Casablanca, 1942: America's Strangest Naval Battle

On November 8, 1942, the U.S. Navy fought a battleship duel, three destroyer actions, and a submarine hunt off Casablanca, Morocco — against France. The Naval Battle of Casablanca, part of Operation Torch's invasion of North Africa, pitted the battleship USS Massachusetts and Rear Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt's Western Naval Task Force against Vichy French forces defending a neutrality no one back home had agreed to test. Over eight days, the incomplete battleship Jean Bart traded fire with Massachusetts, the cruiser Primauguet made a doomed sortie, and German U-boats delivered the war's cruelest final twist. Dale and Christophe break down the whole strange, tragic week.