The series of arrows along the northern coast shows the progress of our battallion from the point of invasion at Oran (extreme left arrow) to the town of Bizzerte, where the "German Africa Korps" capitulated (arrow extreme right).

This historical information is pertinent to understanding the Allied military position prior to the invasion of North Africa. On June 22nd, 1940, Marshal Petain (84 years old) signed the surrender of France to Hitler. In characteristic German arrogance and for maximum French humiliation, the Furher insisted that the signing occur in the same railroad car in which the German surrender was signed at the end of WW I.

Hitler divided France into two parts. The Germans would occupy the North, the western section and the Atlantic coast. The remaining southern two-fifths of France, with the capital at Vichy, would remain under French control under the command of Field Marshal Philippe Petain, who swore loyalty to Germany. Vichy France included the North African French colonies of Oran, Casablanca, Algiers, etc. The Germans kept one hundred thousand French soldiers as hostages (prisoners) to insure this “loyalty” of the Vichy French.

It gets more complicated.

Old man Petain decided to abolish the French Parliament and transfer all power to himself. Paul Raynaud, the pre-war prime minister of France, was arrested by the Vichy government and sentenced to life imprisonment. Joseph Damand was the head of the Vichy French police, and was given SS rank and swore fealty to Hitler. All Jews in France were turned over to the German SS. The Vichy French not only obliged Germany unhesitatingly, but also before the war was over condemned 600,000 French citizens to slave labor working in German factories.

Charles DeGaulle gave a famous radio speech in late June of 1940 from London, declaring the Vichy French to be “Free French,” but Churchill was ambivalent about his loyalty. The Allies were concerned that the “Vichy Free French” would turn over to the Germans the modern French navy that was anchored in the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy, fortunately, was able to destroy the French fleet at Mers El Kabar Harbor in June, 1941; one of the early realizations of the supremacy of air power over battleships. That news happily came over the radio for the free world to hear.

President Roosevelt continued to “cultivate” the Vichy French but supported General Giraud instead of DeGaulle. I presume he was influenced by Churchill.

The American and British invasion of North Africa was known as “Torch,” and immediately after it occurred the Germans took over all of southern Vichy France. In the meanwhile, British General Montgomery's 8th Army was fighting German General Rommel's “Afrika Korps” along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and Libya, North Africa. Such were the military and political positions of the various forces in the fall of 1942.

The British troop ship on which we were assigned, “The Ormond,” came to a crashing halt by plowing into another troop ship, “The Empress Of Australia,” which had already dropped anchor. We had arrived at the harbor of Oran, North Africa in the pitch-blackness of that night.

Radar was not yet available and lights were obviously not permitted.

It was “Controlled Chaos!”

We were informed just hours before the accident that “This was it - North Africa.”

As we descended the rope ladders to the motor barges below, we could see nothing. We could hear distant gunfire and small arms rifle fire but it was not directed at us. The horizon would light up from time to time like lightening in the distance, followed by a distant canon rumble. We disembarked from the barges on to a makeshift, but dry, jetty, and everyone double-timed to shore as fast as we could. Again, no one was shooting at us.