| Original caption: “Ack-Ack fire during an air raid on Algiers, by the Nazis.” 5-minute timed exposure of anti-aircraft tracer fire over Oran, Algeria, during an air raid in November 1942. Following the cessation of hostilities in Algiers, General Doolittle lost no time in establishing the Headquarters 12th Air Force in Northwest Africa. The advance Command Post was moved from Tafaraoui to temporary quarters — a former bedroom and bath — in the Hötel Saint Georges in Algiers on November 8. By the end of November the entire headquarters had assembled and was functioning in permanent quarters in the Standard Oil Building on Boulevard Victor Hugo in downtown Algiers. November and December were feverish months for the United States and British air forces. Patrols were flown over Allied-controlled Mediterranean ports, and there were frequent clashes with the enemy air-craft. At least 32 Axis raiders were shot down by Allied night fighters alone. 1 evening Colonel Von R. Shores (September 29, 1912 – January 12, 1974), the 12th’s Weather Officer, and Colonel Monro MacCloskey (May 28, 1902 – January 29, 1983), the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, A-3 Operations, Headquarters 12th Air Force, decided to watch a night raid on the port of Algiers. In their requisitioned car they drove a short distance from the Hôtel Saint Georges to a safe point overlooking the city and the harbor. The aerial fireworks display and the pyrotechnics provided by live ammunition, the firing of the antiaircraft guns, the chattering of machine guns, the deep reverberations of detonating bombs, and the searchlight beams crisscrossing the sky seeking out the enemy bombers created an unforgettable picture. Imagine the surprise of the 2 officers, on their return to the hotel, to find a hole in the hood of their car made by a 20 millimeter (0.78 caliber) shell. Early on November 9 the Vichy Government informed the Germans that French air bases in Tunisia and in the Department of Constantine were available to the Luftwaffe. Later that morning the French qualified the concession that only German forces be sent to Tunisia. The French condition was repeated by the Vichy French Resident General, Vice Admiral Jean-Pierre Estéva (September 14, 1880 – January 11, 1951), at 1200 Hours, who reported to Vichy that 2 German liaison officers had arrived in Tunisia to arrange for the collaboration of German and Italian air units with the French defenders of North Africa. Estéva protested to Vichy against such a collaboration, but even before the message could be sent, the 1st German planes were landing, and until dark dive bombers, fighters, and air transports continued to land at El Alouina, the airdrome near Tunis. By November 18, the Germans were moving out of Tunis to establish a front against the advancing British. Each passing day saw new Axis aviation units established on the airdromes and new ground force units landing from ships, transport aircraft, and gliders, and spreading across the western hills. Not only did the enemy have the advantage of being within a 100 miles of his Sicilian bases across a strip of water he rigidly controlled, but the airdromes in eastern Tunisia were suitable for all-weather use, a tremendous advantage during the ensuing rainy season. Operating from Algiers, the British seized control of all the ports and airfields along the coast as far as La Calle, landing troops from the sea under cover of naval guns and the fleet air arm, and bringing in fighter squadrons at the earliest possible moment. The operations were conducted under difficult circumstances, as Axis planes, probably based on Sardinia, attacked at all hours of the day and night. In 1941, United States Army Lieutenant William R. Wilson (December 8, 1914 – May 19, 2011) began his career with the 162nd Signal Company Photo in a most inauspicious way: for 3 months, he laid cable at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. By the time he was discharged in 1945, his wartime photos had been published in LIFE and Look magazines, and he had worked with and become good friends with Scripps-Howard war correspondent Ernie Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945). Wilson’s photos from World War II, both official and personal, number in the hundreds. Depicting both the tragedy of war – a rainy funeral for a fallen GI – and the tragicomic – his only war injury: a broken toe – Wilson’s work offers insight into how a creative, well – educated young man perceived the war from behind a camera’s viewfinder. Wilson arrived in England on September 11, 1942, on RMS Queen Mary and was assigned to Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division for the invasion of North Africa on November 8, 1942. Wilson recorded making this image in his memoirs: “The time was now early winter 1943, and shortly after my arrival I received a letter from Lieutenant Emmert M. Horning April 22, 1913 – November 11, 1971), an old friend from Iowa, now in the Pentagon at Washington. It concerned a photograph that I had made more than a year earlier, explicitly against orders, while I was still stationed at Oran, Algeria. The picture was a five-minute time exposure of the dark sky filled with tracer bullets during a German air raid after midnight. A few copies had been circulated around headquarters there, and I had kept the negative rather than risk a court martial charged with violation of orders.” “Would I please send the original negative direct to Lieutenant Horning at the Pentagon? He would make a copy negative for me, and release the photo for publication there. I sent the negative to Washington with the caption, ‘Hell Over Oran,’ and it became the single, most reproduced picture I’ve ever made.” “The manufacturers of the camera I used printed it as the centerfold of their publication, ‘Twenty-Six Great Photographs of World War II.’ It won several prizes, and in 1985 I had it computer colorized. The red streaks from tracer bullets and the moonlit highlights of Oran’s blacked-out buildings are all very accurate, making the photo even more impressive.” After World War II, Wilson was a professional photographer for dozens of magazines, focusing on family life and travel. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0716.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.09 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 2900 x 2212 |
| Photographer | William R. Wilson |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 15, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Oran |
| State or Province | Oran |
| Country | Algeria |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-111-SC-182245 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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