Operation Torch, General Dwight Eisenhower Proclamation & Liberation Landing - U.S. Flag Armband, 1942.
This is a 48 star United states flag imprinted on a treated cloth armband issued to US invasion troops for the invasion of North Africa. When the US forces landed in November 1942, they were opposed by troops of the Vichy French regime that controlled Algeria and French Morocco. The flags were issued in the hope that the French military would recognize the Americans as liberators rather than enemies. After a week of fierce fighting most of the French forces in Africa came back over to the Allied side.
Armband is framed with a broadside titled "Proclamation" featuring crossed American flags at top. Broadside is split into 2 languages - French on left and Arabic on right with bottom of broadside signed in type by Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Lt. Gen. who was commanding the Theater of Operations. Broadside framed with original flag armband used during Operation Torch.
Operation Torch was the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa in 1942, proposed by the British as an alternative to an all-out invasion of mainland Occupied Europe. It was designed by Churchill to remove Axis powers from North Africa, consolidate control of the Mediterranean and facilitate an eventual land invasion of continental Europe. US forces eventually entered Casablanca in Morocco and Oran in Algeria, both colonies of the French Vichy and had established supremacy in just over a week of fierce fighting.
ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed
Sources:
Operation Torch, Wikipedia, 20 November 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch
Poling, Caitlin, American Foreign Policy Website, May 1, 2008, Operation Torch, The Darlan Deal, and Charles de Gaulle: Franco-American Relations, Winter 1942, 20 November 2011, from:
http://personal.ashland.edu/~jmoser1/usfp/poling.htm
Invasion arm flags, Paratrooper.be, 20 November 2011, from: http://www.paratrooper.be/articles/invasion-arm-flags/
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
(Formerly in the Jim Mountain Military Historical Sub-collection.)
