Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa. Nov. 1942 (Pt. 8).

Allies Make News on Various Fronts, Most of it Good

News Clippings from Nov. 20 - 23, 1942

Naval ratings off duty enjoying a bathe on the North African coast at Oran

or Mers-El-Kebir. Photo - RN Photographer, Imperial War Museum

Introduction:

Please find below news articles from The Winnipeg Tribune and a few photographs from the Imperial War Museum that reveal a sense of the times during mid- to late-November, 1942, as Allied forces continue to make positive advances on different war fronts.

Canadians in Combined Operations were likely finished - by November 20 - unloading soldiers and supplies from a goodly number of troop and merchant ships (belonging to "the biggest armada of all time" (up to that date, of course) and were on their way back to the U.K. for leaves, followed by more training associated with growing landing craft flotillas at bases throughout England and Scotland. Hopefully, they first had a chance to bathe on a sunny North African shore before leaving town (see top photo).

About his return to England after 11 days of hard slugging, my father writes the following in memoirs:

I went back aboard the Reina Del and headed for Gibraltar to regroup for the trip back to England. During the trip I noticed the ship carried an unexploded three inch shell in her side all the way back to England.

Just outside Gibraltar, Ettrick was torpedoed in her side and sank, and one rating from Ingersoll, Ontario was among those killed. She took four hours to sink and many were saved. We arrived in England without trouble. Our ship was fast, could do about 22 knots per hour, a knot being one mile and a fifth per hour....

A convoy is only as fast as the slowest ship and fast ships that make over 20 knots usually travel alone on a zig zag course so a sub cannot get lined up on them. That wouldn’t work today as subs are much faster. ("Dad, Well Done" page 26)

As was the case, my father had a girl friend in the U.K. and once back in England he looked through a handful of letters waiting for him:

Six weeks later we arrived back from North Africa to Liverpool on the Reina-del-Pacifico and in a few days the mail arrived from FMO and among my stack was a letter from Grace, now serving at the summer resort town of Blackpool.

Could I get a weekend leave? If so, she said she’d arrange rooming quarters and give me a phone number to call at a precise time. That’s if things became favourable for me, which they did, and quite soon I was stepping onto the train platform at Blackpool with Grace waiting with open arms. (Memoirs, page 54)

The following four photographs from Imperial War Museum are related to Operation Torch:

A12704. LCP's leaving the troop ship for shore.

RN Photographer Lt. L. Pelman, IWM. 

A12824. Landing craft on their way inshore from transports.

RN Photographer Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM.

A12978. Heading - Escort Ships return from the North African operations.

Londonderry, 22 November, 1942. Caption - Ratings on board a Corvette

reading letters from home which awaited their arrival in a British port.

RN Photographer Lt. H.W. Tomlin, Imperial War Museum.

A12980. The ship's company of a corvette which formed part of the North

Africa convoy, in good spirits on their return to harbour. Lt. H.W. Tomlin

News clippings from The Tribune give a sense of the times and just how Allied Forces are faring at this time during World War 2:

A PDF file I located several years ago - a reprint of a lengthy piece first published in The Times (London, UK) after the war ended - sums up in its own way the work done by Allied forces in North Africa:

No attribution can be offered at this time. GH

More clippings and photographs related to Operation Torch to follow.

Please link to Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 7).

Unattributed Photos GH

Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 7).

Allied Landings Continue to Make Progress

News Clippings from Nov. 17 - 19, 1942

A12936. An injured French soldier being lowered into a landing craft

after receiving treatment on board the REINA DEL PACIFICO.

Photo Credit - RN Photographer Lt. F.A. Hudson.

Imperial War Museum (IWM).

Introduction:

The landings of the initial Allied soldiers (chiefly British and American troops) along the western and northern coasts of Africa began on November 8, 1942.

The big push of these landings lasted - almost non-stop, with thousands of men and their vast supplies - for several days while reinforcements and more supplies approached from the UK and USA.

Canadians in Combined Ops reportedly worked for 11 long days at least, catching 2 hours of sleep here and there on landing crafts, or resting aboard liners converted to troop ships, e.g., Reina Del Pacifico (above photo; "The Queen of the Pacific") when allowed by an officer.

Future news clippings will reveal that about 300 members of RCNVR (who had volunteered also for the Combined Operations organization in late 1941 and early 1942), after ferrying or transporting of troops and materials of war was done, would be themselves transported back to the UK.

So... rest, relaxation, leaves, mail from home, visits with English relatives, walks with new wives or girlfriends, e.g., in Blackpool(!) - all lay in the near future.

The following news clippings are from The Winnipeg Tribune (digitized and housed at the University of Manitoba. Please visit the site and peruse at your pleasure).

Rare photos related to Operation Torch are also presented, as found at the Imperial War Museum, United Kingdom. Search their site as well, home to 11,000,000 photos.

(A few of the stories and photos relate directly to Canadians in Combined Ops, but most provide some context for their important activities, and a sense of the times during which they served.)

The next news clipping suggests that the invasion of North Africa had outcomes that extended to the war in Russia, i.e., it drew away some of Hitler's forces from the Russian Front. Stalin's call for "a second front" may have been partially answered. 

Many news reels related to the invasion of North Africa are available today for our viewing. Please check the growing archive of videos attached to this site; see "videos re Combined Operations" under "click on Headings" in the right hand margin for access to all videos I have found to date.

For example, you will soon find a link to the following, and more:

Video: British Pathe Newsreels - North Africa, 1942.

Although Bizerte (1) is the focus of the map below, Canadians were involved at Algiers (to the left of Bizerte) on Nov. 8, 1942, and mentioned Bougie and Bone (between the two) in memoirs related to the invasion of Sicily in July 1943:

The above account about United Press War Correspondent Leo S. Disher is important for two reasons.

First, his own story is very rare. Disher "became the first combat reporter awarded the Purple Heart — citing “extraordinary heroism and meritorious performance of duty” for action on a day in November 1942". 

Photo Source - Wikipedia Commons

Please link to First Purple heart for Working Reporter for a detailed account.

Second, the account was placed in the newspaper near the next clipping which also caught my attention. I am so glad it did.

My father mentioned AB Lloyd Campbell in a story about the run-up to the Dieppe Raid. From Dad's story and another by Sub. Lt. Robert McRae, I knew that Lloyd had been seriously wounded during the raid and later died while a POW. Few other details were listed.

However, details in the news clipping - especially the sister's name - led me to much more information about Lloyd, including his first duties in the RCNVR, and, his last written words to his sister.

I have since organized a series of posts with the valuable information now available about Lloyd G. Campbell. Please link to Editor's Research: Lloyd Campbell, London Ont.

"Taken before he shipped out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sept 2, 1940"

Photo Credit - Kathryn Rollins, Madeline's grand-daughter.

I 'Googled' "Allied Nations Invade North Africa" as found above and one of the discoveries was a PDF file in Public Domain concerning Operation Torch. Please see below.

Interested readers will find much to whet their appetites about the invasion of North Africa, and good information is revealed about specific landings that involved Canadians in Combined Operations. My father wrote about his own experiences at Arzeu, east of Oran and one of the Center Task Force's specific landing sites. 

Oran was the central focus of the Center Task Force. Arzeu was to its right.

About Arzeu I found the following:

The Landings in North Africa, pages 65 - 67

The following 3 photographs and their captions, related to Operation Torch, are found at the Imperial War Museum (IWM):

A12935. The British Naval beachmaster and his party at Arzeu,

near Oran, Algiers. RN Photographer Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM

A12937. Transports of the expedition lying in Gibraltar harbour.

Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM

A12939. Heading - Hoisting the Stars and Stripes over Algiers, after the cease-fire.

Caption - The ceremony was attended by Senior Naval and Military Officers.

RN Photographer Lt. R.G.G. Coote, IWM.

News from Stalingrad, a key battle in Russia:

News clippings from the November 19th issue of The Winnipeg Tribune, very close to the day that the Canadian sailors in the 80th and 81st Flotillas of Landing Craft completed their transport duties:

A photo of the Allied armada approaching North Africa about 11 days after the fact:

More to follow from The Tribune and other sources.

Please link to Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 6).

Unattributed Photos GH