The Algiers Landings

The Eastern Naval Task Force consisted of 48 naval vessels, including two aircraft carriers and 34 transports and cargo ships. Nearly all the fleet, except five American cargo ships and transports, was British. The Eastern Task Force to be landed at Algiers was also mainly British, although the small proportion of American troops, two regimental combat teams, and the U. S. commander, General Ryder, were supposed to give it an American complexion, thus making it less repugnant to the French. The mission of the Eastern Task Force were:

1. To seize the ports and airfields of the Algiers area in order to provide a base for the invasion of Tunisia.

2. To extend eastward by capturing ports and airfields which would be useful in the push on Tunisia.

3. To extend westward to meet the forces approaching from Oran.

Though the city of Algiers was well protected by coastal batteries, it was planned to gain control by making landing about 25 miles on each side. The broad, open Bay of Algiers faces the north. On each side are wide, rugged capes, Point Pescade on the west and Cape Matifou on the east. A landing at Side Ferruch could skirt eh hill country below Point Pescade adn take Algiers in the rear; similarly, landing east of Cape Matifou could open a passage to the Bay of Algiers and approach the city on the southeast.

The Algiers landing were less seriously opposed than those in Morocco and Oran, The batteries of Fort D'Estrees and Cape Matifou offered the greatest resistance and had to be bombarded by naval vessels and aircraft. One U. S. troopship was torpedoed at sea but not sunk on the morning of the 7th, and though 800 of her combat troops put off to cover the 160 miles to Algiers, all of the landing craft had to be abandoned and the soldiers crammed into a British destroyer. On 9 November they landed at Algiers.

The ships assigned to Cape Matifou area began unloading at midnight 7-8 November and continued the process all day. At 1730 a group of Heinkel bombers and Ju-88torpedo planes attacked. The USS Leedstown was torpedoed. Next afternoon another flight of German planes finished the Leedstown. 

Although operations were hampered by rough weather and a majority of the landing craft were lost, landings were made in both projected areas. Sidi Ferruch airfield was occupied by American troops at 0300 and the Maison Blanche field fell at 0830 after an engagement with French light tanks. Blida airfield was occupied about noon. Meanwhile the troops had closed in on Algiers, but negotiations with Admiral Darlan, which had begun a few hours after landings, resulted in the surrender of the city at 1900. All of eastern Algeria was included in the surrender.

Shortly after the fall of Maison Blanche airfield, 19 Hurricanes and 35 Spitfires arrived from Gibraltar as advanced units of RAF Eastern Command. Operations were conducted on the 8th and 9th from a British carrier, though on the first day there was very little air activity because of the shortage of fuel. However, Servicing Commandos and RAF Regiment personnel began work at once on both the airdromes. On the 9th German bombers attacking Algiers were met by RAF fighters and at least 12 were shot down.

So ended the preliminary stages of the battle for Northwest Africa, a conflict that put an end to the fluctuating tides of victory and finished by flinging the enemy back across Mare Nostrum after the first serious setback at the hands of the Western Allies.