Blida Airport is an airport in Blida

Blida

Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 .

On November 8th, 1942, during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the airport was taken by the British 11th Infantry Brigade

British 11th Infantry Brigade

The 11th Infantry Brigade is a British Army regular formation that served in both the First and Second World Wars. Deactivated in 1958 it was reactivated in 2008 to assume command of the planned Operation Herrick deployment to Afghanistan in late 2009....

. The event was part of the Operation Torch

Operation Torch

Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....

 of the North African Campaign

North African campaign

During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...

.

Major A. Peter Dewey

A. Peter Dewey

Albert Peter Dewey , shot by accident by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. Dewey was the first American fatality in French Indochina, killed in the early aftermath of World War II. ....

, America's first Vietnam casualty, departed from the airport on a parachuting mission to South Western France, while serving as a Lieutenant at the Air Transport Command

Air Transport Command

Air Transport Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its mission was to meet the urgent demand for the speedy reinforcement of the United States' military bases worldwide during World War II, using an air supply system to supplement surface transport...

 in August 10, 1944. With his company was Jack Hemingway, the son of writer Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

, who, unusually, strapped a fishing rod to his leg before parachuting in.