Word: casablanca
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...fuller account of how last fortnight the A.E.F., building on that groundwork, had swept to a quick, clean victory. Within four days of the first landing, all official French resistance had ceased on orders of Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, chief of Vichy's armed forces. Algiers, Oran, Rabat, Casablanca and the rest were in American hands. So was Admiral Darlan...
Closing upon Casablanca and its airdromes, the U.S. forces were fighting for Vichy's second-best Atlantic naval anchorage (the best: Dakar), a sizable segment of Vichy's Navy, Vichy Africa's principal Atlantic railhead and a modern city (pop. 257,000) which was the pride of colonial France. After the capture of the three key cities-Casablanca, Oran and Algiers-the rest of French North Africa might well be the Allies' for the taking...
Vichy's Navy was also an unknown quantity. Unhappily for Vichy, most of its Navy was at: 1) Dakar, 1,500 miles southwest of Casablanca; 2) Toulon, France's base 400 miles north of Algiers. The battleship Richelieu, three light cruisers, several destroyers and some submarines at Dakar did not figure in the initial defense. At Toulon were the battleships Strasbourg, Dunkerque (repaired after its shelling by the British in 1940) and Provence (also damaged but repaired), probably seven cruisers, 25 destroyers, 27 submarines and one seaplane carrier (the Commandant Teste). Axis reports said Toulon naval units...
...seize the political weapons the U.S. had given them. Broadcasting from London, General Charles de Gaulle called to French North African troops: "Forward! The great moment has come. Help our allies. Join them without reserve. Everywhere the enemy gasps and wavers." Vichy admitted a De Gaullist uprising at Casablanca, claimed to have overcome it, subsequently confessed that a battalion was still in revolt...
Sedan to Casablanca...