80th anniversary of American invasion of Morocco

[Tim Cullis]

This week has been the 80th anniversary of the American invasion of Morocco on 8 November 1942.

Landing at Safi, Fedala (modern day Mohammedia) and Port Lyautey (now Kenitra), the American forces were part of Operation Torch which according to Wikipedia, "met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany on a limited scale." Other landings took place in Algeria with the intention of attacking Rommel's Afrika Korp from the west whilst the British continued to advance from the east.

The Western Task Force invading Morocco sailed directly from the USA with General Patton in command; other convoys with British and other troops left from the British Isles. It had been hoped the French Vichy forces would not oppose the landings but they did, and there was fierce fighting in places before the French forces submitted. The French North African government gradually became active in the Allied war effort and some 60,000 Maghrebi troops, mainly Moroccan, fought as part of the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy in 1944.

One of the results of the invasion was Casablanca being used as the venue for the January 1943 conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to plan European strategy for the next part of the war. Afterwards Churchill invited Roosevelt to visit his beloved Marrakech with him and later presented Roosevelt with a painting that he started during the visit.

Roosevelt strongly supported the decolonisation of Morocco.

General Patton took the opportunity to visit many parts of Morocco. The photos of Patton on this web page include one of him meeting Thami el Glaoui (the Pasha of Marrakech and one of the 'Lords of the Atlas') in the Glaoui Kasbah at Telouet. Those who have visited the ruins of the Telouet Kasbah might recognise the wall as being one of the few that is still complete.

Patton also visited Volubilis where, upon being asked if he wanted a guide, is said to have declined, saying he had been a centurian stationed at Volubilis in an earlier life (!!).

The British ‘Red Devils’ are currently in Morocco on exercise and have remembered Operation Torch

[Tim Cullis]

Photograph of the wall in the Glaoui Kasbah at Telouet that I referred to above. Much of the kasbah is in ruins but you can see the garage where Glaoui kept his Rolls Royce.

Directions: as you are coming over the Tichka pass from Marrakech to Ouarzazate, take a sharp left turn just after the Tizi onto the RP1506 which eventually leads to Ait Benhaddou. After visiting the kasbah you can visit the Glaoui salt mine which is off a track to the left, a couple (?) of km after Telouet.