ard Montgomery was in the process of dislodging the German army led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel from its position of dominance in the North African desert.
The British were emphasizing the importance of the victory at El Alamein. In part, the British assumed this stance because good war news of any kind from the British perspective was in short supply in 1942. In part also, however, the British position was that victory in North Africa was essential to gaining Allied control of the Mediterranean region, which in turn would provide a base from which to assault the European continent. Many American leaders, particularly so those in the military, were highly skeptical of each of these linked hypotheses.
The British adamantly pursued a North African strategy as opposed to a cross channel invasion of Europe as the first step in the joint pursuit of the European war effort by the United Kingdom and the United States. While the British publicly offered a number of plausible reasons for preference of a North African strategy, private discussions among British leaders tended to emphasize the need for the United Kingdom to resist domination by the United States in the newly created wartime alliance, and a North African strategy appeared to be best suited to attain this objective. Many American military leaders speculated, however, that the British simply were not confident of the outcome of any head on clash with the bulk of the German army in 1942, which is just what a cross channel invasion would involve. The British also want to assure that the Americans would make a major commitment to pursue the European campaign early on, as opposed to deferring European action until any action against Japan was completed.
Most of the North African countries that would be most affected by Operation Torch were to some extent controlled by the remnant of the French nation whose temporary wartime capital was in Vichy. The bulk of what...