Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/24355: Telegram

The Consul General at Algiers (Cole) to the Secretary of State

Algiers, September 19, 1942—11 a.m.
[Received 3:20 p.m.]

616. For Murphy. I report the following from our (saintly?) informant for what you may think it is worth:

The latest secret “information bulletin” received here by the naval authorities from Vichy, where it was probably printed 5 or 6 days ago and sent by airplane, contains the following:

1.
Secret warnings issued to the Navy at Algiers regard American landing in the region of Algiers which is “less defended than Moroccan coasts” as imminent.
2.
General Noguès now in Vichy and military representatives of other jurisdictions but not Juin.57
3.
Italian Consul General at Algiers claims he has information of an early American attempt against North Africa and that he is in agreement with Germans for the immediate reinforcement of Algerian defenses mentioning 150,000 French troops to be sent here at once.
4.
German Armistice Commission, Algiers, has complained to Vichy that “certain” French services have planted microphones on it.
5.
Laval is “said to have stated” that the transfer of workmen to Germany having failed the only procedure left him to assure “the fruits of collaboration” is to assist Germany in North Africa.

Repeated to Vichy, true reading to Casablanca.

Cole
  1. Gen. Alphonse Juin, Commander in Chief of the French forces in North Africa.↩