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Looking back, after 50 years, it is clear that this amphibious operation represented the beginning of the Second Front by Allied forces. It, no doubt, gave Hitler a wake up call. He had to think now about a big scale two-front war. —Richard Jones By the morning of D-day Minus One, November 7, 1942, the Western Naval Task Force was nearing the Moroccan coast. The storm had abated , and early that morning Admiral Davidson’s Southern Attack Group veered off for its transport area at Safi. Admiral Hewitt’s other two assault forces continued on, the Northern Attack Group toward its landings at Mehedia and the Center Attack Group toward Fedala (now Mohammedia). So far, there were no signs indicating that these large amphibious task groups had been sighted. THE NORTHERN ATTACK GROUP The Western Naval Task Force’s northernmost landings were made by Rear Adm. Monroe Kelly’s Northern Attack Group (Task Group 34.8) bringing Brig. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott Jr.’s Ninth Infantry Division to five beaches on either side of Mehedia. Sub–Task Force Goalpost had been assigned the vital but complex mission of securing the Wadi Sebou River area, seizing Salé’s all-weather concrete airstrip, and capturing the port facilities at Port Lyautey (now Kenitra). The Ninth Infantry sailed for Torch on eight transports—Henry T. Allen, John Penn, George Clymer , Susan B. Anthony, Electra, Algorab, Florence Nightingale, and Anne Arundel—under the command of Capt. Augustine H. Gray, comCHAPTER 2 OPERATION TORCH THE LANDINGS IN FRENCH MOROCCO g-Tomblin 02.qx2 6/30/04 1:07 PM Page 23 mander of Transport Division 5. Admiral Kelly’s flagship, the battleship Texas, and the cruiser Savannah, screened by Cdr. D.L. Madeira’s Destroyer Squadron 11, provided fire support for the landings, and an air group composed of the escort carrier Sangamon, two destroyers, and the oiler Chenango, provided air cover.1 Their passage was uneventful and at 1500 on the afternoon of November 7, the northern attack force split off from the center group and headed for their transport area. Buoyed by the news of improving weather, their crews spent the day rushing about on last-minute chores. George Clymer’s crew showered and changed from rumpled blue denims to clean, more antiseptic clothing. On her deck, boat crews swarmed over their landing craft, probing and prodding, oiling and cleaning. At noon Clymer’s skipper, Capt. A.T. Moen, gave his crew a last-minute pep talk. Toward dusk, Captain Gray paced Henry T. Allen’s bridge watching the destroyer Roe pull away to locate the beacon submarine Shad. Gray’s transports, which had come three thousand miles without today’s sophisticated navigational gear, relying only on outdated charts of the Moroccan coast, would be hopelessly out of position if they did not get the correct bearing to the transport area from Shad. By 2215 Captain Gray and General Truscott could see lights ashore, but they still had no report from the Roe, which had been unable to locate the beacon sub. Roe’s skipper, Lt. Cdr. R.L. Nolan Jr., finally decided to use the surface search (SG) radar to fix her position relative to the jetties at the mouth of the Wadi Sebou River; at 2246, he reported the position of Point Victory to the flagship. Rear Admiral Kelly then issued a series of course changes that puzzled Gray, but the changes were Kelly’s way of finding the correct area despite the northerly set of the current. “During this wheel,” Gray wrote, “the formation was slowed and brought to a stop, the transports getting considerably out of position. Ships at once began rigging paravanes.”2 Despite the confusion and although “a trifle inshore and north of the desired positions,” the transports began debarkation. George Clymer coasted into her position at exactly 2400. “The visibility was good and the sea smooth, with heavy swells.” Before debarking her troops, Clymer swung three boats out, two to embark the net-cutter detail and a third boat to serve as the support boat under the command of Ensign L. Patton. When these boats were away, the darkened Clymer lowered her landing craft, and the heavily laden troops clambered down the nets and dropped into the little LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle and personnel), a hazardous maneuver in the heavy swells, which dashed the boats against the Clymer’s sides and swung the soldiers crazily away from the ship as they clung to the...

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