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In October "Contessa" was chosen at the last minute to solve a problem facing Operation Torch planners in rapidly supplying the airfield to be captured at Port-Lyautey that lay up the Sebou River with aviation gasoline and munitions. The piers at the Port-Lyautey airfield lay in a "U" bend of the river approximately five miles from the landing beaches but nine miles up the shallow river with a maximum depth that even at the highest November tides limited access to ships drawing no more than . "Contessa" arrived at Norfolk as the convoy was preparing to sail in a leaking condition with engine problems that required immediate dry docking expected to take several days. By extraordinary effort the ship was repaired early, but in the meantime much of the crew had left town in expectation of a longer stay. Three days late, with a crew filled out from seaman volunteers from a local Naval brig released from minor offenses, the ship got underway from the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation in the early hours of 27 October in an unescorted dash across the Atlantic to join the convoy. "Contessa", loaded with only 738 tons of gasoline and bombs, overtook the convoy on 7 November. At 1620 on 10 November the "Contessa" entered the Sebou River, led by with a U.S. Army Raider battalion embarked and followed by , to deliver the aviation gasoline and munitions for the seventy-seven Army P-40 aircraft launched in the morning by the auxiliary aircraft carrier but ran aground when passing the Kasba and had to await a higher tide the morning of 11 November.