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Before Operation Torch, in what was known as Operation Flagpole, Dwight Eisenhower sent his deputy commander, Lt. General Mark Clark, ashore to meet with pro-Allied French officers in North Africa. This was an attempt to convince the French forces not to resist the coming Anglo-American landings in French North Africa.
This has always struck me as an incredibly stupid thing to do. If General Clark had been taken prisoner by Vichy forces willing to turn him over to the Nazis, the consequences could have been catastrophic. Clark not only had complete knowledge of all the details of Operation Torch, scheduled to take place two weeks later, but also was one of the few Allied officers privy to the ULTRA secret regarding the successful breaking of the German Enigma encryption device. The thought of him in some Gestapo interrogation cell in Sicily or Libya is pretty chilling.
So, what if Mark Clark had been taken prisoner by pro-Axis Vichy forces when he came ashore and turned over to the Germans? What might have been the results?