Prime Minister Winston Churchill Declares Operation Torch – the First Great Allied Operation of the War – a Victory

“The unqualified success of the ‘TORCH’ landings reflects the greatest credit upon those who were responsible for the movement of the personnel, equipment and supplies to the ports of embarkation and their loading into the ships. I congratulate you most warmly on a brilliant piece of staff work, and I should be glad if you would convey to all concerned an expression of my deep appreciation of their work.”

This is the first Churchill letter we have had or can recall seeing relating to one of the great operations of the war

To Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes was Director of Movements at the War Office

 

Operation Torch was the name given to the Allied invasion of North Africa that took place from November 8 to November 16, 1942. It was the first mass involvement of U.S. troops in the European Theatre of World War II, the first major military cooperation between Britain and the U.S., and it saw the first airborne assault carried out by the United States. It was also the first action in which General Dwight D. Eisenhower played a leading role. The target of the plan was to take the Vichy French colonies in Africa and force them out of the war, while making the Germans face two fronts in Africa (the other was the British force in Egypt).

The plan was to make an Atlantic coast landing to capture Casablanca, and this was assigned to the all-American Western Task Force under Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, with 35,000 troops carried by a U.S. Navy task force sailing directly from the U.S. The capture of Oran was entrusted to the Centre Task Force, which consisted of 39,000 U.S. troops, but was escorted by a British naval force. For the operation against Algiers, the Eastern Naval Task Force was entirely British, but the Assault Force consisted of 23,000 British and 10,000 American troops.

The invasion was successful. On November 10, while the operation still continued, Vichy French Marshal Petain’s deputy, Admiral Francois Darlan, concluded an armistice with the Allies, effectively ending French resistance in North Africa and confirming the Allies’ victory. The victory of Torch was important, as the other great operations of the war – like Operation Overlord (D-Day) – would have been impossible without it.

The invasion of North Africa accomplished much other good for the Allies. Perhaps most important, American and British forces finally had seized the offensive after three years of German and Italian forces dictating the tempo of events. Now forced to fight on both its western and eastern flank, Rommel’s Panzer-Armee Afrika faced an additional burden of having its tenuous logistical supply train across the Mediterranean subjected to further attack. Bases in northwest Africa, meanwhile, could contribute to the Allied prosecution of the anti-submarine campaign in the eastern Atlantic. The movement of some 100,000 soldiers from the United States and United Kingdom through hostile waters and on to contested shores demonstrated successful collaboration between the British and American staffs. Taken in combination with the Americans’ promising campaign in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Theatre, and the Soviets’ apparent ability to hold in the Eastern Front, the Allies were positioned significantly better in late 1942 than they had been in the early spring. As if to drive home this point, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs met at Casablanca in January 1943 to determine the next steps for further rolling back the Axis.

Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes was Director of Movements at the War Office between 1939 and 1943. As such, he was responsible for the movement of personnel, equipment, and supplies. He did a fine job organizing Torch, of which Churchill was very aware. At Churchill’s behest, Holmes accompanied him to the conferences of Allied war leaders in Casablanca, Washington, Quebec, Cairo, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam. In 1943 Holmes was made Deputy Quartermaster General, which post he held from 1943 and 1946. The Quartermaster General’s office was in charge of supplies for a whole army.

In the euphoria of the success of Operation Torch, Churchill reached out to Holmes to declare Torch a victory, and to thank him and his staff for the role they played. Typed letter signed, on Prime Minister’s letterhead, November 16, 1942, to Holmes. “The unqualified success of the ‘TORCH’ landings reflects the greatest credit upon those who were responsible for the movement of the personnel, equipment and supplies to the ports of embarkation and their loading into the ships. I congratulate you most warmly on a brilliant piece of staff work, and I should be glad if you would convey to all concerned an expression of my deep appreciation of their work.”

This is the first Churchill letter we can ever recall seeing declaring victory in, or relating to, one of the great Operations of the war.