War is won on the battlefields but victory is built first on the fronts of information or disinformation. It would not be surprising to learn that the SL 125 was used as a decoy during Operation Torch. Since ancient times, the history of world conflicts has been full of such feints and far from military novelty in October 1942. This article in National Geographic details the many strategies and tricks developed by the Allies throughout the conflict.
From his HQ in Gibraltar, Eisenhower had entirely piloted Operation Torch and one can imagine that he had left nothing to chance. In the article, we learn however that “the American General Eisenhower, in charge of planning the landings, had been impressed by the speed of the German response during the one in North Africa in November 1942”.
If he was surprised by the German reaction after the landing, what did he think of the smooth crossing of the Atlantic, wasn’t it even more surprising? Was it normal to only be surprised by the German reaction after November 8, although the threat was much greater in the preceding weeks? It makes sense… to someone who knows with certainty that convoy SL 125 was sending the U-Boats on a false trail! The memoirs of the various actors of Operation Torch (1) show that the Nazis only learned of the arrival of the Torch ships when they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar (officially neutral during the conflict, the Spanish officials did not fail to inform their German friends). At that moment, the leaders of the Third Reich still did not believe in a landing in North Africa. The Gestapo and German military intelligence were convinced that the destination of this convoy was Malta. Their judgement was based on the number of articles published in the British press about “poor, suffering and brave Malta” and the need to resupply the island. These articles had simply been commissioned by the British general staff to deceive the German agents once again…
If one cares about publishing articles to guide the Nazis in their judgement of the final destination of the Torch armada, should one not have calculated everything and guided the enemy in the same way for the crossing of the Atlantic?
The SL 125 convoy is not mentioned in the memoirs of Eisenhower or his collaborators, nor is it mentioned in this National Geographic article, but it could well have been one of the many traps devised by the Allied command, one of the jewels in the famous “necklace of precious stones” dear to Churchill (see Article “22 – The omissions of a bestseller“). A trap that worked very well, but which caused many victims. Is this not the only reason why the Allied authorities never acknowledged that the ships and passengers of this convoy had been sacrificed?
It is clear that the landing of November 1942 served as a rehearsal for that of June 1944. To secure Operation Overlord, the Allies set up Operation Bodyguard, a real masterpiece of disinformation. As stated in the article, this operation took its name from another of Churchill’s reflections, according to which truth during wartime should always be “assisted by a bodyguard of lies”.
- cf. Memoirs of General Eisenhower, General Mark W. Clark etof Robert Murphy, Roosevelt’s personal representing in Algiers.
