This is the story of one of the most crucial campaigns of World War II. It is an account of Operation Torch and of the start of the process that led to the destruction of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Torch - the Allied invasion and conquest of North Africa - was an intricate enterprise. It involved political intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, a massive disinformation campaign, a muddled coup d'etat, the most momentous amphibious assault ever undertaken until then, and the transformation of half-trained, pummelled troops into victorious warriors. Norman Gelb weaves these various elements into an account of an historic moment. He describes how the Allies, their military prospects grim early in the war, agonized on how and where to expend their still slender resources on their first major offensive operation, how Winston Churchill hijacked the direction of Allied strategy from America's generals who wanted to fight the war a different way, how Eisenhouwer, the Torch Supreme Commander, was often out of his depth but nevertheless forged an effective, harmonious Anglo-American military alliance, and how the attitudes of Vichy France and Franco's Spain distorted invasion calculations. It also looks at how arch rivals Montgomery and Rommel influenced the course of events, and how, finally, for better or worse, Operation Torch determined the Allied strategy for most of the rest of the war. A senior American diplomat has called Operation Torch the most important decision made in the struggle against Hitler. This book shows how and why.