Editing Operation Torch (section)

===Intrigues with Vichy commanders===
{{Further|Operation Kingpin (World War II)|Henri Giraud}}
The Allies believed that the Vichy French [[Armistice Army]] would not fight, partly because of information supplied by the American [[Consul (representative)|Consul]] [[Robert Daniel Murphy]] in [[Algiers]]. The French were former members of the Allies and the American troops were instructed not to fire unless they were fired upon.{{sfn|Playfair|Molony|Flynn|Gleave|2004|pp=126, 141–42}} The [[Vichy French Navy]] were expected to be very hostile after the British [[Attack on Mers-el-Kébir]] in June 1940, and the [[Syria–Lebanon campaign]] in 1941.{{Sfn|Pack|1978|pp=56}}

Allied military strategists needed to consider the political situation in North Africa. The Americans had recognised [[Pétain]] and the Vichy government in 1940, whereas the British did not and had recognised General [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s [[French National Committee]] as a government-in-exile instead.{{Sfn|West Point|}} After his backing of British operations against the Vichy French in [[Dakar]] and Syria, de Gaulle did not have many supporters in North Africa.{{Sfn|Gelb|1992|p=65}} Hence the Allies decided to keep de Gaulle and his [[Free French Forces]] entirely out of the operation.{{Sfn|MacCloskey|1971|p=35}}

To gauge the feeling of the Vichy French forces, Murphy was appointed to the American consulate in Algeria. His covert mission was to determine the mood of the French forces and to make contact with elements that might support an Allied invasion. He succeeded in contacting several French officers, including [[General]] [[Charles Mast]], the French commander-in-chief in Algiers. These officers were willing to support the Allies but asked for a clandestine conference with a senior Allied general in Algeria.{{Sfn|West Point|}} Major General [[Mark W. Clark]], one of Eisenhower's senior commanders, was secretly dispatched to [[Cherchell]] in Algeria aboard the British submarine {{HMS|Seraph|P219|6}} and met with these Vichy French officers on 21 October 1942. Due to the need to maintain secrecy, the French officers were left in the dark about concrete plans, but they gave Clark detailed information about the military situation in Algiers. These officers also asked French General [[Henri Giraud]] be moved out of Vichy France to take the lead of the operation.{{Sfn|Gelb|1992|pp=157-165}}

Eventually the Allies [[Operation Kingpin (World War II)|succeeded in slipping]] Giraud out of Vichy France on HMS ''Seraph'' to Gibraltar, where Eisenhower had his headquarters, intending to offer him the post of commander in chief of French forces in North Africa after the invasion. However, Giraud would take no position lower than commander in chief of all the invading forces.{{sfn|Groom|2006|p=354}} When he was refused, he decided to remain "a spectator in this affair".{{sfn|Atkinson|2002|p=66}}