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Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, episode 561, French honor, German portrayal.

Last time, the northernmost landing of American forces at Medea Port Ute had been successful.

The airport was taken with the rest of the city surrendering at 4 a.m. November 11th.

It had not been pretty. It certainly had not been easy, but it was done. Now, it was time to take the rest of Morocco that was needed for Operation

Torch, and then the drive east towards the Germans could begin. Because of the numerous naval clashes

near Casablanca already covered, General Patton, the commander of the Western Task Force,

was not able to come ashore until 1.20 p.m.

On D-Day, the next day, November 9th, he started looking around and he saw the situation on his beaches was Fubar.

Look it up. No one was taking control. The men were not dashing around, i.e. there was no sense of urgency.

Even worse, when the French planes flew over to strafe the men, they all ducked for cover.

Not enough of them were firing back. The overall situation liked Patton not.

It was bad enough that they were running low on landing craft to bring supplies ashore,

but now his men were adding their listlessness to the situation.

Patton understood that those supplies were needed so they could march on Casablanca and end the French harassing his

men. In other words, there was a problem. Hard work and organization would see it right. Why was he the only

one who could see this? So instead of taking on the French, Patton took on his own men, walking up and down the beaches

of Fadala, untangling breakdowns of organization, and helping the men to move faster by yelling.

Now, things were moving. Patten went to his headquarters set up in Fadala's Hotel Miramar,

located just off the beach, center position,

...