Attack on Mers-el-Kébir

Attack on Mers El Kébir
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean during the Second World War
The battleship Strasbourg under fire
Date 3 July 1940 Location Off Mers El Kébir, French Algeria, North Africa 35°43′10″N 0°41′20″W Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	France
Commanders and leaders
Winston Churchill James Somerville Dudley Pound	Philippe Pétain Marcel-Bruno Gensoul François Darlan
Strength
1 aircraft carrier 2 battleships 1 battlecruiser 2 light cruisers 11 destroyers	4 battleships 5 destroyers 1 seaplane tender
Casualties and losses
2 killed 6 aircraft destroyed	1,297 killed 350 wounded 1 battleship sunk 2 battleships damaged 2 destroyers damaged 1 seaplane tender damaged 1 destroyer grounded 1 tugboat destroyed

The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult, a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five other ships for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.

The attack by air and sea was conducted by the Royal Navy after France had signed armistices with Germany and Italy that came into effect on 25 June. Of particular significance to the British were the five battleships of the Bretagne and Richelieu classes and the two fast battleships of the Dunkerque class, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that the ships would fall into Axis hands. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.

The French thought they were acting honourably in terms of their armistice with Germany and were convinced they would never turn over their fleet. The British attack was almost universally condemned in France, where grievances festered for years over what they considered a betrayal by their former ally. Marshal Philippe Pétain, who had become the prime minister of France on 16 June, severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on 8 July. The next day, six days after the attack, deputies of the National Assembly met at Vichy and voted to revise the constitution, bringing the French Third Republic to an end. The following day, Marshal Pétain was installed with full powers as leader of the new French State. In retaliation of the attack at Mers-el-Kébir, French aircraft raided Gibraltar on 18 July.

On 27 November 1942, after Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa began, the French navy foiled Case Anton, a German and Italian operation to capture the rest of the French fleet by the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. The attack at Mers-el Kébir remains controversial but has also been argued to have demonstrated to the world that Britain intended to fight on.

Background

French–German armistice

Main article: Armistice of 22 June 1940

After the Fall of France in 1940 and the armistice between France and Nazi Germany, the British War Cabinet was apprehensive about control over the French navy. The French and German navies combined could alter the balance of power at sea, threatening British imports over the Atlantic and communications with the rest of the British Empire. In Article 8, Paragraph 2 of the Armistice terms, the German government "solemnly and firmly declared that it had no intention of making demands regarding the French fleet during the peace negotiations" and there were similar terms in the armistice with Italy but they were considered by the British to be no guarantee of the neutralisation of the French fleet. On 24 June, Darlan assured Winston Churchill against such a possibility. Churchill ordered that a demand be made that the French Navy (Marine nationale) should either join with the Royal Navy or be neutralised in a manner guaranteed to prevent the ships falling into Axis hands.

At Italian suggestion, the armistice terms were amended to permit the French fleet temporarily to stay in North African ports, where they might be seized by Italian troops from Libya. The British made a contingency plan, Operation Catapult, to eliminate the French fleet in mid-June, when it was clear that Philippe Pétain was forming a government with a view to ending the war and it seemed likely that the French fleet might be seized by the Germans. In a speech to Parliament, Churchill repeated that the Armistice of 22 June 1940 was a betrayal of the Allied agreement not to make a separate peace. Churchill said, "What is the value of that? Ask half a dozen countries; what is the value of such a solemn assurance?... Finally, the armistice could be voided at any time on any pretext of non-observance...".

The French fleet had seen little fighting during the Battle of France and was mostly intact. By tonnage, about 40 per cent was in Toulon, near Marseilles, 40 per cent in French North Africa and 20 per cent in Britain, Alexandria and the French West Indies. Although Churchill feared the fleet would be used by the Axis, Hitler and Mussolini did not intend to employ a combined Franco–Italian–German force. The Kriegsmarine and Benito Mussolini made overtures but Adolf Hitler feared that an attempted take-over would provoke the French fleet into defecting to the British. Churchill and Hitler viewed the fleet as a potential threat; the French leaders used the fleet (and the possibility of its rejoining the Allies) as a bargaining counter against the Germans to keep them out of unoccupied France (zone libre) and French North Africa. The armistice was contingent on the French right to man their vessels and the French Navy Minister, Admiral François Darlan, had ordered the Atlantic fleet to Toulon to demobilise, with orders to scuttle the ships if the Germans tried to take them.

British–French negotiations

The British tried to persuade the French authorities in North Africa to continue the war or to hand over the fleet to British control. A British admiral visited Oran on 24 June, and Duff Cooper, Minister of Information, visited Casablanca on 27 June. The French Atlantic ports were in German hands and the British needed to keep the German surface fleet out of the Mediterranean, confine the Italian fleet to the Mediterranean and to blockade ports still under French control. The Admiralty was against an attack on the French fleet in case the ships were not sufficiently damaged, France declared war and the French colonies would be less likely to defect. The Royal Navy lacked the ships permanently to blockade the French naval bases in North Africa and keep the Atlantic approaches open, which made the risk of the Germans or the Italians seizing the French capital ships too great. Because the fleet in Toulon was well guarded by shore artillery, the Royal Navy decided to attack the base in North Africa.

Ultimatum

French ships based in Africa, June 1940

The most powerful group of French warships was at Mers-el-Kébir in French Algeria, comprising the old battleships Provence and Bretagne, the newer Force de Raid battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg, the seaplane tender Commandant Teste, six destroyers and a gunboat, under the command of Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul. Admiral James Somerville, commander of Force H, based in Gibraltar, was ordered to deliver an ultimatum to the French whose terms were contrary to the German-French armistice. Somerville passed the duty of presenting the ultimatum to a French speaker, Captain Cedric Holland, commander of the carrier HMS Ark Royal. Gensoul was affronted that negotiations were not being conducted by a senior officer and sent his lieutenant, Bernard Dufay, which led to much delay and confusion. As negotiations dragged on, it became clear that neither side was likely to give way. Darlan was at home on 3 July and could not be contacted; Gensoul told the French government that the alternatives were internment or battle but omitted the option of sailing to the French West Indies. Removing the fleet to United States waters had formed part of the orders given by Darlan to Gensoul in the event that a foreign power should attempt to seize his ships.

Operation Catapult

Plymouth and Alexandria

Along with French vessels in metropolitan ports, some had sailed to ports in Britain or to Alexandria in Egypt. Operation Catapult was an attempt to take these ships under British control or destroy them and the French ships in Plymouth and Portsmouth were boarded without warning on the night of 3 July 1940. The submarine Surcouf, the largest in the world, had been berthed in Plymouth since June 1940. The crew resisted a boarding party and three Royal Navy personnel, including two officers, were killed along with a French sailor. Other ships captured included the old battleships Paris and Courbet, the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard, eight torpedo boats, five submarines and a number of lesser ships. The French squadron in Alexandria (Admiral René-Émile Godfroy) including the battleship Lorraine, heavy cruiser Suffren and three modern light cruisers, was neutralised by local agreement.

Attack on Mers-el-Kébir

Blackburn Skuas of No 800 Squadron Fleet Air Arm prepare to take off from HMS Ark Royal

The British force comprised the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the battleships HMS Valiant and Resolution, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and an escort of cruisers and destroyers. The British had the advantage of being able to manoeuvre, while the French fleet was anchored in a narrow harbour and its crews did not expect an attack. The main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg was grouped on their bows and could not immediately be brought to bear. The British capital ships had 15 in (381 mm) guns and fired a heavier broadside than the French battleships. On 3 July, before negotiations were formally terminated, British Fairey Swordfish planes escorted by Blackburn Skuas from Ark Royal dropped magnetic mines in the harbour exit. The force was intercepted by French Curtiss H-75 fighters and a Skua was shot down into the sea with the loss of its two crew, the only British fatalities in the action. French warships were ordered from Algiers and Toulon as reinforcements but did not reach Mers-El-Kebir in time.

Diagram of the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir

At 5:54 p.m., Churchill ordered the British ships to open fire and the British commenced from 17,500 yd (10 mi; 16 km). The third British salvo scored hits and a magazine aboard Bretagne exploded, the ship sinking with 977 of her crew at 6:09 p.m. After thirty salvoes, the French ships stopped firing; the British force altered course to avoid return fire from the French coastal forts but Provence, Dunkerque, the destroyer Mogador and two other destroyers were damaged and run aground by their crews. Strasbourg, three destroyers and one gunboat managed to avoid the magnetic mines and escape to the open sea under attack from a flight of bomb-armed Swordfish from Ark Royal. The French ships responded with anti-aircraft fire and shot down two Swordfish, the crews being rescued by the destroyer HMS Wrestler. As the bombing had little effect, at 6:43 p.m. Somerville ordered his forces to pursue and the light cruisers HMS Arethusa and Enterprise engaged a French gunboat. At 8:20 p.m. Somerville called off the pursuit, feeling that his ships were ill-deployed for a night engagement. After another ineffective Swordfish attack at 8:55 p.m., Strasbourg reached Toulon on 4 July.

Also on 4 July, off the Algerian coast the British submarine HMS Pandora sank the French aviso (gunboat) Rigault de Genouilly, sailing from Oran, with the loss of twelve of her crew.

Actions of 8 July

Battleship Bretagne burning fiercely and still under bombardment

The British believed that the damage inflicted on Dunkerque and Provence was not serious, and Swordfish aircraft from Ark Royal raided Mers-el-Kébir again on the morning of 8 July. A torpedo hit the patrol boat Terre-Neuve, moored alongside Dunkerque and full of depth charges. Terre-Neuve quickly sank and the depth charges went off, causing serious damage to Dunkerque. The last part of Operation Catapult was another attack on 8 July, by aircraft from the carrier HMS Hermes against the battleship Richelieu at Dakar; the battleship was seriously damaged. The French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) made reprisal raids on Gibraltar, including a half-hearted night attack on 5 July, when many bombs landed in the sea, raids on 24 September by forty aircraft and the next day by more than a hundred bombers.

Aftermath

Analysis

The French destroyer Mogador running aground, after having been hit by a 15-inch shell.

Churchill wrote "This was the most hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned". Relations between Britain and France were severely strained for some time and the Germans enjoyed a propaganda coup. Somerville said that it was "...the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us...we all feel thoroughly ashamed...". The attack revived Anglophobia in France but demonstrated British resolve to continue the war and rallied the British Conservative Party around Churchill (Neville Chamberlain, Churchill's predecessor as prime minister, was still party leader). The British action showed the world that defeat in France had not reduced the determination of the government to fight on and ambassadors in Mediterranean countries reported favourable reactions.

The French ships in Alexandria under the command of Admiral René-Emile Godfroy, including the old battleship Lorraine and four cruisers, were blockaded by the British on 3 July and offered the same terms as at Mers-el-Kébir. After delicate negotiations, conducted on the part of the British by Admiral Andrew Cunningham, Godfroy agreed on 7 July to disarm his fleet and stay in port until the end of the war. Some sailors joined the Free French while others were repatriated to France; Surcouf and the ships at Alexandria went on to be used by the Free French after May 1943. The British attacks on French vessels in port increased tension between Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, who was recognised by the British as the leader of the Free French Forces on 28 June 1940.

According to his principal private secretary Eric Seal, "[Churchill] was convinced that the Americans were impressed by ruthlessness in dealing with a ruthless foe; and in his mind the American reaction to our attack on the French fleet in Oran was of the first importance". On 4 July, Roosevelt told the French ambassador that he would have done the same. De Gaulle's biographer Jean Lacouture blamed the tragedy mainly on miscommunication; had Darlan been in contact on the day or had Somerville possessed a more diplomatic character, a deal might have been done. Lacouture accepted that there was a danger that the French ships might have been captured by German or more likely Italian troops, as proven by the ease with which the British seized French ships in British ports or the German seizure of French ships in Bizerte in Tunisia in November 1942.

Casualties

Memorial on the coast path at Toulon to the 1,297 French seamen killed at Mers El Kebir

Numbers killed at Mers-el-Kébir

	Officers	Petty officers	Sailors, marines	Total
Bretagne	36	151	825	1012
Dunkerque	9	32	169	210
Provence	1	2	—	3
Strasbourg	—	2	3	5
Mogador	—	3	35	38
Rigault de Genouilly	—	3	9	12
Terre Neuve	1	1	6	8
Armen	—	3	3	6
Esterel	1	5	—	6
Total	48	202	1,050	1,300
Fleet Air Arm	—	—	—	2

Subsequent events

British–Vichy hostilities

Following the 3 July operation, Darlan ordered the French fleet to attack Royal Navy ships wherever possible; Pétain and his foreign minister Paul Baudouin over-ruled the order the next day. Military retaliation was conducted through ineffective air raids on Gibraltar but Baudouin noted that "the attack on our fleet is one thing, war is another". As sceptics had warned, there were also complications with the French empire; when French colonial forces defeated de Gaulle's Free French Forces at the Battle of Dakar in September 1940, Germany responded by permitting Vichy France to maintain its remaining ships armed, rather than demobilised.

Gibraltarian civilians

Main articles: Military history of Gibraltar during World War II and Evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II

In early June 1940, about 13,500 civilians had been evacuated from Gibraltar to Casablanca in French Morocco. Following the capitulation of the French to the Germans and the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, the Vichy government found their presence an embarrassment. Later in June, 15 British cargo vessels arrived in Casablanca under Commodore Crichton, repatriating 15,000 French servicemen who had been rescued from Dunkirk. Once the French troops had disembarked, the ships were interned until the Commodore agreed to take away the evacuees, who, reflecting tensions generated after the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, were escorted to the ships at bayonet point, minus many of their possessions.

Case Anton

Main article: Case Anton

On 19 November 1942, the Germans tried to capture the French fleet based at Toulon, against the armistice terms, as part of Case Anton, the military occupation of Vichy France by Germany. All ships of any military value were scuttled by the French before the arrival of German troops, notably Dunkerque, Strasbourg and seven (four heavy and three light) modern cruisers. For many in the French Navy this was a final proof that there had never been a question of their ships ending up in German hands and that the British action at Mers-el-Kébir had been unnecessary. Darlan was true to his promise in 1940, that French ships would not be allowed to fall into German hands. Godfroy, still in command of the French ships neutralised at Alexandria, remained aloof for a while longer but on 17 May 1943 joined the Allies.

Orders of battle

Royal Navy

• HMS Hood – battlecruiser – Flagship
• HMS Resolution – battleship
• HMS Valiant – battleship
• HMS Ark Royal – aircraft carrier
• HMS Arethusa – light cruiser
• HMS Enterprise – light cruiser
• HMS Faulknor – destroyer
• HMS Foxhound – destroyer
• HMS Fearless – destroyer
• HMS Forester – destroyer
• HMS Foresight – destroyer
• HMS Escort – destroyer
• HMS Keppel – destroyer
• HMS Active – destroyer
• HMS Wrestler – destroyer
• HMS Vidette – destroyer
• HMS Vortigern – destroyer

French Navy (Marine Nationale)

• Dunkerque – battleship – Flagship
• Strasbourg – battleship
• Bretagne – battleship
• Provence – battleship
• Commandant Teste – seaplane tender
• Mogador – destroyer
• Volta – destroyer
• Le Terrible – destroyer
• Kersaint – destroyer
• Lynx – destroyer
• Tigre – destroyer

See also

• Attack on Pearl Harbor
• Battle of Taranto
• Naval Battle of Casablanca

References

Books

• Auphan, Gabriel; Mordal, Jacques (1976). The French Navy in World War II. London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-8371-8660-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Bell, P. M. H. Bell (1997). France and Britain, 1940–1994: The Long Separation. France and Britain. London: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-28920-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Bond, Peter (2003). 300 Years of British Gibraltar: 1704–2004. Gibraltar: Peter-Tan Ltd for Government of Gibraltar. OCLC 1005205264.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Brown, D. (2004). The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939 – July 1940. Cass: Naval Policy and History No. 20. London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0-7146-5461-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Butler, J. R. M. (1971) [1957]. Grand Strategy: September 1939 – June 1941. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. II (2nd ed.). HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-630095-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Greene, J.; Massignani, A. (2002) [1998]. The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1940–1943 (pbk. ed.). Rochester: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-190-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Lacouture, Jean (1991) [1984]. De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (English trans. ed.). London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02699-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• O'Hara, Vincent P. (2009). Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940–1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Playfair, Major-General I. S. O.; et al. (1959) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941). History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (3rd impr. ed.). HMSO. OCLC 494123451. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
• Roskill, S. W. (1957) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War at Sea 1939–1945: The Defensive. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th impr. ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 881709135. Retrieved 24 November 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Roskill, S. W. (1962) [1956]. The Period of Balance. History of the Second World War: The War at Sea 1939–1945. Vol. II (3rd impression ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 174453986. Retrieved 24 November 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Smith, C. (2010) [2009]. England's Last War Against France: Fighting Vichy 1940–1942 (Phoenix ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-7538-2705-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Journals

• Thomas, Martin (1997). "After Mers-el-Kébir: The Armed Neutrality of the Vichy French Navy, 1940–43". English Historical Review. 112 (447). ISSN 0013-8266.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Further reading

• Collier, Paul (2003). The Second World War: The Mediterranean 1940–1945. Vol. IV. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84176-539-6.
• Ehrengardt, Christian-Jacques Ehrengardt; Shores, Christopher J. (1985). L'aviation de Vichy au combat: les campagnes oubliées 3 juillet 1940 – 27 novembre 1942 [The Vichy Air Force in Combat: The Forgotten Campaigns]. Grandes batailles de France. Vol. I. Paris: C. Lavauzelle. ISBN 978-2-7025-0092-7.
• Jenkins, E. H. (1979). A History of the French Navy: From its Beginnings to the Present Day. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 978-0-356-04196-4.
• Lasterle, Philippe (2003). "Could Admiral Gensoul Have Averted the Tragedy of Mers el-Kebir?". Journal of Military History. 67 (3): 835–844. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0234. ISSN 0899-3718.
• Paxton, R. O. (1972). Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-47360-4.

External links

• A plan of the Mers-el-Kébir anchorage, hmshood.org.uk
• Mers-El-Kebir (1979) a French made-for-TV movie
• Churchill's Sinking of the French Fleet (3 July 1940), digitalsurvivors.com
• Churchill's Deadly Decision, episode of Secrets of the Dead describing the attack and the events leading up to it
• Kappes, Irwin J. (2003) Mers-el-Kebir: A Battle between Friends, Military History Online