Desperate Venture: The Story of Operation Torch, the Allied Invasion of North Africa by Norman Gelb

Author:Norman Gelb
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Published: 2018-03-07T21:00:00+00:00

12 - SHOWDOWN IN ALGIERS

Here we are with a city on our hands. It is bizarre.

Conspirator Jean Rigault

Of the conspiracies afoot in North Africa, clandestine plans to ease the way for the invaders had been most highly developed in Algiers. Almost a thousand insurgents, many of them armed, some of them army officers, were supposed to be prepared to spring into action in the Algerian capital at the appointed time to seize control of the city and block resistance to the landings.

Teams of insurgents were set to seize the Algiers radio station, police headquarters, and other important public buildings and installations. They would take control of the telephone and other communications systems. Where possible, they would take into custody key military and civilian personnel who might prove obstructive. The French Navy, traditionally more conservative, had been generally far less restive politically than elements of the army officer corps. Senior French naval commanders had been considered unlikely to cooperate at first, so no serious effort had been made to draw them into the conspiracy. But plans had been made to sever the navy’s communications system in North Africa to hamper armed naval resistance when the invasion began.

Much depended on timing. The insurgents had reason to doubt whether the senior army officers in Algiers would cooperate with the Allies. Though known to be anti-German, General Alphonse Juin, the commander of French ground and air forces in North Africa, and General Louis Koeltz, XIX Corps commander, were expected to obey recently restated orders from Vichy that invaders of whatever stripe were to be repelled. Indeed, Juin had clearly indicated to Murphy that he would obey those orders. Their own comparative weakness and the positions of authority of the people they were likely to be up against led the conspirators to accept their own limitations. They did not expect to be able to hold the key installations they planned to seize for more than a few hours. But the invading Allied troops were not likely to need more time than that to establish themselves and take control of the situation in order to keep the coup from being crushed by those acting in accordance with Vichy’s instructions.

The landings at the beaches near Algiers were scheduled for 1:00 A.M., Sunday, November 8. But only a few of the senior French conspirators knew that in advance — and not till four days before had those few been informed. That left little time for detailed preparations. Having been told only that the invasion would not be long in coming, most of the others had assumed the landings were planned for much later in November at the earliest. Many of them still were under that impression.

For fear of a leak if word spread too early even in insurgent circles, necessary arrangements were not due to be made until nearer to what was thought would be D-Day. Unaware of the actual timing, many who were counted on to take part in the coup had left town for the weekend as they often did.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.