September of 1942
the German Army was at Stalingrad and Gen. Rommel was at
the gates of Egypt with his touted Afrika Corp. The
Allies desparately needed a second front to reverse the
eastern assault of the Axis armies. Operation Torch was
devised to be that second front.
The
invasion plan called for three naval task forces to in invade Northern
Africa. The USS Augusta under
the command of Rear Admiral H.K. Hewitt1 and embarking
Western Task Force, US Army General George S. Patton, Jr. commanding was selected to
be the flagship for the Western Naval Task Force (WNTF) for Operation Torch.
The plan for the WNTF was
to land a force of about 9,000 at Port Lyautry which was north of
Casablanca to capture the airport. At the same time 18,000, supported by
80 tanks was to land at Fedala and march on Casablanca from the north. A
third force of 6,000 with a hundred heavy tanks, having landed at Safi,
was to advance on the city from the south.
"PLAY
BALL" - With the initial element of
surprise, at 0000 GMT on November 8,1942 the Augusta
reached the shores off Casablanca and the Task Force
commenced disembarking the invasion troops which were
under the command of Gen. George S. Patton who at the
time was directing the assault from the Augusta.
The ship's war diary contains the following
entry for that morning:
The landing of our
boats was heavily opposed by both shore installations
and French troops and at 0617 the order to "Play
Ball" was received - this meant that we were to
carry out our Attack Plan and destroy to the best of
our ability all resistance encountered.
At 0700 in Casablanca Harbor five
Vichy French submarines were preparing to stand out of the harbor to
go on patrol. Merchantmen were beginning loading and unloading their
cargos, and on board the cruisers and destroyers the crews were at
work scrubbing decks.
At 0730 the aircraft carrier
USS
Ranger launched her first strike of bombers with Wildcat
escorts. Ten minutes later they were intercepted by French fighters,
and in a dogfight 5 American and 7 French planes were shot down.
At 0804 as the Ranger's bombers were
releasing their loads the battleship USS Massachusetts
opened up with salvoes of her 16 inch guns on Casablanca's quays and
ships. In the commercial harbor 10 cargo and passenger ships were sunk
in 10 minutes, 40 crew killed and 60 wounded. Alongside the breakwater
3 Vichy submarines went down at their moorings their crews cut to
pieces by flying stones.
El Hank and Oukacha returned fire
along with Jean Bart one turret. Wreckage hurled aboard from the
quayside landed down on the turret.
At 0900 the Vichy 2nd Light Cruiser
Squadron under Rear-Admiral Gervais de Lafond raised sufficient steam
to put to sea to head for Fedala. His flagshp, Primauguet,
undergoing minor engine repair, de Lafond hoisted his flag in the
superdestroyer Milan. He steamed northwards at full
speed hoping that the smoke and rising sun would blind the American
naval forces. At 0920 Wildcats from Ranger strafed her
decks. Every man on bridge including LeFond was wounded. In the Vichy
Boulonnais, was severly damaged. The commanding officer, Lt.-Comdr
Martinant de Preneuf was killed on the Albatross. The
Brestois anti-aircraft battery was put out of action.
Thereafter the Primauguet
was off Fedala in the cross hairs of Augusta, Brooklyn
to the north and Massachucetts, Tuscaloosa
and Wichita from the northeast The
first
Vichy ship to sink was the Fougueux, which was struck by
Massachusetts and Tuscaloosa. The
Vichy Milan's bow shattered and forward turret wrecked
and she beached.
The Boulonnais was
sunk by 8 16" guns while carrying out a torpedo run, she turned
turtle, and sunk with all hands.
Primauguet holed below
her water line, with half of her engine room crew dead, dropped anchor
near Milan.
Brestois and
Frondeur
got back to harbor but capsized during the night.
Vichy destroyer Alcyon
left harbor for survivors but was attacked by bombers and navy guns
when she cleared the Casablanca breakwater. The Albatross
and Primauguet were hit again while trying to transfer
100 dead and 200 hundred wounded.
For the next three days
the Augusta was engaged in
protecting the transport ships and the invasion troops,
and combating enemy naval and coastal resistance. On
November
10, 1942 the Augusta
helped turn back the French units sortieing from
Casablanca who were attempting to disrupt the landings.
The ship's scout observation planes played an active role in spotting the accuracy
of the
ship's gunfire against
the enemy ships and coastal batteries. As depicted in the
photo at right during this battle the Augusta
(in the background) was
straddled by shells from the Vichy French battleship,
Jean
Bart, which had
been earlier mistakenly reported to Hewitt to have been
out of commission. The Jean Bart
was subsequently put out of action by return ship and
carrier plane bombardment.
The invasion was
successful and the ship and crew had the good fortune of
being able to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 1942 with a
special dinner with cuisine
ala North Africa. A copy of the
ship's program issued to the crew for that day is
reproduced here. The
message to the crew for that day summed up the feelings
of all:
In
its five engagements, one against a shore battery and
four against enemy naval forces, the ship rendered a
good account of itself and contributed in a large
degree to the final defeat of the opposing forces and
the establishing of a second front, in North Africa.
In the course of each engagement the ship was
subjected to accurate and heavy fire by the opposing
forces. And yet, although bracketed many times by the
projectiles of the enemy, the ship miraculously
escaped without damage to herself or injury to the
crew. It should be apparent to all that consistent
escape from harm was due not alone to skill, or to
good luck, but unquestionably to the intervention of
divine providence.
In