Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 4).

Canadians in Combined Ops in Two Locations, 11 Day Wonders

News Clippings from D-Day +2, November 10, 1942.

[Photo: Nov. 8 1942, Anglo American armies landed on the north coast of Africa.

Photo Credit - History Stuff. Click here for more details.]

[Photo: Algeria, American soldiers landing on the beach, November 1942*

Photo Credit - The Jews of Algeria. Click here for details.]

*It is this editor's belief that the US soldiers arrived off the coast in a converted ocean liner named Reina Del Pacifico, and are disembarking (above) from a British ALC (assault landing craft) manned by Canadians (Doug Harrison, Norwich in the lead, far right).

Introduction:

Canadians in Combined Operations, perhaps about 200 in all, were involved in significant landings in North Africa, November 1942. Two boys from Norwich Ontario were part of what was described as 'the biggest armada of all time', i.e., Buryl McIntyre aboard landing crafts that transported members of the British First Army to shore, and "Douglas (Harrison) worked with the Americans." (The Free Press, London ONT - Feb. 5, 1944)

At an online source we read the following about the landings in N. Africa:

The purpose of the landings at Oran, Casablanca, and Algiers was to secure bases on the coast of North Africa. After the bases were secured, there would be rapid exploitation to acquire complete control of French Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and extend offensive operations against the rear of Axis forces to the east...

The Center Task Force would go ashore at three beaches in the vicinity of Oran on 8 November at 0100, the exact hour when the Western Task Force coming from the United States was to land at Casablanca and the Eastern Assault Force, mostly British, was to touch down at Algiers...

The most important (of the landings) was in the Gulf of Arzew, twenty-five miles east of the city, where there were two coastal batteries and a French garrison. A company of Rangers was to spearhead the assault, followed by the 16th and 18th Regimental Combat Teams (RCT's) of the 1st Infantry Division and most of the tanks of Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division... (Source - history.army.mil. Click here for more details.)

It is my understanding that the Canadians worked four days straight without much chance for relief - transporting troops and their many supplies was a non-stop operation. After four days without much sleep or food, my father rested for a day aboard the Reina del Pacifico before returning to his flotilla of LCMs to begin the week-long task of transporting reinforcements and their supplies to the North African shores.

News Clippings from The Winnipeg Tribune, issued on November 10, 1942:

A12638. Photographed from the deck of the ship that they are disembarking

from, American troops can be seen getting into a landing craft personnel (ramped).

Photo Credit - (Russell, J E (Lt) RN photographer, Imperial War Museum (IWM)

A12647. American troops manning their landing craft assault from a doorway

in the side of the liner REINA DEL PACIFICO. Two of the landing craft are

numbered LCA 428 and LCA 447. Photo Credit - Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM

A12648. American troops exiting their landing craft assault on the beach at Are,

near Oran. Some of the ships of that convoy can be seen in the distance.

Photo Credit - Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM.

I believe that the sailors who manned landing craft worked at their job - ferrying men and materials of war - under a good deal of pressure. Troops already landed wanted essential supplies before moving inland (e.g., ammunition, food, equipment, etc.). Plus, there were more troops on the way from the U.K. and U.S.

The arrival of troops in North Africa would help - in a significant way - turn the tide of the war. Other factors were also taking a positive turn, e.g., the sea battles vs German U-boats. Churchill would say, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the beginning of the end." Please see the upcoming article (four steps down) entitled 'Churchill Sees Victory's Bright Gleam in Egypt' for the context of that well-known, timely quote.

Another band of resourceful Canadians are introduced in a lengthy piece from The Tribune:

Canadian pilot 'Buzz' Beurling gained fame because of his flying exploits and is mentioned by one Canadian in Combined Ops in memoirs that touch on Malta:

This was the Island where the Canadian pilot Buzz (screwball) Beurling, at that time with the RAF and later with the R.C.A.F., became known as the "Knight of Malta." The story goes that he was shot down near the water's edge and, although injured, made his way back to the airfield. He immediately took off in another plane and shot down the plane responsible for shooting him down earlier! After the war he was killed taking off from Rome on his way to fight for Israel; the plane had been sabotaged. Memoirs, Lloyd Evans (RCNVR, Comb. Ops.)

The Canadians in Combined Operations, serving under RN officers, were a small but significant part of the North African landings. Not often were they mentioned as a separate group because, more often than not, they were aboard British ships and doing the same work as countless other sailors from the U.K. or U.S.

It can be said that the Canadians punched above their weight. Their written histories are extremely rare and valuable, and it is through their chronicles that today's student of history can obtain a front row seat to the chaos and carnage of war, the times of standing easy and the walk along the Blackpool Pier with a lovely ladies who were often sad to see their new friends go home.

More to follow, bon ami!

Please link to Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 3).

Unattributed Photos GH

Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 3).

Allied Troops Land in Three Locations, Some Resistance. 

News Clippings about D-Day November 8, 1942.

[Photo: A12633. In the distance a destroyer is laying a smoke screen round one of the

transports off Oran. Two landing craft assault and one landing craft personnel ramped

can be seen in the foreground they are LCA85, LCA394 and LCP(R) 838. 

Credit: RN Photographer, Lt. J.E. Russell, Imperial War Museum (IWM)]

[Photo: A12650. Smoke screens off Arzeu, near Oran.

Photo Credit: Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM.]

Introduction:

Surely, a few interesting events occurred onboard the Derwentdale and Ennerdale (Allied troopships, converted from oil tankers) in early November 1942 between the passing of Gilbraltar and initial landings along the North African coast on November 8th. I would be content with one sentence from my father's memoirs, but one sentence he did not write. After seeing the Mediterranean Sea for the first time he falls silent for several days in memoirs;  his next words are about LCMs going over the side.

Fortunately, after returning to Canada in December 1943, after the invasions of Sicily and Italy, he was interviewed - along with Buryl McIntyre, his close mate from Norwich Ontario - by a reporter from the London Free Press. And in the published report I find three sentences* that lead up to the actual landings on D-Day North Africa.

NORWICH BOYS IN THICK OF TWO INVASIONS BY ALLIES

LS. BURYL MCINTYRE AND LS. DOUGLAS HARRISON 

WITH “BIGGEST ARMADA OF ALL TIME”

[The following excerpt from the newspaper article appeared on February 5, 1944 in The Free Press, London]

After Dieppe, his seven day leave cut down to two, Buryl was almost immediately training for the next phase of the war. Late in October he and this time Douglas Harrison were in a great convoy bound for an unknown destination.

[Photo: A12654. General view of the convoy en route for Gibraltar bathed in

sunlight and stretching into the distance. RN photographer F.A. Hudson.

Imperial War Museum (IWM)] 

Composed of all kinds of ships the convoy was loaded with machinery, bull-dozers, wire for landing sleds, jeeps, guns and the thousand other things which make up an invasion.

*Three Sentences - Alert! 

They passed Gibraltar and proceeded along the North African shore. They saw and heard the silencing of shore batteries and presently were ready to land. Buryl handled a landing craft for the British First Army and Douglas worked with the Americans.

So, as British and American forces landed at and near Oran and Algiers, Canadians in Combined Operations were at work on various landing crafts that transported troops and all the materials of war to shore, at times facing resistance.

I believe that Allied landings by the Western Task Force, centred at Casablanca, and made up of ships, troops and materials from the USA, did not involve any Canadians and their landing crafts. My father landed at Arzeu aboard Derwentdale, east of Oran, as part of the Center Task Force, made up of British and American forces. I would think aforementioned Buryl McIntyre, aboard Ennerdale, was there as well.

Map and more details can be found at Operation Torch, Wikipedia

Timely photographs from the Imperial War Museum:

Caption: A12647. American troops manning their landing craft assault* from a

doorway in the side of the liner REINA DEL PACIFICO. Two of the landing craft

are numbered LCA 428 and LCA 447. Photo Credit - Lt. F. A. Hudson,

Imperial War Museum (IWM)

*The landing craft is likely a British model manned by Canadians (RNCVR) in Combined Operations (my father included) under the command of a Royal Navy (or RNR) officer.

Associated heading with photo, as found at IWM:

NORTH AFRICAN OPERATIONS. BRITAIN'S ROYAL NAVY HAD A MAJOR ROLE IN THE WORLD'S GREATEST COMBINED OPERATION WHEN THE 500 SHIP CONVOY SAFELY TRANSPORTED ALLIED TROOPS TO FRENCH NORTH AFRICA, WHERE SIMULTANEOUS LANDINGS WERE MADE AT STRATEGIC POINTS. NOVEMBER 1942.

Caption: A12661. American troops on board a landing craft going in to land

at Oran during Operation TORCH. Photo Credit - F.A. Hudson, IWM.

Caption: A12671. Troops and ammunition for light guns being brought ashore from

a landing craft assault (ramped) (LCA 428) on Arzeau beach, Algeria, North Africa,

whilst another LCA (LCA 287) approaches the beach. Lt. F.A. Hudson, IWM

It is this editor's belief that the sailor who lowered the ramp and entered the water first is none other than my father Doug Harrison, RCNVR and Combined Operations. Lt. F.A. Hudson took several other photos while on shore and Doug appears in several. The following is my second favourite, after the one above.

In it, my father (farthest left, middle background) is holding an anti-broaching line attached to LCA 426 (a twin to LCA 428 above) and is being joined by another seaman dragging a second line. Meanwhile, U.S. troops, perhaps American Rangers or members of the 16th and 18th Regimental Combat Teams, unload boxes of supplies.

Caption: A12649. American troops landing on the beach at Arzeu, near Oran, from

a landing craft assault (LCA 26), some of them are carrying boxes of supplies.

Photo Credit - Lt. F.A. Hudson, Imperial War Museum

My father wrote about some of his duties associated with landing crafts in memoirs re N. Africa:

The job of the seaman on an ALC or LCM is to let the bow door down and wind it up by means of a winch situated in the stern of the barge. This winch is divided so you can drop a kedge (anchor) possibly about 100 or so feet from shore depending on the tide. If it is going out you can unload and then put motors full astern, wind in the kedge and pull yourself off of breach (a position sideways to the beach).

The tide is very important and constantly watched. If it is going out (on the ebb) and you are slow, you can be left high and dry, and if so, you stay with the barge. If the tide is on the make (flowing in) you use the kedge to keep you from swinging sideways on breach. In this case your kedge would be out only a short ways. After much practice, however, the kedge can be forgotten and everything done by engines and helm. Each barge has two engines.

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. Page 26, "Dad, Well Done"

News from The Winnipeg Tribune and other timely photographs and captions from IWM that are related to the landings will follow.

First News clippings from The Winnipeg Tribune

About Operation TORCH, D-Day North Africa

[D-Day occurred on November 8, a Sunday, so news of the event was published in Canada beginning on November 9, 1942.]

Russian leaders badly wanted a second front, they agitated for it often, A second front would pull German troops away from the war front in Russia. Their elation, mentioned below, is understandable. British troops are mentioned but were present as well, in the Central and Eastern Task Forces.

British and American troops are mentioned together in the article below:

Guess who's coming to dinner? 

General Ritter von Troma is on the left, Monty on the right, not as caption suggests.

Members of Canada's Navy and Navy Reserve are busy on many fronts, some at sea, some on North African shores.

Unfortunately, what was hailed in the following article - no more "12,000 mile detours" - did not entirely come to pass. In the summer of 1943, several Allied ships felt it necessary to send forces (including Canadians in Combined Operations and their landing crafts) around Africa to Egypt rather than simply travelling via The Med.

In the fourth paragraph of the article below (beginning 'Oran Resists') one reads about resistance faced by some parts of the Allied Central Task Force from navy-controlled batteries at or near Oran. 

At an online source I find the following:

The Center Task Force would go ashore at three beaches in the vicinity of Oran on 8 November at 1 AM, the exact hour when the Western Task Force coming from the United States was to land at Casablanca and the Eastern Assault Force, mostly British, was to touch down at Algiers.

The most important landing was in the Gulf of Arzew, twenty-five miles east of the city of Oran, where there were two coastal batteries and a French garrison. A company of American Rangers was to spearhead the assault, followed by the 16th and 18th Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs). Google - Oran and the Provisional Ordnance Group

My father wrote about facing sniper fire on two occasions. On one occasion he was forced to hide behind a bulldozer blade in his Landing Craft Mechanized while a ground on a sandbar. On a second occasion he writes:

Our Coxswain was L/S Jack Dean of Toronto and our officer was Lt. McDonald, RNR. After the 92 hours (he worked non-stop from Nov. 8 - 11) my officer said, “Well done. An excellent job, Harrison. Go to Reina Del Pacifico and rest.” 

But first the Americans brought in a half track (they found out snipers were in a train station) and shelled the building to the ground level. No more snipers. (Navy memoirs.)

Back in Canada, theatre-goers are kept up-to-date (to a degree) about the war effort by news reels, some produced by Canadian film-makers:

The Winnipeg Tribune editorializes about the importance of the North African campaign and recent landings:

The following is an article about, and interview with, a Canadian officer who is a member of RCNVR and Combined Operations.

After the war, Lt. J.M. "Mac" Ruttan wrote a piece or two for "St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941-1945", a book in two-volumes that shares the personal stories of Canadian war veterans of Combined Operations.

Very rare book, featured on this site. See "books re Combined Operations" under "click on Headings" in right-hand margin.

I have a soft spot for food advertisements from Eaton's FOODATERIA. Such good prices!! : )

Please link to Articles: Operation TORCH, N. Africa, Nov. 1942 (Pt 2).

Unattributed Photos GH