American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe

Chapter 2. Beginnings in Northwest Africa

Planning SIGINT Service in Operation TORCH

U.S. Army preparations for Operation TORCH were permeated by haste and improvisation, in part because the planning elicited conflicting strategic concepts that took time to reconcile, and in part because the participants in that planning were in two clusters on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. American resources were being stretched to the limit. Critical decisions on which a whole series of actions depended were delayed or changed during the planning process. Ultimately, insistence by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on gaining a base on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and entering Tunisia from Algeria produced an amphibious assault in three areas of French ...