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Closer to the capital, advancing troops met resistance in El Biar, a small suburb of Algiers. Fire from 25-lb. mortars slowly drove back the French, potshotting from whitewashed, tile-roofed houses as they went. Ducking behind trees and lampposts, the Americans blasted back with their new Garand rifles. During one lull in the fighting the Americans were called into an El Biar café for a glass of vin rouge on the house. Villagers cheered the invaders and unconcernedly went about their tasks, often trudging through the line of fire.
As the afternoon waned, the retreating French sent out a flag of truce and asked for terms. That night in Algiers Major General Charles W. Ryder and Robert Daniel Murphy, U.S. envoy to North Africa, were closeted with Admiral Darlan and General Pierre Alphonse Juin. Algiers' three airports already were in American hands. From east and west troops were at the city's gates. Admiral Darlan, no stranger to the ways of negotiation, ordered the surrender GI Algiers. Next morning U.S. troops, who had billeted outdoors in the chilling wind all night, streamed in.
Oran. Fighting was more bitter for Oran, 130 miles west of Algiers. U.S. pilots flying British Spitfires hammered at the French while armored ground forces moved in on key airdromes. One airdrome was captured along with 800 prisoners. On the second day Brigadier General James H. Doolittle arrived to command the air assault, which dovetailed closely with land and sea action. Planes peppered Oran with leaflets from General Henri Giraud urging Frenchmen to "save your bullets for the Boche." By the time three more airdromes were captured, Major General Lloyd R. Freden-dall had pushed his columns within three miles of Oran and even closer to the Mers el-Kebir naval base. Massing his forces, General Fredendall, with one burst of power, broke Oran's resistance on Nov. 10, the day that Darlan, terming himself commander for all North Africa, signed a general armistice with Lieut. General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Casablanca. In Morocco tough, muscular Major General George S. Patton Jr. ran into just the kind of opposition for which he had prepared. Months ago, on the deserts of southeastern California, he had drilled his men to fight in blazing heat over terrain such as they would meet in North Africa. Patton had insisted that they keep their sleeves rolled down, that they get along on a minimum of water. He had forbidden that vehicles, moving or standing, be within 50 yards of one another, lest they provide a bunched target. Not long after his men reached Africa, their grumbles turned to praise for what the Old Man had taught them.
Two nights before the U.S. struck, Hans Auer, German Consul General in Casablanca, had called a meeting of twelve Nazi armistice commissioners at the Hotel Plaza to warn them that an Allied invasion was imminent. De Gaullists followed the Germans, set up machine guns covering the hotel's exits. When the meeting broke up, a blaze of gunfire silenced the Germans.