Osprey - Operation Torch 1942: The invasion of French North Africa

By Brian Lane Herder

Using full colour artwork, maps and contemporary photographs, Brian Lane Herder examines this thrilling story of a complex operation

Following the raid on Pearl Harbour and the entry of the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt identified the European theatre as his country's priority. Operation Torch was the largest and most complex amphibious invasion of its time. In November 1942, three landings took place simultaneously across the French North African coast in an ambitious attempt to trap and annihilate the Axis' North African armies between the invading forces under General Eisenhower and British Field-Marshall Montgomery's Eighth Army in Egypt.