1942 — Operation Torch Lands in North Africa

On November 8, 1942, Operation Torch — the largest amphibious invasion in history to that point — struck the shores of North Africa. More than 100,000 American and British troops landed near Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, opening a second front against Nazi Germany. It was a vast undertaking, carried across the sea and set down at three cities at once, and it changed the geography of the war in a single morning.

Within days, French commanders switched sides, and Rommel's Afrika Korps was trapped between two Allied armies. Africa, so long a battlefield, now became something else as well: the launchpad for the liberation of Europe.