An important point was that we could not afford a military occupation, unless we chose to halt all action against the Axis. The Arab population was then sympathetic to the Vichy French regime, which had effectively eliminated Jewish rights in the region, and an Arab uprising against us, which the Germans were definitely trying to foment, would have been disastrous. It was our intention to win North Africa only for use as a base from which to carry on the war against Hitler. Legally our position in Africa differed from our subsequent status in Sicily, just as the latter differed from our status in Italy and, later, in Germany. Theoretically we were in the country of an ally. The actual effect of Darlan’s commitment was to recognize and give effect to our position of dominating influence—but we would have to use this position skillfully if we were to avoid trouble.
Darlan’s orders to the French Army were obeyed, in contrast to the disdain with which the earlier Giraud pronouncement had been received. Darlan stopped the fighting on the western coast, where the United States forces had just been concentrated against the defenses of Casablanca and were preparing to deliver a general assault. General Patton’s earlier experiences in Morocco indicated that this would have been a bloody affair.
Final agreement with the French Army, Navy, and Air officials, headed by Darlan, was reached at Algiers on November 13.23 Flying back that night, Admiral Cunningham and I had a nasty experience with bad weather and poor landing conditions at Gibraltar. We flew around the Rock in complete blackness, making futile passes at the field. I saw no way out of a bad predicament and still think the young lieutenant pilot must have depended more upon a rabbit’s foot than upon his controls to accomplish the skillful landing that finally brought us safely down. This experience strengthened my previously formed intention to shift headquarters to Algiers quickly, a decision that threw the Signal Corps into a panic. The signal officer said he could provide no communications at Algiers before the first of the year. But we moved on November 23.24
Official reports of all political problems had of course been periodically submitted to our two governments. Nevertheless, the instant criticism in the press of the two countries became so strong as to impel both the President and the Prime Minister to ask for fuller explanation. They got it in the form of a long telegram, which was given wide circulation among government officials in Washington and London. Even after long retrospective study of the situation I can think of little to add to the telegraphic explanation. I quote it here, paraphrased to comply with regulations designed to preserve the security of codes:
“November 14
“Completely understand the bewilderment in London and Washington because of the turn that negotiations with French North Africans have taken. Existing French sentiment here does not remotely agree with prior calculations. The following facts are pertinent and it is important that no precipitate action at home upset the equilibrium we have been able to establish.
“The name of Marshal Pétain is something to conjure with here. Everyone attempts to create the impression that he lives and acts under the shadow of the Marshal’s figure. Civil governors, military leaders, and naval commanders agree that only one man has an obvious right to assume the Marshal’s mantle in North Africa. He is Darlan. Even Giraud, who has been our trusted adviser and staunch friend since early conferences succeeded in bringing him down to earth, recognizes this overriding consideration and has modified his own intentions accordingly.
“The resistance we first met was offered because all ranks believed this to be the Marshal’s wish. For this reason Giraud is deemed to have been guilty of at least a touch of insubordination in urging non-resistance to our landing. General Giraud understands and appears to have some sympathy for this universal attitude. All concerned say they are ready to help us provided Darlan tells them to do so, but they are not willing to follow anyone else. Admiral Esteva in Tunis says he will take orders from Darlan. Noguès stopped fighting in Morocco by Darlan’s order. Recognition of Darlan’s position in this regard cannot be escaped.
“The gist of the agreement is that the French will do what they can to assist us in taking Tunisia. The group will organize for effective co-operation and will begin, under Giraud, reorganization of selected military forces for participation in the war. The group will exhaust every expedient in an effort to get the Toulon fleet. We will support the group in controlling and pacifying country and in equipping selected units. Details still under discussion.
“Our hope of quick conquest of Tunisia and of gaining here a supporting population cannot be realized unless there is accepted a general agreement along the lines which we have just made with Darlan and the other officials who control the administrative machinery of the region and the tribes in Morocco. Giraud is now aware of his inability to do anything by himself, even with Allied support. He has cheerfully accepted the post of military chief in the Darlan group. He agrees that his own name should not be mentioned until a period of several days has elapsed. Without a strong French government we would be forced to undertake military occupation. The cost in time and resources would be tremendous. In Morocco alone General Patton believes that it would require 60,000 Allied troops to keep the tribes pacified. In view of the effect that tribal disturbance would have on Spain, you see what a problem we have.”25
At no time in the long negotiations did Darlan state confidently that he could bring the French fleet over to our side. He thought that possibly, owing to lack of fuel oil and also to the confusion and uncertainty that were sure to prevail in southern France, the fleet commander would not actually attempt to bring the ships out to sea and join us, but he did say with complete conviction that the French admiral in Toulon would never allow his ships to fall into the hands of the Germans. He repeated this time and again, and later events proved him to be completely correct.26
On the other hand, Darlan felt sure that Admiral Jean Pierre Esteva, commanding in Tunis, would join with the rest of the French officials of North Africa in observing any orders he might issue. The first thing that defeated this great hope was the length of time consumed in the negotiations at Algiers. This created uncertainty on the part of Admiral Esteva, who, while informed of the nature of the conversations then going on in Algiers, was also in receipt of orders from Vichy to resist the Allies and, we were told, to admit the Germans into his area.27 Military commanders in that region, Generals Louis Marie Koeltz at Algiers and Louis Jacques Barre at Tunis, were in a similar state of indecision and we were informed that General Koeltz was definitely opposed to making any agreement with the Allies.
In this state of doubt and indecision, the Germans began to make landings in the Tunisia area. The first German contingent reached the area by air on the afternoon of November 9. From that moment onward they reinforced as rapidly as possible28 and by the time a tentative agreement was reached with Darlan in Algiers it was no longer possible for Admiral Esteva to act independently. In a final telephone conversation between him and a French official in Algiers he said, “I now have a guardian.” This we took to mean that the Germans were really holding him as a hostage. On the other hand, both Generals Koeltz and Barre obeyed Darlan’s orders without question, and the former, particularly, eventually became a fine fighting leader in the Allied forces.
After the receipt of my telegram in London and Washington both governments assured our headquarters of their complete understanding of the matter. They informed me that they would back up the arrangement so long as its terms were faithfully carried out by the French and until hostilities in Africa should draw to a close.29
This arrangement was of course wholly different from that we had anticipated, back in London. But it was not only with respect to personalities and their influence in North Africa that our governments had miscalculated. They had believed that the French population in the region was bitterly resentful of Vichy-Nazi domination and would eagerly embrace as deliverers any Allied force that succeeded in establishing itself in the country. The first German bombing of Algiers—a
nd there were many—proved the fallacy of this assumption. Of course there were many patriots, and after the Tunisian victory was assured their number increased, but in the early days of touch and go and nightly bombing the undercurrent of sentiment constantly transmitted to me was, “Why did you bring this war to us? We were satisfied before you came to get us all killed.” In his final dispatch, written after the completion of the campaign, General Anderson had this to say about the early attitude of the inhabitants:
… Many mayors, station- and post-masters and other key officials with whom we had dealings as we advanced (for instance, the civil telephone was, at first, my chief means of communicating with my forward units and with Allied Force Headquarters) were lukewarm in their sympathies and hesitant to commit themselves openly, while a few were hostile. I can safely generalize by saying that at first, in the Army, the senior officers were hesitant and afraid to commit themselves, the junior officers were mainly in favour of aiding the Allies, the men would obey orders; amongst the people, the Arabs were indifferent or inclined to be hostile, the French were in our favour but apathetic, the civil authorities were antagonistic as a whole. The resulting impression on my mind was not one of much confidence as to the safety of my small isolated force should I suffer a severe setback.30
This was a far cry from the governmental hope that the people of North Africa would, upon our entry, blaze into spontaneous revolt against control by Nazi-dominated Vichy!
Through Darlan’s assumption of the French administration post in North Africa and his influence in French West Africa, the great center of Dakar soon fell to Allied hands.31 The governor of that section was Pierre Boisson, an old soldier who had lost a leg and his hearing in the first World War and who was obviously honest in his hatred of everything German. He had a fanatical devotion to France and conceived his single duty to be the preservation of French West Africa for the French Empire. He had earlier in the war driven off from the shores of Dakar an attempted invasion by British and Free French forces32 and announced that he would fight anyone who might challenge his sphere of responsibility. However, with the invasion of southern France by the Germans, he announced himself ready to take military orders from me, through Admiral Darlan, but from no one else.
Because Dakar was not then within the territorial limits of my theater, where I was busy enough with my own problems of fighting a campaign, and also because the press of both Britain and America was seriously disturbed by the military arrangements I had made with Darlan, I reminded my superiors that I had no responsibility to secure Boisson’s adherence to the general capitulation and would take no part in it unless ordered. I did report to them, however, that I could have Dakar for the asking, and reported to them what Boisson had said.33 My return orders were speedily received; they were to the effect that I was to proceed toward securing the West African region for the use of the Allies exactly as I had the North African.34
My decisive conference with Governor Boisson verged on the dramatic. There were many important details to be settled. Then interned in West Africa were numbers of British sailors who had been landed there from ships sunk earlier in the war. The British insisted upon instant release of these men, while, as a counterdemand, Boisson insisted that Free French radio propaganda from areas bordering upon West Africa should cease at once. He said that this propaganda was constantly charging him and his government with every kind of crime and was causing him trouble with the natives. He said the British Government should order this stopped immediately. Similar points arose, none of which was specifically covered in the document to be signed. Admiral Darlan and other French officials were present, as were Mr. Murphy and additional members of my staff. As the conversations progressed the participants grew excited and the French seemed all to be talking at once. Finally I took Governor Boisson, who could understand some English, to a corner to talk to him personally. The substance of what I said was:
“Governor, there is no possibility that I can tell you in detail exactly what the British Government will do, just as I cannot tell you in detail what the American Government will do. But this I can say with confidence: my two governments have directed me to make an agreement with you on the general basis that French West Africa is to join with North Africa in the war against the Axis. They have stated that they would not interfere in the local governmental arrangements. They will expect the co-operation from you that they would from any other friendly region, and this will involve the prompt release of any of our citizens who may now be interned in your area. They will attempt to stop whatever propaganda may be directed against you and your regime and they will unquestionably use their good offices to get other co-operating organizations, including the Free French forces under General de Gaulle, likewise to cease such practices. However, they obviously cannot give General de Gaulle orders in this matter. We want to use the air routes through your area and we want you on our side, and we want these things quickly. It would take weeks to get every one of these little details ironed out and we cannot waste the time. You sign the agreement and I assure you on my honor as a soldier that I will do everything humanly possible to see that the general arrangements between us are carried out on the co-operative basis that my governments intend, just as we are doing in North Africa. As long as I am kept in my present position by my two governments you may be certain that the spirit of our agreement will never be violated by the Allies.”
Without another word he walked over to my desk and, while the chatter was still going on in other parts of the room, sat down and affixed his name to the agreement.35 As soon as he had signed I said to him: “Governor, when can our airplanes start using the airfield at Dakar?” He looked at me and instantly replied in French, “But now.” In his further remarks Boisson emphasized the importance he placed on my pledge as a soldier to avoid unnecessary disturbances of French institutions in West Africa and to assist in the task of reorganizing a French army to participate in the war on our side. It was easy to oversimplify the French problem as it then existed. Only patience and persistence could bring us valuable and, eventually, democratic allies. On the other hand, violence and disregard of the sense of humiliation felt by the French would have produced nothing but discord and a fair charge that we were Nazis.
Therefore, because of the power of our own arms and the acceptance of a temporary French administration in North Africa, all fighting in the entire area, west of Algiers inclusive, had ceased by November 12.
In the eastern sector, Tunisia, it was different.
Chapter 7
WINTER
IN ALGIERS
THE MINIMUM OBJECTIVE OF THE NORTH AFRICAN invasion was to seize the main ports between Casablanca and Algiers, denying their use to the Axis as bases for submarines, and from them to operate eastward toward the British desert forces. The successful action of the first few days assured attainment of the minimum object and we immediately turned all our attention to the greater mission assigned us of co-operating with General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander’s forces, then twelve hundred miles away at the opposite end of the Mediterranean. Between us we would destroy all Axis forces in northern Africa and reopen the sea for the use of Allied shipping.
On October 23, in Egypt, General Alexander had launched the British Eighth Army, under General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, in an assault on the enemy lines at El Alamein,1 and within two weeks the enemy was in headlong flight to the westward, hotly pursued by the victorious British. If we could advance to the Axis line of communications we could assure that the brilliant tactical victory of the Eighth Army would result in even greater strategic gain.
British air and sea forces based on Egypt and Malta denied the Axis any practicable and dependable line of communications crossing the Mediterranean east of Tripoli.
Our own position, occupying French North Africa west of Bône, imposed a western limit upon the sea areas that the Axis could use. Thus there were available to Hitler and Mussolini only the ports lying between Bône in Tunisia and Tri
poli in northwest Libya, from which to support Rommel. Every advance by the Allies from either flank would tend to squeeze the Axis channel of supplies and with continuation of this process eventual strangulation would result.
The air power of the Axis in Sicily, Pantelleria, and southern Italy was still so strong as to preclude the possibility of Allied naval advance into that region; final success in cutting the Axis communications would demand land advance, with continuous build-up of forward air bases and air power.
By far the most important of the African ports then available to the Axis were Bizerte and Tunis, with the secondary ones of Sfax and Gabès lying farther to the southward. Tripoli itself, while a good enough port, required Axis vessels to pass almost under the guns of Malta, where the British air forces were growing sufficiently strong to inflict severe loss. Obviously, if the ports of Tunis and Bizerte could be taken quickly further reinforcements of the Axis armies in Africa would be almost impossible and their destruction would be expedited.
Our main strategic purpose was, therefore, the speedy capture of northern Tunisia. This guided every move we made—military, economic, political. Through success and disappointment, through every incident and accident, through every difficulty that habitually dogs the footsteps of soldiers in the field, this single objective was constantly held before all eyes, in the certainty that its attainment would constitute the end of the Axis in Africa.
The first move was made in mid-November while we were still in Algiers urging Darlan to order the French to cease fighting our troops and to co-operate with us. General Anderson’s British First Army had been organized for the specific purpose of undertaking the campaign to the eastward, using Algiers as an initial base.2 He was directed to proceed with the operation as planned, and to exert every effort to capture Bizerte and Tunis with the least possible delay. However, he was beset with very great difficulties.
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