| Naval Battle of Casablanca | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Operation Torch of World War II | |||||||
 Jean Bart under attack, circa November 1942 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |
 Vichy France  Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Henry Hewitt |
 Frix Michelier  Ernst Kals | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
1 aircraft carrier 1 escort carrier 1 battleship 3 heavy cruisers 1 light cruiser 14 destroyers 15 troopships 347 landing craft 108 aircraft |
1 battleship 1 light cruiser 2 flotilla leaders 7 destroyers 8 sloops 11 minesweepers 13 submarines 7 aircraft | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
174 killed 4 troopships sunk 150 landing craft sunk 5 aircraft destroyed 1 battleship damaged 1 heavy cruiser damaged 2 destroyers damaged 1 oiler damaged |
462 killed 200 wounded 1 battleship damaged 1 light cruiser destroyed 4 destroyers sunk 7 submarines sunk 1 submarine scuttled 2 submarines damaged 1 destroyer grounded 2 flotilla leaders grounded 1 submarine grounded 7 aircraft destroyed | ||||||
The Naval Battle of Casablanca was a series of naval engagements fought between American ships covering the invasion of North Africa and Vichy French ships defending the neutrality of French Morocco in accordance with the Second Armistice at Compiègne during World War II.[1]
Allied military planners anticipated an all-American force assigned to seize the Atlantic port city of Casablanca might be greeted as liberators. An invasion task force of 102 American ships carrying 35,000 American soldiers approached the Moroccan coast undetected under cover of darkness.
French defenders interpreted the first contacts as a diversionary raid for a major landing in Algeria; and Germany regarded the surrender of six Moroccan divisions to a small commando raiding force as a clear violation of French obligations to defend Moroccan neutrality under the Armistice of 22 June 1940 at Compiègne.[2]
The last stages of the battle consisted of operations by German U-boats which had reached the area the same day the French troops surrendered.[note 1]
An escalating series of surprised responses in an atmosphere of mistrust and secrecy caused the loss of four U.S. troopships and the deaths of 462 men aboard 24 French ships opposing the invasion.[7]
- ^ Auphan & Mordal (1976), p. 210
- ^ Potter & Nimitz (1960), pp. 568–574
- ^ Cressman, Robert (2003). USS Ranger: the Navy's first flattop from keel to mast, 1934–46. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-57488-720-4.
- ^ a b Blair (1998), p. 88
- ^ Blair (1998), p. 736
- ^ Blair (1998), p. 110
- ^ Auphan & Mordal (1976), pp. 210, 228–229 & 236
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