INVASION NORTH AFICA 1942 by Pack, S.W.C

New York, 1978, Scribner's, first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 7x10, VG/VG condition, 112 pages, illus, maps, index.////.................................................On Sunday, November 8, 1942, a great combined force of British and American troops landed on the beaches of French North Africa to seize the vital ports of Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca. This was Operation Torch, an expedition that was to rank as one of the great strategic enterprises of World War II.Though very largely a gamble, sometimes favored by remarkable fortune, at other times dogged by mishap or bad weather, the operation resulted in complete success. It was to give the Allies control of the coast of northwest Africa from Tunis to Dakar and in due course open up the Mediterranean Sea from Gibraltar to Alexandria. It brought an increasing realization of defeat to the Italians and gave to defeated France a renewed hope of freedom.......................................................But the operation was not without considerable anxiety on the part of the Allies. Handling the better part of a thousand warships, auxiliaries, transports, and small craft in accordance with a carefully prepared schedule and closely coordinated plan, at a time when there was a shortage of everything except courage and enterprise, they found that they must rely greatly on good luck.Captain S. W. C. Pack, who served in Washington during the planning stages of Operation Torch, uses firsthand accounts and more than 150 rarely seen photographs in telling the dramatic story of this first great Allied adventure.