Description
World War II had many superlatives, but none like Operation Torch - a series of simultaneous amphibious landings, audacious commando and paratroop assaults, and the Atlantic's biggest naval battle, fought across a two thousand mile span of coastline in French North Africa. The risk was enormous, the scale breathtaking, the preparations rushed, the training inadequate, and the ramifications profound.
Torch was the first combined Allied offensive and key to how the Second World War unfolded politically and militarily. Nonetheless, historians have treated the subject lightly, perhaps because of its many ambiguities. As a surprise invasion of a neutral nation, it recalled German attacks against countries like Belgium, Norway, and Yugoslavia. The operation's rationale was to aid Russia but did not do this. It was supposed to get Americans troops into the fight against Germany but did so only because it failed to achieve its short-term military goals. There is still debate whether Torch advanced the fight against the Axis, or was a wasteful dispersion of Allied strength and actually prolonged the war.
Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory is a fresh look at this complex and controversial operation. The book covers the fierce Anglo-American dispute about the operation and charts how it fits into the evolution of amphibious warfare. It recounts the story of the fighting, focusing on the five landings - Port Lyautey, Fedala, and Safi in Morocco, and Oran and Algiers in Algeria - and includes air and ground actions from the initial assault to the repulse of Allied forces on the outskirts of Tunis. Torch also considers the operation's context within the larger war and it incorporates the French perspective better than any English-language work on the subject. It shows how Torch brought France, as a power, back into the Allied camp; how it forced the English and the Americans to work together as true coalitions partners and forge a coherent amphibious doctrine. These skills were then applied to subsequent operations in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, and in the Pacific. The story of how this was accomplished is the story of how the Allies brought their power to bear on the enemy's continental base and won World War II.
About the Author
Vincent O'Hara is an independent scholar and the author of nine works including five published by the Naval Institute Press, most recently To Crown the Waves. His articles have appeared in the Naval War College Review, Warship, MHQ, Storia Militare, and other periodicals and journals. He holds a history degree from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Reviews
"Vince O'Hara has expertly assembled and comprehensively related all the elements of the political background, the planning and the execution of the operation. He is to be commended for including so much information about French participation. His attention to detail is, at times, stunning: Allied and French battle casualties, precise tonnage of ships sunk, even numbers of ship salvos fired per engagement. He includes a few obscure facts, too, for instance, that U.S. Navy seaplanes dropped depth charges instead of bombs on French tanks and positions. O'Hara concludes that Torch's best achievement was to teach the western allies how to plan and fight combined warfare on the strategic and tactical level and to do so quickly."
- JAMP: The Journal of America's Military Past
"This book is highly recommended for all audiences, not just history buffs. After all, history belongs to everyone."
-The Mariner's Mirror
"This well and clearly written book has been meticulously researched and, for the first time, the French situation has been well recorded. A fascinating piece of history."
-Baird Maritime Australia
"O'Hara weaves into his account a good deal of material on the complex diplomatic and political forces that affected and were affected by these operations, and takes some interesting looks at a number of people, often with telling anecdotes, including France's Admiral Darlan, who comes off as a rather better man than is usually depicted. This is an outstanding addition to the literature of the war."
- The Strategy Page
Book Information
ISBN 9781612518237
Author Vincent O'Hara
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Naval Institute Press
Publisher Naval Institute Press
Weight(grams) 790g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 154mm * 33mm
Torch was the first combined Allied offensive and key to how the Second World War unfolded politically and militarily. Nonetheless, historians have treated the subject lightly, perhaps because of its many ambiguities. As a surprise invasion of a neutral nation, it recalled German attacks against countries like Belgium, Norway, and Yugoslavia. The operation's rationale was to aid Russia but did not do this. It was supposed to get Americans troops into the fight against Germany but did so only because it failed to achieve its short-term military goals. There is still debate whether Torch advanced the fight against the Axis, or was a wasteful dispersion of Allied strength and actually prolonged the war.
Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory is a fresh look at this complex and controversial operation. The book covers the fierce Anglo-American dispute about the operation and charts how it fits into the evolution of amphibious warfare. It recounts the story of the fighting, focusing on the five landings - Port Lyautey, Fedala, and Safi in Morocco, and Oran and Algiers in Algeria - and includes air and ground actions from the initial assault to the repulse of Allied forces on the outskirts of Tunis. Torch also considers the operation's context within the larger war and it incorporates the French perspective better than any English-language work on the subject. It shows how Torch brought France, as a power, back into the Allied camp; how it forced the English and the Americans to work together as true coalitions partners and forge a coherent amphibious doctrine. These skills were then applied to subsequent operations in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, and in the Pacific. The story of how this was accomplished is the story of how the Allies brought their power to bear on the enemy's continental base and won World War II.
About the Author
Vincent O'Hara is an independent scholar and the author of nine works including five published by the Naval Institute Press, most recently To Crown the Waves. His articles have appeared in the Naval War College Review, Warship, MHQ, Storia Militare, and other periodicals and journals. He holds a history degree from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Reviews
"Vince O'Hara has expertly assembled and comprehensively related all the elements of the political background, the planning and the execution of the operation. He is to be commended for including so much information about French participation. His attention to detail is, at times, stunning: Allied and French battle casualties, precise tonnage of ships sunk, even numbers of ship salvos fired per engagement. He includes a few obscure facts, too, for instance, that U.S. Navy seaplanes dropped depth charges instead of bombs on French tanks and positions. O'Hara concludes that Torch's best achievement was to teach the western allies how to plan and fight combined warfare on the strategic and tactical level and to do so quickly."
- JAMP: The Journal of America's Military Past
"This book is highly recommended for all audiences, not just history buffs. After all, history belongs to everyone."
-The Mariner's Mirror
"This well and clearly written book has been meticulously researched and, for the first time, the French situation has been well recorded. A fascinating piece of history."
-Baird Maritime Australia
"O'Hara weaves into his account a good deal of material on the complex diplomatic and political forces that affected and were affected by these operations, and takes some interesting looks at a number of people, often with telling anecdotes, including France's Admiral Darlan, who comes off as a rather better man than is usually depicted. This is an outstanding addition to the literature of the war."
- The Strategy Page
Book Information
ISBN 9781612518237
Author Vincent O'Hara
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Naval Institute Press
Publisher Naval Institute Press
Weight(grams) 790g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 154mm * 33mm
