Operation Torch

the History Channel, original podcast. When the United States enters the war, it's understood that a second front is needed to defeat Nazi Germany. The Red Army and Soviet people have taken the brunt of the Nazi onslaught from nearly a year and now Soviet leader Joseph Stalin demands that the Western Allies do their part. The Allies disagree where to attack. American military leaders want to invade France, the most direct route to Berlin. But Churchill and his generals still haunted by the horrible cost of World War I are reluctant to invade Europe before they're ready. And so the decision is made to attack the Germans in North Africa in an invasion codenamed Operation Torch. The Americans, inexperienced and untested are about to battle the Vermot for the very first time. This is World War II with Tom Hanks, Episode 8 Operation Torch. The British base of Gibraltar has long guarded the opening to the Mediterranean. On November 5th 1942, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower lands at the military airstrip. He's arrived to take command of the joint US British ground operation in North Africa, codenamed Torch. This campaign will eventually open a second front against German and Italian forces already fighting in Africa. Operation Torch is an extremely complex landing. In all we're going to be depositing a force of around 100,000 troops and in order to deliver that force we've got to use 300 merchant men guarded by roughly 300 warships. Three allied task forces are involved in the complex maneuver. The east and center forces will land in Algiers and Iran. The west task force, sailing from America, will land on the beaches of Casablanca. They have to rendezvous at sea hundreds of miles away and then carry out simultaneous landings across nearly a thousand miles of North African coast. Nothing remotely like it had ever been carried out before. Eisenhower is handpicked by President Roosevelt to lead the alliance, to the surprise of many American and British military commanders. He's been a high level staff officer for years, but this will be his first wartime operation. Dwight Eisenhower a year ago had been a colonel and now he's been advanced to Lieutenant General. Eisenhower has never held a combat command. He was not actively involved in World War I. Never seen the psalm, never seen Bosch and Dale, never seen a man die in their arms in combat. Who is this man Eisenhower? Eisenhower is wickedly competitive and really intelligent and the other thing is he's not an ego he's pretty humble. He gets along with people which is utterly important when you think about the center of gravity for the allies in World War II is the alliance. From day one in Eisenhower's new role as Supreme Commander, he has a pile of problems on his plate. He has to run this gigantic operation. Nothing on this scale has ever been done before. He has to keep its secret. Eisenhower will need to coordinate the American and British commands and synchronize all elements of torch. Ultimately every aspect of the operation including preparing unproven American soldiers for combat is on his shoulders. One of the reasons they've chosen North Africa as a theater for American troops is because it'll give them an opportunity of blooding them. They're inexperienced. Most of them hadn't even seen combat up to this point against an incredibly formidable foe. The German troops were battle hardened. They'd been in the field now for two full years. They'd conquered various kinds of climbs, various kinds of terrain, various kinds of enemies and they'd beaten them all. By the summer of 1942 the Nazi Empire is huge. It goes all the way from the western coast of France to well inside the borders of the Soviet unit so that's a whole continental Europe effectively is controlled by the Nazis. The Germans control most of Europe but that's not the sum total of Hitler's ambitions. Germany has to be a global empire he says many times and so now the focus turns outside of Europe to North Africa. German and Italian forces are already fighting the British in North Africa, threatening the Suez Canal, the vital supply line between Britain and India. British imperial strategist have always been obsessed with the Suez Canal. It is the great archery of the British Empire. It joins Britain and its empire in the east, particularly India, the jewel of the British Empire. The danger is that the Axis forces move from there to control of the oil fields in the Middle East and if all of that happens they're going to sever the supply lines to the rest of the empire. Prime Minister Winston Churchill also wants to get the Americans to fight against the Axis as soon as possible. Roosevelt believed that American troops need to be in the field against the Axis powers in 1942. The people needed to feel that we were striking back. We need to figure out how to fight a modern battle and this is where the army is going to use as it's proving around. There are valuable lessons to be learned. North Africa might be a place to do it. But there's an immediate challenge. The future landing spots on North Africa's coast are on Vichy French territory. French Empire is the second largest in the world behind only that of Great Britain. With immense manpower and resources at its disposal, the French still controlled Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. After France surrenders to Germany in 1940 the country is split into. The southern half of France is ruled by the Vichy government which collaborates with Nazi Germany. It's led by World War One hero Marshall Philippe Petain. Eisenhower is anxious. Will the French in North Africa resist the American landing? No one's clear exactly how many soldiers and how much military asset the French have in North Africa. What they do know is that the French have a lot of very modern worships there. They also have about 120,000 soldiers although no one knows exactly how well trained they are or most crucially what their morale is, what they're inclined to do. American diplomats in North Africa believe the French are unlikely to resist the invasion. But cannot guarantee it. Eisenhower has been sending messages to various Vichy governors in North Africa hoping for cooperation. On November 7, over 600 ships gather at their meeting points out at sea. The warning order is flashed to the waiting ships. H hour is confirmed November 8. The Allies are ready to land. On November 7, more than 100,000 Allied troops are waiting off the coast of North Africa. There's risk and amphibious operations require detailed advanced preparation. What are the tides? What's the footing going to be? How close can landing craft get? Are their minds or their underwater obstacles? The first wave of landing craft from east and center task forces set off for the beaches at Algiers and Iran. Shortly after, fighter support takes off from Gibraltar. Ike Eisenhower must have been incredibly nervous and was nervous we know from his naval aid who writes that Ike is like a cat on bricks. Even though the weather was kind of bad the night before when they actually start unloading their landing craft and moving those craft up to the beaches, the surf is low enough that they're able to get their initial landing forces onto the beaches successfully. The first reports Eisenhower receives from the landing craft on the beaches are encouraging. But when large Allied warships Enter the ports of Algiers and Iran, the French open fire. The Allies keep moving and overcome the French a day later. On the Atlantic landing point in Casablanca, it's a different story. Eisenhower entrusts this force to his old friend, Major General George S. Patton, Jr. George Patton is an aggressive commander who believes in aggressive leadership. He is a fast-talking, disciplinarian, a character easily recognizable to the average soldier. As the Western task force nears short, Patton delivers a speech to his troops over each ship's public address system. Soldiers and sailors is not known whether the French African army will contest our landing. But all resistance by whom ever offer must be destroyed. In the early morning, Allied warships enter the harbor at Casablanca. The French do as they've been instructed to, they resist. This is an invading force. And the French open fire on the ships, it's the last thing in the world that an amphibious operation needs. Just a couple of heavy shells can destroy a landing. Despite French resistance, Americans continue their attack from the air as well as by sea. The result is actually the largest naval battle in the Atlantic during the war. Despite Eisenhower's diplomatic efforts, the troop landings face heavy French opposition. Nobody in the American or British side, least of all Eisenhower, wants American forces fighting French forces and does not want that to go on for any extended period of time at all. Eisenhower writes what he calls "the worries of a commander." No Frenchmen immediately available, no matter how friendly tort us, seems able to stop the fighting. Then with Operation Torch in danger of failing, the Allies contact a senior French military officer with the power to provide a solution. It just so happens that the commander-in-chief of French forces Admiral Francois d'Arlant is in North Africa at this time visiting his son who's stricken with polio. Although d'Arlant is a key Vichy collaborator, he's the only man with the authority to stop the French counterattack. D'Arlant had been a deep collaborator with the Germans and the Nazi presence in Vichy France. And as distasteful as a figure he is, he holds the key to stopping Vichy French resistance in North Africa. Eisenhower authorizes negotiations with d'Arlant. The Allies will put him in charge of French North Africa if he agrees to an armistice. It's a dirty deal, it's an unpleasant one, it's a nasty one, it's one that American journalists were absolutely appalled by. That evening, d'Arlant orders a general ceasefire and tells all French forces to join the Allies. And so, on November 11th, in the port city of Casablanca, French guns fall silent. Algeria and French Morocco have joined hands with the Allies against Germany and Italy. And this fact has immensely eased the difficulties that face our United Nations commanders into French North Africa. Eisenhower thought it would save lives on both sides and it would allow them to get on to the military mission in hand. The Allies have landed in North Africa and have convinced the French to fight alongside them. Now, as they push east, they will face tough, battle-hardened, access forces. G'day, I'm Justin Wolffers, host of the Platypus Economics Podcast. If there's one thing I've learned from a career teaching economics, it's that your life is shaped by economic currents you'll never see. A single price tag can explain things a thousand experts can't. People who understand economics, they make better decisions in their careers, their finances, their relationships and their communities, and I want that for you. Listen to and follow Platypus Economics, available now wherever you get your podcasts. After the Allied landings, General Eisenhower moves his combined force across the North African desert. The Allied plan is not simply to approach from the west. Their strategy is more ambitious. The ultimate goal if torch works is the United States and the British that land in the western part of Africa will drive to the east. The British that are in the east and Egypt will drive to the west and they will capture a German Italian army in between those two pensors. The British fighting in the east, the eighth army, has been battling the Africa Corps. Led by the desert fox, Irwin Rommel. He had a mystique about him. He had a World War I reputation. He was a feared leader. He had the fingertip feel of the battle. For months, Rommel has pursued the British through Libya into Egypt, capturing vital supplies and threatening the Suez Canal. The Africa Corps' success has left Prime Minister Winston Churchill depressed and politically vulnerable. Churchill looks like he's lost his touch. He faces two no-confidence motions in Parliament, both of which he wins, but has one Labour MP says, "Well, you keep winning the debates, but you lose the battles." Winston Churchill is in need of victories. For Churchill and for Operation Torch, one battle in North Africa will be critical. Just weeks before the Allied landings, the British eighth army led by General Bernard Montgomery. Prepares his troops at a little-known railway junction called El Alamane. From here, Montgomery plans to launch a massive counter-offensive against the Africa Corps. El Alamane shouldn't be viewed in isolation. It's part of a broader Allied plan. Montgomery's eighth army attacking Rommel from the east, and meanwhile a vast amphibious landing in the western half of North Africa, Operation Torch. Converging on Rommel from two directions and eventually presenting him with an insoluble operational dilemma, trying to maintain himself against not just one, but two superior enemies. Montgomery is reinforced with American Sherman and Grant tanks. Plus troops from India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the rest of the British Commonwealth. At last, Montgomery, who has been finding the vermouth since the invasion of France, has the opportunity to go on the offensive against Rommel. On the night of October 23rd, 1942, Montgomery opens the battle with a massive barrage. Montgomery knows he's got to proceed step-by-step, thousand yards by thousand yards, get the infantry in, clear the minefield, open the way for the tanks, hold the ground. Rommel finds back, but he's hampered by lack of fuel. After days of fighting, the eighth army prevails. By the 11th day of the fighting, Montgomery's superior numbers and material finally begin to take effect. The British infantry and New Zealand infantry finally break their way through the German lines and open things up for the armour. Tens of thousands of men, thousands of tanks, hundreds of heavy artillery, heavy losses on both sides. Inevitably, the better supplied and armed force went out, and that's Montgomery's eighth army. Winston Churchill has absolutely thrilled this is years of planning and preparation. And he says, I bring you victory and they think he's gone mad. They haven't heard of any victories for years. remain and puts it into context. "It is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning." [MUSIC PLAYING] Montgomery's win here is one of the most significant British victories of the entire war. Montgomery has beaten Rommel at El Alamein, and Rommel is retreating as fast as he can. The critical pincer plan, the ultimate goal of torch, is underway. Montgomery certainly undertakes an epic pursuit from El Alamein over the wire, the Egyptian Libyan border, and now heading towards Tripoli. In the West, Eisenhower's troops have moved hundreds of miles. Three weeks after landing, there are only 12 miles outside Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. When he learns this, Adolf Hitler is determined to stop the allies. The war is not going the way he thought it was going to go. And now, all of a sudden, you've got these allies messing around in North Africa. This isn't supposed to happen. Hitler sends reinforcements, including an entire Panzer Division to the ports and air bases around Tunis. Combined with Rommel's Africa Corps, there are now 100,000 German and Italian troops on the continent. No one in either camp had ever envisioned a gigantic continental battle being fought for Tunisia. But that's where the fortunes of war have brought the two adversaries. Thanksgiving 1942. Near Tunis, American tanks clash with German panzers for the first time. The tank is the modern manifestation of land warfare. The idea that tanked American tanks are fighting German tanks. This is what FDR said was going to happen. We're now pushing back against Germany. This is the actual battlefield. Germans on the left, Americans on the right. P-38s move ahead of the advancing forces. These scenes were photographed from the hill overlooking the battlefield. All logic would tell you this is going to get badly for the Americans. They have no experience of war threat at this stage. The Germans are hardened combat veterans. A lot of them are fought in Western Europe in all those victorious battles. These are German Mark IV tanks. These are Panzer IVs with 75 millimeter guns very effective and up against them, you've got relatively light American tanks. They've only got 37 millimeter guns and the skin of the armor isn't very effective. The scrambish begins badly for the Americans who are supported by British troops. Our British ammunition glory is here. At the start of it, they get knocked back a whole troop of tanks gets wiped out. But the Allies have a second company of tanks in reserve. They're able to fire into the position of the German armor that is very weak, which is really round the belt and also at the back of the tank. And they knock out in the space of a few minutes, eight German panzers. - Watch the tank in the center of the picture. Let's go on the left of the screen and struck the center tank. It spins around, disabled. There it goes. The panzers now withdraw. In this very first tank to tank scrambish, the Americans beat back the Germans. - Black smoke indicates the end. - But the offensive stalls. Reinforcements sent by Hitler, pummel them from land and air while the winter rains impede movement. Just before Christmas, General Eisenhower visits the front to consult with his troops and commanders. He concludes that there's no chance of reaching Tunis in the current conditions and calls off the advance. - There's a U.S. Army report from this era, which says, "At present, the Germans are making war better than we are." In the new year, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill meet in Casablanca. (dramatic music) President Roosevelt flies in. The very first president to fly while in office. - The codename of Roosevelt's secret meeting with Churchill and Casablanca is Don Quixote. This is the first time that an American president has left to the United States during wartime. - Moving a president of the United States in his entourage is always a difficult thing. In this case, they can't send him by ship across the Atlantic Ocean because of the presence of German new boats, so they send him on this insane trip by rail from Washington to Miami, then by a clipper flying boat from Miami to Trinidad, Trinidad to Brazil, Brazil to Gambia, Gambia to Casablanca. It's an incredibly arduous journey that Roosevelt believed he had to make. - Roosevelt and Churchill will meet numerous times throughout the war and derive great benefit from face-to-face meetings. Churchill can now play the part of the Great Imperial Warlord that so far he's been only through his speeches. Now he can do it on the ground. And he does he does best, which he rolls out the maps and talks about grand strategy with the US president. - Over 10 days, the two leaders and their staffs discuss the progress of Operation Torch and plan the Allies next steps. - It's really the high water mark of the Roosevelt-Churcho relationship, their statesmen moving chess pieces around on a board. - Just before they leave, they talk to reporters from around the world. - The North African Conference is the fourth occasion on which the two great men have met since the beginning of the war. - To the surprise of many, including Churchill, Roosevelt announces a new war aim. - A new phrase was born, unconditional surrender for the Axis. - Unconditional surrender meant that Nazi Germany would have to fall. That did not mean that Germany had to be destroyed, but Nazi power had to be smashed. We would now call this regime change. - There'll be no armistice. There'll be no soft surrender. There'll be no repetition of World War I. This is unconditional surrender. - It's quite something. We're in early 1943. And it is not at all clear that the Allies are even winning the war. They're having trouble taking Tunis, which is a very long way from Berlin. Yet Roosevelt and Churchill know that they can produce more than their adversaries. And if production goes as they think it will, they will be able to swamp the armies that the Axis puts in the field against them. - As the conference ends, Allied intelligence reveals, Rommel's army pursued by Montgomery has joined with Hitler's reinforcements. But the Americans and the British now have them surrounded. By the end of January 1943, the Allies are finally gaining ground against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. In the Pacific, the Americans have secured Guadalcanal. The Allies successfully landed in the West and Montgomery's eighth army has pressed Rommel's apricot core across a wide front. The Allies now surround the Axis army deep inside Tunisia. But before they can get far, Rommel plots a counteroffensive. He's identified a weak point in the Allied line at Casarine Pass. - Casarine is this very narrow pass. It's only about two miles wide, and it leads into the dorsal mountains they call in the mountain range in the center of Tunisia. He's got heights on either side of it. If Rommel can drive deep enough through Casarine and into the rear areas of the Allied army, he can possibly turn the whole thing round. - From there, he'll have all sorts of choices about what to do next. Overrun Allied supply dumps, perhaps drive straight north to the sea and cut off the entire Allied force in Tunisia. - There are 30,000 Allied troops in the region. But the narrow pass itself is guarded by just 2,000 men. Spread thinly across the terrain. The Allied troops in the Casarine Pass are the US Second Corps, infantry, engineers, artillery. Men who, by and large, are completely inexperienced. The Allied forces are distributed [BLANK_AUDIO] dispersed, lacking mutual support, air support is not dominant at this point. On February 19th, Rommel launches his attack. Until now, the Americans have had skirmishes with the Germans but haven't faced a full scale, Panzer Assault. This attack comes in with heavy artillery, rapid movement of German armor, and effective use of motorized infantry to clear positions. The American forces are caught off guard. Not only is this their first major fight, but their commander is far behind the lines and doesn't communicate with the front. The results are devastating. These troops slowly with surely being outgunned, outmaneuvered, outfought. What starts out is that the defeat becomes a bit of a route. The axis now begins streaming up this pass. It's just a steam roller. By the evening of the second day, US defenses in the pass have collapsed. On 2,500 soldiers are wounded, another 2,500 taken prisoner. Others abandon their vehicles and flee over the hills. Rommel's plan is working, but then he pushes too far. He sends his troops forward, seeking a way through the mountains and allowing his supply lines to get dangerously long. Rommel might have thought he had the US Army on the run, but the momentum that he had established from that opening is now beginning to wear down. His losses are mounting. His supplies are running out, especially tank ammunition and fuel. As Rommel weakens, the US Army studies itself in regroups. Blocking Rommel's breakout with a wall of US artillery and air support. Which ultimately forces Rommel to retreat. The Americans lose casualties and POWs taken. This is a real black eye for them. It is the punch in the face that the American doctrine isn't where it should be. We aren't fighting the way we should. We need better training. We need better leadership. Castering pass condemns all of those weaknesses. The result of this is going to be that Americans become much more serious about making sure that forces remain concentrated, particularly armed forces, than we're not going to allow them to be doled out in little bits and pieces. General Eisenhower takes responsibility for the initial breakdown at Castering pass and makes changes to address logistical and operational issues. He also reorganizes the Allied force in North Africa. His first move is to give General George Patton command of the US Second Corps. Patton's a swashbuckler and he's been waiting in the wings and now it's his moment. He's a man who is a strong leader and troops respond to strong leaders. His subordinate commanders all know that he will be up there on the battlefield looking over their shoulders and if they are not performing up to expectations, they're gone. He tells his troops famously you're not all going to be killed, only about 4 percent of you. You're reassuring, I'm probably going to survive this. But death is going to be your companion going forward and I'm not going to spare you. We're going to hit the Germans base to face and toe to toe. Eisenhower's troops are now prepared and in position to deal, a final blow to the Axis powers in North Africa. After five months of combat, the combined Allied troops have become an effective fighting force. General Eisenhower now marshals these troops for what he hopes will be a final confrontation with Rommel and the Axis. The Allied plan is to bleed Rommel's strength off. Any time he faces the British, theoretically, he can have the Americans advancing into his rear and every time he turns against the Americans, he can have Montgomery advancing into his rear. On March 20th, the Allies are ready to attack in a place called El Gatar. Patton tells his men, "We must be eager to kill. If we fight viciously enough, we will live to return to our family as conquering heroes." The Germans become aware of that position and say to themselves, "We think we can eject the Americans fairly easily. We did it before at Casarine, right?" As German panzers burst onto the planes at El Gatar with Stukas plunging down, Patton deploys US field artillery and tank destroyers. Patton is very aware of how to use armor, infantry, and artillery all together. When the Germans put in that attack, the Americans greet them with a true example of combined arms and they absolutely shellac them. And come right after Casarine passed, it has gone from failure to success. Over the next month, the Allies squeeze the Axis armies. And by early April, Eisenhower's forces and Montgomery's 8th Army finally join. Eisenhower rejoices. We are at last operating on a single battle line. Now the Allies set their sights on Tunis. German resistance is ferocious. Every hill and pass is a struggle. But gradually, with concentrated firepower from two sides, the Allies continue to move forward. Almost inch by inch, the Axis position in Tunisia shrinks. Until it's a little more than an arc around the city of Tunis itself. On May 7th, Allied troops enter Tunis, and the Axis forces surrender. After the capture of Tunis, North Africa is finally free of the Nazis and their fascist Italian Allies. The North African campaign is over. By tens, by hundreds, by thousands, they came. And at the end, 15 full divisions, 266,000 of their best men laid down their arms. Over a quarter of a million Germans and Italians are captured. Prisoners as far as the eye can see. This is a great moment for the Allied cause. There had been one disastrous encounter with the Germans after the other since this war began. And now, I think everyone on the Allied side, especially Roosevelt would say the home folks can see that something was going right in this war. Many high-ranking Axis commanders are captured, but not rumble, who has been recalled to Germany by Adolf Hitler. The success of Operation Torch, combined with the British victory at El Alamane, pushed the Nazis out of North Africa. It is the first step toward Allied victory over the Third Reich. To give you a sense of the scale of the victory in Tunisia, Churchill orders the church bells to be wrong. They haven't been wrong during the course of the whole war. It's an unbelievable victory for the Allies. The tide of the war is turning, but it's unclear what's next. "This great victory is a monument to the perfection of cooperation among the fighting services of several nations. I know you would be proud of the way our own boys, your husbands, brothers, sons and sweethearts have delivered here for you." Winston Churchill said the only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them. Operation Torch demonstrates that General Eisenhower could command the multinational coalition of military forces necessary to topple the Third Reich. There are many fronts in modern war. Because of its very nature, the role of gathering intelligence is often obscure and misunderstood, but when it's successful, it can be decisive. That's why it's small. All English Hamlet, purposefully located between Cambridge and Oxford, becomes a crucial front in World War II. World War II with Tom Hanks is produced by Netopia Limited, A&E Factual Studios, Play Tom Productions and Backpocket Studios in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd, additional voicing provided by me, Jeremy Reagan. From the History Channel, our Executive Producers are Eli Lara and Liv Fiddler. For Play Tone, Executive Producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Getsman. For Backpocket Studios, our Executive Producers is Ben Dixteam.