By a fateful, tragic irony, Force H was attacking the Royal Navy’s 18th- and 19th-century foe and 20th-century ally. When the report was confirmed at 6:30, Admiral Somerville ordered Hood to steer eastward in pursuit. Meanwhile, a direct hit blew off the stern of the large destroyer Mogador, killing 42 men. Under the armistice, French ships were supposed to have their fuel tanks almost empty; in fact, through falsification of reports and tampering with gauges, the crews had managed to store enough fuel to reach North Africa. A few minutes later the cruiser Colbert exploded. While the addition of French Naval units would have helped to a small degree, they'd have had to deal with the air assault the rest of the Allies had to deal with, and then there's the inescapable thing: As a fleet, and as individual ships, the French navy was vastly outclassed by the IJN, in number of ships, in ship types, in training, in armaments, and in a total lack of air power. A decorated veteran of the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign in World War I, Somerville had been invalided out of the Royal Navy with tuberculosis in 1938. The Surcouf, after rendering distinguished service, perished on February 19, 1942, with all her gallant French crew.”. Topics Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Galloping Gertie, Operation Catapult, Newsreel, suspension bridge, French Fleet, Oran, Royal Navy, Battleship Richelieu, Vichy, WWII, World War II, Tacoma, Washington. The ships formed the main French naval squadron in the Mediterranean. Condition: Very Good. Hitler's plan was to have German sailors capture the French ships and turn them over to Italy; German officers privy to this plan were critical but their objections were ignored. The Vichy Secretary of the Navy, Admiral François Darlan, defected to the Allies, who were gaining increasing support from servicemen and civilians. Force H was disbanded in October 1943, when Allied naval supremacy in the Mediterranean Theater was no longer in dispute. Britain’s fleet was scattered throughout the world, and its supply ships were being sunk by German U-boats. Force H was then the main Allied task force in the Atlantic and western Mediterranean. As Dunkerque exploded, La Galissonnière reproduced the manoeuvre executed by Jean de Vienne. The Admiralty had drafted four options for the French admiral: (1) to put to sea and join forces with the Royal Navy; (2) to sail with reduced crews to British ports, where the vessels would be impounded and their complements repatriated; (3) to sail with reduced crews to the base at Dakar, where the ships would be immobilized; or (4) to scuttle his ships within six hours. The armistice stipulated that the French fleet would be largely disarmed and confined to its harbours, under French control. [3], 1942 destruction of the French naval fleet by Vichy France, Scuttling of the Peruvian fleet at El Callao, Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, "The other D-Day: The invasion of southern France", Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Decision to Occupy Toulon, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in November 1942, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scuttling_of_the_French_fleet_at_Toulon&oldid=999383091, World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Oppose, without spilling of blood, the entry of foreign troops in any of the establishments, airbases and buildings of the Navy, Similarly oppose entry of foreign troops aboard ships of the Fleet and find settlements by means of local negotiation, If the former proved impossible, to scuttle the ships, This page was last edited on 9 January 2021, at 22:10. The odds were already heavy … He played for time; British decrypts of French cipher traffic that afternoon revealed that Gensoul could expect support from other naval units and was to “answer fire with fire.” Passing the intercept on to Admiral Somerville, the Admiralty added, “Settle this matter quickly, or you may have reinforcements to deal with.”. This was true.”, Churchill noted, “The genius of France enabled her people to comprehend the whole significance of Oran, and in her agony to draw new hope and strength from this additional bitter pang.”, He was touched by a story about the aftermath of the July 3 destruction of the French squadron. Jan 18, 2016 - HMS Hood was a noted battlescruiser that entered service with the Royal Navy in 1920 and was later sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Because of haze and smoke billowing from the French ships raising steam, the targets of Force H were obscured. After the fateful actions at Oran, Mers el Kebir, and Dakar, Force H was active in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He blanched at the prospect of killing French sailors, who were comrades in arms of the Royal Navy. In another drydock, the captain of the damaged Dunkerque, which had been heavily damaged by the British in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, at first refused orders to scuttle, but was persuaded by his colleague in the nearby cruiser La Galissonnière to follow suit. A senior German officer declared at the time that this act had wiped away the "stain of surrender" from the German fleet. Two British officers were wounded, a leading seaman killed, an able seaman wounded, and a Frenchman killed. At 5:25 a.m., German tanks finally rolled through, and Strasbourg immediately transmitted the order "Scuttle! At 8:55 pm, they approached the French battleship at a height of 20 feet and loosed their torpedoes into a calm sea. The War Cabinet did not hesitate, Churchill reported later. The attack came as a complete surprise to the Vichy officers, but Dornon transmitted the order to scuttle the fleet to Admiral Laborde aboard the flagship Strasbourg. 810 Squadron aboard HMS Ark Royal reported from an altitude of 7,000 feet that Hood’s first salvo had exploded in a line across Commandante Teste, Bretagne, and the quarterdeck of Strasbourg. However, there were scuffles during the transfer of the destroyer Mistral and the 3,250-ton submarine Surcouf. When the smoke cleared, Bretagne was no longer visible to the Swordfish crew, but they observed a fire aft on the seaplane carrier. “There was in fact no security for us at all,” he said. Witness the evolving disaster that is Australia’s SEA 1000 Future Submarine program, won by France’s DCNS, now Naval Group, in 2016. On July 7, the British turned their attention to the French naval base at distant Dakar in West Africa, where the battleship Richelieu, cruiser Primauguet, a sloop, and destroyers were anchored. “This was a hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned. Meanwhile, the captain of the cruiser Marseillaise ordered his ship capsized and demolition charges set. At noon, Somerville signaled the Admiralty that he would give Gensoul until 3 pm to reply to the British terms. Vénus was scuttled in the entrance of Toulon harbour. France 'Sunk' A U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier: China Took Notice . Under the tutelage of the "Sun King," the French Navy was well financed and equipped, managing to score several early victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy and the Dutch Navy. Twenty minutes later, German troops entered the arsenal and started machine-gunning the French submarines. The navy had not let the ships fall into enemy hands." On 15 November, Laborde met with Marshal Philippe Pétain and Auphan. At 5:55 pm, HMS Foxhound got clear after laying magnetic mines across the entrance to Mers el Kebir harbor. Britain’s fleet was scattered throughout the world, and its supply ships were being sunk by German U-boats. The objective of Operation Lila was to capture the units of the French fleet at Toulon intact, and was carried out by the 7th Panzer Division, augmented with units from other divisions. The Germans eventually seized three disarmed destroyers, four badly damaged submarines, three civilian ships, and the remains of two battleships of no value, the semi-dreadnought Condorcet and the disarmed former Jean Bart, renamed Océan in 1936. Dead Battleships: In 1940, the British Preemptively Sunk the French Navy. Captain Holland was met at 8:10 am by Gensoul’s barge bearing his flag lieutenant, “an old friend of mine,” the British officer reported. But Force H had not finished with Strasbourg, and six lumbering Swordfish torpedo bombers from Ark Royal went after her. From here the French Navy evacuated the Serbs first to Corfu, then to Bizerta in northern Tunisia, and once reformed to Salonika in north east Greece. However, the demolition charges were detonated, and the ship burned for twenty days. The combat groups entered Toulon at 4 a.m. on 27 November and made for the harbour, meeting only weak and sporadic resistance. There have been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it. After France signed an armistice in 1940, Darlan served under the Germans and became a deputy leader. It was learned later that the badly damaged Provence also had beached herself. The French admiral refused to meet with Holland, so the flag lieutenant delivered the British War Cabinet’s ultimatum to Gensoul in his flagship, Dunkerque. It marked the end of Vichy France as a credible naval power. The French fleet was in danger o falling to the Germans. The first commander was trim, square-jawed, 57-year-old Vice Admiral Sir James F. Somerville, a descendant of the famous Hood naval family. He believed that the Compiegne armistice could be voided at any time. At 6:45 a.m. fighting broke out around Strasbourg and Foch, killing a French officer and wounding five sailors. .. The Swordfish crews believed that they might have scored two or three hits, but Strasbourg was able to steam away in the darkness and eventually reach haven at the big Toulon naval base in southeastern France. The objective of Operation Lila was to capture the units of the French fleet at Toulon intact, and was carried out by the 7th Panzer Division, augmented with units from other divisions. But the Royal Navy’s actions had made clear to the world—and in particular to America, which recognized the Vichy regime—that Britain, on the apparent brink of defeat, was determined to win the battle of the Mediterranean and secure eventual victory. It may be that General Dwight Eisenhower, with the support of President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, made a secret agreement with Admiral François Darlan, commander of Vichy Naval forces, that he would be given control of French North Africa if he defected to the Allies. The supply ship’s cargo of depth charges exploded, ripping open the side of Dunkerque. Several other vessels had been driven aground and required salvage. To prevent the French naval units scuttling themselves, Marinedetachment Gumprich was assigned to one of the groups. The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (Battle of Mers-el-Kébir) on 3 July 1940, during the Second World War, was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir, at Oran, on the coast of French Algeria. On 8 November 1942 the Allies invaded French North Africa in Operation Torch. Despite the morning haze, “the upper works of the French heavy ships were clearly visible over the breakwater,” reported Somerville, “although only the actual tops and masts could be seen from a position northwest of the fort (guarding the entrance to the base).” His French-speaking emissary, Captain C.S. Dunkerque appeared to have hit a mine, with the loss of 210 dead, and grounded her bows on the shore opposite her berth. The British had largely eliminated the French Navy as a strategic factor in the war, and it was, said Prime Minister Churchill, “the turning point in our fortunes.” Inevitably, the clash at Mers el Kebir created lingering tension and bitterness between the two nations, even as Free French soldiers, sailors, and airmen were rallying to General Charles de Gaulle and the Allied cause. With a crushing 10-minute bombardment, Force H had struck a grievous blow against Gensoul’s squadron. Around 5:15 pm, as Gensoul was deciding to reject the British ultimatum, he received a signal from Admiral Somerville stating that Force H would sink his ships unless he accepted the terms by 5:30. The Vichy regime lost its last token of power, as well as its credibility with the Germans, with the fleet. Orders to implement the plan were given on 19 November. The French admirals, Laborde and Marquis, ordered their subordinates to take a pledge of allegiance to the regime (two of the senior officers, Humbertand and capitaine de vaisseau Pothuau, refused). These Are The Worst Admirals Of All-Time Who Sunk To Rock Bottom ... Francois Darlan is considered to be one of the most controversial Admiral during World War II as he controlled the fleet and the French Navy in 1939. They achieved only one hit but distorted a propeller shaft and flooded three compartments. Its fuel and ammunition were surrendered to the Royal Navy. At 6:04 pm, Admiral Somerville ordered a cease-fire in to give the French sailors an opportunity to leave their ships in the smoking harbor. In private, Auphan tried to persuade Laborde to set sail and join with the Allies; Laborde refused to obey anything short of a formal order of the government and Auphan resigned shortly after. The armistice stipulated that the French fleet would be largely disarmed and confined to its harbours, under French control. The odds were already heavy against the island nation’s main line of defense, the Royal Navy. Sovereign Media, 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, From Tolkien to Hitler: Famous Soldiers of World War I, The Battle for Omaha Beach: The Men of the D-Day Invasion, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Last Campaign: The Battle of Waterloo, Operation Barbarossa: World War II’s Eastern Front, The Battle of Gettysburg: Turning Point of the American Civil War, Mers el Kebir: Why the Royal Navy Sunk the French Fleet in WWII, What Made the German Luger the Most Famous Pistol in Modern Warfare, The Essential Role of Navy PBR Boats in the Vietnam War, The Real Story of General George Patton, Jr’s Death & Final Days, Donald Malarkey: The Story of Easy Company’s Brother from Astoria, Colonel William O. 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