Evening star., 1942-11-10
u. 5. Column
Heads for Libyd
ToExpe|.Axis
Petoin Assumes
Command of
French Forces
BY the Associated Press.

TISuSU UOISSS
BY the Associated Press. -
LONDON, Nov. 10.-An Ameri-
can column was reported ad-
vancing toward Libya today-the
first United States thrust directly
aimed at expelling the Axis from
the preliminary occu-
patton of French North Africa
rolled swiftly toward completion
over Vichy's shattered and dis
organized defenses.
Aged Marshal Petain himself
shouldered the burden of commando
ing the French forces. replacing ADJ
miral Jean Darlan, who is prisoner
of the Americans, and the Germans
were reported to have sent Field
Marshal Erwin Won Witzleben to
North Africa to direct the Vichy
forces on the field.
Oran, the chief French North Az
rican port on the Mediterranean.
had been entered by United States
tank crews, but the city apparently
still had not been fully subjugated
when an American column struck
out for the next-and biggest-goal
OF the expedition.
(Reuters reported Vichy
broadcast saying that United
States military headquarters had
been set up in Oran early this
afternoon and that no more
firing was heard in the city after
3 pm. III am, Eastern war
timeD
Drive Toward Bou Saada.
A Vlchy broadcast said an Amer
lean force was driving toward Bou
Saada, 120 miles southeast of Algiers
in direct line toward the Libyan
desert, indicating a possible attack
over the inland desert at Tropoli,
capital and kingpin of Italian Libya,
and at the rear of Field Marshal
Erwin Rommels scurrying Axis
army.
One report. unconfirmed. said
American vanguards had pierced the
border of Tunisia, but the Vicfy
broadcast indicated that the plan
was to bypass it. Vlchy said its
forces in the desert were preparing
to resist the thrust into the interior.
The report that Marshal Won Witz-
leben had arrived in North Africa
came from Russian sources amid
gathering signs of disintegration Of
the Vichy command.
without Commander.
With Admiral Darlan a captive,
French leadership in Algeria, in the
east, and in Morocco, In the west,
had been without a unifying COM
mander. Pierre Laval was reported
to have hurried to Rome to take
stock with Premier Mussolini Of the
peril with which the Axis suddenly
finds itself confronted by the Allied
threat from the south. Fl.
Thus, French North Africa tot
tered today under the armor- tipped
blows of United States expedition
ary. force striking with might and
speed.
So rapid was the campaigns
progress. still only in its third day,
that it outstripped the expeditions
communication systems ability to
report it.
An Allied headquarters spokes-
man here, however, declared the
whole operation was reeling of with
smooth precision and still with but
slight United States casualties.
Situation at 4 Glance.
This was the situation at a glance:
l. Admiral Darlan, one member Of
the collaborationist triumvirate Of
Vichy and a sparkplug of French
resistance, was taken into custody
of United States forces at Algiers.
where he arrived in time only to
give the cease-flre order In that
North African port.
2. BY entering Oran today, after
first having forced the surrender Of
Algiers under land, sea and air as
sault, the Americans virtually had
completed the first phase of the
campaign in Algeria, breaking
French resistance in both its chief
ports.
! 3. On the Atlantic Coast. whers
the defense apparently was sturdier,
the Americans were pressing so hot
on the pivotal Moroccan port of
Casablanca that its defenders were
offered an armistice. It was rejected.
4. Gen. Auguste Nogues, COM
mander in chief of Vichy's Moroccan
forces. was reported by the French
from Tangier to have withdrawn into
the interior from threatened RABBIT.
north of Casablanca. ~
Relentless Hammering.
Wherever French garrisons still
took orders from Vichy Gen. Dwight
D. Eisenhower's powerful command
hammered relentlessly, If reluc-
family, to complete the expulsion, OF
the Axis influence in Africa from
the Atlantic to the Nile and prepare
the ground for the assault on Axis
Europe. ~
American troops apparently still
were streaming ashore on tbs
| (see AFRICA, Page A-5)