AERIAL VIEW OF INFANTRY LANDING FROM ASSAULT BOATS north of Casablanca. Note heavy surf. Many of the landing craft were damaged on the beaches for lack of facilities to remove craft from the surf line and to repair or salvage them when stranded. At Fedala, for instance, more than half of the boats were unusable after the first landings. This slowed the follow-up unloading and was a contributory cause of the torpedoing of the transports waiting offshore to be discharged.] [Illustration: FRENCH MOROCCO INFANTRY LANDING ON THE BEACH NEAR FEDALA. The landing itself was unopposed, but fighting developed just off the beach. (Left, landing craft, vehicle, LCV.)] [Illustration: FRENCH MOROCCO DIRECTING LANDING-CRAFT TRAFFIC OFF FEDALA by means of semaphore flags. The port was captured and put into operation on D Day, but because of its limited capacity, freighters had to stand offshore awaiting their turns to discharge cargo. In the meantime unloading of ships went on with remaining assault craft. On the evening of 11 November a transport was torpedoed and sunk by submarine; a destroyer and tanker were damaged. The next day three additional transports were torpedoed and sunk. (Landing craft in picture: top center, LCV; middle left, landing craft, mechanized, LCM(3); middle right and bottom, landing craft, personnel (Ramp), LCP(R).)] [Illustration: FRENCH MOROCCO UNLOADING EQUIPMENT IN FEDALA HARBOR. Waterproofed jeep coming off LCV. Note LCM in upper left. (Craft, upper left: LCM (3); upper right: LCV.)] [Illustration: FRENCH MOROCCO LIGHT TANK IN CASABLANCA shortly after the surrender on 11 November. Only light tanks were brought ashore in assault craft; the medium tanks were unloaded in the port of Safi until D plus 2 and headed north toward Casablanca.] [Illustration: FRENCH MOROCCO RADAR SETS NEAR CASABLANCA. This type of set was part of the equipment of the invading forces. By the end of December 1942, fifteen of these units were in operation as part of the air warning system of Casablanca. The searchlight automatically followed planes tracked by the radar. The city was almost at the maximum range of enemy bombers and was the target for few raids. (Radar set SCR 268.)] [Illustration] [Illustration: GIBRALTAR WARSHIP PASSING THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. This fortress was temporarily the Allied command post for TORCH. It was the only area on the European mainland under Allied control. Land-based aircraft did not take part in the beach assault phase, but aircraft were staged at the Gibraltar airport for take-off for Africa as soon as airfields there were captured. A U. S. fighter group equipped with British Spitfires landed near Oran about noon on D Day and aided in the fighting there; other planes flew to Algiers.] [Illustration: ALGERIA