The Savannah became part of Operation Torch, Northern Attack Group, Task Group 34.8 and assisted the 60th Infantry Regiment (Rein.) of the 9th Infantry Division (totaling: 9099 officers and men, 65 light tanks) with their assault in French Morocco, 8-10 November, 1942. This was the first phase in the defeat of the Axis powers.

On the 8 November, 1942, the Savannah attempted a new aerial strategy. Captain L.S. Fiske ordered her five SOC-3 seaplanes aloft equipped with 325 or 100 lb anti-submarine depth charges. Their missions were to bomb tank columns from the air and patrol for enemy submarines. For almost eight hours, her SOC-3's dropped 49 charges on shore targets and bombed pro-German French tanks with depth charges whose fuses were triggered to explode upon impact. The results were devastating to Vichy forces.

The Savannah moved closer to shore and several times during the day she was ordered to shell the 138 mm coastal artillery guns in Kasba.

(Rear Admiral Monroe Kelly, Commander of Northern Task Group, followed General Orders with respect to shelling shore batteries: not to fire unless fired on - check fire if the Vichy checked. The orders were based upon the assumption that the French would cease and quit when they knew who we were. They did not.)

This helped the GI's assault in capturing Port Lyautey and the first enemy concrete airstrip of the African continent. Shortly, thereafter, the Savannah became part of a return convoy which sailed to Hampton Roads. She then sailed south and on to Brazil for Atlantic sea duty.

The Savannah reported to Commander of Task Force 81 in the northwest African waters on May 23, 1943 and became an important capital ship during OPERATION HUSKY , the invasion of Sicily. The crew and ship provided gunfire support during the operation. Thereafter, she was sent to harbor in Algiers and to port three miles west of Oran in Mers-El-Kebir harbor during 1943.

One of the funniest incidents which took place at that time was when the British received word late one evening that his majesty King George VI, was to make a cursory inspection the next morning. As you recall, the HMS George V was a dirty rusty looking monster. It was weird looking - almost as if its fantail had been chopped off. (Later it was learned, the original design had been altered to comply with tonnage limitations under an International Disarmament Agreement after World War I.) Early the next day the H.M.S. crew was turned out at 0430. By working diligently and with lots of hustle, they managed to get the port side of the ship's hull and super-structure painted. No time left to paint the starboard side, which was seaward.