Snake Featherston
Banned
I assume you're sticking to historic realities and basing your estimate in the assumption that it would be Germans that would be beating back Torch and Monty. At that point there weren't enough germans for that, so Torch would only fail with different french, and stoping monty would require different Italians. I'm ready for the "this is ASB" comments now.
But I don't see a way for the germans to deploy suficient forces to hold north africa longer without getting suicidal in Russia.
North Africa was for the German war effort a bit like putting all you money on a new house and having your car crash right then. Not that they could afford that house anyway.
I'm thinking more in a sense that if Torch somehow fails the Germans decide to reinforce Rommel to get him to drive Monty back to Alamein just as they reinforced North Africa despite strategically the game being lost before they started. Never underestimate Hitler's willpower to override his generals or the ability of his generals to agree with him at the time and then blame him for the whole thing in their memoirs.