Interlude North Africa and the Mediterranean, 21 October-16 November 1942 – A period of almost four weeks in October and November 1942 saw a dramatic shift in Allied fortunes in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Events started on 21 October in Egypt with the long-awaited British offensive at El Alamein. After weeks of preparation and probing attacks, Allied forces launched themselves at their outnumbered and overstretched Axis adversaries behind a massive air and artillery bombardment. After two weeks of hard fighting, the German and Italian troops were either overwhelmed or in full retreat and less than three weeks from the start of the operation, British forces had recaptured the port of Tobruk in Libya.
Three days after the start of the Battle of El Alamein, the Mediterranean Fleet successfully executed OPERATION STONEAGE and a ran a convoy of six British, American, and Dutch merchant ships to Malta. Vice Admiral Harwood suspected the Germans were heavily distracted and would not be able to divert assets to interdicting a convoy. He was right more than he knew. Not only was the British 8th Army’s offensive putting immense pressure on Axis air units in Libya, but fuel shortages made worse but the successful interdiction of Axis supply convoys by aircraft and submarines from the island of Malta meant that fuel had to be flown in to Libya from Crete, diverting the attention of German air units on Crete from offensive operations. The situation on Crete was further exasperated by continued raids by RAF and USAAF B-24s against German airfields on the island. With the Germans and Italians distracted the five of the convoy’s six freighters got through while the light cruiser HMS Arethusa was torpedoed during an air attack and needed to be towed back to Alexandria.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, Force H ran a decoy convoy to further distract the Germans and Italians. This operation allowed the faster minelayer HMS Welshman to make run back to Gibraltar after delivering supplies earlier in the month while the carrier HMS Eagle made the final Club Run of the war, flying off 20 Spitfires and six Albacores while HMS Argus flew off another six Albacores. Historians including Stephen Roskill would later conclude that the successful missions to Malta in late October 1942 combined with successful Allied offensive operations in North Africa effectively lifted the siege of the embattled island.
On the heels of the British offensive in Egypt and the operations to resupply Malta, the Allies executed their most ambitious operation of the war to date, OPERATION TORCH, the invasion of French North Africa. Over 100,000 British and American troops landed at three points in Morocco and Algeria against opposition from the Vichy French. The operation was supported by a massive Allied armada including the carriers HMS Victorious, HMS Formidable, HMS Eagle, HMS Argus, and USS Ranger along with four British and four American escort carriers (with two employed as aircraft ferries), making OPERATION TORCH the first large scale use of the new converted ships. Over the course of the operation, the Allies lost several destroyers and smaller combatants to air attacks and submarines while the most significant naval loss of the operation occurred when the escort carrier HMS Archer was torpedoed and sunk by U-155 off the coast of West Africa a day after she flew off 30 USAAF P-40F Warhawks to captured airfields in Morocco. Archer went down with four P-40s still onboard. U-155’s torpedo spread also sank a British troop transport and damaged an American cargo ship.