Page:Charles Robert Anderson - Algeria-French Morocco - CMH Pub 72-11.pdf/25

 and left a nominal defense. American elements took the airfield with no losses. The Center Task Force now held both airfields.

As the day wore on, French resistance concentrated at three points around Oran: St. Cloud to the east, Valmy to the south, and Misserrhin to the southwest. With American casualties mounting, Fredendall and Allen devised an expedient. Leaving some forces to hold the French in place, the 18th Team and an armored column bypassed St. Cloud and Misserrhin after nightfall, a risky move for troops in their first campaign but well executed. That night Fredendall drew up a plan for an attack on Oran from three sides. At first light on 10 November French defenses were in disarray but still firing artillery missions from some sectors. At 1015 an armored column punched through the south side of Oran and made for the French commander's headquarters and the port. A cease-fire took place at 1215, and within a few hours French units in the Oran area surrendered.

Meanwhile, 220 miles east of Oran, Eastern Task Force had dropped anchor off Algiers in the last hours of 7 November. Of the three task forces, Eastern included the largest British proportion. Not only were naval and air support British; so were 23,000 of the total 33,000 troops. The 10,000 U.S. Army troops landing at Algiers would consist of Col. Benjamin F. Caffey, Jr.'s 39th Regimental Combat Team from the 9th Infantry Division; and Col. John W. O'Daniel's 168th Regimental Combat Team and Lt. Col. Edwin T. Swenson's 3d Battalion, 135th Infantry, both from the 34th Infantry Division. These American units and all British Army units in the initial landing were under command of U.S. Maj. Gen. Charles W. Ryder. Naval support included a Royal Navy flotilla of 3 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers, I antiaircraft vessel, 7 destroyers, and 15 transports. Enemy strength was estimated at 15,000 troops with only obsolete tanks, 91 fighters and bombers at two airfields, 12 coastal batteries, and a few destroyers in the harbor.

Both the geography and concept of operations at Algiers closely resembled those of Oran. The city lay in an arc of beaches and bluffs gradually rising to low hills ten miles inland. Allied troops were to land at three points along a fifty-mile stretch of coast: Beaches and  lay west of the city, Beach  east. After clearing the beaches, the troops would take all roads, villages, and two airfields; then converge behind Algiers; and move on the city from three sides.

Landings in the Algiers area met mixed success. The British 11th Infantry Brigade Group came across Beach on time and without mishap, the smoothest of all  landings. By 0700 the unit