ON THE morning of November 8th a small crowd—one sprightly second world war veteran with a cane, a group of junior military attachés from allied countries and some curious tourists—gathered at the imposing World War II memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC for the 75th anniversary commemoration of Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Long underappreciated for its role in the war, this victory and the decisions that followed it also laid the foundations for America’s post-war policy in the Middle East.
Torch was America’s first offensive operation in the European theatre and, until it was overtaken by the Normandy attack 19 months later, the largest and most complex amphibious invasion in history. More than 850 ships sailed from American and British ports up to 4,500 miles through treacherous Atlantic waters, teeming with U-boats. They put ashore about 110,000 American and British troops in three landing zones spread across more than 900 miles of African coastline, from south of Casablanca to east of...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2AwUKLF
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