On November 6, 1942 the Admiral met with Mohammed Rafif at the Grand Café on the Boulevard de la Gare in Casablanca.
“I heard rumors that the Americans will be landing in Morocco very soon.”
The Admiral didn’t look surprised and asked,
“How soon?”
“Maybe one or two days or less.”
“Where did you hear this?”
“In the Arab cafés in the Medina. Very reliable people are discussing it openly. They say deep sea fishermen have spotted hundreds of troop ships at sea and they are headed in this direction.”
The Admiral didn’t let on how alarmed he was.
“How many ships, do they have an idea?”
“More than one hundred, some said several hundred.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely, many ships with big guns.”
Calamai figured the young man had no reason to invent something like that and yet Casablanca had a rumor mill unlike any other.
“You have been very helpful and I hope you recover completely.” The Admiral handed Rafif an envelope.
“I thank you for the money. If you need me, ask the man behind the counter, he can reach me in fifteen minutes.”
The young man quickly walked away and the Admiral understood that his mission was over and that he had to get out of French Morocco as quickly as possible.
Only a handful of top military planners knew that the invasion of French North Africa was code-named “Operation Torch.” A small advance team was infiltrated to prepare the landings: ten ONI and OSS men on a B-17 bomber from England landed at Gibraltar on October 28 and reached Tangier as civilians the next day. The city was under Spanish administrative control and nominally neutral with Axis and Allied spies swarming everywhere. The American team was scattered in groups of two at various hotels and private apartments. They were briefed by OSS Colonel William Eddy in charge of secret operations behind the lines in North Africa, who reported directly to General “Wild Bill” Donovan. Eddy’s cover was as U.S. Vice Consul in Tangier.
The first advance team reached Casablanca smuggled in a small truck with a radio operator on the night of October 30. They conveyed a rather bulky radio transmitter allowing them to communicate with the ships at sea. The best location for the long antenna was south of the city on Anfa, a fashionable hill overlooking the ocean. The chosen location turned out to be the villa of a Frenchman sympathetic to De Gaulle located very close to the Anfa Hotel that was the headquarters of the German and Italian Armistice Commission. Within a few hours the radio was operational in the attic and a long antenna suddenly appeared the next morning, neatly tied to the red brick chimney on the green tiled roof. Anyone familiar with the structure and paying close attention would have detected the new appendage instantly, but that didn’t happen.
Captain Matthews, the team leader began surveying the port area on a bicycle taking notes on the condition and the names of the French ships moored at the dock. The French battleship Jean Bart was being refitted and was therefore unable to sail, however its huge 105 mm guns could inflict lethal damage on allied ships many miles off the coastal waters and could even prevent the landings from taking place at all. Several other French ships were in perfect condition and included a few of the most advanced submarines that were also operational and could become a serious threat. Matthews was stopped a few times by policemen on patrol but with his fluent French he managed to avoid arrest.
Colonel Eddy had briefed everyone in Tangier:
“Most French officers are loyal to the Vichy government but there is a growing number eager to come over to our side. These fellows don’t necessarily like the Free French and De Gaulle so we can’t say for sure how each individual will react. You must be cautious and assume that many will obey the orders they receive from their individual commanders, whatever they may be. Be prepared to have to shoot your way in. I have recommended that all Axis officers in Casablanca be executed just before the invasion and we have teams ready to carry out that order if the top brass approves.”
Col. Eddy was informed that a high-ranking Italian officer had been sent by anti-Mussolini dissidents to negotiate the surrender of the Italian army with the promise of a coup d’etat against the Fascist government. The officer was currently staying at the Hotel Transatlantique in Casablanca where he was registered as Monsieur Gillet.
Colonel Eddy dispatched a team of three former French policemen to Casablanca in makeshift motorcycle gendarmerie uniforms. His proposal to murder the German and Italian officers at the Anfa Hotel had been rejected by General Eisenhower who wanted to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and preferred capturing as many enemy officers as possible. On the other hand Eddy wanted to arrest a high ranking and potentially dangerous naval officer before the landings took place. If an arrest was impossible then the team was to assassinate him and anyone else traveling with him.
Admiral Calamai paid a courtesy visit to Armistice commission headquarters that afternoon and met with Colonel Giannini, the Italian representative at the Anfa Hotel, who briefed him on the current situation and German long range plans to fortify the coastline against an Allied invasion. Privately, the colonel was nervous and discussed the rumors of a possible Gaullist coup against General Noguès. Calamai noticed that security around the Anfa Hotel was not up to the usual German standards.