Great Britain managed to destroy or capture some French ships that were of no combat value
| Admiral James Somerville | Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul |
Prerequisites
According to Article 8 of the Franco-German cessation of hostilities agreement, concluded at the end of June 1940, the French fleet was to arrive at points determined by the Kriegsmarine command, and there, under the control of German or Italian representatives, carry out the disarmament of ships and the demobilization of commands. Despite the fact that the Vichy government led by Marshal Petain and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Darlan, repeatedly stated that not a single ship would go to Germany, the British government considered the possibility of them falling into the hands of the Germans. Ships of the world's fourth largest fleet with German crews on board (or after French crews crossed over to the German side) could undoubtedly pose a great threat to the English fleet.
The British command was especially concerned about the fate of the ships located in the following ports:
- Mers el-Kebir (2 new battlecruisers Dunkirk and Strasbourg, 2 old battleships, 6 destroyers, a seaplane carrier and several submarines)
- Casablanca (unfinished new battleship Jean Bart)
- Martinique (aircraft carrier Béarn and two light cruisers)
As a result, the British government decided to take very risky measures.
Progress of the operation
Portsmouth and Plymouth
On the night of July 3, 1940, the British attempted to capture French ships in British ports. The attack was so unexpected that only the crew of the submarine Surcouf, located in Portsmouth, managed to provide armed resistance to the British; a French midshipman, two British officers and a sailor were killed. Other captured ships were the obsolete dreadnoughts Paris and Courbet, two destroyers, eight torpedo boats and five submarines.
The ships' French crews were forcibly put ashore and interned "not without bloody incidents". Some of the crews of the captured ships were subsequently sent to France, and the rest joined the crews of small and light ships operating as part of the Free French forces under the command of General de Gaulle. Some Frenchmen refused to join the Free French Navy because of the pro-British nature of this “government in exile.”
Alexandria
French Navy bases in Africa
In the port of Alexandria, the crews of the old battleship Lorian, four cruisers and several destroyers agreed to temporarily not abandon their ships.
Oran and Mers el-Kebir
In order to neutralize the squadron located in the unfinished naval base of Mers el-Kebir (near the Algerian port of Oran), the British government sent there a squadron of the battleships Hood, Valient and Resolution, and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal ", two cruisers and 11 destroyers under the command of Admiral Somerville.
On July 3, the commander of the French squadron, Vice-Admiral Gensoul, was presented with an ultimatum in which the British demanded that French ships either proceed to English ports for further action as part of the Free French forces, or, observing the requirements of the armistice treaty, which prohibited the participation of the French Navy in actions against Germany and Italy, moved to French ports in the West Indies, or were scuttled. Otherwise, the British reserved the right “to use any means to prevent the German side from seizing ships.”
That same morning Gensoul also received a German ultimatum related to the seizure of French ships in English ports, which read:
Either the return of all ships from England or a complete revision of the terms of the truce
In addition, even before the end of the negotiations, the British Swordfish torpedo bombers, with the support of Skue carrier-based fighters, laid a minefield so that the French ships could not go to sea. At the same time, one of the covering fighters was shot down by Curtiss P-36 aircraft from a French air transport, killing two crew members. None of the torpedo bombers were lost.
The French commander rejected the ultimatum, considering its terms humiliating. He stated that since he has no right to surrender his ships without an order from the French Admiralty, and he can scuttle them according to the still valid order of Admiral Darlan only in case of danger of capture by the Germans or Italians, all that remains is to fight: the French will respond to force with force. This was conveyed to Churchill, and at 18:25 (London time, or 17:25 local time), on the eve of the expiration of the ultimatum, Admiral Somerville was conveyed the Prime Minister's order: “The French ships must either accept our terms or sink themselves or to be sunk by you before nightfall."
However, Somerville opened fire as early as 16:54, without waiting for either orders or the expiration of the ultimatum, in order to maintain surprise. The French did not at all expect such a development of events, as de Gaulle later wrote:
...The ships in Oran were in no condition to fight. They were anchored, without any possibility of maneuver or dispersal... Our ships gave the English ships the opportunity to fire the first salvos, which, as we know, at sea are decisive at such a distance. The French ships were not destroyed in a fair fight.
Somerville's squadron in the wake formation was 14 km north-north-west from Mers-El-Kebir, course - 70, speed - 20 knots. A minute and a half after the first English salvo, the French battleships at anchor returned fire. Admiral Gensoul, not intending to fight at anchor, ordered them to form a wake column in the following order: Strasbourg, Dunkirk, Provence, Brittany. Destroyers and other ships had to break through on their own - according to their ability. The Strasbourg, whose stern mooring lines and anchor chain had been released even before the first English salvo, began moving immediately. At 17:10, Captain 1st Rank Louis Collins took his battleship to the main channel and headed out to sea at a 15-knot speed. All 6 destroyers left with him.
The first of the French ships to open fire was the Dunkirk. When the first salvo of the British hit the port pier, the Dunkirk was already releasing mooring lines and poisoning the stern chain. At 17:00 the battleship opened fire, at the same time she received the first hit from a 381-mm shell from the battle cruiser Hood. The shell hit the stern and, passing through the hangar and non-commissioned officer's cabins, exited through the side plating 2.5 meters below the waterline. This shell did not explode because the thin plates it pierced were not sufficient to arm the fuse. However, in its movement through the Dunkirk, it interrupted part of the port side electrical wiring, disabled the motors of the crane for lifting seaplanes and caused flooding of the port side fuel tank. The return fire was quick and accurate, although determining the distance was made difficult by the terrain and the location of Fort Santon between the Dunkirk and the British.
Explosion of the battleship "Brittany"
At 17:03, Provence received the first hit, which caused a fire and a large leak. To avoid flooding, the battleship had to be pushed to the shore with its bow at a depth of nine meters. At 17:07, the fire engulfed the old battleship Brittany. Two minutes later the ship began to capsize and suddenly exploded, killing 997 people.
Entering the fairway at a 12-knot speed, the Dunkirk was hit by a salvo of three 381-mm shells. The first hit the roof of the second main caliber turret above the port of the right outer gun, severely denting the armor. Most of the shell ricocheted and fell to the ground about 2,000 meters from the ship. A piece of armor or part of a projectile struck the charging tray inside the right half-turret, igniting the discharged powder cartridges. All the servants of the half-tower died in smoke and flame, but the left half-tower continued to operate - the armored partition isolated the damage.
The second shell hit near the two-gun 130-mm turret on the starboard side, closer to the center of the ship from the edge of the 225-mm belt and pierced the 115-mm armored deck. The shell seriously damaged the turret's reloading compartment, blocking the supply of ammunition. Continuing its movement towards the center of the ship, it broke through two anti-fragmentation bulkheads and exploded in the air conditioning and fan compartment. The compartment was completely destroyed, all its personnel were killed or seriously wounded. Meanwhile, in the starboard reloading compartment, several charging cartridges caught fire and several 130-mm shells loaded into the elevator exploded. And here all the servants were killed. An explosion also occurred near the air duct to the forward engine room. Hot gases, flames and thick clouds of yellow smoke penetrated through the armor grate in the lower armored deck into the compartment, where 20 people died and only ten managed to escape, and all the mechanisms failed. This hit turned out to be very serious, as it led to a disruption in the power supply, which caused the fire control system to fail. The intact bow turret had to continue firing under local control.
The third shell fell into the water next to the starboard side, a little further aft of the second, dived under the 225-mm belt and pierced all the structures between the skin and the anti-torpedo bulkhead, upon impact with which it exploded. Its trajectory in the body passed in the area of the second boiler room and the first engine room, where the external shafts were located. The explosion destroyed the lower armored deck along the entire length of these compartments, the armored slope above the fuel tank, the anti-torpedo bulkhead and the starboard tunnel for cables and pipelines. The shell fragments caused a fire in the right boiler of the second boiler room, damaged several valves on the pipelines and broke the main steam line between the boiler and the turbine unit. The superheated steam that escaped with a temperature of 350 degrees caused fatal burns to the boiler room personnel who were standing in open areas.
On the Dunkirk, after these hits, only the third boiler room and the second engine room continued to operate, serving the internal shafts, which gave a speed of no more than 20 knots. Damage to the starboard cables caused a brief interruption in power supply to the stern until the port power supply was turned on. I had to switch to manual steering. With the failure of one of the main substations, the bow emergency diesel generators were turned on. The emergency lighting came on, and the bow turret continued to fire fairly frequently at the Hood. In total, before receiving the order to cease fire at 17.10, Dunkirk fired 40 330-mm shells at the English flagship, the salvoes of which were very dense.
Damaged destroyer Mogador
The destroyer Mogador, leaving the harbor, was hit in the stern by a 381-mm shell. This caused the depth charges located there to detonate and the stern of the destroyer was torn off almost along the bulkhead of the aft engine room. However, he was able to run aground and, with the help of small ships arriving from Oran, began to put out the fire. The British, satisfied with the sinking of one and damage to three ships, turned to the west and set up a smoke screen.
French destroyers attacked the British submarine Proteus, preventing it from launching an attack on Strasbourg. The Strasbourg itself opened heavy fire on the English destroyer Wrestler, which was guarding the exit from the harbor, forcing it to quickly retreat under the cover of a smoke screen. The French ships began to develop full speed. At Cape Canastel they were joined by six more destroyers from Oran. The Strasbourg, which was breaking through, was attacked by torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal. Two Swordfish and one Skue aircraft were shot down, their crews were later picked up by the English destroyer Wrestler. At 18:43, the cruisers Arethusa and Enterprise, led by the battle cruiser Hood, began pursuing the French ships that had broken through, but at 20:20 the pursuit was stopped, since the British ships were not ready for a night battle, especially since they were arriving reports of destroyers approaching from Oran. After surviving another air raid at 20:55 and rounding the southern tip of Sardinia, Strasbourg arrived at Toulon on 4 July. During the transition, an accident occurred in one of the boiler rooms. As a result, five people died, and the ship was forced to reduce speed from 25 to 20 knots.
Remaining in Mers-el-Kebir, Dunkirk entered the harbor of Saint-André, where Fort Santon and the terrain could provide some protection from British artillery fire. The ship was grounded, the evacuation of unnecessary personnel immediately began, and 400 people were left on board for repair work. On July 4, Admiral Esteva, commander of naval forces in North Africa, issued a communiqué stating that
Dunkirk's damage is minor and will be repaired quickly.
This announcement prompted a swift response from the Royal Navy. Three days after the battle, on July 6, 1940, the stranded Dunkirk was attacked by torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal, two torpedoes hit the patrol ship standing near the side and caused the detonation of the depth charges on it. A powerful explosion literally tore apart the starboard side of the ship over a 40-meter space. A temporary patch was applied to the hole and on August 8 the Dunkirk was pulled into free water. Subsequently, on February 19, 1942, Dunkirk made the transition to Toulon.
Then the British battleships opened fire. The French ship was first damaged by 381-mm shells from the battleships Barham and Resolution, and then there was an explosion in the main caliber turret. Satisfied with this result, the British withdrew.
Martinique
Results of the operation
After the attack on French ships in their bases, the Vichy government broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain. This operation complicated Anglo-French relations for many years.
The British failed to destroy the newest battleships Strasbourg, Dunkirk and Jean Bart, while the dreadnoughts of the First World War were no longer of combat value. After repairing the damage, Dunkirk moved from Mers-el-Kebir to Toulon. German command Until 1942, no attempts were made to take possession of French ships. When within
The French fleet suffered virtually no losses during the entire Strange War, and by May 1940 it was rightfully considered the fourth navy in the world.
Moreover, exactly on the eve of the war, it included (and was also about to enter) four new battleships - which greatly increased its combat value. Well, after the signing of the armistice and France’s withdrawal from the war, this fourth most powerful navy became an uncertain threat - therefore Churchill, with a fearless hand, signed the plan for Operation Catapult, designed to capture or destroy the French navy.
HOW it was held is not very important for us now; it is much more important for us to understand WHY it was held.
The latter managed to capture those French ships that were stationed in bases controlled by the British relatively bloodlessly: on July 3 in Portsmouth they got two old battleships (Paris, launched in 1911, and Courbet, which did it a year earlier ), two destroyers, five submarines and two hundred different small ships and boats; The battleship Lorraine (born in 1912), four cruisers and half a dozen destroyers stationed in Alexandria quietly and peacefully drained fuel on July 5, removed the locks from their guns and declared themselves interned.
But this trick did not work with the newest French battleships: the British had to send Admiral Sommerville’s squadron to Algeria (where the combat core of the French fleet was concentrated in the unfinished Mers-el-Kebir base). Which, with fire from main caliber guns, announced to the French sailors that Great Britain was no longer their ally.
Attack on Mers el-Kebir
In total, 1,297 French were killed and 350 were wounded; the battleship Brittany exploded, the battleships Dunkirk and Provence, damaged by the fire of the British fleet, were run aground by their crews (and then repaired as they sailed to Toulon).
On this day, the battleship Strasbourg with five destroyers managed to break through to Toulon - however, in November 1942 it was sunk by its crew. The battleship Richelieu was fired upon by the British in Dakar.
“The elimination of the French fleet, as an important factor, almost at a single blow, with the help of violent measures,” Sir Winston wrote about Operation Catapult, “made a deep impression in all countries. This was done by England, which many had written off as helpless; England, which, as foreigners believed, was trembling on the verge of capitulation... England dealt a cruel blow to its yesterday's friends and secured temporary undisputed supremacy at sea. It became clear that the war cabinet was afraid of nothing and would stop at nothing.”
Mr. Churchill is proud of the treacherous stab in the back inflicted on his recent closest ally, proud of the murder of people who, until their very last minute, considered the British comrades in arms... And this man is today considered to be a model politician?
However, conscience for Sir Winston, as you know, was an abstract concept - he preferred to operate with concrete categories, the main one of which was “expediency”
What was the purpose and key meaning of Operation Catapult?
If Churchill wanted peace in Europe, there would be no need to sink the French fleet; For what?
Germany proved to its enemies that it was capable of defeating any armies that these enemies could put in the line of fire against it - and the only goal of Hitler and his colleagues was to conclude peace, and on the most lenient terms for the losing side.
In his speech in the Reichstag on July 19, 1940, he spoke about this directly and frankly - as befits a magnanimous winner:
“At this hour I feel obliged to listen to the voice of conscience and invite England to come to its senses. I hope that we are smart enough to stop talking about future victories. I see no reasons that could justify the continuation of this war. The sacrifices that continued fire may bring worry me, for I prefer to take care of my people just as I hope you do.”
That is, he directly invited the British to send out envoys and sit down at the negotiating table - where they would decide what the post-war world would be like. This was the generosity of the winner - no matter what the historians of the winners say later...
Thus, if Churchill wanted peace, he would not have sent Admiral Sommerville to Mers el-Kebir.
Perhaps the danger of the Germans capturing the French fleet was really so great - that to avoid it it was absolutely necessary to open hurricane fire on the ships that only yesterday were sailing with the British in the same order?
Nothing happened! There was NO such danger AT ALL!
What was said in the armistice agreement signed by the Germans and the French?
« Article 8. The French navy, with the exception of ships necessary for the French government to protect French interests in the colonies, must assemble in ports for recounting and disarmament under German or Italian control. The choice of these ports is determined by the registration of ships in peacetime. The German Government solemnly announces to the French Government that it does not intend to use the French fleet in ports under German control for its purposes in the war, with the exception of such combat units as will be necessary for coastal patrols and minesweeping. Moreover, it solemnly and sincerely declares that it does not intend to make any demands on the French navy during the conclusion of peace. With the exception of that part of the French fleet which will be designated to represent French interests in the colonies, all ships outside French territorial waters are to be recalled to France.
Article 9. The French High Command provides the German High Command detailed information about all the minefields laid by France, as well as about all the harbours, coastal batteries and coastal defenses. Minefield sweeping must be carried out by French forces on the scale specified by the German High Command."
That is, the Germans demanded that the French NEUTRALIZE their navy so that it would not fall into the hands of the British. And nothing more!
On June 24, Admiral Darlan sent a telegram to all naval bases, where he explained to his subordinates the essence of the truce:
« 1. The demobilized ships must remain French, fly the French flag, have French crews and be based at French bases in the metropolis and in the colonies. 2. Special secret sabotage measures should be taken to prevent ships from being captured by force by any enemy or foreign state. 3. If, under the terms of the armistice, the above is not accepted, all ships, without further orders, must leave for the United States or be sunk if there is no way to prevent their capture by the enemy. In any case, they should not fall intact into the hands of the enemy. 4. Ships thus interned shall not take part in operations against Germany or Italy without orders from the Commander-in-Chief."
The Germans agreed that the French fleet should cease to exist as military force, de jure and de facto remaining under French control in French military bases.
That is, the Germans COULD NOT CAPTURE these ships - even based on purely geographical considerations.
When they made this attempt - in November 1942, having occupied “Vichy” France - the French sailors in Toulon simply sank all their ships: 3 battleships, 8 cruisers, 17 destroyers, 16 destroyers, 16 submarines, 7 patrol boats, 3 patrol boats ships, 60 transports, minesweepers and tugboats sank to the bottom without lowering the French flags.
That is, the French fleet in the summer of 1940 would in no way have fallen into the hands of the Germans. Then why did the British Prime Minister Churchill need to organize this vile murder?
TO PROVE YOUR DETERMINATION TO FIGHT TO THE VICTORY END.
To prove to those who appointed him to this position that he will not sign ANY PEACE under any GERMAN conditions, even if they are at least three times mild and do not in any way affect the interests of Great Britain. For this would mean that the Germans would retain the right to be masters in their country - and such an outcome of the war was not included in the plans of the Anglo-Saxon financial oligarchy.
Winston Churchill with a Thompson submachine gun during a visit to the coastal defense positions near Hartlepool on July 31, 1940
They planned and unleashed a world massacre - precisely in order to DESTROY Germany; and they did not need any peace treaties with her.
And in order to suppress any thoughts about a possible reconciliation with the Germans, the English squadron sunk French ships and killed French sailors. Urbi et orbi it was demonstrated that the war will be continued by the enemies of Germany until the victorious end - whatever the cost of this victory!
And regarding the hypothetical capture of French ships by the Germans - the Kriegsmarine command was forced, due to an acute shortage of fuel, on February 2, 1943, to withdraw the battle cruiser Gneisenau from the fleet, remove its weapons and turn it into a blockade in the port of Gdynia.
The German admirals did not have enough oil to refuel their own battle cruiser, and what they would have refueled the captured French battleships and cruisers if, beyond their aspirations, they suddenly fell into their hands - only God knows...
French battleship Dunkirk"We have no eternal allies and we have no permanent enemies; our interests are eternal and constant. Our duty is to protect these interests."
Let's look at what's happening from different angles...
Namely, the capture or destruction of French ships and their colonies around the world by the British, and the beginning of the Anglo-French war of 1940-1942...
So Churchill's version:
The French fleet was deployed as follows: two battleships, four light cruisers, several submarines, including one very large Surcouf; eight destroyers and about two hundred small but valuable minesweepers and submarine hunters were mostly in Portsmouth and Plymouth. They were in our power. In Alexandria there were: a French battleship, four French cruisers (three of them were modern cruisers armed with 8-inch guns) and a number of smaller ships. A strong English squadron guarded these ships. On the other end Mediterranean Sea, in Oran and in the neighboring military port of Mers-el-Kebir, stood the two best ships of the French fleet - Dunkirk and Strasbourg, modern battlecruisers significantly superior to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and built specifically to outperform these are the last ones. The transfer of these ships into the hands of the Germans and their appearance on our trade routes would be an extremely unpleasant event. Along with them were two French battleships, several light cruisers, a number of destroyers, submarines and other ships. Algiers had seven cruisers, of which four were armed with 8-inch guns, and Martinique had an aircraft carrier and two light cruisers.
In Casablanca there was the Jean Bart, which had just arrived from Saint-Nazaire, but did not have its own guns. It was one of the main ships taken into account when calculating the navies of the whole world. Its construction was not yet completed and could not be completed in Casablanca. He could not be allowed to go to any other place. Richelieu, whose construction was much closer to completion, arrived in Dakar. It could move under its own power and its 15-inch guns could fire. Many other French ships of lesser importance were in various ports. Finally, a number of warships at Toulon were beyond our reach.
England, which, as foreigners believed, was trembling on the verge of capitulation to the powerful power that opposed it. England dealt a cruel blow to her best friends yesterday and secured temporary undisputed supremacy at sea. It became clear that the goal of Operation Catapult was to simultaneously capture the entire French fleet available to us, establish control over it, disable it, or destroy it.
Early on the morning of July 3, all French ships in Portsmouth and Plymouth were brought under English control. The performance was unexpected and, of necessity, sudden. A superior force was used, and the entire operation showed how easily the Germans could take possession of any French warships in ports under their control. In England, the transfer of ships, with the exception of the Surcouf, took place in a friendly atmosphere, and the crews willingly went ashore. On the Surcouf, two English officers were wounded, a foreman was killed and one sailor was wounded. One Frenchman was killed in the fight, but successful efforts were made to calm and encourage the French sailors. Hundreds of sailors voluntarily joined us. "
Surcouf" after valiant service, died on February 19, 1942 with all his brave French crew.
The fatal blow was to be struck in the western Mediterranean. Here in Gibraltar, Vice-Admiral Somervell with the "Force H", consisting of the battlecruiser Hood, the battleships Valiant and Resolution, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, two cruisers and eleven destroyers, received orders sent from the Admiralty at 2 hours 25 minutes on the morning of July 1:
"Be ready for the 'Catapult' on July 3rd."
The admiral sailed at dawn and found himself near Oran at about 9 hours 30 minutes morning.
Negotiations continued throughout the day. IN 6 hours 26 minutes in the evening the final order was sent:
"The French ships must either accept our terms, sink themselves, or be sunk by you before nightfall."
But the operation has already begun. IN 5 hours 54 minutes, Admiral Somervell opened fire on this powerful French fleet, which was, moreover, under the protection of its coastal batteries. At 6 pm he reported that he was fighting a difficult battle. The shelling continued for about ten minutes, and was followed by fierce attacks by our aircraft operating from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. The battleship Brittany was blown up. "Dunkirk" ran aground. The battleship Provence ran ashore, the Strasbourg escaped and, although it was attacked and damaged by torpedo planes, it still reached Toulon in the same way as the cruiser from Algeria.
In Alexandria, after lengthy negotiations with Admiral Cunningham, the French Admiral Godefroy agreed to unload fuel, remove important parts from the gun mechanisms and repatriate some of his crews. In Dakar on July 8, the aircraft carrier Hermes attacked the battleship Richelieu, which was also attacked by an exceptionally brave motor boat. The Richelieu was hit by an aerial torpedo and was seriously damaged. A French aircraft carrier and two light cruisers in the French West Indies were disarmed after lengthy negotiations and in accordance with an agreement with the United States.
On July 4th I reported to the House of Commons in detail what we had done. Although the battlecruiser Strasbourg had escaped from Oran and we had no reports that the Richelieu was actually out of action, as a result of the measures we had taken the Germans could no longer count on the French fleet in their plans.
The elimination of the French fleet, as an important factor, almost at a single blow, through violent measures, made a deep impression in all countries. This was done by England, which many had written off as helpless; England and its war cabinet are afraid of nothing and will stop at nothing. And so it was.
On July 1, Pétain's government moved to Vichy and began to act as the government of unoccupied France. Having received news from Oran, it ordered a response - an air raid on Gibraltar, and several bombs were dropped on the port of Gibraltar from French bases in Africa. On July 5, it officially broke relations with Great Britain. On July 11, President Lebrun gave way to Marshal Petain, who became head of state by a huge majority of 569 votes to 80, with 17 abstentions and many absentees."
So you learned about the beginning of events from Churchill’s words, and now let’s look from the other side.
After the treacherous attack from 1940 to 1942, England and unoccupied The Germans were part of France at war!
Did you know about the largest military - naval battle Second World War? I don't think so. They tend to keep quiet about these pages of history... A little background.
After England betrayed its allies and hastily fled from Dunkirk... But Churchill sought to force France to fight to the last Frenchman, although he himself promised only to support with money... The French government, seeing the unreliability of its ally, refused to follow the lead of the British.
On June 10, the Reynaud government, leaving Paris, turned to US President Roosevelt with a desperate request for help. The United States could present an ultimatum to Hitler, demanding that he stop the offensive in France. Finally, the Yankees could offer their mediation services in concluding a truce. However, Roosevelt refused...
On June 22, 1940, in Compiegne, in the same carriage where the armistice was signed in 1918, French representatives signed the surrender.
Under the terms of the truce, the southern part of France remained under the control of the Vichy government. The northern part of the country and the entire Atlantic coast were occupied German troops. The entire French fleet remained under the control of the Vichy government.
So, Germany did not want to have defeated France as an ally, and demanded that the Pétain government observe the strictest neutrality...
Could French ships and small ground units scattered in colonies around the world - in Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Equatorial Africa and in Madagascar - threaten England in any way? Of course no!
IN July 1940 The formation of the Vichy government began in non-German occupied France. And then Great Britain struck its own to a defeated ally!
An attack on him is an act of international robbery according to all international laws.
Until July 3, 1940, soldiers and officers of the French colonial troops treated their recent allies as brothers in arms, friends and assistants, even if they were not very successful in the fight against a strong enemy.By the way, the consequence of this treacherous attack that occurred on July 3, 1940 was that tens of thousands of French people wanted to join the ranks of volunteers to fight against the USSR and Britain as part of the German army!!!
Churchill decides to capture or destroy the French fleet and occupy all French colonies. Of course, he was not thinking about the war with Hitler, but about the post-war division of the world. The plan to attack the French was called "Catapult"...
As a result, the largest naval battle of World War II took place. Although this is, to put it mildly, not entirely accurate. More like a treacherous attack and execution of defenseless victims! This forgotten event happened July 3, 1940 in the Mediterranean Sea near Mers-El-Kebir near the port of Oran in modern Algeria, in those days it was French North Africa. Seven battleships, dozens of destroyers and submarines took part in the battle on both sides. In addition, this was the only battle where, in addition to battleships, deck and coastal aviation, as well as coastal artillery, simultaneously participated.
Any strong fleet is a thorn in Britain's side.
Only she can be the mistress of the seas!
"Around globe British water.
English ships are standing near Gibraltar.
Countless flights. The wide way is open.
Your cruiser is off the coast, looking at India.
You left traces of anchors in Africa.
Britannia, Britannia, Lady of the Seas..."
By the way, let's remember her policies in the past. It is necessary to help the weak against the strong, otherwise he may rise and displace Britain on the pedestal, and at the right moment betray him too. How were things in history? Oh yes, not so long ago, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British burned the royalist French fleet in Toulon, having learned that Bonaparte was approaching...
What? Does Denmark want to be neutral in the war? She has a good fleet... She was burned twice along with Copenhagen in 1801 and 1807. It’s better that way...
During the intervention in the RSFSR in 1918, what the British did not drown, they took for themselves. Neither white nor red, you don’t need the Black Sea Fleet! It was no wonder we forced him to be destroyed much earlier in the Crimean War and deprived him of the opportunity to have it for 15 years.
Chronicle of events:
On July 3, Admiral Sommerville's English squadron consisting of the battleships Valiant approached the French naval base of Mers-el-Kebir.
British battleship: "Valiant"
"Resolution"
aircraft carrier "Ark Royal"
light cruisers Arethusa, Enterprise and eleven destroyers.
Here in Mers-el-Kebir the French ships of Admiral Zhansoul were stationed, consisting of the battleships: "Dunkirk"
, "Strasbourg"
"Provence"
and "Brittany"
six leaders, seaplane carrier Commandant Test
and dozens of auxiliary vessels.
Naval aviation was represented by six Loir-130 aircraft and three Bizerte flying boats, as well as four Loir-130 aboard the battleships Dunkirk and Strasbourg.
The air defense of Oran and Mers-el-Kebir consisted of 42 Moran-406 and Hawk-75 fighters at the airfields of La Seña and Saint-Denis-Du-Cig.
In addition, the French had about fifty DB-7 and LeO-451 bombers, but after several vehicles were hijacked by their crews to Gibraltar, the local aviation chief, Colonel Rougevin, ordered the remaining bombers to be rendered unusable.
There were French coastal batteries equipped with obsolete guns: the Canastel battery - three 240 mm guns; Fort Santon - three 194 mm guns; the Gambetta battery - four 120 mm guns and the Espanol battery - two 75 mm guns.
If England had declared war on France at least on July 1, 1940, then Sommerville’s squadron would have faced inevitable defeat. But this was not a war, but a sudden treacherous attack. The French sailors believed that the war was over for them, and the ships, according to the terms of the truce, began to disarm. All battleships were moored with their stern to the breakwater and their bows to the shore, which was the usual method of mooring in peacetime. Thus, "Brittany" and "Provence" could fire only half of their main caliber artillery. Dunkirk and Strasbourg could not shoot at all. The ships' boilers were cold. There was no aerial reconnaissance of the approaches to the base. And in general, the pilots of the French Air Force did not want to fight on principle.
Admiral Sommerville presented the French Admiral Jeansol with an ultimatum to transfer all ships to British control or scuttle them.
The surrender of the ships to England would seriously undermine France's position in future peace negotiations. There is no need to look at the events of 1940 through the prism of the victory of 1945. In the summer of 1940, Hitler, Pétain, Mussolini and many others were confident that the conclusion of peace (at least in Western Europe) - a matter of several weeks. Even more important was that the Germans could consider the transfer of ships to England a violation of the terms of surrender and occupy southern France.
During the negotiations, British spotter planes circled low over the French ships, transmitting information to the British battleships, and meanwhile the officers of the battleship Strasbourg were preparing for the ceremonial welcome of their British colleagues and a large banquet.
Suddenly at 4:56 p.m. the British opened fire. The French could not respond accurately. As a result, the losses on the British battleships amounted to two people wounded, and even then this was a consequence of being hit by shells from coastal guns. The battleship Provence received several hits from 381-mm shells, a strong fire broke out, and the ship sank to the ground at a depth of about 10 meters. The Dunkirk, which also had to run aground, was also seriously damaged. "Brittany" also received hits before it left the pier. The battleship began to sink with its stern.
Burning battleship "Brittany"
A thick column of smoke rose above him. At 17:07 it was already engulfed in fire from bow to stern, and 2 minutes later it suddenly capsized and sank, taking with it the lives of 977 sailors.
The sinking of the battleship Brittany
Several Moran MS.406 and Curtiss Hawk 75 fighters finally took to the air, but for unknown reasons did not fire at the British torpedo bombers.
(Photo of the French destroyer "Mogador". Breaking out from Mars-el-Kabir on July 3, 1940, she received a direct hit in the stern by a British 381-mm shell, which led to the detonation of depth charges. The destroyer's stern was completely torn off and it ran aground.)
The battlecruiser Strasbourg with five destroyers broke into the open sea and headed for the main naval base on the southern coast of France - Toulon. At Cape Canastel they were joined by six more destroyers that had sailed from Oran.
Battlecruiser Strasbourg
At 5:10 p.m. The Strasbourg and the destroyers accompanying it literally ran into the English aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which was heading on a collision course. However, the commander of the Strasbourg, Captain 1st Rank Louis Collinet, missed a rare chance to sink a defenseless aircraft carrier with several salvoes of 330 mm guns. He ordered not to open fire, and go your own course. The commander of the Ark Royal did not appreciate the gallantry (or stupidity) of the Frenchman and lifted six Swordfish from the 818th squadron into the air. At 17:45 The Swordfish began bombing Strasbourg. But none of the 227 kg bombs hit the ship, but two English planes were shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
Burning battleship "Provence"
At 7 p.m. 43 min. six more Swordfish attacked Strasbourg. This time the British used torpedoes. Due to dense anti-aircraft fire, the Swordfish had to drop torpedoes more than a kilometer from the battlecruiser, which allowed it to evade in a timely manner. The nearest torpedo passed at a distance of 25 meters astern of the Strasbourg.
Battlecruiser Strasbourg is making a breakthrough:
July 4 at 20:10 The Strasbourg, accompanied by destroyers, sailed safely to Toulon. Soon six French cruisers from Algeria also arrived in Toulon.
During this transition, the patrol ship "Rigo de Genouilly" on July 4 at 14:15. was torpedoed by the British submarine Pandora and sank.
The French were constantly let down by either excessive gallantry or excessive boasting. After the attack on Mers-El-Kebir, the press was told that “the damage to the Dunkirk was minor and would be repaired soon.” The British were upset and decided to finish off Dunkirk.
On July 6, 1940, Swadfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal attacked Dunkirk and other ships three times. After the raid, the French had to dig 150 more graves.
British attacks on French ships continued.
On July 7, an English squadron consisting of the aircraft carrier Hermes, the cruisers Dorsetshire and Australia, and the sloop Milford approached the French port of Dakar. On the night of July 7-8, a sabotage boat painted black entered the port. The boat dropped 6 depth charges under the stern of the French battleship Richelieu to disable its rudders and propellers. However, due to the shallow depth, the fuses did not work. After 3 hours, the battleship was attacked by six Soundfish from the Hermes aircraft carrier. Luck smiled on only one “Sourdfish” - its torpedo with a magnetic fuse passed under the bottom of the battleship and exploded at the starboard propellers. There was a hole in the hull with an area of about 40 square meters. m, the ship took 1500 tons of water. In general, the damage was minor, but due to the lack of a proper repair base in Dakar, it took a whole year to bring the Richelieu ready for sea.
The British did not let up and in September 1940 they attacked Dakar again.
British formation "M" of Vice Admiral Cunninghal consisted of the battleships "Barham" and "Resolution", the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal", the cruisers "Devonshire", "Fiji" and "Cumberland", 10 destroyers and several small ships.
The attack on Dakar resulted in a huge three-day battle involving battleships, submarines, carrier-based aircraft, and 240mm, 155mm, and 138mm coastal guns. The British sank the French boats Perseus and Ajax. The city was engulfed in many fires. Civilian casualties: 84 killed and 197 wounded.
However, the main target of the British - the battleship Richelieu - remained intact. Both British battleships and the cruiser Cumberland were heavily damaged.
Failure in Dakar did not stop the British.
In 1941, Great Britain, under a formal pretext, occupied Syria and Lebanon, which France owned under a League of Nations mandate.French Somalia.In 1942, Great Britain, under the pretext of the Germans' possible use of Madagascar as a submarine base, carried out an armed invasion of the island. De Gaulle's troops also take part in this invasion. At that time, a collaborator sentenced to death by the French government... The French are fighting together with the British against the French... Ideal! Is not it? The cherished dream of the British came true: to pull chestnuts out of the fire with the wrong hands... The fighting lasted six months and ended with the surrender of the forces of the French state in November 1942...
During the fighting, 15 French submarines were sunk, i.e. more than the Soviet Navy sank German submarines during the entire Great Patriotic War.
In the fall of 1942, the Americans attacked the French colonies of Morocco and Algeria. November 8, the newest American battleship Massachusetts,
American battleship Massachusetts
The heavy cruisers Tuscaloosa and Wichita, together with aircraft from the aircraft carrier Ranger, attacked the unfinished French battleship Jean Bart in the harbor of Casablanca.
On the French battleship, only one 380-mm turret could operate, and it fired until a direct hit from a 406-mm projectile disabled its lifting mechanisms...
November 27, 1942 years, under the threat of the Nazis seizing the remnants of their fleet, the French sank it in the harbor of Toulon.
In total, the French sank more than 70 ships, including three battleships, 7 cruisers, 30 destroyers and destroyers, and 15 submarines.
Remains of the battleship Dunkirk in Toulon
Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of French civilians died during Allied bombings of French cities in 1940-1944. Exact numbers have not yet been counted. But we can say with confidence that in World War II the number of French people who died at the hands of the Germans was comparable to the victims of the Anglo-Americans!
P.S. How amused I am by comments in communities from poorly educated anti-Sovietists, liberals and schoolchildren. Regularly trying to say some nasty thing or refer to the greatest expert on Wikipedia.)
UK, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Mers el-Kebir, Oran
One of the unpublicized and shameful episodes of the Second World War is “Operation Catapult”. As part of it, the British squadron bombed the French fleet anchored off Mers el-Kebir, on the coast of what was then French Algeria, which did not expect an attack from its “allies.” As a result, 1,297 French troops were killed, the battleship was sunk and five other ships were damaged.
France and Great Britain were not at war. But France signed an armistice with Germany. And the British feared that the French fleet would eventually join the German fleet. Although French Admiral François Darlan assured Winston Churchill that the French fleet would never fall to the Germans, the British considered his guarantees insufficient. The episode continues to create tension between France and Great Britain to this day.
In 1940, after the defeat of France and the conclusion of a truce with Nazi Germany, Britain began to show concern that the Germans would gain control of the French fleet. This could upset the balance of power at sea. He could lean in favor of Germany. This could threaten England's ability to obtain raw materials from the Atlantic Ocean and disrupt links between the mother country and other parts of the British Empire.
The British government was apprehensive despite the fact that clause 2 of Article 8 of the armistice stated: “The German government solemnly and firmly declares that it does not intend to make demands on the French navy during the peace negotiations.” Similar clauses were spelled out in the truce with Italy. In addition, on June 24, Admiral Darlan gave Churchill guarantees.
However, Winston Churchill ordered that the French fleet be either captured by the British or sunk.
The French fleet was scattered across different places. Some of the ships were in French ports. Some ships ended up in ports controlled by England, mainly in Egypt. "Operation Catapult" was designed to take control of the French fleet or destroy it.
At the first stage, French ships were captured in the British ports of Porsmouth and Plymouth. The crew of the largest submarine at that time, Surcouf (named after the famous French pirate Robert Surkov. His surname clearly says he came from a Norman family) resisted. Two English officers and one French sailor were killed. In addition, two obsolete battleships (Paris and Courbet), destroyers (Trifant and Leopard), eight torpedo boats, five submarines and several auxiliary vessels were captured.
The most powerful French squadron was based in the port of Mers-el-Kebir in French Algeria. It consisted of the battleships Provence and Brittany, the cruisers Dunkirk and Strasbourg, the seaplane Commandant Test, and six destroyers. It was commanded by Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul.
British Admiral James Somerville, commander of the squadron based in Gibraltar, issued an ultimatum to hand over the ships to the British within 6 hours. Somerville did not present the ultimatum in person. He entrusted this responsibility to the French-speaking captain Cedric Hollande, commander of the aircraft carrier Arc Royale. Admiral Gensoul refused to talk to a man below him in rank, and sent Lieutenant Bernard Dufay to negotiate. All this led to delays and confusion.
The British force consisted of the battlecruiser Hood, two battleships, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and several more cruisers and destroyers. Despite the approximate equivalent force, the British had the advantage. The French fleet was at anchor and did not expect an attack.
A few hours after the cessation of negotiations, on the instructions of Churchill, on July 3, 1940, at 17:54, the British opened fire on the French ships. The first blow led to the explosion of the Brittany. The ship sank along with 977 crew members. "Provence", "Dunkirk" and the destroyer "Magador" were heavily damaged.
"Strasbourg" and four destroyers managed to escape to the open sea. They were pursued by aircraft from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Nevertheless, on July 4, Strasbourg reached the French port of Toulon.
Subsequently, a British submarine sank the French gunboat PG80. The final stage of Operation Catapult took place on July 8, when aircraft from the aircraft carrier Hermes attacked the French battleship Richelieu in port. One torpedo hit its target and severely damaged the battleship.
In response to the actions at Mers el-Kebir and , the French Air Force began retaliatory bombing of British targets in Gibraltar. The bombing had minimal effect. Most of the bombs fell into the sea.
On November 27, 1942, the Germans attempted to capture the French fleet based in Toulon as part of the Vichy military occupation. All ships of any importance were sunk before the arrival of German troops. It finally became clear to everyone that the British actions in Mers el-Kebir were an unnecessary betrayal. A few days later, Churchill received a letter from Admiral Darlan:
"Prime Minister. I said that the French fleet would not surrender. You did not believe my word. The sinking of the fleet at Toulon proved that I was right."
Second world war France and Great Britain started out in the same camp. As with any ambitious states, there was a traditional set of economic and political contradictions between these two countries, but the common threat of Germany once again brought them together. Who would have thought that just over a year after the start of the war, Britain would try to sink a significant part of the French fleet.
Defeated France: between a rock and a hard place
October 24, 1940 on train station of the town of Montoir, hero of the First World War, “Verdun winner”, 84-year-old marshal and head French state Philippe Pétain met with German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The leaders of the victorious and defeated countries secured the results of their conversation with a handshake. Under the history of the Third Republic, which formally ceased to exist at the end of June - beginning of July 1940 (on June 22, the act of surrender of France was signed, and on July 10, the country’s parliament adopted a new constitution in the cabaret theater of the resort town of Vichy), this meeting was held bold line. France was turning into an authoritarian state, quite closely associated with Nazi Germany.
A week later, on October 30, Marshal Pétain, trying to justify his action in the eyes of his fellow citizens, in his address to the nation, called on it for reconciliation and cooperation with Germany:
French people!
Last Thursday I met with the Reich Chancellor. Our meeting aroused hopes and gave rise to anxiety; I must give some clarification on this matter. […] I accepted the Fuhrer’s invitation out of free will. I was not subjected to any “dictation” or any pressure from him. We agreed on cooperation between our two countries. […] Ministers are responsible only to me. History will carry out its judgment on me alone. Until now I spoke to you as a father, today I speak to you as the head of a nation. Follow me! Keep your faith in eternal France!
Meeting of the head of the French state, Marshal Philippe Pétain (left), with Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler (foreground, right). To the right of Hitler in the background is German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
France, the only one of the great (both economically and militarily) powers of the anti-Hitler coalition, survived complete defeat and occupation. At the same time, the government formed in such conditions was able not only to remain “at the helm” for more than 4 years, but also, having retained a significant part of the colonial empire, to negotiate about the place of France in the new “German Europe”.
When critically assessing the decisions of Philippe Pétain, we should not forget what events pushed France onto the dubious path of cooperation with a cruel and unprincipled aggressor. In the period from July 3 to July 8, in the ports of England, Egypt, as well as several French overseas possessions, the Royal Navy of Great Britain carried out a series of operations known collectively as “Catapult,” which greatly complicated Anglo-French relations for several years to come. . Immediately after it, the Vichy government of France broke off diplomatic relations with Britain, and the further tilt of French foreign policy towards Germany was predetermined.
Only by Operation Catapult fighting Unfortunately, the Allied armies against Vichy France are far from being exhausted. Over the course of several years, a whole series of military clashes took place, even some of which, in their scale, amounted to a full-scale local war. Let's try to figure out what justified Britain's decision to escalate a direct conflict with France.
"Mistress of the Seas" is nervous
The Vichy government of France, except for the central and southern parts of the metropolis, since mid-1940, with certain reservations, controlled almost completely the vast colonial possessions in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. By reservations here we mean that some possessions in Equatorial Africa and South Asia (Pondicherry and other cities of French India) quickly came under the control of the allies and de Gaulle’s Free France, and Indochina, while remaining legally French, has been since the summer of 1940 In fact, it turned into a Franco-Japanese co-ownership. The position of the Vichy regime in North and West Africa was especially strong.
The French land army was almost completely destroyed in the war. But the naval forces, a significant part of which were located outside the metropolis, as well as in the ports of the Mediterranean coast not occupied by Germany, retained most of their combat potential. The fourth largest fleet in the world had rather unclear prospects after France's defeat in the war. According to Article 8 of the German-French agreement on the cessation of hostilities, his ships were obliged to report to their pre-war home ports. For example, the most modern French battleships would return to German-occupied Brest. Then, under the control of German and Italian representatives, the court was to be disarmed and the teams demobilized.
On June 29, the French were able to “push” through negotiations with the Italians and Germans a condition according to which disarmament and demobilization of crews should still be carried out in African ports and unoccupied Toulon. Unfortunately, the British Admiralty, due to difficult communication with the French naval forces for objective reasons, did not receive timely information about this small diplomatic victory of the Vichy government. Perhaps, if this information had been received on time, the fatal “Catapult” would not have fired four days later.
If we interpret the agreement on the cessation of hostilities literally, it turns out that the French ships will not go to Germany. However, the British government reasonably believed that Germany could approach the interpretation of such a treaty quite “creatively”. In any case, if Germany wanted to “privatize” the French ships that arrived in France for disarmament, the French would hardly be able to prevent this.
According to some French historians, another source of Anglo-French complications was the different meanings of the word "control" that Germany was supposed to exercise over French ships under the armistice agreement, in French and English languages. In French, "control" has a meaning close to the Russian "observation", and in English the word means "management".
Great Britain, which by mid-1940 was fighting almost single-handedly against Germany and its allies, had several strong trump cards that allowed it to survive this fight. The island position and a much stronger navy than Germany guaranteed the relative calm of the metropolis. Extensive colonial possessions made it possible to supply the country's economy with the necessary resources, but sustainable supply was also possible only in the case of confident superiority at sea. If the good French fleet fell into the hands of the Germans, then the fleets of the Axis countries in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic(taking into account Italian) would feel much more confident.
The British resolved the issue with the French ships that were in the ports of England at the time of the defeat of France in a relatively simple manner. On July 3, in Portsmouth, only the crew of the submarine Surcouf offered armed resistance when the ship was captured by British marines. Two obsolete battleships, two destroyers, five submarines and eight torpedo boats surrendered to the boarding teams without a fight. The taking of French ships under English control and disarmament (the old battleship Lorian, 4 cruisers and several destroyers) in Egyptian Alexandria also happened quite smoothly.
But the ships located in ports controlled by the Vichy government also caused great concern to the British government.
In Algeria, the following ships were located at three naval bases: in Mers-el-Kebir - 2 old battleships (Provence and Brittany), two new battlecruisers (Dunkirk and Strasbourg), seaplane carrier Commandant Test ", 6 leaders and a number of auxiliary ships; nearby, in Oran - 9 destroyers, 6 submarines, patrol ships and minesweepers; in the city of Algiers - 6 light cruisers and 4 leaders.
Also, of the large ships in Africa, there were two more new French battleships of the same type - in Dakar (Senegal) - Richelieu, and in the French part of Morocco, in Casablanca - the same type of unfinished Jean Bart.
Four heavy cruisers were based in Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast of France. In America, on Guadeloupe, with two light cruisers (Emile Bertin and the training Joan of Arc), there was the aircraft carrier Béarn, built from the hull of an unfinished Normandy-class battleship. In the initial period of World War II, this ship led the search force “L” of the French and British fleets, which was looking for the Kriegsmarine pocket battleship Graf Spee, and after the surrender of France it went to the shores of French possessions in the New World.
Salvo "Catapult"
To neutralize the threat of the French fleet passing in one form or another under German control, the British planned a synchronous (the effect of surprise was necessary everywhere) operation in the space from Guadeloupe to Alexandria. The attack on French ships around the world began on July 3, and only belatedly in Dakar on the 8th. The series of operations received the general name “Catapult”.
The events of July 3 in England and Egypt were mentioned above. The situation in the French West Indies was resolved just as bloodlessly: thanks to the personal intervention of the then-neutral US President Franklin Roosevelt, the British fleet’s attack on French ships did not take place. Later, by agreement of May 1, 1942 between the Vichy government and the United States, these ships were disarmed.
In North Africa on July 3, 1940, events developed according to a completely different scenario. Back on June 24, Sir Dudley North, head of the British naval station in Gibraltar, met with the French admiral Jansoul on board the Dunkirk. Zhansul refused North’s proposal to go over to the side of Great Britain and continue the war with Germany, declaring that he would obey only the orders of the French (Vichy) government. At the same time, Admiral Zhansoul assured the British that not a single French ship would fall into the hands of the Germans.
Before the surrender of France, the Western Mediterranean was the area of responsibility of the French fleet among the Allies, but now the British urgently formed a new formation “H” in Gibraltar for operations in this region. It was based on the battle cruiser Hood and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. By June 30, the formation of a new formation, which included, in addition to the Hood and Ark Royal, two old battleships, two light cruisers, eleven destroyers and two submarines, was completed. These forces took part in the attack on the French on July 3.
The French forces at Mers el-Kebir (a base in the western part of the Gulf of Orange), in addition to ships, included several coastal batteries with guns ranging in caliber from 75 to 240 millimeters. The French base aviation had, according to various sources, from 42 to 50 serviceable Hawk-75 and M.S.406 fighters.
Vice Admiral James Somerville, commander of Force H until the last moment, tried to dissuade the Admiralty from attacking the French ships. The Admiralty intended to offer Zhansul 4 options:
- continuation of the war on the side of the British;
- repatriation in a British port;
- disarmament under British supervision;
- sinking of ships within 6 hours.
Somerville ensured that another option was added to this list, according to which the French were given the opportunity to leave for the French West Indies or to then-neutral US ports, where the ships were to be demilitarized and transferred under American control (which happened in reality with ships in Guadeloupe).
To negotiate with Jeansoul, Somerville chose the former naval attache in Paris, Captain Holland, who had many friendly connections among French officers and knew the French language perfectly. Despite the efforts of the captain, the morning negotiations on July 3 failed, including for the reason that the day before Admiral Zhansoul received information about Germany’s demand to withdraw all French ships from English ports to France under the threat of disruption of the truce. At 12:30, the British Swordfish torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal dropped magnetic mines at the exit from the net barrier; The French fleet was trapped. The French battleships stood at the quay wall with their sterns facing the sea, which is why Dunkirk and Strasbourg were deprived of the opportunity to fire with their main caliber: both turrets of each ship were located in the bow.
At 13:10, Somerville informed the French that if they refused to accept the ultimatum, he would open fire at 14:00. However, there was still a chance for a peaceful solution. Zhansul, in a reply message, said that he agreed not to take the ships to sea and would wait for the French government’s response to the ultimatum. At 14:00 the British did not open fire, limiting themselves to dropping magnetic mines at the exit from Oran harbor at half past two.
At 15:00 Captain Holland began negotiations with the French again. Everything was leading to the fact that the French and the British would reach at least a temporary “gentleman’s agreement” that would consolidate the existing status quo: the French would not withdraw from Mer el-Kebir, and the British would no longer take hostile actions. But here chance intervened in the negotiations.
The British Admiralty intercepted orders from the French Navy Ministry, according to which the cruising squadrons in Algiers and Toulon were ordered to assemble in Oran and provide assistance to the blockaded ships of Zhansoul. Given the fact that France's use of aviation was prohibited by the armistice agreement with Germany, the German commission was warned about the need to use aircraft in North Africa. As one would expect, the Germans had nothing against it. Zhansoul received orders to respond with force to force as early as 13:05, and when the Admiralty learned of this, it immediately radioed Somerville: “ Get the job done quickly or you'll have to deal with French reinforcements».
At 4:15 p.m., Somerville made a second threat to Jansoul to sink his ships. This time "X" time was set for 17:30.
Scheme of the initial phase of the battle in the harbor of Mers el-Kebir on July 3, 1940
By this time, the French ships were already ready for battle and at 16:40 they received the order to leave the harbor. At 16:50, 3 French reconnaissance aircraft were scrambled, and the fighters were also ready to take off. At 16:54 the first British salvo was fired. The battle took place in extremely difficult conditions for the French. Motionless at the beginning, the French ships presented a very convenient target for fire from 90 cable British gunners. The silhouettes of French ships overlapped each other. On the one hand, this prevented them from firing, on the other hand, British “flights” often hit ships located behind the intended target.
The ensuing approximately hour-long battle with the use of aircraft ended with the sinking of one old French battleship Brittany, damage to the new Dunkirk and a second old battleship, as well as the successful breakthrough to Toulon of the practically intact Strasbourg. At the same time, the damage to Dunkirk turned out to be not critical, and early in the morning of July 6, the British launched an air raid in order to “finish off” it. As a result, the battleship received serious damage and was out of commission until July 1941, when its partial repairs were completed at the limited capacity of Oran.
In tactical terms, the battle of Mers el-Kebir was undoubtedly won by the British. Their total losses amounted to only six aircraft, and most of the crews were rescued. Only 2 crew members of the Skewie carrier-based aircraft were killed. The French lost, according to official data, 1,297 people in the operations of July 3 and 6. The battleship Brittany was lost forever, as were several smaller ships.
But on a strategic scale, the attack on Mers el-Kebir, as the bloodiest of the Catapult series, was a failure for the British. The immediate task of destroying the battleships was only partially completed. Diplomatic relations between Britain and Vichy France were immediately severed, and the French fleet, which was quite pro-English, began to consider the British as opponents.
The last episode of “Catapult” was the attack by a British squadron on July 8, 1940, on the battleship Richelieu in Dakar. The French battleship was damaged by a torpedo dropped from an aircraft (the attacking squadron included the Hermes aircraft carrier), and after firing 381-mm guns at the battleships Resolution and Barham, the main caliber turret on the Richelieu exploded.
Disappointing results
Germany ended up being the direct beneficiary of Operation Catapult. Relations between Great Britain and France were so damaged that the latter's Navy Ministry gave orders to attack any British ships, wherever they were. French ships from North Africa were transferred to Europe, to Toulon, which was located relatively close to the German occupation zone. According to the memoirs of General de Gaulle, the influx of volunteers into the Free French armed forces decreased sharply immediately after the events in Mers-el-Kebir.
But even the collaborationist government of Pétain eventually decided that France had enough problems in connection with the occupation of half the country by Germany, and already on July 5 (even before the second attack of Dunkirk), the country's naval ministry issued a new order, according to which British ships should attack only within a 20-mile zone off the French coast. The next attempt at de-escalation was a statement by the French government on July 12, 1940, which announced a transition to exclusively defensive actions without the help of former enemies. Under " former enemies"Here we meant Germany and Italy.
However, Operation Catapult was not the last armed conflict between the Allies and the Vichy regime. Ahead were fighting in Equatorial and West Africa, Syria and Madagascar. Attempts by Vichy France to remain neutral were doomed to failure - in the conditions of a world war there was practically no chance of this.
In November 1942, the German army occupied Southern France, which had previously been under the control of the Vichy regime. The Germans also tried to capture the French fleet in Toulon. But the French sailors kept the promise they made to the British in 1940 - when German tanks appeared on the embankment, 77 French ships sank. Among those sunk were the battleships Strasbourg, Dunkirk and Provence, as well as the seaplane carrier Commandant Test. 4 French submarines and the pilot ship Leonor Fresnel managed to leave the harbor and break through to Algiers, Oran and Barcelona. The Germans still managed to capture 3 destroyers and 4 submarines.
Poster of Vichy France "Let's not forget Oran!"
"Catapult" is one of the most controversial and controversial operations of the Second World War. Great Britain, finding itself in a very difficult situation, took such radical measures that even within its military and political elites a fairly deep split occurred on this issue. Already 9 years after the end of the war, in 1954, a meeting was held specifically dedicated to the events of July 3–8, 1940, at which British admirals Somerville and North voiced a negative assessment of the orders of their government 14 years ago. Admiral Cunningham, who in those days managed to peacefully resolve the issue of disarmament of French ships in Alexandria, completely agreed with them. The admirals believed that with more time a peaceful solution could be found at Mers el-Kebir.
