Naval Battle of Casablanca

Morocco was a protectorate of France at the time of World War II. The French government at Vichy had surrendered to Germany after the Battle of France, signing an Armistice with Nazi Germany. General Charles de Gaulle led French forces opposed to the surrender and to the Vichy government, continuing the war on the side of the UK and the Allies. The Vichy regime—which controlled Morocco—was thus officially neutral, but in practical terms the Armistice obliged Vichy to resist any attempt to seize French territory or equipment for use against Germany. British forces had bombarded the French at Mers-el-Kébir to prevent the possibility of the French fleet from falling into German hands after the French rejected demands to join the Allies or sail to a neutral port, leading to much ill-will between France and Britain. The United States government had previously recognized the Vichy regime as legitimate. Military planning for Operation Torch in 1942 emphasized American troops in the initial landing forces on the basis of intelligence estimates they would be less vigorously opposed than British soldiers. American forces Troopship convoy UGF 1 left Chesapeake Bay on 23 October 1942 and was joined on 26 October by a covering force of battleships and cruisers sailing from Casco Bay and on 28 October by the aircraft carrier , and the escort carriers , , , and sailing from Bermuda. These ships were screened by 38 American destroyers. The resulting Task Force 34 (TF 34) included 102 ships for the invasion of Morocco under the command of Rear Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt aboard the flagship heavy cruiser . As TF 34 sailed, the British submarine landed Major General Mark W. Clark near Algiers to meet with pro-American French military officers stationed in Algeria. French officers shared information about defensive arrangements; but the Americans did not share critical invasion details of timing, strength and distribution of forces. No information was provided to key French leaders including Armed Forces Commander in Chief Admiral François Darlan, North African Commander in Chief General Alphonse Juin, or Moroccan Resident General Charles Noguès. French forces In 1942, Casablanca was the principal Vichy-controlled port on the Atlantic (all of France's Atlantic coast having been occupied by Germany since 1940) and the most important Vichy-controlled naval base after Toulon. Naval gunners manned the El Hank coastal artillery battery of four guns and four guns. One quadruple 380 mm/45 Modèle 1935 gun turret of the modern battleship was operational, although the battleship remained incomplete following escape from the Saint-Nazaire shipyards during the German invasion of 1940. One light cruiser, two flotilla leaders, seven destroyers (two already damaged by collision), eight sloops, 11 minesweepers, and 11 submarines were in port on the morning of 8 November. Most French personnel attending General Clark's pre-invasion meeting were army officers. Information subsequently conveyed in pre-invasion contact with army personnel stationed in Morocco was interpreted as a request for recommendations. No pre-invasion contact has been documented with Vice Admiral Frix Michelier, who commanded naval forces responsible for the defense of Casablanca. Admiral Michelier was not yet in the confidence of North African officers in contact with the Americans, since he had been a member of the Armistice Commission until assuming his Casablanca post less than a month before the invasion. ==Prelude==

French defenders were placed on alert status when Algerian invasion convoys were detected passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. Destinations remained unclear, and TF 34 remained undetected as it split into three groups on 7 November. Concealed by darkness, a northern group (six troopships and two cargo ships escorted by the battleship , the light cruiser and six destroyers) prepared to land 9,000 troops of the 60th infantry Regiment reinforced with 65 light tanks to seize the Port Lyautey airfield; and a southern group (four troopships and two cargo ships escorted by the battleship , the light cruiser and six destroyers) prepared to land 6,500 troops of the 47th Infantry Regiment reinforced with 90 medium and light tanks near the phosphate port of Safi to cover the southern approaches to Casablanca, while the center group prepared to land the Casablanca occupation force of 19,500 troops of the 3rd Infantry Division Naval coastal defense batteries flanked both ends of the Fedala landing beach with four guns on Pont Blondin to the east and three and two guns in Fedala on the point sheltering the western end of the beach. ==Battle==

8 November Center group troopships , , , anchored off Fedala at midnight. Loaded landing craft rendezvoused and left the line of departure at 06:00. Pont Blondin coast defense batteries were alerted by the noise of landing craft engines and illuminated the beach approaches with searchlights but the searchlights were extinguished when the landing craft support boats opened fire with machine guns. The destroyer and a scout boat tasked with marking Red Beach 2 moved out of position while maneuvering to avoid an unidentified boat evaluated as potentially hostile; and landing craft ran onto rocks while running at full speed rather than reaching their intended beach. Twenty-one of the 32 landing craft from Leonard Wood were wrecked. Eight of the ship's surviving landing craft were wrecked in heavy surf landing later waves. 3,500 American troops were ashore by dawn; but early morning mist concealed the size of the invasion force. Fedala coast defense batteries opened fire on the landing craft shortly after 07:00. At 07:20, and at 07:25 Ludlow and Wilkes silenced the Pont Blondin battery, while Augusta silenced the Fedala battery. Murphy, , and other U.S. vessels engaged two French aircraft just before 07:00 on 8 November, ultimately driving them off. At 07:50, The covering force then targeted El Hank Battery from 08:40 to 09:25. Milan beached after being damaged by gunfire from Wilkes, Wichita, and Tuscaloosa. Surviving French submarines and sortied without torpedoes to avoid destruction in the harbor. managed to load a few torpedoes before leaving. Augusta sank Boulonnais Three small French warships emerged from Casablanca harbor in the early afternoon to rescue sailors from the sunken destroyer Fougueux, but the rescue ships were turned back by shellfire from the American covering force. French planes bombed and strafed the landing beach at intervals throughout the day, but caused little damage. Workmen had repaired Jean Barts turret by sundown, and El Hank Battery remained operational. Nearly half of the 347 American landing craft had been destroyed, and fewer than 8,000 troops had been landed. Five French submarines still stalked the invasion fleet. 9 November Dawn found the Fedala landing beaches lashed by waves which greatly impeded unloading the invasion troopships. Forty percent of the troops were ashore with barely one percent of their supplies. There were shortages of ammunition, and inadequate medical supplies for the wounded. Communications broke down because radio equipment was still aboard the troopships. The advance toward Casablanca halted because shore parties lacked mechanized equipment to move supplies off the landing beach. 10 November The French sloops Commandant Delage and La Gracieuse sortied at 10:00 to open fire on American troops advancing from Fedala to the outskirts of Casablanca. The cruiser Augusta and destroyers and chased the minesweepers back into Casablanca harbor before being forced to retreat by gunfire from Jean Bart. hit Jean Bart with two bombs and sank her at 16:00. French submarines Le Tonnant, Meduse and Antiope launched unsuccessful torpedo salvos at Ranger, Massachusetts and Tuscaloosa, respectively. That day German submarines were able to reach the troopships before they completed offloading cargo. until —under Ernst Kals—torpedoed the troopships Tasker H. Bliss, Hugh L. Scott, and Edward Rutledge on the evening of 12 November, killing 74 additional American servicemen; and prompting undamaged troopships to leave the anchorage and maneuver evasively at sea until they were able to moor in the lee of the Casablanca breakwater on 13 November to complete offloading supplies. Of the American ships damaged by submarine torpedoes on 11 and 12 November, all four troopships sank, but the oiler and destroyer were repaired. Surviving troopships left Casablanca when unloading was completed on 17 November. Le Tonnant was scuttled off Cádiz on 15 November. One of Massachusetts′s 16-inch (406 mm) shells fired at the Jean-Bart, after an unexpected rebound on her berth, caused the partial collapse of the house adjoining the Ettedgui Synagogue. The defused shell proved too heavy for trolley sent to remove it, requiring a truck to be used in its stead. Reconstruction of the damaged synagogue commenced in 2011. ==Order of battle==

French 2nd Light Squadron American covering force ==See also==