<u>"It allowed Allied forces to strike at a less defended Southern Europe."</u>
Explanation:
The reasons for these actions were as much political as military. At first <u>TORCH</u>, as the operation was called, had no specific military objective other than to effect a lodgment in French North Africa and to open the Mediterranean to Allied shipping. It progressed mainly from a demand for early action against the European members of the Axis, and was mainly designed to ease the pressure on the hard-pressed Soviet armies and check the threatened advance of German power into the Middle East.
