Pilots of Fighting Squadron 41 (VF-41) singing in their ready room aboard USS Ranger (CV-4), before zero hour of the first day of the invasion of Morocco, 8 November 1942. North Africa campaigns - North Africa campaigns - Operation Torch: The Anglo-U.S. invasion of northwest Africa had its origins at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, D.C., in the winter of 1941–42 and at meetings in London the following July. This article was written by Williamson Murray and originally appeared in the November 2002 issue of World War II. Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Anglo–American invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War.It was aimed at reducing pressure on Allied forces in Egypt, and enabling an invasion of Southern Europe. In all, the four flattops embarked 109 Grumman F4F-4 fighters with sixty-two Douglas SBD-3 and Grumman TBF-1 bombers. For more great articles be sure to pick up your copy of World War II. Operation Torch was its most substantial use in the field by the US Army. Note the Operation Torch-specific yellow border around the national insignia (80-G-K-15976). The landing of 70,000 men between Casablanca and Algiers for Operation Torch required a lot of transports and warships. Operation Torch landed on the shores of French Morocco on November 8, 1942, with Ranger (CV-4), Suwanee (ACV-27), Sangamon (ACV26), and Santee (ACV-29) supporting U.S. forces north and south of Casablanca. Under pressure from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to open a second front, the Western Allies debated how they might best engage Germany. It was an operation that involved several experiments and innovations. It also provided the second front which the Soviet Union had been requesting since it was invaded by the Germans in 1941 on Operation Barbarossa. The Allied Fleet for Operation Torch. One of … Torch had set the stage for all of that. Operation Torch was the first stage of Eisenhower's task to secure Allied control of all of North Africa. WORLD WAR II; May 14, 2018 Andrew Knighton, Guest Author. British M3 Grant (left) and Lee (right) at El Alamein (Egypt), in the Sahara Desert, 1942, showing differences between the British turret and the original design. On August 13, Eisenhower was selected as commander of Operation Torch. On the night of November 7, 1942, American forces launched Operation Torch, the invasion of Axis-occupied North Africa. This must have looked a big task when he received the command on August 1942, coming soon after Rommel's victory at Gazala , the fall of Tobruk and the Axis advance to the Egyptian border.