 In July 1942 , Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Allied Commander @-@ in @-@ Chief of Operation Torch . Churchill placed Gibraltar under the command of General Eisenhower as the temporary headquarters for this , the first large @-@ scale Anglo @-@ American operation of the war . He arrived in Gibraltar on 5 November 1942 to take over , not just command of Operation Torch itself , but also military command of Gibraltar . 
