Naval Battle of Casablanca 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 8 November 1942 – 16 November 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Morocco | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Operation Torch | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 33.5300, -7.5830 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Naval Battle of Casablanca was a series of naval engagements fought between American ships covering the invasion of North Africa and Vichy French ships defending the neutrality of French Morocco in accordance with the Second Armistice at Compiègne during World War II. Allied military planners anticipated an all-American force assigned to seize the Atlantic port city of Casablanca might be greeted as liberators. An invasion task force of 102 American ships carrying 35,000 American soldiers approached the Moroccan coast undetected under cover of darkness.
French defenders interpreted the first contacts as a diversionary raid for a major landing in Algeria; and Germany regarded the surrender of six Moroccan divisions to a small commando raiding force as a clear violation of French obligations to defend Moroccan neutrality under the Armistice of 22 June 1940 at Compiègne.
The last stages of the battle consisted of operations by German U-boats which had reached the area the same day the French troops surrendered. An escalating series of surprised responses in an atmosphere of mistrust and secrecy caused the loss of four U.S. troopships and the deaths of 462 men aboard 24 French ships opposing the invasion.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Naval Battle of Casablanca (revision 1377082391), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Bombardment of Salé (1851) 1851 · 90 km
- Siege of Mazagan (1562) 1562 · 91 km
- Siege of Mazagan (1769) 1769 · 91 km
- Battle of Salé 1260 · 91 km
- Battle of Port Lyautey 1942 · 118 km
- Battle of Sidi Bou Othman 1912 · 184 km
Other battles of the Operation Torch
Browse more: battles in Morocco · Africa · World War II era battles