Along with French vessels in metropolitan ports, some had sailed to ports in Britain or to Alexandria in Egypt. Operation Catapult was an attempt to take these ships under British control or destroy them, and the French ships in Plymouth and Portsmouth were boarded without warning on the night of 3 July Admiral James Somerville of Force H , based in Gibraltar , was ordered to deliver an ultimatum to the French but the British terms were contrary to the German-French armistice terms. Gensoul was affronted that negotiations were not being conducted by a senior officer and sent his lieutenant, Bernard Dufay, which led to much delay and confusion.
As negotiations dragged on, it became clear that neither side was likely to give way. Darlan was at home on 3 July and could not be contacted; Gensoul told the French government that the alternatives were internment or battle but omitted the option of sailing to the French West Indies.
The British had the advantage of being able to manoeuvre, while the French fleet was anchored in a narrow harbour and its crews did not expect an attack.
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The main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg was grouped on their bows and could not immediately be brought to bear. On 3 July, before negotiations were formally terminated, British Fairey Swordfish planes escorted by Blackburn Skuas from Ark Royal dropped magnetic mines in the harbour exit. The force was intercepted by French Curtiss H fighters and a Skua was shot down into the sea with the loss of its two crew, the only British fatalities in the action. A short while later, at 5: After thirty salvoes, the French ships stopped firing; the British force altered course to avoid return fire from the French coastal forts but Provence , Dunkerque and the destroyer Mogador were damaged and run aground by their crews.
As the bombing had little effect, at 6: Somerville called off the pursuit, feeling that his ships were ill deployed for a night engagement. After another ineffective Swordfish attack at 8: A torpedo hit the patrol boat Terre-Neuve , which was full of depth charges and moored alongside Dunkerque. Terre-Neuve quickly sank and the depth charges went off, causing serious damage to Dunkerque. Churchill wrote "This was the most hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned". Somerville said that it was " The British action showed the world that defeat in France had not reduced the determination of the government to fight on and ambassadors in Mediterranean countries reported favourable reactions.
After delicate negotiations, conducted on the part of the British by Admiral Andrew Cunningham , Godfroy agreed on 7 July to disarm his fleet and stay in port until the end of the war.
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The British attacks on French vessels in port sowed anger among the French towards the British and increased tension between Churchill and Charles de Gaulle , who was recognised by the British as the leader of the Free French Forces on 28 June. According to his principal private secretary Eric Seal, "[Churchill] was convinced that the Americans were impressed by ruthlessness in dealing with a ruthless foe; and in his mind the American reaction to our attack on the French fleet in Oran was of the first importance".
On 4 July, Roosevelt told the French ambassador that he would have done the same. Lacouture accepted that there was a danger that the French ships might have been captured by German or more likely Italian ground forces, as proven by the ease with which the British seized French ships in British ports or the German seizure of French ships in Bizerte in Tunisia in November Military retaliation was conducted through ineffective air raids on Gibraltar but Baudouin noted that "the attack on our fleet is one thing, war is another".
Sinking An Ally, | HistoryNet
As sceptics had warned, there were also complications with the French empire; when French colonial forces defeated de Gaulle's Free French Forces at the Battle of Dakar in September , recruitment for the Free French movement plummeted and Germany responded by permitting Vichy France to maintain its remaining ships armed, rather than demobilised.
In early June , about 13, civilians had been evacuated from Gibraltar to Casablanca in French Morocco. The Naval Struggle Against the Axis. Fleet Admiral Chester W. The Invasion Before Normandy. Onslaught on Hitler's Rhine. The Campaign in Norway. Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. We March Against England.
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Sink the French! : At War with Our Ally - 1940 by David Wragg (2007, Hardcover)
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Chi ama i libri sceglie Kobo e inMondadori. His Wartime on the Railways was reviewed by Rail as 'very readable' and by Railways Illustrated as 'as a fascinating insight and also an important record', and Railways Illustrated chose his Southern Railway Handbook as 'Book of the Month'. Kindle Edition File Size: Pen and Sword Military 1 July Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.
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Please try again later. The dark years of World War Two were difficult years for France. On the one hand they were an occupied nation required to comply with the wishes of their dominant German overlords who had installed a puppet government at Vichy. In a curious collaboration between the elected and the military favoured by France, De Gaulle had been appointed to a junior government ministerial post as a serving brigadier in the French Army.
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After German occupation, when the entire country was in a state of complete chaos, De Gaulle had suggested a plan of action which, although finding favour with his own Prime Minister, was not well received by the remainder of the cabinet at all. Against this turbulent background, the French possessed what was then the fourth largest navy in the world and, had that navy fallen into German hands, it would have done much to make Germany fairly invincible on the high seas.
This book examines in great detail the confused political situation and the very real British fears that, in conjunction with the Vichy government, French warships were in serious danger of being handed over to Nazi Germany as an act of appeasement.