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Contact Info
Home Town Lorton, VA
Last Address Alexandria, VA
Date of Passing Feb 14, 1984
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Legion of Merit
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Rank: Captain
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 355 (October 1946)
Citation: (Synopsis) Captain William H. Duvall, United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Commander Atlantic Escort Fleet engaged in escort of trans-Atlantic Convoys during World War II.
Operation Torch/Naval Battle of Casablanca
From Month/Year
November / 1942
To Month/Year
November / 1942
Description The Naval Battle of Casablanca was a series of naval engagements fought between American ships covering the invasion of North Africa and Vichy French ships defending the neutrality of French Morocco in accordance with the Second Armistice at Compiègne during World War II. The last stages of the battle consisted of operations by German U-boats which had reached the area the same day the French troops surrendered. Allied military planners anticipated an all-American force assigned to seize the Atlantic port city of Casablanca might be greeted as liberators. An invasion task force of 102 American ships carrying 35,000 American soldiers approached the Moroccan coast undetected under cover of darkness. French defenders interpreted the first contacts as a diversionary raid for a major landing in Algeria; and Germany regarded the surrender of six Moroccan divisions to a small commando raiding force as a clear violation of French obligations to defend Moroccan neutrality under the Second Armistice at Compiègne. An escalating series of surprised responses in an atmosphere of mistrust and secrecy caused the loss of four U.S. troopships and the deaths of 462 men aboard 24 French ships opposing the invasion.
