THE NORTH AFRICAN FRONT While the Battle of Stalingrad raged, Stalin pres- sured Britain and America to open a “second front” in Western Europe. He argued that an invasion across the English Channel would force Hitler to divert troops from the Soviet front. Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t think the Allies had enough American troops to attempt an invasion on European soil. Instead, they launched journalist Ernie Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, commanded by Pyle, shown here in 1944, was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. one of the most In November 1942, some 107,000 Allied troops, the great majority of them famous war Americans, landed in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers in North Africa. From there correspondents they sped eastward, chasing the Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel, the of World War II. legendary Desert Fox. After months of heavy fighting, the last of the Afrika Korps MAIN IDEA ▼ surrendered in May 1943. British general Harold Alexander sent a message to Churchill, reporting that “All enemy Summarizing C What was the resistance has ceased. We are masters of the North African outcome of the shores.” American war correspondent Ernie Pyle caught North African the mood of the victorious troops. C campaign? A PERSONAL VOICE ERNIE PYLE “ This colossal German surrender has done more for American morale here than anything that could possibly have happened. Winning in battle is like winning at poker or catching lots of fish. As a result, the hundreds of thousands of Americans in North Africa now are happy men.” —Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches World War II: Europe and Africa, 1942–1944 Axis and Axis controlled Allies FINLAND SOVIET Neutral countries NORWAY UNION 60°N SWEDEN Axis forces Leningrad 194 Allied forces a 4 N e S Soviet forces ic North lt W E DENMARK a Moscow Major battles Sea B EAST 3 0 200 400 miles S GREAT PRUSSIA 94 NETH. Berlin 1 IRELAND BRITAIN Warsaw 0 200 400 kilometers London POLAND GERMANY SOVIET BELG. 2 CZEC UNION 94 November 8, 1942 HOSL 1 Stalingrad November 1942 OVA KIA Vo Operation Torch Paris EUROPE lg Farthest Axis a R AUSTRIA . advance FRANCE SWITZ. HUNGARY 1942 ATLANTIC ROMANIA 1 OCEAN 9 A 42 d ri YUGOSLAVIA ITALY at Black Sea ic BULGARIA Caspian Se ASIA a Sea Lisbon Rome Anzio ALBANIA Madrid TURKEY PORTUGAL GREECE SPAIN GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER 1943 Algiers 1. Place Which countries were neutral in M e Oran TUNISIA d i t 1942? e r r a n e a n S 2. Movement What was the name of Casablanca e a ALGERIA May 13, 1943 the invasion that the Allies launched MOROCCO Tobruk 1 Axis surrender 942 in North Africa? 30°N of North Africa El Alamein 15°W EGYPT SAUDI ARABIA P AFRICA LIBYA ers G ian 572 CHAPTER 17 ulf.