Meanwhile, with the help of Lieutenant R.Y. McElroy's low-flying Grumman TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bomber doing spotter duty, the guns of the cruiser Savannah pounded the French rear assembly area, destroying a number of other tanks. With the addition of 10 more tanks, Semmes was able to weather another strong counterattack and several weaker ones throughout the rest of the day, suffering nothing more than a dud shell embedded in his tank's armor. With French resistance waning in the south,
Truscott felt confident enough to transfer some of the tanks northward to join McCarley's stalled drive to the airport.

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In the center, Dilley's men barely held out around the old lighthouse as officers scrambled to round up stragglers from the nearby woods and outbuildings. At last, more than 200 men were found and brought up, but too late. The French had reinforced the Casbah during the night, and they counterattacked with mortars and 75mm guns, forcing the Americans to abandon the lighthouse and settle for stalemate the rest of the day. During the action, 2nd Lt. S.W. Sprindis earned a battlefield promotion when he held back the French charge with a bazooka he fired from different positions along a wall, giving his comrades time to retreat in order.

Further confusing the situation was the appearance behind the lines of a French officer who claimed that the commander of the Casbah was requesting a cease-fire to discuss the possible surrender of the fortress. The naive Americans believed the man and sent him back, only to learn that he was simply caught behind the lines and trying to avoid capture. In the process he was able to give excellent intelligence to the commander of the Casbah when the Americans escorted him back.

The day before, Craw and Hamilton had managed to find a functioning jeep in which to begin their race throughout the streets of Mehedia Beach on their desperate mission to convince the French authorities to surrender before serious fighting began. Tragically, they had just reached Port Lyautey when they ran into a machine-gun position manned by a nervous crew who fired on them just as they rounded a corner. The jeep crashed, and Colonel Craw was killed instantly. Now Major Hamilton was a prisoner and had been taken to the local Vichy commander, Colonel Petit.

Even though their exact situation was unknown to the rest of Sub-Task Goalpost Force, Toffey's 3rd Battalion continued with its planned operations by engaging the enemy around the airfield in an artillery duel and moving ahead with a diversionary river crossing by Company I at night. The men made it to the opposite bank but were not able to advance any farther. At the Port Lyautey bridge, Companies K and M were forced back by artillery fire, but managed to set up a machine-gun position that denied use of the bridge to the enemy.

Ordered by Truscott to keep moving during the night, and without the help of their tanks, McCarley's three companies trudged forward through the rainy darkness. Intending to link up with Dilley near the Casbah, they lost their way in the dark and ended up in a machine-gun ambush just south of Port Lyautey. The columns split up to avoid the trap, with the hapless McCarley and his staff getting themselves captured by a squad of Foreign Legionnaires. McCarley, however, managed to escape by dawn, reaching his men in time to capture Port Lyautey the next day.

Meanwhile, another of McCarley's companies was busy capturing a well-attended cafe near the airport while the last company, with only 60 or so men, retraced its steps and moved on the airport the next day.

Elsewhere on the night of November 9, a small boatload of determined sailors under the command of Lieutenant M.K. Starkweather moved its way silently up the mouth of the Sebou River toward a submerged boom. The boom was preventing the old destroyer Dallas from moving upriver to the airport, where it was to deposit 75 soldiers in an attempt to seize the area before the enemy knew what was happening. The airport was to have been taken on the first night ashore, and now, two days later, the situation had grown more serious. The officer chosen to command the boom-cutting party had not appeared at the scheduled rendezvous point, and so the young lieutenant had decided to proceed without him.

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