The French fleet during the entire period of the "Strange War" suffered practically no losses, and by May 1940 was rightfully considered the fourth navy in the world.
Moreover, 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 the withdrawal of France from the war, this fourth most powerful navy became an indefinite threat - therefore, Churchill with an intrepid hand signs 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.
Those French ships that were in bases controlled by the British, the latter managed to capture relatively bloodlessly: on July 3, in Portsmouth, they got two old battleships (Paris, launched in 1911, and Courbet, which did this 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 on July 5 quietly and peacefully poured fuel, removed the locks from the guns and declared themselves interned.
But with the latest French battleships, such a feint did not work: the British had to send to Algeria (where the combat core of the French fleet was concentrated in the unfinished base of Mers-el-Kebir) the squadron of Admiral Somerville. Which by fire from the guns of the main caliber announced to the French sailors that Great Britain was no longer their ally.
Attack on Mers el Kebir
A total of 1297 Frenchmen were killed, 350 people were wounded; the battleship Brittany exploded, the battleships Dunkirk and Provence, damaged by the fire of the British fleet, were run aground by their teams (and then repaired at departure to Toulon).
The battleship Strasbourg with five destroyers managed to break through to Toulon that day - 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, with almost 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, who was dismissed by many, thinking that she was helpless; England, which, as foreigners believed, was trembling on the verge of capitulation ... England dealt a cruel blow to her yesterday's friends and secured for herself temporary undisputed dominance at sea. It became clear that the War Cabinet feared nothing and would stop at nothing.”
Mr. Churchill is proud of the treacherous stab in the back inflicted on his recent closest ally, he is proud of the murder of people who, until their very last minute, considered the British to be comrades in arms ... And this person 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 specific categories, the main of which was "expediency"
What was the purpose and key meaning of Operation Catapult?
If Churchill wanted to establish peace in Europe, there would be no need to sink the French fleet; why?
Germany has proved to its enemies that it is capable of defeating any armies that these enemies can put against it in the line of fire - and the only goal of Hitler and his colleagues is to conclude peace, and on the most mild terms for the losing side.
In his speech to the Reichstag on July 19, 1940, he spoke about this directly and frankly - as befits a generous winner:
“At this hour, I feel obliged to listen to the voice of conscience and invite England to reason. I hope that we will be wise enough to stop talking about future victories. I see no reason that could justify the continuation of this war. The sacrifices that a continuation of the fire may bring disturb me, for I prefer to protect my people just as I hope you do.
That is, he directly offered the British to send parliamentarians and sit down at the negotiating table - where to decide what the post-war world would be like. It was the generosity of the winner - no matter what the historians of the winners later say ...
Thus, if Churchill wanted peace, he would not have sent Admiral Sommerville to Mers-el-Kebir.
Perhaps the danger of the French fleet being captured by the Germans was really so great - that in order to avoid it it was extremely necessary to open heavy fire on the ships that had just yesterday been sailing with the British in the same order?
Nothing happened! THERE WAS NO THIS 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 the ships required by the French government for the protection of French interests in the colonies, must assemble in ports for counting 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 own purposes, with the exception of those combat units that will be needed for coastal patrols and minesweeping. Moreover, it solemnly and sincerely declares that it does not intend to make any demands on the French navy for the duration of the peace. With the exception of that part of the French fleet which is 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 with detailed information on all minefields laid by France, as well as on all harbors, coastal batteries and coastal defenses. Minefield sweeping is to be carried out by French forces on the scale indicated by the German High Command.
That is - the Germans demanded from the French the NEUTRALIZATION of their navy - so that it would not fall into the hands of the British. And no 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. Demobilized ships must remain French, under the French flag, with French crews and based on French bases in the mother country and in the colonies. 2. Special secret sabotage measures should be taken to prevent the ships from being taken by force by any enemy or foreign state. 3. If, under the terms of the armistice, the above is not accepted, all ships without additional orders must go to the USA or be flooded 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 must not take part in operations against Germany or Italy without orders from the commander-in-chief.
The Germans agreed that the French Navy ceased to exist as a military force, de jure and de facto remaining under French control in French military bases.
That is, the Germans COULD NOT CAPTURE these ships in any way - 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 guards, 3 patrol ships, 60 transports, minesweepers and tugboats went to the bottom without lowering the French flags.
That is, the French fleet in the summer of 1940 would in no way fall into the hands of the Germans. Then why did the British Prime Minister Churchill need to arrange this dastardly murder?
TO PROVE YOUR DETERMINATION TO FIGHT TO THE VICTORIOUS END.
To prove to those who appointed him to this position that he will not sign ANY PEACE on any GERMAN terms, even if they are at least three times mild and in no way affecting the interests of Great Britain. For this would mean that the Germans would retain the right to be masters in their own country - and such an outcome of the war was in no way 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 slaughter - precisely in order to DESTROY Germany; and they did not need any peace treaties with her.
And in the name of stopping any thoughts of a possible reconciliation with the Germans, French ships were sunk by the English squadron and French sailors were killed. Urbi et orbi it was demonstrated that the war would be carried on by Germany's enemies to the bitter end - whatever the cost of this victory!
And as for the hypothetical capture of French ships by the Germans, the command of the Kriegsmarine was forced, due to an acute shortage of fuel, on February 2, 1943, to withdraw the Gneisenau battle cruiser 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 battlecruiser, and what they would have refueled the captured French battleships and cruisers if, more than expected, they suddenly fell into their hands - only God knows ...
Operation "Catapult" - the general name of a series of operations to capture and destroy the ships of the French fleet in the English and colonial ports of the Navy and Great Britain during the Second World War. The operation was carried out after the surrender of France, to prevent the ships of the fleet from falling under the control of Germany. The main episode of the operation was the attack by the British Navy of the French squadron in the port of Mers-el-Kebir near Oran (Algeria) on July 3, 1940.
Battleship "Strasbourg" under the fire of British artillery
Prerequisites
According to article 8 of the Franco-German agreement on the cessation of hostilities, concluded at the end of June 1940, the French fleet was to arrive at the points determined by the command of the Kriegsmarine, and there, under the control of German or Italian representatives, disarm the ships and demobilize the teams. Despite the fact that the Vichy government, led by Marshal Petain and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Darlan, repeatedly stated that Germany would not get a single ship, the British government considered the possibility of them falling into the hands of the Germans. The ships of the fourth largest fleet in the world with German crews on board (or, after the French crews went over to the German side), could no doubt pose a great threat to the English fleet.
The British command was especially concerned about the fate of the ships in the following ports:
Mers-el-Kebir (2 new battlecruisers Dunkirk and Strasbourg, 2 old battleships, 6 destroyers, a seaplane carrier and several submarines)
Algiers (6 light cruisers)
Casablanca (unfinished new battleship "Jean Bar")
Toulon (4 heavy cruisers)
Dakar (new battleship Richelieu)
Martinique (aircraft carrier Bearn and two light cruisers)
As a result, the British government decided to take very risky measures.
Operation progress
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 Surcouf submarine, which was in Portsmouth, managed to provide armed resistance to the British, and a French midshipman, two British officers and a sailor were killed. Other ships captured were the obsolete dreadnoughts Paris and Courbet, two destroyers, eight torpedo boats and five submarines.
The French crews of the ships were forcibly beached and interned "not without bloody incidents". Some of the crews of the captured ships were subsequently sent to France, while the rest were replenished by the teams of small and light ships operating as part of the Free French forces under the command of General de Gaulle. Many 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 not to leave their ships temporarily.
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 a squadron there from the battleships Hood, Valient and Resolution, 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 Gensul, was presented with an ultimatum in which the British demanded that the French ships either proceed to English ports for further action as part of the Free French forces, or, observing the requirements of the armistice agreement, which prohibited the participation of the French Navy in actions against Germany and Italy, moved to French ports in the West Indies, or were flooded. Otherwise, the British reserved the right to "use any means to prevent the seizure of ships by the German side."
On the same morning, Jensul received a German ultimatum related to the capture of French ships in English ports, which read:
Or the return of all ships from England or a complete revision of the terms of the truceIn addition, even before the end of the negotiations, the British Swordfish torpedo bombers, supported by the Skue carrier-based fighters, set up a minefield so that the French ships could not go to sea. At the same time, one of the cover fighters was shot down by Curtiss P-36 aircraft from French air transport, two crew members were killed. None of the torpedo bombers was lost.
English battleships Hood (left) and Valiant under return fire from the French battleship Dunkirk or Provence off Mers-el-Kebir. Operation "Catapult" July 3, 1940, around 17.00.
Operation Catapult- the general name of a series of operations to capture and destroy French ships in the English and colonial ports of the KVMF and Great Britain during the Second World War. The operation was carried out after the surrender of France, to prevent ships from falling under German control. The main episode of the operation was the attack by the British Navy of the French squadron in the port of Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940.
According to article 8 of the Franco-German agreement on the cessation of hostilities, concluded at the end of June 1940, the French fleet was to arrive at the points determined by the command of the Kriegsmarine, and there, under the control of German or Italian representatives, disarm the ships and demobilize the teams. Despite the fact that the Vichy government, led by Marshal Petain and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Darlan, repeatedly stated that Germany would not get a single ship, the British government considered the possibility of them falling into the hands of the Germans. The ships of the fourth largest fleet in the world with German crews on board (or, after the French crews went over to the German side), could no doubt pose a great threat to the English fleet.
The British command was especially worried 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), Algiers (6 light cruisers) , Casablanca (unfinished new battleship Jean Bar), Toulon (4 heavy cruisers), Dakar (new battleship Richelieu), Martinique (aircraft carrier Bearn and two light cruisers). As a result, the British government decided to take very risky measures.
Battleship "Strasbourg" under the fire of British artillery
With France out of the fight, the English fleet was able to cope with the combined naval forces of Germany and Italy. But the British, not without reason, feared that modern and powerful French ships could fall into the hands of the enemy and be used against them. After all, apart from Compound “X” neutralized in Alexandria and several cruisers, destroyers, the aircraft carrier “Bearn” and small ships scattered around the world, only two very old battleships “Paris” and “Courbet” found refuge in English ports. 2 super destroyers (leaders), 8 destroyers, 7 submarines and other trifles - no more than a tenth of the French fleet, judging by displacement, and complete insignificance, judging by their real strength. As early as June 17, Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, Admiral Dudley Pound, reported to Prime Minister W. Churchill that in Gibraltar, under the command of Vice Admiral James Somerville, Compound "H" was concentrated, led by the battle cruiser "Hood" and the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal", which was supposed to follow for the movements of the French fleet.
When the armistice became a fait accompli, Somerville was ordered to neutralize the French ships that posed the greatest potential threat in the ports of North Africa. The operation was called "Catapult".
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 Surcouf submarine, which was in Portsmouth, managed to provide armed resistance to the British, and a French midshipman, two British officers and a sailor were killed. Other ships captured were the obsolete dreadnoughts Paris and Courbet, two destroyers, eight torpedo boats and five submarines. The French crews of the ships were forcibly beached and interned "not without bloody incidents". Some of the crews of the captured ships were subsequently sent to France, while the rest were replenished by the teams of small and light ships operating as part of the Free French forces under the command of General de Gaulle. Many Frenchmen refused to join the Free French Navy because of the pro-British nature of this "government in exile".
Alexandria
In the port of Alexandria, the crews of the old battleship Lorian, four cruisers and several destroyers agreed not to leave their ships temporarily.
The explosion of the battleship Brittany
Oran and Mers el Kebir
In Sommerville's ultimatum. Written on behalf of "His Majesty's Government", after reminders of joint combat service, German perfidy and the previous agreement of 18 June between the governments of Britain and France that, before capitulating on land, the French fleet would join the British or be scuttled, the French commander of naval forces in Mers el-Kebir and Oran were offered a choice of four options for action:
1) go to sea and join the British fleet to continue the fight until victory over Germany and Italy;
2) go to sea with reduced crews to go to British ports, after which the French sailors will be immediately repatriated, and the ships will be kept for France until the end of the war (full monetary compensation was offered for losses and damage);
3) in case of unwillingness to generally admit the possibility of using French ships against the Germans and Italians, so as not to violate the truce with them, go out under an English escort with reduced crews to French ports in the West Indies (for example, to Martinique) or to US ports, where ships will be disarmed and stored until the end of the war, and the crews will be repatriated;
4) in case of refusal of the first three options - to flood the ships within 6 hours.
The ultimatum ended with a phrase that should be quoted in full: "In the event of your refusal of the above proposal, I have orders from His Majesty's Government to use all necessary forces to prevent your ships from falling into the hands of the Germans or Italians." This, simply put, meant that the former allies would open fire to kill.
The heavy cruiser "Algerie" in the 30s was considered one of the best heavy cruisers in the world and by far the best in Europe
The first two options Zhensul rejected immediately - they directly violated the terms of the truce with the Germans. The third was also hardly considered, especially under the influence of the German ultimatum received that morning: "Either the return of all ships from England or a complete revision of the terms of the truce." At 9 o'clock, Dufay transmitted to Holland the answer of his admiral, in which he stated that, since he had no right to surrender his ships without an order from the French Admiralty, and he could sink them according to the order of Admiral Darlan that remained in force only in case of danger of being captured by the Germans or Italians, it remains only to fight: the French will respond to force with force. Mobilization activities on the ships were stopped and preparations began for going to sea. It also included preparations for battle if necessary.
At 1050, the Foxhound raised the signal that if the terms of the ultimatum were not accepted, Admiral Somerville would not allow the French ships to leave the harbor. And in confirmation of this, at 12.30 British seaplanes dropped several magnetic mines on the main fairway. Naturally, this made negotiations even more difficult.
The ultimatum expired at 14:00. At 13.11, a new signal was raised on the Foxhound: “If you accept the proposals, raise a square flag on the mainmast; otherwise I open fire at 14.11. All hopes for a peaceful outcome collapsed. The complexity of the position of the French commander was also in the fact that on that day the French Admiralty was moving from Bordeaux to Vichy and there was no direct connection with Admiral Darlan. Admiral Jensoul tried to prolong the negotiations, raising in response a signal that he was waiting for the decision of his government, and a quarter of an hour later - a new signal that he was ready to receive the representative of Somerville for an honest conversation. At 1500 Captain Holland boarded the Dunkirk for talks with Admiral Jensul and his staff. The maximum that the French agreed to during a tense conversation was that they would reduce the crews, but they refused to withdraw the ships from the base. As time went on, Somerville's concern that the French would prepare for battle grew. At 4:15 p.m., while Holland and Jensoul were still trying to maintain friendly relations, a dispatch came from the British commander, ending all discussion: "If none of the proposals is accepted by 5:30 p.m. - I repeat, by 5:30 p.m. - I will be forced to sink your ships!" At 4:35 pm Holland left Dunkirk. The stage was set for the first clash between the French and the British since 1815, when the cannons of Waterloo were fired.
The hours that had passed since the appearance of the English destroyer in the harbor of Mers-el-Kebir were not in vain for the French. All ships parted pairs, the crews dispersed to combat posts. The coastal batteries that had begun to be disarmed were now ready to open fire. 42 fighters stood at the airfields, warming up the engines for the launch. All the ships in Oran were ready to go to sea, and 4 submarines were just waiting for the order to form a barrier between Capes Anguil and Falcon. Minesweepers have already cleared the fairway from English mines. An alarm was declared to all French forces in the Mediterranean, the 3rd squadron and Toulon of four heavy cruisers and 12 destroyers and six cruisers and Algeria were ordered to go to sea ready for battle and rush to connect with Admiral Jensul, about which he had to warn English.
The destroyer "Mogador" under the fire of the English squadron, leaving the harbor, was hit by an English 381-mm projectile in the stern.
And Somerville was already on a combat course. His squadron in the ranks of the wake was 14,000 meters north-north-west of Mers-el-Kebir, heading - 70, speed - 20 knots. At 16.54 (17.54 British time) the first volley was fired. Fifteen-inch shells from the Resolution fell close short of range into the pier behind which the French ships stood, covering them with a hail of stones and fragments. A minute and a half later, Provence was the first to respond, firing 340-mm shells right between the masts of the Dunkirk standing to its right - Admiral Zhensul was not at all going to fight at anchor, just a cramped harbor did not allow all ships to start moving at the same time (for this and the British counted!). The battleships were ordered to form a column in this order: Strasbourg, Dunkirk, Provence, Brittany. Super destroyers had to go to sea on their own - according to their ability. The Strasbourg, whose stern mooring lines and anchor chain had been given up even before the first shell hit the pier, began to move immediately. And as soon as he left the parking lot, a shell hit the pier, the fragments of which killed the halyards and signal yard on the ship and pierced the pipe. At 17.10 (18.10), Captain 1st Rank Louis Collins brought his battleship to the main fairway and headed for the sea with a 15-knot course. All 6 destroyers rushed behind him.
When a salvo of 381-mm shells hit the pier, the mooring lines were given up on the Dunkirk and the stern chain was poisoned. The tug, helping to weigh anchor, was forced to cut off the mooring lines when the second salvo also hit the pier. The Dunkirk commander ordered the tanks of aviation fuel to be emptied immediately, and at 1700 ordered to open fire with the main caliber. Soon 130-mm guns also came into play. Since Dunkirk was the closest ship to the British, Hood, a former partner in hunting down German raiders, concentrated its fire on it. At that moment, when the French ship began to move away from its anchorage, the first shell from the "Hood" hit him in the stern and. passing through the hangar and non-commissioned officers' cabins, he went through the side plating 2.5 meters below the waterline. This projectile did not detonate because the thin plates it pierced were not enough to cock the fuse. However, in its passage through Dunkirk, it broke part of the port side electrical wiring, disabled the crane motors for lifting seaplanes and caused the port side fuel tank to flood.
The return fire was quick and accurate, although distance determination was difficult due to the terrain and being between the Dunkirk and the British fort Santon.
Around the same time, Brittany received a hit, and at 17.03 a 381-mm projectile hit Provence, which was waiting for Dunkirk to enter the fairway to follow it. A fire started in the stern of the Provence and a large leak opened. I had to stick the ship to the shore with its nose at a depth of 9 meters. By 17.07, the fire engulfed the Brittany from bow to stern, and two minutes later the old battleship began to capsize and suddenly exploded, taking the lives of 977 crew members. The rest began to be rescued from the Kommandant Test hydro-air transport, which miraculously avoided hits during the entire battle.
The Dunkirk, entering the fairway with a 12-knot course, was hit by a volley of three 381-mm shells.
After these hits, only KO No. 3 and MO No. 2 continued to operate on Dunkirk, serving the internal shafts, which gave a speed of no more than 20 knots. Damage to the starboard cables caused a brief interruption in the power supply to the stern until the port side was turned on. I had to switch to manual steering. With the failure of one of the main substations, bow emergency diesel generators were turned on. Emergency lighting came on, turret #1 continued to fire quite frequently at the Hood.
In total, before receiving the ceasefire order at 17.10 (18.10), Dunkirk fired 40 330-mm shells at the English flagship, the volleys of which fell very tightly. By this point, after 13 minutes of shooting almost motionless ships in the harbor, the situation no longer looked unpunished for the British. "Dunkirk" and coastal batteries fired intensely, which became more and more accurate, "Strasbourg" with destroyers almost went to sea. The only thing missing was the Motador, which, when leaving the harbor, slowed down to let the tugboat through, and a second later received a 381-mm projectile in the stern. From the explosion, 16 depth charges were detonated and the stern of the destroyer was torn off almost along the bulkhead of the stern MO. But he was able to stick his nose to the shore at a depth of about 6.5 meters and, with the help of small vessels approaching from Oran, began to extinguish the fire.
The French destroyer "Lion" (fr. "Lion") was sunk on November 27, 1942 by order of the Admiralty of the Vichy regime in order to avoid the capture by Nazi Germany of the ships that were on the roads of the naval base of Toulon. In 1943, she was raised by the Italians, repaired and included in the Italian fleet under the name "FR-21". However, already on September 9, 1943, it was again flooded by the Italians in the port of La Spezia (La Spezia) after the capitulation of Italy
The British, satisfied with the sinking of one and the damage of three ships, turned to the west and put up a smoke screen. "Strasbourg" with five destroyers went on a breakthrough. "Lynx" and "Tiger" attacked the submarine "Proteus" with depth charges, preventing her from attacking the battleship. 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. French ships began to develop full speed. At Cape Canastel they were joined by six more destroyers from Oran. To the northwest, within firing range, the English aircraft carrier Ark Royal was visible, practically defenseless against 330-mm and 130-mm shells. But the fight didn't happen. On the other hand, six Swordfish with 124-kg bombs, escorted from the deck of the Ark Royal, escorted by two Skues, attacked the Strasbourg at 17.44 (18.44). But they did not achieve hits, and with dense and accurate anti-aircraft fire, one Skue was shot down, and two Swordfish were so damaged that they fell into the sea on the way back.
Admiral Somerville decided to give chase on the flagship Hood, the only one that could catch up with the French ship. But by 19 (20) o'clock the distance between "Hood" and "Strasbourg" was 44 km and did not think to be reduced. In an attempt to reduce the speed of the French ship, Sommerville ordered the Ark Royal to attack the retreating enemy with torpedo bombers. After 40-50 minutes, the Swordfish carried out two attacks with a short interval, but all the torpedoes dropped outside the curtain of destroyers passed by. The destroyer "Pursyuvant" (from Oran) informed the battleship in advance about the sighted torpedoes and "Strasbourg" each time had time to shift the steering wheel in time. The chase had to be stopped. Moreover, the destroyers following the Hood were running out of fuel, the Valient and Resolution were in a dangerous area without an anti-submarine escort, and there were reports from everywhere that strong detachments of cruisers and destroyers were approaching from Algeria. This meant being drawn into a night battle with superior forces. Compound H returned to Gibraltar on 4 July.
"Strasbourg" continued to leave at a 25-knot course until an accident occurred in one of the boiler rooms. As a result, five people died, and the speed had to be reduced to 20 knots. After 45 minutes, the damage was repaired, and the ship again brought the speed to 25 knots. Rounding the southern tip of Sardinia to avoid new clashes with Formation "H", and on 20.10 July 4, Strasbourg, accompanied by the leaders of "Volta", "Tiger" and "Terrible" came to Toulon.
On July 4, Admiral Esteva, commander of naval forces in North Africa, issued a communiqué stating that "the damage to the Dunkirk is minor and will be quickly repaired." This ill-advised statement prompted a swift response from the Royal Navy. On the evening of July 5, Compound "H" again went to sea, leaving the low-speed "Resolution" in the base. Admiral Somerville decided, instead of conducting another artillery battle, to act quite modernly - to use aircraft from the Ark Royal aircraft carrier to attack Dunkirk, which had landed on the shore. At 05.20 on July 6, while 90 miles from Oran, Ark Royal lifted 12 Swordfish torpedo bombers, escorted by 12 Skue fighters, into the air. The torpedoes were set to a speed of 27 knots and a travel depth of about 4 meters. The air defense of Mers el Kebir was not ready to repel the attack at dawn, and only the second wave of aircraft met more intense anti-aircraft fire. And only then followed the intervention of French fighters.
Unfortunately, the commander of the Dunkirk evacuated the servants of anti-aircraft guns ashore, leaving only the personnel of the emergency parties on board. The patrol vessel "Ter Neuve" stood at the side, taking some of the crew members and the coffins with the dead on July 3. During this sad procedure, at 06.28 a raid of British aircraft began, which went on the attack in three waves. The two Swordfish of the first wave dropped their torpedoes prematurely and they exploded on impact without causing any harm. After 9 minutes, the second wave approached, but none of the three torpedoes dropped hit Dunkirk. But one torpedo hit Ter Neuve, which was just in a hurry to move away from the battleship. The explosion literally tore the small ship in half, and the wreckage of its superstructure showered the Dunkirk. At 0650, another 6 Swordfish appeared with fighter cover. The link, which came from the starboard side, came under heavy anti-aircraft fire and was attacked by fighters. Dropped torpedoes again did not reach the target. The last group of three cars attacked from the port side, This time two torpedoes rushed to the Dunkirk. One hit the Estrel tug, which was about 70 meters from the battleship, and literally blew it off the surface of the water. The second, apparently with a faulty depth gauge, passed under the keel of the Dunkirk and, hitting the aft part of the wreckage of the Ter Neuve, caused the detonation of forty-two 100-kilogram depth charges, despite the absence of fuses in them. The consequences of the explosion were terrible. A hole about 40 meters long was formed in the starboard plating. Several belt armor plates were displaced, and water filled the side protection system. The steel plate above the armor belt was torn off by the force of the explosion and thrown onto the deck, burying several people under it. The anti-torpedo bulkhead was detached from its mount for 40 meters, other watertight bulkheads were torn or deformed. There was a strong roll to starboard and the ship settled with its nose so that the water rose above the armor belt. The compartments behind the damaged bulkhead were flooded with salt water and liquid fuel. As a result of this attack and the previous battle on the Dunkirk, 210 people were killed. There is no doubt that if the ship were in deep water, such an explosion would lead to its quick death.
A temporary plaster was put on the hole and on August 8 Dunkirk was dragged into free water. Repair work progressed very slowly. And where were the French in a hurry? Only on February 19, 1942, Dunkirk went to sea in complete secrecy. When the workers arrived in the morning, they saw their tools neatly stacked on the embankment and ... nothing more. At 23.00 the next day, the ship reached Toulon, carrying on board some of the scaffolding from Mers-el-Kebir.
English ships were not damaged in this operation. But they hardly fulfilled their task. All modern French ships survived and took refuge in their bases. That is, the danger that, from the point of view of the British Admiralty and the government, existed from the side of the former allied fleet, remained. In general, these fears seem somewhat far-fetched. Did the British consider themselves stupider than the Germans? After all, the Germans were able in 1919 to flood their fleet interned in the British base of Scapa Flow. But then, far from full crews remained on their disarmed ships, the war in Europe ended a year ago, and the British Royal Navy completely controlled the situation on the seas. Why, then, could it be expected that the Germans, who, moreover, did not have a strong fleet, would be able to prevent the French from sinking their ships in their own bases? Most likely, the reason that forced the British to treat their former ally so cruelly was something else ...
Burning and sunken French warships, photographed from an RAF aircraft the day after being sunk by their crews at the quay walls in Toulon
On November 8, 1942, the Allies landed in North Africa and a few days later the French garrisons ceased resistance. Surrendered to the allies and all the ships that were on the Atlantic coast of Africa. In retaliation, Hitler ordered the occupation of southern France, although this was in violation of the terms of the 1940 armistice. At dawn on November 27, German tanks entered Toulon.
In this French naval base at that time there were about 80 warships, and the most modern and powerful, collected from all over the Mediterranean - more than half of the tonnage of the fleet. The main striking force, the High Seas Fleet of Admiral de Laborde, consisted of the flagship battleship Strasbourg, the heavy cruisers Algiers, Dupleix and Colbert, the cruisers Marseillaise and Jean de Vienne, 10 leaders and 3 destroyers. The commander of the Toulon Naval District, Vice Admiral Marcus, had under his command the battleship Provence, the seaplane carrier Commandant Test, two destroyers, 4 destroyers and 10 submarines. The rest of the ships (the damaged Dunkirk, the heavy cruiser Foch, the light La Galissoniere, 8 leaders, 6 destroyers and 10 submarines) were disarmed under the terms of the armistice and had only part of the crew on board.
But Toulon was crowded not only with sailors. A huge wave of refugees, urged on by the German army, flooded the city, making it difficult to organize defense and creating a mass of rumors that caused panic. The army regiments that came to the aid of the base garrison were strongly opposed to the Germans, but the naval command was more worried about the possibility of a repetition of Mers el-Kebir by the Allies, who brought powerful squadrons into the Mediterranean. In general, we decided to prepare for the defense of the base from everyone and flood the ships both in case of the threat of their capture by the Germans and the Allies.
At the same time, two German tank columns entered Toulon, one from the west, the other from the east. The first had the task of capturing the main shipyards and piers of the base, where the largest ships stood, the other was the command post of the district commandant and the Murillon shipyard.
Admiral de Laborde was on his flagship when word arrived at 0520 that the shipyard of Murillon had already been captured. Five minutes later, German tanks blew up the north gate of the base. Admiral de Laborde immediately radioed a general order for the fleet to sink immediately. The radio operators repeated it continuously, and the signalmen raised flags on the halyards: “Sink! Get drowned! Get drowned!
It was still dark and the German tanks got lost in the labyrinths of warehouses and docks of a huge base. Only at about 6 o'clock one of them appeared at the Milhod piers, where the Strasbourg and three cruisers were moored. The flagship had already moved away from the wall, the crew was preparing to leave the ship. Trying to do at least something, the tank commander ordered the cannon to be fired at the battleship (the Germans claimed that the shot happened by accident). A shell hit one of the 130 mm turrets, killing an officer and injuring several sailors who were setting demolition charges at the guns. Immediately, anti-aircraft guns returned fire, but the admiral ordered him to stop.
It was still dark. A German infantryman approached the edge of the pier and shouted at Strasbourg: "Admiral, my commander says you must surrender your ship intact."
De Laborde yelled back, "It's already sunk."
There was a discussion in German on the shore, and again the voice was heard:
"Admiral! My commander conveys his deepest respect to you!”
In the meantime, the ship's commander, having made sure that the kingstones in the engine rooms were open and there were no people left in the lower decks, gave a signal with a siren for execution. Immediately "Strasbourg" was surrounded by explosions - guns exploded one after another. Internal explosions caused the skin to swell, and the gaps and gaps formed between its sheets accelerated the flow of water into the huge hull. Soon the ship sat on the bottom of the harbor on an even keel, plunging 2 meters into the silt. The upper deck was 4 meters under water. Oil spilled from broken tanks.
Blown up by her crew and later partially dismantled French battleship Dunkirk (Dunkerque)On the heavy cruiser Algiers, the flagship of Vice Admiral Lacroix, the stern tower was blown up. The Algiers burned for two days, and the cruiser Marseillaise, which sat next to the bottom with a 30-degree list, burned for more than a week. The Colbert cruiser closest to Strasbourg began to explode when two crowds of Frenchmen who fled from it and Germans trying to get on board collided at its side. The whistle of fragments flying from everywhere, people rushed about in search of protection, illuminated by a bright flame, set on fire on the catapult of the aircraft.
On board the heavy cruiser "Duplay", moored in the Missiesi basin, the Germans managed to climb. But immediately explosions began and the ship sank with a large roll, and then was completely destroyed by the explosion of the cellars at 08.30. They were also unlucky with the battleship Provence, although it did not start flooding longer than the others, because it received a telephone message from the headquarters of the commandant of the base captured by the Germans: “An order has been received from Monsieur Laval (Prime Minister of the Vichy government) that the incident has been settled.” When they realized that this was a provocation, the crew did everything possible so that the enemy did not get the ship. The maximum that the Germans could do, who managed to climb the tilted deck leaving from under their feet, was to declare prisoners of war the Provence officers and headquarters officials, led by the commander of the division, Rear Admiral Marcel Jarry.
Standing in the dock and having almost no crew, the Dunkirk was more difficult to flood. On the ship, they opened everything that could only let water into the hull, and then opened the dock gates. But it was easier to drain the dock than to raise the ship lying at the bottom. Therefore, everything that could be of interest was destroyed at Dunkirk: guns, turbines, rangefinders, radio equipment and optical instruments, control posts and entire superstructures were blown up. This ship never sailed again.
On June 18, 1940, in Bordeaux, the commander of the French fleet, Admiral Darlan, his assistant Admiral Ofan, and a number of other senior naval officers gave their word to representatives of the British fleet that they would never allow the capture of French ships by the Germans. They fulfilled their promise by sinking 77 of the most modern and powerful ships in Toulon: 3 battleships (Strasbourg, Provence, Dunkirk2), 7 cruisers, 32 destroyers of all classes, 16 submarines, Commandant Test hydro-air transport, 18 guard and smaller ships.
Dakar
On July 8, 1940, the British squadron attacked French ships in Dakar, including the battleship Richelieu, which had just entered service. A torpedo dropped by one of the Hermes aircraft carrier exploded under the bottom of the battleship and caused severe damage, the ship's keel was bent over 25 meters. Then the British battleships opened fire. The French ship was first damaged by 381-mm shells from the battleships Barkhem and Resolution, and then there was an explosion in the main battery turret. Satisfied with this result, the British withdrew.
The French battleship "Bretagne" ("Bretagne", entered service in 1915) was sunk in Mers-el-Kebir during the operation "Catapult" by the English fleet.
Operation results
After attacking the 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 latest battleships "Strasbourg", "Dunkirk" and "Jean Bar", 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. Until 1942, the German command made no attempts to take possession of the French ships. When, on November 26, German troops entered Toulon and tried to capture French ships, faithful French sailors, at the first threat of their fleet being captured by the Germans, sank their ships. In November 1940, US President Roosevelt approached the head of the French government, Marshal Pétain, with a proposal to sell the unfit battleships Jean Bar and Richelieu, which were in Africa, but was refused. Only after the "Toulon tragedy" did the French agree to give one battleship to the Allies.
Operation "Catapult" - the general name of a series of operations to capture and destroy the ships of the French fleet in the English and colonial ports of the Navy and Great Britain during the Second World War. The operation was carried out after the truce between France and Germany, to prevent the ships of the fleet from falling under German control. The main episode of the operation was the attack by the British Navy of the French squadron in the port of Mers-el-Kebir near Oran (Algeria) on July 3, 1940.
According to article 8 of the Franco-German agreement on the cessation of hostilities, concluded at the end of June 1940, the French fleet was to arrive at the points determined by the command of the Kriegsmarine, and there, under the control of German or Italian representatives, disarm the ships and demobilize the teams. Despite the fact that the Vichy government, led by Marshal Petain and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Darlan, repeatedly stated that Germany would not get a single ship, the British government considered the possibility of them falling into the hands of the Germans. The ships of the fourth largest fleet in the world with German crews on board (or, after the French crews went over to the German side), could no doubt pose a great threat to the English fleet.
The British command was especially concerned about the fate of the ships in the following ports:
Mers-el-Kebir (2 new battlecruisers Dunkirk and Strasbourg, 2 old battleships, 6 destroyers, a seaplane carrier and several submarines)
Algiers (6 light cruisers)
Casablanca (unfinished new battleship "Jean Bar")
Toulon (4 heavy cruisers)
Dakar (new battleship Richelieu)
Martinique (aircraft carrier Bearn and two light cruisers)
As a result, the British government decided to take very risky measures.
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 Surcouf submarine, which was in Portsmouth, managed to provide armed resistance to the British, and a French midshipman, two British officers and a sailor were killed. Other ships captured were the obsolete dreadnoughts Paris and Courbet, two destroyers, eight torpedo boats and five submarines.
The French crews of the ships were forcibly beached and interned "not without bloody incidents". Some of the crews of the captured ships were subsequently sent to France, while the rest were replenished by the teams of small and light ships operating as part of the Free French forces under the command of General de Gaulle. Some French were reluctant to join the Free French Navy, as they saw it, because of the pro-British nature of this "government-in-exile".
In the port of Alexandria, the crews of the old battleship Lorian, four cruisers and several destroyers agreed not to leave their ships temporarily. This became possible as a result of an agreement between the French Vice Admiral Godefroy and the British commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Andrew Cunningham. In many ways, the merit of a peaceful resolution of the issue belongs to the commander of the "Remillis" Captain 1st Rank G.T. Bailey-Groman, who, at the most tense moment of the conflict, personally went to the Lorian. As a result of the agreement, the French retained control of the ships, but were forced to hand over fuel, ship gun locks, and torpedo warheads to the British. In addition, part of the French crews had to go ashore. Having lost fuel and part of the crews, actually disarmed, the French ships were no longer dangerous for the British fleet. This agreement made it possible to avoid a clash between the British and French squadrons and save French ships from destruction, which in July 1943 joined the Free French forces and were able to resume the fight against a common enemy.
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 a squadron there from the battleships Hood, Valient and Resolution, 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 Gensul, was presented with an ultimatum in which the British demanded that the French ships either proceed to English ports for further action as part of the Free French forces, or, observing the requirements of the armistice agreement, which prohibited the participation of the French Navy in actions against Germany and Italy, moved to French ports in the West Indies, or were flooded. Otherwise, the British reserved the right to "use any means to prevent the seizure of ships by the German side."
On the same morning, Jensul received a German ultimatum related to the capture of French ships in English ports, which read:
Or 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, supported by the Skue carrier-based fighters, set up a minefield so that the French ships could not go to sea. At the same time, one of the cover fighters was shot down by Curtiss P-36 aircraft from French air transport, two crew members were killed. None of the torpedo bombers was lost.
The French commander rejected the English ultimatum, considering its terms humiliating. He stated that since he had no right to surrender his ships without an order from the French Admiralty, and he could sink them according to the order of Admiral Darlan, which remained in force, only in case of danger of being captured by the Germans or Italians, all that remained was to fight: the French would respond to force with force. This was conveyed to Churchill, and at 18:25 (London time, or 17:25 local time), in anticipation of the expiration of the ultimatum, the Prime Minister's order was transmitted to Admiral Somerville: "French ships must either accept our terms, or sink themselves or be sunk by you before dark."
However, Somerville opened fire as early as 16:54, without waiting for orders or for the expiration of the ultimatum, in order to maintain surprise. The French did not expect such a development of events at all, as de Gaulle later wrote:
... The ships in Oran were not in a position to fight. They were at anchor, having no possibility of maneuver or dispersal ... Our ships gave the English ships the opportunity to fire the first volleys, which, as you know, at sea are of decisive importance 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 of 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 Jensul, not intending to fight at anchor, ordered them to line up in 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 given up even before the first English salvo, began to move immediately. At 17:10, Captain 1st Rank Louis Collins brought his battleship to the main fairway and headed for the sea at a 15-knot course. All 6 destroyers left with him.
The Dunkirk was the first of the French ships to open fire. When the first salvo of the British covered the port pier, the mooring lines were already given up on the Dunkirk and the stern chain was poisoned. At 17:00, the battleship opened fire, at the same time she received the first hit of a 381-mm projectile from the battlecruiser Hood. The shell hit the stern and, passing through the hangar and non-commissioned officers' cabins, exited through the side plating 2.5 meters below the waterline. This projectile did not detonate because the thin plates it pierced were not enough to cock the fuse. However, in its movement through Dunkirk, it interrupted part of the port side electrical wiring, disabled the crane motors for lifting seaplanes and caused the flooding of the port side fuel tank. The return fire was quick and accurate, although distance determination was difficult due to the terrain and being between the Dunkirk and the British fort Santon.
At 17:03, the Provence received the first hit, which caused a fire and a large leak. To avoid flooding, the battleship had to stick her bow to the shore at a depth of nine meters. At 17:07 a fire engulfed the old battleship Brittany. Two minutes later, the ship began to capsize and suddenly exploded, killing 997 people.
The Dunkirk, entering the fairway with a 12-knot course, was hit by a volley of three 381-mm shells. The first one hit the roof of the second main battery turret above the port of the right outer gun, strongly pressing the armor. Most of the projectile ricocheted and fell to the ground about 2,000 meters from the ship. A piece of armor or part of a projectile hit the loading tray inside the right half-turret, igniting the powder cartridges being unloaded. All the servants of the half-tower died in smoke and flames, but the left half-tower continued to operate - the armored partition isolated the damage.
The second shell hit next to the two-gun 130-mm starboard turret, closer to the center of the ship from the edge of the 225-mm belt and pierced the 115-mm armored deck. The projectile severely damaged the reloading compartment of the tower, blocking the supply of ammunition. Continuing its movement towards the center of the ship, it broke through two anti-shatter bulkheads and exploded in the air conditioning and fan compartment. The compartment was completely destroyed, all its personnel were killed or seriously injured. In the meantime, several cartridge cases caught fire in the starboard reloading compartment and several 130-mm shells loaded into the elevator exploded. And here all the servants were killed. The explosion also occurred at the air duct to the forward engine room. Hot gases, flames and thick clouds of yellow smoke penetrated the compartment through the armor grille in the lower armored deck, 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 power outage due to which the fire control system failed. The intact nose turret had to continue firing under local control.
The third shell fell into the water next to the starboard side a little further aft from the second one, 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 hull passed in the area of the second boiler room and the first engine room, where the outer shafts were located. The explosion destroyed the lower armored deck throughout these compartments, the armored bevel over 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 pipeline between the boiler and the turbine unit. The escaping superheated steam with a temperature of 350 degrees caused fatal burns to the personnel of the boiler room, who were standing in open places.
At 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 the power supply to the stern until the port side network was turned on. I had to switch to manual steering. With the failure of one of the main substations, bow emergency diesel generators were turned on. The emergency lighting came on, and the forward turret continued to fire fairly frequently at the Hood. In total, before receiving the ceasefire order at 17.10, Dunkirk fired 40 330-mm shells at the British flagship, the volleys of which fell very tightly.
The destroyer Mogador, leaving the harbor, was hit by a 381-mm projectile in the stern. From this, the depth charges located there detonated and the stern of the destroyer was torn off almost along the bulkhead of the aft engine room. Nevertheless, he was able to run aground and, with the help of small ships approaching from Oran, began to extinguish the fire. The British, satisfied with the sinking of one and the damage of three ships, turned to the west and put up a smoke screen.
French destroyers attacked the English submarine Proteus, preventing her from attacking the 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. 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 aircraft and one Skue were shot down, their crews were then picked up by the English destroyer Wrestler. At 18:43, the cruisers Arethusa and Enterprise, led by the battlecruiser Hood, began chasing the French ships that had broken through, but at 20:20 the chase was stopped, since the British ships were not ready for a night battle, especially since they were reports of destroyers approaching from Oran. After withstanding another air raid at 20:55, and rounding the southern tip of Sardinia, Strasbourg arrived in 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.
The Dunkirk, which remained at Mers-el-Kébir, entered the harbor of Saint-André, where Fort Santon and the countryside could provide some protection from British artillery fire. The ship was run aground, the evacuation of unnecessary personnel immediately began, and 400 people were left on board to carry out repairs. On July 4, Admiral Esteva, commander of naval forces in North Africa, issued a communiqué stating that
the damage to the Dunkirk 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 Dunkirk, which was aground, was attacked by torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal, two torpedoes hit the guard stationed near the side and caused the detonation of the depth charges on it. The strongest explosion literally tore the starboard side of the ship in a 40-meter space. A temporary plaster was put on the hole, and on August 8 the Dunkirk was dragged into free water. Subsequently, on February 19, 1942, Dunkirk made the transition to Toulon.
In total, 1297 Frenchmen died in this battle, about 350 were wounded.
On July 8, 1940, the British squadron attacked French ships in Dakar, including the battleship Richelieu, which had just entered service. A torpedo dropped by one of the Hermes aircraft carrier exploded under the bottom of the battleship and caused severe damage, the ship's keel was bent over 25 meters.
Then the British battleships opened fire. The French ship was first damaged by 381-mm shells from the battleships Barkhem and Resolution, and then there was an explosion in the main battery turret. Satisfied with this result, the British withdrew.
An attack scheduled for 3 July against French ships in the West Indies (aircraft carrier Béarn, cruiser Émile Bertin and light training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, stationed at the port of Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, was canceled at the last minute due to personal interference US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
After attacking the 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 latest battleships "Strasbourg", "Dunkirk" and "Jean Bar", 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. Until 1942, the German command made no attempts to take possession of the French ships. When, as part of Operation Anton, on November 26, German troops entered Toulon and tried to capture French ships (Operation Lila), faithful French sailors sank their ships at the first threat of their fleet being captured by the Germans.
In November 1940, US President Roosevelt approached the head of the French government, Marshal Petain, with a proposal to sell the unfit battleships Jean Bar and Richelieu, which were in Africa, but was refused. Only after the "Toulon tragedy" did the French agree to give one battleship to the Allies. January 30, 1943 "Richelieu" left Dakar for New York.
In the photo: French battleship "Strasbourg" under fire from the ships of the Royal Navy of Great Britain, July 1940
On July 3rd, 1940, Britain "attacked" France without declaring war. This episode of the Second World War is not very fond of being remembered in the West.
By signing a truce on June 22, 1940, in fact, an act of surrender, with Nazi Germany, France pledged to transfer its navy to it safe and sound for disarmament. The vagueness of this wording became the reason for the subsequent operations of the British to capture the French fleet.
According to the letter of the Second Compiègne Truce, the victors could not claim French warships. At the same time, these ships were to be "concentrated in certain ports and demobilized and disarmed there under German and Italian control." This meant that until then the ships would have remained fully armed and equipped. What if the Nazis and Fascists were just trying to take the French navy as a trophy?
Churchill wrote in this regard: “True, in the same article [of the Armistice Act], the German government solemnly declared that it had no intention of using the French fleet for its own purposes during the war. But who, being in their right mind and solid memory, would believe the word of Hitler? ..».
So, the British War Cabinet decided on preventive measures to prevent the Germans from seizing the French fleet. In other words, it's about owning it. In the worst case, the French ships had to be destroyed or damaged so that the enemy could not use them for military purposes.
Let us recall the situation that developed in Anglo-French relations in the summer of 1940. The flight of the British troops from Dunkirk undermined the confidence in their ally on the part of the leadership of the Third Republic. When, on June 16, 1940, British Prime Minister Churchill, having arrived in Tours (Paris had already been surrendered to the Germans), outlined his plan for further war to the French government, he was received very coldly.
Churchill's proposal boiled down to the fact that England and France were united into one state, while England assumed all the financial costs of waging the war. Churchill considered it possible to hold bridgeheads in Brittany and southern France. This could not seduce the French, since France was the theater of operations in this case.
She was to be turned into ruins, while the British sacrificed only money! In addition, the French rulers, not without reason, considered this plan an attempt on the French colonies. "Better to be a Nazi province than a British dominion!" - this opinion had already developed by that time in the French leadership. Churchill left with nothing, and on June 17 France began negotiations for an armistice, which ended five days later.
French sailors on a ship attacked by the British
England was by no means going to put up with Germany. It was important for her, on the one hand, to acquire new resources and allies to continue the war, on the other hand, to deprive the enemy of the opportunity to increase their forces. In a telegram from Churchill to the Prime Minister of South Africa dated June 27, 1940, there is such an indication of the future plans of Great Britain: “Our large army, which is now being created for the defense of the mother country, is being formed on the basis of an offensive doctrine, and in 1940 and 1941 there may be an opportunity to carry out broad offensive operations" (Churchill's italics).
Naturally, under such conditions, the fleet of France withdrawn from the war could only become a prize for one of the two sides. From the point of view of military necessity and all subsequent events, of course, the decision of the British Cabinet was justified. But at that time, the actions of a recent ally made a heavy impression on the French.
The question arises: at the moment when Churchill gave the order to carry out the operation to capture the French fleet, was he thinking about the future of Anglo-French relations?
There is reason to believe that the British Prime Minister considered France completely written off from history. And it is impossible to see that he was too upset about this. Here's to you and "old friendship"! However, is it really that old?
For the first time, England and France became allies only in the war with Turkey in 1826-1828. Then - in the Eastern War of 1854-1856. with Russia is already on the side of Turkey. But soon they got into hostile relations with each other.
The victory in the Eastern War, the unification of Italy, achieved with the help of French troops, made Napoleon III's France the strongest state on the European continent. Once again the notorious balance of power, the preservation of which England considered its main task for centuries, was violated. Therefore, in "foggy Albion" they favorably looked at the rising new force, which was supposed to put a limit to the growth of France's power - at the Prussia of the "iron" Chancellor Bismarck.
Britain watched calmly as Prussia overthrew the empire of Napoleon III and united Germany under its auspices. Then, in 1878, England and Germany jointly opposed the excessive, in their opinion, strengthening of Russia as a result of the victory over Turkey.
The Berlin Congress, which was the result of German diplomatic efforts and British military demonstrations, curtailed the fruits of the Russian victory and delayed the liberation of European Christians from Ottoman oppression for more than thirty years. It also became the starting point for the subsequent rapprochement between France and Russia, which ended in 1891 with the conclusion of a pact between the two countries.
Damaged destroyer "Mogador"
England, all this time, kept in "brilliant loneliness", aloof from the emerging blocs. And only in 1897 an agreement was signed, which for a long time remained unknown, between Great Britain, France and the USA. According to it, the United States tacitly pledged to provide all kinds of assistance, except for purely military, (in the current way - to provide the most favored nation treatment) to England and France, if they had to fight with Germany. In exchange, the two Western European powers also pledged not to interfere with US plans for the fourth countries. Already in 1898, this treaty received a practical run-in during the US war against Spain.
So, the union of France and England arose only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (officially, the "cordial consent" of the two powers was proclaimed in 1904). This was preceded by centuries of fierce competition and wars between these countries.
It is no wonder that such a recent alliance has given a deep crack, as soon as one of its members faced serious difficulties.
After the signing of the Second Compiegne Truce, a number of first-class ships of the French navy were within the reach of the British armed forces - in the ports of the French colonies: Dakar, Casablanca, Oran.
“In Oran and the neighboring military port of Mers-el-Kebir,” Churchill wrote, “there were two of the best ships of the French fleet, Dunkirk and Strasbourg, modern battlecruisers, significantly superior to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, built specifically with the aim of surpassing these latter ... Together with them were two French battleships [Brittany and Provence], several light cruisers, a number of destroyers, submarines and other ships.
Battleship "Dunkirk" destroyed by the British
Algiers had seven cruisers, and Martinique had an aircraft carrier and two light cruisers. The Jean Bar was in Casablanca ... It was one of the main ships taken into account when calculating the naval forces of the whole world ... The goal of the Catapult operation was the simultaneous capture of all the French fleet available to us, establishing control over it, incapacitating or destroying it ".
The French sailors were given ultimatums to surrender along with the ships, backed up by the impressive power of the suddenly approaching English squadrons. In some places, in view of the obvious inequality of forces, the French accepted the British conditions. Although even in England, where some French ships had previously taken refuge, there were clashes during which one Frenchman was killed. But in most cases, the French could not agree to the British demands without damaging their battle honor. They decided to resist.
As a result of British fire, the battleship Brittany was sunk along with the crew. "Dunkirk" and "Provence" received such heavy damage that they could not be restored. "Strasbourg" escaped from the ring of the British blockade and came to Toulon, accompanied by three destroyers.
The operation continued in the following days. On July 5, British aircraft attacked French ships in Mers-el-Kebir and inflicted heavy damage on them. On July 8, an attack from an aircraft carrier disabled the battleship Richelieu in Dakar. The human losses of the French armed forces as a result of the "Catapult" amounted to about 1400 people.
The British attack influenced the development of the internal political situation in France. Marshal Petain, hitherto only prime minister, became head of state on July 11, 1940.
For this decision, which put an end to the regime of the Third Republic, 569 deputies of the French parliament voted with only 80 votes against.
Even before that, on July 5, 1940, the French government announced a severance of relations with Great Britain and ordered a "retaliatory raid" by French aircraft on Gibraltar, which, however, could only have a symbolic meaning.
Contributing through their actions to the final formation of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime and creating their own alternative French government headed by de Gaulle, the British leadership deliberately went to build future relations with France "from scratch", having no obligation to respect the sovereignty of the fallen Third Republic.
For the Nazi leadership of Germany, the actions of the British were undoubtedly a serious and unexpected blow. If the Germans immediately after the signing of the armistice had insisted to the French on the fulfillment of its conditions, they would have been able to seriously strengthen themselves and weaken the British.
They obviously fell into a common misconception: acting aggressively and treacherously themselves, they somehow considered their opponents incapable of similar actions. “It became clear,” wrote Churchill, summing up these events, “that the British War Cabinet fears nothing and will stop at nothing.” In other words, there are no restrictive "laws of war" for Britain. Moreover, this should have become clear to both enemies and allies.
The undeclared Anglo-French war did not end there.
In September 1940, the British launched an unsuccessful landing operation to capture Dakar. De Gaulle's Free French formations were supposed to take part in the landing. However, having met with a rebuff from his compatriots, de Gaulle withdrew his forces, and the British had to curtail the operation.
And the following year, the British carried out the capture of Syria and Lebanon, the former mandated territories of France. On June 8, 1941, British troops crossed their border from the territories of Transjordan and Palestine. The reason was the landing on French airfields of aircraft sent by Germany to the government of Iraq (which the British had overthrown shortly before as a result of a military invasion). The fighting continued for five weeks. Having no great incentives for resistance, the French surrendered on July 11, 1941.
When the Anglo-American troops landed in North Africa on November 8, 1942, they ran into fierce resistance from the French troops in places. It was a continuation of the same war that broke out on July 3, 1940. Two and a half years of German occupation of most of France did not at all add to the sympathy of many Frenchmen for the British. There was still a very long way to the recognition of de Gaulle's government by the French...
In analyzing the causes of this "unknown" Anglo-French war of 1940-1942, we must admit that the strategic considerations of the war against Nazi Germany played only a limited role in them. No less important was the desire of Great Britain to finally eliminate the failed France as a competitor.
