Prof. Greg Jackson

Still, he scrambles to the wheel just as a shell hits the motor, coating the barely still floating boat and burning gasoline.

There's nothing more to do.

Edward orders his men into the water.

Edward Wellman and the survivors of this fraught action amid the Operation Torch amphibious landing are quickly fished out of the water and taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, the few who managed to swim through the oily waters to shore are pounced on by Moroccan police, until unnamed French civilians chase the officers away, then use their own coats to wrap the dripping, freezing Americans.

Right there, you can see the conflict of Vichy and real French sympathies playing out on the beach.

It's not clear what happens to this group of GIs, but at least they're not among the upwards of 30 men killed in the harbor today.

And speaking of Vichy, the leader of this collaborationist regime, the great war hero, Marshal Philippe Etain, stands by the French Navy's response.

He makes no apologies in a telegram to President Franklin Roosevelt.

France and her honor are at stake.

We are attacked.

We shall defend ourselves.

And so they do.

The Vichy French fight fiercely at nearly every landing site.

They're successful in part, as historian Rick Atkinson writes, because they, quote, "...intended not just to fight, but to fight with passion."

Close quote.

They're also aided by unpredictable tides and American inexperience.

Boats are overturned.

Men drown.

Critical supplies are left on ships.