Operation Reservist and the Oran landings

8–9 November 1942, Oran, French Algeria

Allied victory ashore; the attack on the harbour a disaster

To stop the French wrecking the port of Oran during the Torch landings, two ex-American Coast Guard cutters, Walney and Hartland, were sent to crash through the harbour boom before dawn on 8 November 1942 carrying some 400 American infantry and a naval party. The French were waiting. Walney broke the boom and got alongside the jetty, but both ships were shot to pieces at point-blank range by the destroyers and sloops in the harbour and by the shore batteries, and blew up and sank. Of the 393 American soldiers 189 were killed and 157 wounded, and the Royal Navy lost 113 men. Outside, the French destroyers and sloops came out to attack the transports and were met by the cruiser Aurora, which with the destroyers drove Tornade and Tramontane ashore and sank the sloop La Surprise; Épervier was driven ashore the next day. Rodney and the shore batteries exchanged fire for two days. Oran surrendered on 10 November, its harbour blocked by scuttled ships.

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