The 3rd Division, under the command of Major General Jonathan W. Anderson, after spending many months training in the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, first saw action during the war as a part of the Western Task Force in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, landing at Fedala on 8 November 1942, and captured half of French Morocco. The division remained there for the next few months and therefore took no part in the Tunisian Campaign, which came to an end in May 1943 with the surrender of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers who subsequently became prisoners of war (POWs). While there, a battalion of the 30th Infantry Regiment acted as security guards during the Casablanca Conference in mid-January 1943 with Chips as one of the guard dogs. Some soldiers say that Chips saved lives before the conference took place by sniffing out a time bomb set up by enemy saboteurs. In late February, Major General Anderson left the division to return to the United States and command the X Corps, and was replaced by Major General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., who had formerly been on the staff of the commander-in-chief of Allied forces in North Africa. Truscott instituted a tough training regime and ensured that all ranks in the division could march five miles in one hour, and four miles an hour thereafter; the troops called it "the Truscott Trot". The division began intensive training in amphibious landing operations.
The 3rd Division, under the command of Major General Jonathan W. Anderson, after spending many months training in the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, first saw action during the war as a part of the Western Task Force in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, landing at Fedala on 8 November 1:942, and captured half of French Morocco. The division remained there for the next few months and therefore took no part in the Tunisian Campaign, which came to an end in May 1943 with the surrender of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers who subseq.uently became prisoners of war (POWs). While there, a battalion of the 30th Infantry Regiment acted as security guards during the Casablanca Confer!ence in mid-January 1943 with Chips as one of the guard dogs. Some soldiers say that Chips saved lives before the conference took place by sniffing out a time bomb set up by enemy saboteurs. In late February, Major General Anderson left the division to return to the United States and command the X Corps, and was replaced by Major General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., who had formerly been on the staff of the commander-in-chief of Allied forces in North Africa. Truscott instituted a tough training regime and ensured that all ranks in the division could march five miles in one hour, and four miles an hour thereafter; the troops called it "the Truscott Trot". The division began intensive training in amphibious landing operations.