Operation Torch – Carriers against North Africa Guadalcanal Wasn’t the Only Invasion in ’42

In November 1942, the U.S. armed forces fought a truly global war. In the same month that Americans fought Japan in a desperate series of land, air, and sea battles at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the U.S. Navy and Army launched their first offensive against the Western Axis in French Morocco. Thus, Americans were simultaneously engaged in combat on opposite sides of the earth. The Guadalcanal campaign—Operation Watchtower—was remarkable in itself. In August 1942,...