To fully understand the importance of convoy SL 125 in the Allied battle plan, one must understand the stakes of Operation Torch, which was undoubtedly the largest and most audacious maritime campaign of all time.
The stratagem originated in the spring of 1942, at the height of German domination. The British Isles had managed to avoid the German invasion during the Battle of Britain, but Hitler was at the gates of Stalingrad and the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. To keep a chance to win this war, the Allies did not have any other choice but to create a second war front to relieve pressure on the USSR. The Americans chose to organize a landing on the French Coast along the Channel. Churchill, on the other hand, had not forgotten British interests in Africa and felt that landing on the European continent was very risky, given the quality of German defenses and the low number of available troops. He therefore opted for a less direct offensive, in Africa.
The negotiations between both countries lasted four days and resulted in an agreement designating North Africa as the Allies’ immediate objective. General Marshall entrusted Eisenhower with this new command and the project was named “Operation Torch”. It could only succeed if it remained as secret as possible. On the Allied side, only a few hundred people were aware of this maneuver, which aimed to land more than 100,000 men on the African coast. All the soldiers requisitioned for the operation had no idea of their final destination until after their ships had left the American and English coasts. In order to deceive potential German spies, the men based in England even underwent military training in the extreme cold, designed to make them believe that they were going to intervene in Northern Europe. They were even introduced to skiing and tens of thousands of gloves, anoraks and woolen sweaters were manufactured for the occasion. As Churchill is believed to have said, Operation Torch had to be “be set like the stones on a gemstone necklace”.
The assault convoys departed from Norfolk, Virginia, while the covering forces sailed from Casco Bay in Maine. They were later joined by five aircraft carriers coming from Bermuda, altogether forming the most fantastic naval force ever launched on the oceans. An armada of 350 warships and 500 transport ships, with a linear length of 50 km and a width of 40 km, on its way to cross more than 8,000 km of an Atlantic ocean infested with German submarines. On the night of November 8th, 107,000 men landed on the North African coast with the utmost discretion. The next morning, the Allies launched the assault and three task forces (expeditionary corps) undertook the seizing of the strategic ports and airports of Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, before advancing towards Tunisia.
With the help of archival images, videos and photos, drawings, written documents and 3D imagery, we will evoke the convoy’s journey and reconstruct on an interactive map of the Atlantic Ocean the different movements of the hundreds of ships composing Operation Torch.
