Your Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbour and by midsummer 1942 plans for the Allied counter offensive were well under way. Gibraltar was to play a crucial part in those plans. It had been realised that an invasion of Europe in 1943 would be impracticable, but the allies could, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed it, attack the "soft underbelly of Europe" through the Mediterranean. The plan, code named Operation Torch, which was hatched between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill was to occupy French North Africa as a Springboard from which attacks could be launched to drive Italy out of the war. President Roosevelt is represented here today by his daughter-in-law, Mrs Franklin Roosevelt Jnr, and Prime Minister Churchill, by his grandson, Winston Churchill MP.

In July 1942 Major General (as he then was, but later President) Dwight Eisenhower was appointed Allied Commander-in-Chief of Operation Torch. He is represented here by his granddaughter Anne Eisenhower.

On behalf of my Government and the people of Gibraltar I extend to you all and also to Mrs Churchill and Mr Flottl a warm and affectionate welcome.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill placed Gibraltar within the command of General Eisenhower as the temporary headquarters for this, the first large-scale Anglo American Operation of the War. He arrived in Gibraltar on 5^th November 1942 to take over, not just command of Operation Torch itself, but also military command of Gibraltar itself.

At his first press conference General Eisenhower said: "Never in my wildest dreams in West Point days, did I ever think that someday I, an American General, would command a Force from the British Fortress of Gibraltar". One can only speculate as to what he had in mind. I suspect that it might have been the thought that given the Boston Tea Party and his country`s history thereafter, an American being in command of a British colonial military fortress must have had more than a touch of irony and given him more than a little satisfaction!

General Eisenhower stayed at the Convent, then as now, the British Governor`s residence, but his operational headquarters were in a small chamber in a Tunnel in the heart of the Rock.

Now, lest anyone should be taken in by the misconceived, Hollywood inspired notion that American Generals during the war sat in silk house coats, smoking large cigars and drinking the best claret in sumptuous French chateaux that passed for General Headquarters, it is worth noting what General Eisenhower thought of the comfort of his Headquarters here in Gibraltar.

In his memoirs General Eisenhower wrote: "The subterranean passages under the Rock provided the sole available office space, and in them was located the signal equipment by which we expected to keep in touch with the commanders of the three assault forces. The eternal darkness of the tunnels was here and there partially pierced by feeble electric bulbs. Damp, cold air in block-long passages was heavy with stagnation and did not noticeably respond to the clattering efforts of electric fans. Through the arched ceilings came a constant drip, drip, drip of surface water that faithfully but drearily ticked off the seconds of the interminable, almost unendurable, wait which always occurs between completion of a military plan and the moment action begins."

He added, for good measure, that it was "the most dismal setting we occupied during the war".

But the reality was that Gibraltar was vital to the operations success. It is not often enough remembered that Gibraltar was the only spot of land in the whole of continental Europe that remained in Allied hands throughout the War.

General Eisenhower wrote: "Gibraltar made possible the invasion of North-West Africa. Without it the vital air cover would not have been quickly established on the North African airfields".

The British official naval historian of the war, Captain S W Roskill, wrote: "It is no exaggeration to say that the Rock fortress itself, its airfield, its dockyard, its storage and communication facilities, and the anchorage available for the great assembly of ships in the adjacent Bay, formed the hub around which the wheel of the whole enterprise revolved."

One hundred thousand soldiers on the high seas in a multitude of transports converged on Gibraltar. More than 400 aircraft of all types were crammed into the dispersal areas around the Gibraltar runway. Fighters had been shipped in crates and assembled on the airfield. Every available cubic foot of storage was taken up with ammunition, fuel, and other essential supplies. One hundred and sixty-eight American pilots were housed in the RAF messes at North Front.

On the 8^th November 1942, 466 aircraft from Gibraltar landed on captured North African airfields. Without doubt, the Rock of Gibraltar had played a major role in the eventual Allied victory.

It was the 1^st Infantry Division, US Army that spearheaded Operation Torch on the American side. They are represented here today by Col Joseph Schroedel and a contingent comprising a Command Sergeant Major and eight troopers. I welcome them to Gibraltar.

Needless to say the people of Gibraltar played their important part in this great venture. Many local men, their survivors here with us today, served at that time in the Gibraltar Defence Force, remaining in Gibraltar to defend it throughout the War even though their women and children had been evacuated. They were the predecessors of the Gibraltar Regiment whom you see on parade here today. The situation of Gibraltar was not without grave and obvious risk.

Hitler had a plan called "ILONA" for marching through Spain to take Gibraltar and thus control the entrance to the Mediterranean. Had he done so Malta could not have been held, nor would Torch have been possible. In the end he did not implement the plan because he misjudged Allied intentions.

In addition Hitler sought to provoke General Franco of Spain to move in on Gibraltar.

Sir Samuel Hoare, British Ambassador in Madrid at that time reported to the Foreign Office: "The temptation to cut our lines of communication will be very great. We shall appear to have put our necks between two Spanish knives [the Spanish mainland and Spanish Morocco]…. The Germans will be on General Franco`s back, dinning into his ears "Now is your time. You can cut the Allied throat, destroying the naval and air base at Gibraltar and win a dazzling reward for your country in North Africa. Let no one under-estimate this temptation, or think that because nine Spaniards out of ten don`t want war, General Franco might not risk it……"

And so it was against this backdrop of excitement and danger that the menfolk of Gibraltar worked side by side with their British and American military colleagues to defend Gibraltar from possible attack while at the same time assembly fighter aircraft, provisioning ships, loading and unloading rations, supplies and ammunition, round the clock, in vast quantities in an incessant chain to and from ships and air planes and into and out of massive stores inside the tunnels in the Rock.

And so Gibraltar despite its small size, played a vital role in Operation Torch and thus a significant part in eventual victory. The people of Gibraltar had sacrificed their homes and their way of life, in evacuation abroad, for four long years. It is a record of which the Rock and its people have every right to be proud.

This event is one of the early fruits of the Gibraltar American Council, a body of friends of Gibraltar in the USA set up through the hard work and commitment to Gibraltar of men like Perry Stieglitz (who runs the Gibraltar Government`s office in Washington) and Nick Luddington (who runs the Council itself). I wish to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to both of them.

Our military connection with the UK goes back long before Operation Torch and continues to this very day. But our military relationship with the USA is also longer and broader than Torch. Indeed we stand beneath this arch which is known as "The American War Memorial" and is the Memorial to the American military personnel who lost their lives in the First World War, hence our choice of this spot for this plaque commemorative of Operation Torch.

Since those War days Gibraltar has hosted many visits by US Warships and aeroplanes, and we continue to do with great pleasure and, I hope hospitality. Only last week we had a visit by USS Narwhal In Gibraltar, the USN have a home away from home and we hope that they will put it to increasing use. I would therefore express my welcome to Rear Admiral Metzger, of the USN, and to Mrs Metzger.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable and rewarding time during this visit to Gibraltar and that there will be many other visits in the future.

It is therefore with great pleasure, pride and honour and with profound respect and gratitude to all those who gave their lives in Operation Torch that I now unveil this commemorative plaque.

The plaque reads as follows:

"In memory of the British and American soldiers, sailors and airmen who risked their lives in the liberation of North Africa in World War II.

From their headquarters in Fortress Gibraltar, Lieutenant General Dwight David Eisenhower, United States Army, and Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham, Royal Navy, directed Operation Torch, the first major combined combat operation during World War II involving American and British forces.

On 8^th November 1942, elements of the Allied expeditionary force landed simultaneously along the coastline of Morocco and Algeria.

The lessons learned and the relationships forged between British and American forces and their leaders during this campaign would ultimately lead to the liberation of Europe".