French war hero Gen. Henri Giraud already on the Allied side, it was thought the forthcoming decisions may have strong influence on Adm. Jean Esteva, Governor-General of Tunisia, and the Bey of Tunis.
As Gen. Giraud began organizing an American-equipped French Army in North Africa, an Allied spokesman here announced that Adm. Darlan, Vice Premier of the Vichy government and the Commander-in-Chief of all its Armed Forces, was being treated with all the dignity due his rank and record.
There was also wide speculation that Gen. Maxime Weygand, the generalissimo who tried to save a defeated France in 1940 and a bitter anti-Nazi, would also throw in his lot with the Americans.
Darlan could bring the French Fleet with him. Weygand is beloved by the French Army and was commander in Africa immediately after the 1940 armistice; he could bring over large segments of the French African Army. His present whereabouts have not been reported.
Gen. Giraud had been delegated by Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces, to organize a French army which the United States will equip. Gen. Eisenhower said he would be in charge of “military and civil affairs” in North Africa, which would make him ruler of French North Africa.
Giraud was expected here to be worth many divisions; his prestige with French soldiers and civilians is enormous.
Gen. Eisenhower, conferring with correspondents at his North African headquarters, said he was pleased with the progress of the campaign.
He announced that Gen. Giraud had arrived in Algeria to “organize the French Army again and take up the fight for the defeat of Germany and Italy and the liberation of France.” The United States will provide weapons and equipment. It was believed that Gen. Giraud, who escaped from the German prison camps in both World War I and this war, might eventually replace Gen. Charles de Gaulle as leader of the Fighting French forces throughout the world.
Allied headquarters believed the complete occupation of Algeria was imminent, clearing the way for the projected drive through French Tunisia against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Axis army in Libya, which President Roosevelt announced in Washington yesterday.
Observers here believed that the Americans would not turn southward from Morocco toward Dakar, capital of French West Africa, where for two years Axis propagandists have proclaimed the imminence of an attack.
The fall of Morocco and Algiers would leave Dakar isolated, and French West Africa would be automatically removed from the war picture. The reported presence of U.S. troops in Liberia and Freetown, south of Dakar, however, might hasten the removal of the Dakar threat to the South American bulge, only 1,100 miles across the Atlantic.
An Allied communiqué reported that U.S. assault troops had succeeded in establishing beachheads at all the points on the Atlantic coast of French North Africa that had been selected in mapping the campaign.
Darlan ‘entertained’ by American general
Vichy’s military chief treated with ‘dignity due his rank’
Adm. Darlan -- located in Algiers
London, England (UP) –
An Allied spokesman said today that Adm. Jean François Darlan, vice-premier of the Vichy government and commander of its armed forces, was “being entertained” by an American general at Algiers.
The spokesman said:
Darlan is in Algiers, being entertained by a United States general with all the dignity due his rank and record. I used “entertain” advisedly.
He said there had been slight Axis air activity over North Africa, but added that enemy claims had been “grossly exaggerated.”
The spokesman asserted the Allied casualties in North Africa continued light. He said both British land and air forces now had joined the Americans ashore.
French assured –
African drive credit given to Roosevelt
‘I’m only lieutenant,’ says Churchill who sees Rommel beaten
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2 reporters wade ashore, describe scene in Algiers
By Ned Russell and William Stoneman
This is the first dispatch from the actual fighting front in North Africa to be passed by the American field censor. It is a joint dispatch in which Ned Russell, one of seven United Press correspondents with the U.S. forces, and William Stoneman of the Chicago Daily News, have collaborated.
Algiers, French North Africa – (Nov. 9, 10 p.m.)
Dusty American troops occupied Algiers while Axis bombers intermittently attacked the city.
We came ashore with the American shock troops at Sidi Ferruch, 15 miles west of Algiers, wading and splashing to the beach.
At 5:15 p.m. Sunday, the bugler at Fort de l’Empereur at the western gateway to Algiers sounded the ceasefire call.
At that moment, we were watching a noisy machine-gun and rifle battle between a bunch of Midwestern troops and the French in the suburb of El Biar.
Immediately after that, the parleys began.
The terms for the armistice were hammered out at a conference of Maj. Gen. Charles W. Ryder and U.S. Consul-General Robert Murphy for the U.S. forces and Gen. Alphonse Pierre Juin and Adm. Jean François Darlan on the French side.
The presence of Adm. Darlan was a bit of grit in the clockwork American landing operation and the outcropping bitter, if scattered, fighting was probably due to Adm. Darlan’s presence.
Sixteen hours from the moment the American troops swarmed ashore, the decision had been reached.
The local populace in Algiers gave a warm welcome to our troops. Many of them sported American flags and they shouted their welcome profusely in broken English.
Two blazing German Junkers planes were shot down by an American fighter. Thousands of onlookers cheered.
Most of the French were behaving beautifully – from the American standpoint – and every effort was being made to reply in kind.
This has been a night and day filled with wild incidents – nerve-wracking stuff.
But our “Corn Belt” boys have fought like tigers.
Tonight, our boys are cheerfully policing the city and taking good care to round up Axis nationals.
In brief, the situation in Algeria is well in hand.
One difficulty in arranging the French surrender was due to the fact that Adm. Juin held Mr. Murphy prisoner. That necessitated a number of trips back and forth through the fighting lines by the emissaries after 60 sleepless hours.
‘Drafting’ opposed –
14-point plan on manpower is submitted
Program offered as way to prevent bottleneck in war effort
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First Lady in Ireland
Belfast, Northern Ireland –
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt has arrived in Northern Ireland.
Army camp boasts growing scrap heap
Foster Field, Texas –
Few buck privates realize they are helping keep the nation’s war industries supplied with vital materials when they open cans of food on KP duty.
When the private opens the cans, he indirectly relieves the metal shortage.
While sweating and cussing, he is emptying cans, which are placed on Foster Field’s scrap metal pile and in turn presented to Uncle Sam’s vital war industries.
McNutt: War production can’t discard one worker, or lose one day
Nation’s new order is manpower first, WMC head declares
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