Tuesday, July 03, 2007
This Day in the Long History of Regrettable Necessities
On this day in 1940, the British dealt with the remnants of the French fleet to prevent the Germans from obtaining a surface fleet all at once. Most of it went well but not at the Oran, Algeria, port of Mers-el-Kebir, where the bulk of the French fleet lay at anchor. Acting on Churchill's orders, Captain Cedric Holland made the French commander four very reasonable alternatives: join British naval forces in the fight against Germany; hand the ships over to British crews; disarm or scuttle them; or sail them to the French West Indies and turn them over to the Americans. The French refused all the offers and the British forces under Admiral Somerville, including the doomed ships Hood and Ark Royal, opened fire, destroying two older battleships and damaging some of the newer class. The photo is of the Bretagne, one of the older ones, which blew up on the third British salvo.
Labels: French fleet, WWII history; European theater
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 5:53 AM 
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Glad to be of help. There's even film of it but I'm lately incompetent regarding posting videos. Sorry.
BTW, the French are still angry about this, but then they were allies of the Germans at the time. (Revisionist histories notwithstanding.)
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