With Allied forces pressing inland from their Operation Torch beachheads in Morocco and Algeria, the January 1943 issue of All Hands recalled an earlier chapter of American naval history on those same shores — the Barbary Wars of 1801–1805 and 1815. When Tripolitan corsairs preyed on American merchant shipping and the young republic refused to pay tribute, the Navy dispatched squadrons across the Atlantic to enforce U.S. rights on the Barbary Coast. The parallels with 1942 were unmistakable: American warships were once again operating in North African waters, fighting for free passage and Allied victory. These two pages recount the earlier campaign and the officers who led it.
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