Oran and Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria

Photographs of the Harbor and Streets, Taken by US Navy sailors in 1944

By Stephen Sherman, April, 2010. Updated March 21, 2012.

Algeria was a poor and exotic place in WW2. When my father traveled there with the US Navy in 1944, his memoirs, which we pick up here, reflect that.

As the Rock of Gibraltar disappeared into the western haze, it became known that the Denebola would visit Mers El Kebir (MEK) in Algeria. That meant Oran, the seat of many a tale brought home by tin can sailors.

MEK was a small, dusty, uncomplicated port whose principal feature was the mile long jetty that formed a splendid harbor. It is several miles west of Oran. There nestled in the protected part of the harbor was the U.S.S. Vulcan, AR-5. The story circulated that it had been there for eighteen months. When the men of the Vulcan spotted AD-12 in the harbor, their hopes rose that we were there to relieve them. None of us took any pleasure in disappointing them. We were there for only a couple of nights.

After spending one night in the harbor of MEK, and before breakfast, a buddy said to me with some excitement, "Hey, get up on deck and take a look around." An amazing change had taken place during the night. The harbor was full of ships. Some were seemingly piled high with troops. It somehow put us in mind of piles of grapes. Some of the ships were loaded to the gun'ls with vehicles and other military hardware. There was some attempt to communicate by hollering to those on the other ships but they were just out of range. It was part of the build-up of forces for the invasion of southern France. We were part of that overall operation. During our second night there, the invasion force, just as mysteriously, slipped away.

We were not far behind them, having gotten underway ourselves shortly after they had left.

For those of us who were on lookout watch and using sound powered phones, it was easy to know that we were near Europe. For some reason that perhaps a radioman could explain, foreign language and music leaked into our talking equipment. We were privileged to hear, over and over again, "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem. It must have been coming from Algeria.

	approaching Mers-el-Kebir in the Denebola LCDR Trainer in lower right
	the long jetty at Mers-el-Kebir
	Oran street scene L-R: LT Moore, LT Brophy, LTJG Burdett, LTJG Christie, CH.LT Hammer, EKS? Board
	Oran street scene
	Oran street scene L-R: Flanngan Demore, Hammer, Stygar
The three photos above are labelled in the National Archives as "street scene in Sidi-ben-Abbes, northern Algeria." In his photo album, my father labelled them "Oran." Normally, I'd give the National Archives the benefit of the doubt, but as some other Denebola photos in the same collection are identified as "Casco Bay, Attu Is., in the Aleutians," I'm not so sure. As my father noted tersely, "AD-12 was never in the Aleutians, nor was Casco Bay."
	Oran street scene

Sources:

Memoirs and photographs of Milton W. Sherman (1919-2010). He served in the U.S. Navy during WW2, on board the USS Denebola, AD-12, when he was in mid-twenties. On board the Denebola, he sailed to Algeria in late 1944, where he bought these vintage postcards from street vendors and the photos from the ship's photographer. You might enjoy reading a fuller version of his travels in the Denebola.