The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley in World War II: a supplement

The planning for 'OPERATION TORCH'

As outlined in Room Eight, Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, took place in November 1942. It involved huge numbers of ships from America laden with troops and supplies making their way across the Atlantic, meeting up with their British counterparts, assembling off the Straights of Gibraltar, and then proceeding to their target destinations. Involving some eight hundred vessels from the U.S.A. and the U.K., the scale of the operation was simply vast.

Different Deception Plans were put in place at various stages of the operation.

The ones at the start of the operation - which were fed to the Germans by double agents - and also given to some of the troops and their administrators so any leaks would confirm the same stories - were that the Allies were going to attack Norway, or were going to carry out a limited operation against the Pas de Calais; and, as the great fleet entered the Mediterranean, that it was destined for the South of France; and finally, that it was destined for Malta.

As DW wrote:

' ... In addition to the above there were many minor plans to mask the innumerable activities in preparation for the operation. As they were so numerous I drew up a large chart which showed every step to be taken from day to day until the actual sailing of the expedition'

He went on to detail how, once the expedition was underway, the cover story changed from day to day, so as to achieve maximum effect.

A sense of how this was done can be seen from papers in the National Archives, and it likely that we can see DW's hand in these documents.

As DW recalled in his published memoirs, the Deception Plans met with total success, and by the time the vast armada reached its destination ports, not a single ship had been lost.

While noting the effectiveness of their plans, in his unpublished memoirs, DW added that they had also been blessed with luck, and that:

"At that time the U-boats were mostly in the neighbourhood of the Canaries. As the convoys passed out of the range of enemy reconnaissance aircraft they came even closer to the main hunting ground of the U-boats. It needed only one of them to sight the TORCH Armada and, whatever the risk, she would break wireless silence to call up the whole U-boat fleet and send the news to Berlin. Yet our luck still held. Stray U-boats roving north almost gave us heart attacks, but on D-6 the convoys arrived off the Straights of Gibraltar, still unreported."

He also added that:

"For some reason which I have never fathomed, the Admiralty had laid it down that, before entering the Mediterranean, the convoys must have a whole two days to regroup before the assault. In consequence, for two days while we held our breath, the ships milled round one another a hundred miles outside the Pillars of Hercules. Then, at night, with all lights out, they passed the Straits. The die was now cast."

Even when under pressure, DW always had an eye for the comic, and in his unpublished memoirs he also recorded the following incident:

"James (Arbuthnott) paid daily visits to the Admiralty and, on one occasion, he brought back an amusing story concerning our preparations for TORCH.

One of our most up-and-coming Admirals was officially notified that he was to be made Harbour Master at Hamble. This little peace-time yacht basin was then being used only as a commando base and anchorage for the sort of small craft that were sent on raids to France.

At the thought of being relegated to this backwater and demoted to such a junior command, the gallant Admiral roared with rage and wrote a furious letter to their Lordships demanding to know what he had done to receive such shabby treatment.

It then transpired that no-one had informed him that for Operation TORCH the principal ports along the North African coast had been given as code names those of the small yacht harbours along the south coast of England.

In fact, this able sailor had been appointed Naval Commander, Algiers, with the highly responsible task of taking over and running this all-important port."

References :	The Deception Planners Chapters 7 & 8 Quote about DW creating charts partly reproduced in The Deception Planners page 78. DW's unpublished memoirs
Provenance :	Two illustrations courtesy of The National Archives [CAB 121/105] Operation Torch maps taken from www.worldwar2facts.org/operation-torch.html Extracts from DW's unpublished memoirs: Private Collection