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try against Gibraltar. Undoubtedly the Axis would occupy the
whole of France to forestall an Allied landing on the French Medi
terranean coast and to attempt to gain control of the French fleet at Toulon. The Germans would probably try to seize Tunis and
Bizerte in order to retain control of the Sicilian channel, an opera tion that would be relatively easy for them because of the short supply lines from their bases in Sicily and southern Italy. Last,
but not least, because of other commitments throughout the world
Allied planners were faced with a critical shortage of trained troops
and vital supplies and equipment, particularly landing craft and shipping, which would definitely limit the size of the operation.
Quoting from an official report :
Thus the strategic conception of sweeping the Axis from North Africa, and establishing Allied control from the Atlantic to the Red
Sea, necessitated an operation on a scale of such magnitude that,
once initiated, it would have to be followed through with all the force and shipping that the situation demanded. It would be the major Allied operation of 1942 and 1943.
POLITICAL BACKGROUND
No clear picture of the military operations in French North Africa can be obtained without some understanding of the political events that accompanied, and sometimes even overshadowed, the military aspects of the campaign. In general, Frenchmen were divided into three groups :
1. General Charles de Gaulle, in London, was the rallying point
for the French National Committee. His group was also known as
the " Free French " and later as the " Fighting French . ” It comprised
French refugees who had escaped to England, America, or the
French colonies rather than accept German oppression at home and
those patriots who remained in France and took part in the activities
of the resistance groups. One of de Gaulle's followers, General
Leclerc, had organized a small force in French Equatorial Africa
that conducted raids against Italian outposts in the Fezzan (South
ern Libya ) and later crowned its activities with a campaign which
in thirty - nine days carried it 1600 miles from Fort Lamy, near Lake
Chad, to join with General Montgomery's Eighth Army at Tripoli
on 25 January 1943.
2. A second group, Frenchmen living in North Africa, where open resistance would have brought sudden German occupation, succeeded in establishing an underground " French Liberation Movement.”
Although the aim of this group, like the Free French, was to liberate
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