ARTICLE: Operation Torch 1942: Dying for Vichy

I was doing some wrong-war research at the National Archives in Kew this week, and I had cause to look at a photograph album that included images of Operation Torch. For those that don’t know, this is the Allied invasion of North Africa that began at the end of 1942. In this album, two images caught my eye. They were simply captioned ‘dead senegalese’ and the location was given as near a 100mm gun position at Fedala. Because I’m me, and I can’t leave things alone, I decided that I was going to go on a mission to explain why the men visible in these images ended up dying there, and what happened…

One of the two images of fallen Senegalese soldiers (The National Archives, Kew)

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The basic principle of an invasion of North Africa was agreed so that the British could score a victory in this region, and so that the Americans could find their feet. The enemy here was Vichy France, as this was their imperial territory. Fedala (Now Mohammedia) was a small Moroccan town with a pre-war population of about 16,000 people, where people made their living by fishing and through tourism. There was a a hotel, a race track, a casino, a golf course, but it also had several large petrol storage tanks. It was situated in a shallow bay overlooked by Cap de Fedala with its lighthouse at one end, and Cherqui, a headland three miles to the northeast. Two rivers spilled out here, but the bay also provided multiple options for landing thanks to its sandy tourist beaches.

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