The British preferred a series of landings as far east as Bone to enable the Allies to quickly seize Tunis and deny Hitler the primary port to reinforce his North African forces. The US wanted an Allied presence in Morocco to discourage Spain from either entering the war or allowing it to be used by German forces to attack the Allies rear in North Africa. If the original British preferred plan had been used, what effect would this have had on the North African campaign and follow up campaigns in Sicily, Italy etc? Was there a threat from Spain, would the Germans be able to use other ports to bring in large numbers of troops which ultimately ended up POW’s?
Tunis would have been ceased very quickly if they landed closer. Tunis was very lightly defended at the begining and was almost taken. The loss of Tunis would have crippled rommels rear as they retreated back and would have wound up the Africa war quicker. However that would not have shortened the war, as they would still have had to wait till march, april to invade italy It might have also been bad for the US who learnt a lot of lessons in Africa, the hard way, as well as blooding several units. FNG
From what I know the allies did not land in Tunis because of fear of having to having to land under heavy german/italian air attacks. There are no other important ports in Tunisia, than Tunis, and Tunis was very close to axis airbases in Sicilia. Also the italian fleet could have tried to attack forces landing in Tunisia, as their fast ships could get there in one night.
I'm not particularly well versed on Torch, but a few things spring to mind. First French equipment was still largely the same stuff that was around during the Battle for France, not bad, but whilst Allied equipment had the benefit of an extra couple of years development the French had not. Second, you have to remember that Vichy France was actually a Neutral (AFAIK), not a German Ally, why would the Vichy soldiers be particularly concerned with sacrificing themselves to stop the Allies getting to the Germans? That they fought the Allied landings at all is remarkable.
Actually french resistance during Torch was much harder than the allies had expected, and the landing troops soon were in considerable difficulties. Air superiority and naval artillery saved the day for the allies. Besides that french resistance was never meant to be more than symbolic. Vichy being neutral, it had to defend it's territories, otherwise the germans would not recognize it's authority anymore. Some units fought hard, others joined the allies willingly without firing a shot.It mostly depended on the personal convictions of the officers in charge. Especially the Navy carried out some desperate attacks against the vastly superior allied fleet. And when Darlan ordered to end the figthing and join the allies, french resistance in Algeria was far from being broken.
