Meanwhile, preparations for Torch continued, with the final plans calling for three separate groups of landings. The Eastern Task Force would land at Algiers, the Algerian capital, and the Center Task Force at the Algerian port city of Oran. The trickiest part of those operations would be when they passed through the Strait of Gibraltar; if U-boats caught them in that natural choke point, the Germans would have a field day. Consequently, the concern of the planners for the Mediterranean area was primarily one of deception. The third part of Operation Torch, the Western Task Force, had a number of other problems that made its task the most complicated of them all.

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Placed under the command of General George Patton, the Western Task Force had the advantage of having a man at the top who would stop at nothing to see that the mission was accomplished, a quality that would be needed in the days ahead. Naval operations were in the hands of Rear Adm. H. Kent Hewitt, an easygoing man who, in the beginning, found it difficult to work with Patton, but with increasing familiarity became a solid partner.

One of the things that made the Western Task Force a tougher challenge than the others was the fact that its entire troop complement would be made up of American soldiers without combat experience. The question was often asked as to how they would perform in battle. Although there were plenty of veteran American officers whose experience went back to World War I, the U.S. Army of November 1942 was largely a new creation–its troops trained hastily after the attack on Pearl Harbor, sometimes at half-built facilities and with wooden guns.

As the weeks passed, Patton overcame problems of organization, supply, transportation, assembly and even last-minute training. On October 23, the same day that Montgomery launched his attack on El Alamein, Admiral Hewitt brought out the fleet from Hampton Roads and set sail. Elements of the invasion force left at separate times and from different places, finally assembling somewhere in the Atlantic as the troops continued to train aboard ship. At last, the armada reached the waters off Africa and once again divided into its three component parts. Operation Blackstone would land at the Moroccan port just south of Casablanca; Operation Brushwood would come ashore at Fedala, just north of Casablanca; and Operation Goalpost, under the command of General Truscott, with the most difficult mission of the three, would strike farthest north at Port Lyautey.

Although Truscott’s mission was to attack Port Lyautey, the main purpose of Goalpost was to seize the airfield outside the town, preferably by the end of the first day ashore, in order for planes waiting on the carrier Chenango to use it to support the attack on Casablanca. It was easier said than done. An attempted overthrow of the Vichy French government in Morocco had failed just before the arrival of the invading army, dashing any hopes that the landing would be unopposed. As it was, the invading troops had an obstacle course of defenses, both natural and man-made, to overcome to reach the airfield. The town of Port Lyautey actually sat well back from the coast on the southern bend of the Sebou River. As the river bent northward and then southward again, it emptied into the sea along a jetty that stuck out beyond the shoreline. Within the western loop sat the airport, guarded by a number of anti-aircraft guns. Furthermore, the river was blocked by a cable stretched across it that would need to be cut before troops could be brought up and deposited at the airport.

Goalpost would be divided into three segments, made up of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 60th Regimental Combat Team (of the 9th Infantry Division), and placed ashore at Yellow and Blue beaches in the extreme south, at Green Beach just south of the jetty, and Red Beach to the north of the Sebou. A series of ridges ran along Red Beach that the 3rd Battalion, under Lt. Col. John J. Toffey, would need to cross in order to reach Hill 58 and establish a fire-control team to support the attack on the airfield. Separate units were expected to seize a bridge over the Sebou leading into Port Lyautey on the north. To the extreme south, the 1st Battalion, under Major Percy McCarley, would have to find a narrow road that gave access between a long lagoon to the left and more ridges to the right. Three miles inland, the 1st was to establish a strong blocking force along the Rabat­Port Lyautey road to protect Goalpost’s southern flank from tanks known to be stationed at Rabat. Meanwhile, another unit would move northeast toward the airport.

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