Featured Article
Operation Torch - The Allied Invasion of North Africa
By Frank Kalinowski II
The year was 1933. The United States was firmly gripped by the Great Depression and millions of people were out of work. Jobs were few and prospects looked bleak for young people seeking work. However, economic conditions would not deter a young man from pursuing his dream of joining the United States Army Air Corps.
Seventeen year old Francis Saturn Kalinowski, my father, was a year shy of enlistment age. He solved that obstacle by altering his birth certificate to appear a year older. The problem of being underweight came next. This was easily resolved by consuming five pounds of bananas before taking the Army physical. Deaf in the right ear took a slight of hand to beat the hearing test. He pretended to put his finger in his left ear when instructed to do so during the test; problem solved. Still unable to enlist due to a freeze on military enlistments, he wrote a letter to President Roosevelt. The President forwarded the letter to the Secretary of War with the instruction to “find a place for this young man.”
Francis, the son of two immigrants from Poland, entered the Army Air Corps in 1933 and reported to Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York. By 1942, Francis attained the rank of Master Sergeant while serving as an airplane mechanic with both the 99th and 97th Observation Squadrons.
Francis was promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer in July 1942. This resulted in his transfer to the 154th Observation Squadron, an Arkansas based National Guard unit that had been called to active duty. The unit sailed from the United States to England in the fall of 1942. Immediately after arriving in England, the unit was assigned to participate in “Operation Torch,” the allied invasion of North Africa.
We now turn to Sunday, November 8, 1942. The following is an excerpt from Francis’s diary from that day.
Sunday, November 8, 1942 (Diary of Francis Kalinowski)
“Awakened by heavy gunfire at 4:00 A.M. At last we are here and the battle is ON. Went up to the top deck to watch the battle and the gun flashes. Ship dropped anchor a couple of miles off shore and the men started going over the sides down the scramble nets at 6:00 A.M. At daybreak, the mosquito boats layed smoke screens between ships and shore. The invasion barges are shuttling back and forth between the ships and beach as fast as they can load and unload. Now it’s a steady rumble of the big guns. Rifles and machine guns are keeping up a steady fire on shore. Can see two battleships in the distance shelling the port of Oran. Our troops are sending up smoke rockets and smoke pots are floating all over the water. Stayed up on deck all morning watching the fight. A few of our barges were sunk by gunfire from a fort on shore. Some were shot up and wrecked on the beach. Two barges collided in the smoke screen and sank. The battle went on all afternoon and troops kept pouring to shore. The fight is now subsiding into the hills. Our troops have the shore pretty well in hand. God Bless America. Wrote few words to Bobbie after supper and went back upon deck to watch the lights and flashes of the battle. At times the sky towards Oran turned a bright red. Boy! They are catching HELL there. Can hear the cannons of our tanks off in the hills some-place. At about 10:15 P.M. a band of Arab guerillas came down out of the hills and attacked some points on shore. It’s midnight and in a minute it will be tomorrow. Cannoneering and cracks of rifles and rattle of machine guns still rumbling in the night. I have my battle dress on, my pack is here beside me, my gun is loaded, my knife is sharpened and my spirits are 100% stars and stripes. Fell asleep in my bunk shortly after midnight. May be over side anytime.”