ALGIERS LANDING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 118, 14 November 1942, Page 7

ALGIERS LANDING

PROMPT SURRENDER

OF FORT

(Rec. 12.50 p.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 13. A correspondent, giving further details about the force which landed at Algiers, said: "Four of us walked right into the main gate of a fort 20 minutes after we had scrambled ashore. Still dripping from the surf, we shook hanas with the commander of the garrison, whicfe far outnumbered our own force, and were assured that he did not wish to'resist. He showed us an order received the previous evening instructing local commanders to 'facilitate the debarkation and establishment ashore of the American troops.' "Sidi Ferruch was more potent than we dreamed, and if we had had to fight we might not have taken it, certainly not in the 30 minutes allowed.us, Once Sidi Ferruch was in our hands it was simply a question of getting our main combat team and equipment ashore and cracking on eastward to the hign ground overlooking Algiers from the west.

"Because it had not been possible to keep wholly to the optimistic landing schedule, shooting occurred, and we spent a wild night trying to capitalise on our coup, and were only partly successful. There was a delicate situation at Vilda aerodrome. Disregarding a previous order, Colonel Trevor, of the commandos, dashed off with 150 men and within an hour cajoled and bluffed his way into the possession of the town and the aerodrome."

Apart from considerable sniping around Lempereur and west Algiers, there does not appear to have been any serious fighting in this area, and Algiers was occupied on Sunday evening.—B.O.W.