Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa

Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa
With Meredith Hindley
Part of the Torch to Tunis series on WW2TV
• Torch to Tunis
More content on WW2TV about Spies and Secret Agents
• Spies and Secret Agents
In November 1942, as a part of Operation Torch, 33,000 American soldiers sailed undetected across the Atlantic and stormed the beaches of French Morocco. Seventy-four hours later, the Americans controlled the country and one of the most valuable wartime ports: Casablanca.
In the years preceding, Casablanca had evolved from an exotic travel destination to a key military target after France's surrender to Germany. Jewish refugees from Europe poured in, hoping to obtain visas and passage to the United States and beyond. Nazi agents and collaborators infiltrated the city in search of power and loyalty. The resistance was not far behind, as shopkeepers, celebrities, former French Foreign Legionnaires, and disgruntled bureaucrats formed a network of Allied spies. But once in American hands, Casablanca became a crucial logistical hub in the fight against Germany -- and the site of Roosevelt and Churchill's demand for "unconditional surrender."
Rife with rogue soldiers, power grabs, and diplomatic intrigue, Destination Casablanca is the riveting and untold story of this glamorous city--memorialized in the classic film that was rush-released in 1942 to capitalize on the drama that was unfolding in North Africa at the heart of World War II.
Meredith Hindley is a historian and senior writer. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Salon, Christian Science Monitor, and Barnes and Noble Review. Hindley received her PhD from American University.
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[@KG-1]

Great show and interesting. Thanks to Paul and Meredith we'll always have this video.

[@tobybabalu6628]

Great show as always, best WWII history channel with the unauthorized history of the Pacific war .....

[@scottgrimwood8868]

Meredith does an incredible job sharing the story of espionage in Casablanca.

[@susanyu6507]

Great presentation! There was so much information and trying to piece together who was who, I had to get the book. Almost every sentence was a rabbit hole. It was a presentation that made me think about all the moving pieces of war and every person involved. I had to look up Rene Malevergne. Hardly anything on him in a quick search. Could anyone have done what he did? Thanks Meredith and Woody.

[@nicklehuray2749]

Really enjoyed this thanks so much to Meredith and Paul. I didn't know much of this.

[@Pam_N]

This Historian brings history and her cast of characters to life with lively and vivid accounts in a captivating and engaging style.

[@philbosworth3789]

That was very good from Meredith. As always I learnt something new from @WW2TV. Thank you Woody

[@davidlavigne207]

I truly regret not making the live presentation, but have thoroughly enjoyed the replay. It was a lovely and informative presentation by an equally lovely and informative historian and author. It never occurred to me the point that she made of just how fortunate it was that the American convoy was never discovered by the Germans crossing the Atlantic. The U-Boats weren't exactly defeated at the time. Security measures must have been very tight as well to the credit of the planners.

[@TheVigilant109]

Very interesting presentation. Many thanks

[@georgecooksey8216]

Fascinating presentation and discussion. Thank you Meredith and Paul.

[@MsZeeZed]

19:50 - I’d very much recommend the novel *Darkness at Noon* if you’re interested in understanding the rise of Stalinism and its justification of the Soviet purges. I warn you it will break your brain trying to grasp the concepts at play, but its worth it. After reading it George Orwell was inspired to write *Animal Farm* & *1984* The manuscript was written in German until Koestler was arrested by the French in 1939. An English translation was made & sent to London from Paris in May 1940 by the sculptor Daphne Hardy (the German original *Teufelskreis* published in 2015 as *Sonnenfinsternis* went to Switzerland) as Koestler himself went to Casablanca (via the Foreign Legion), where he attempted suicide on being told (wrongly) that Hardy had been killed in a torpedo attack in the English channel on returning to England. Fortunately they both survived the war in England and the book was published in 1941.

[@benrobertson7855]

Fantastic guest.many thanks.

[@jimwatts914]

Howdy folks. Interesting look at pre-war Casablanca and it’s role during the Torch operation. Great perspective on the situation. Great show, one of the finest, on the best KZbin channel.

[@WW2TV]

Thanks Jim

[@poormanselectronicsbench2021]

Please create a logical "playlist" for any episodes involved in a series, and then put it at the top of your Info for each episode. I can't follow this series well without fumbling around KZbin looking for episodes, make it easier for us poor saps to find!

[@WW2TV]

The Playlist is easy to find I think - but here you go kzbin.info/aero/PLDG3XyxGI5lAkJvZUeQCViA9M3uSyzprP

[@Ghost_wheel]

Casablanca reminds me of the Crusades. So many cultures overlapping because it was a port of hiding while on the way to somewhere safe.

[@chrisronan676]

Read "Destination Casablanca" about 2 months ago. Vert well written and easy to read.

[@curtiswebb8135]

Busy as a bee today..will damn sure watch this later. I did peek through. Thank you from California. Always a thumbs up.

[@curtiswebb8135]

I owe you some beers.

[@ToddSauve]

Being an audio oriented person, in addition to loving history, I had a hard time making out what Meredith was saying some of the time. I'm not sure if it was the microphone or her pattern of speaking, but I think it was likely an inexpensive mic that could not cope with her dynamic range and resorted to distortion when pressed on the matter. Nevertheless, a wonderful presentation and excellent comprehension of her subject matter. Clearly she has put a lot of time and effort into writing her book on Casablanca. My sincere thanks to both Meredith and Paul for this program!

[@WW2TV]

That's very interesting, I just played a few minutes and it sounds fine to me

[@ToddSauve]

@@WW2TV Listening carefully, it appears that Meredith's voice, when her tone dropped low, caused the microphone she was using to simply distort. Likely due to the frequency mix in her voice when speaking more quietly. Inexpensive laptop microphones are notorious for doing that. It was unlikely to be anything on your end Paul. Or it could be my internet provider wasn't allocating enough bandwidth to my feed, though it is normally very good because it is 20MB/s over a cable connection.

[@WW2TV]

Maybe, as I say, I don't hear anything odd at all, but we all have different hearing set ups