One of the little known battles of WWII (I love the little known things) Britain attacked and destroyed the French fleet at Mers El Kebir.

The background is what prompted that skirmish. Which really wasnt a battle, but a massacre. France fired a few warning shots. Britain fired a few thousand shots.

In July 1940, France surrendered to Germany, and were forced by Hitler to sign an Armistice agreement. Britain feared that Germany would require as part of the armistice that they took possession of the entire French fleet, which was very large, and was only dwarfed by Britain and the US in the Atlantic. Winston Churchill believed that combined with the Itailian and Germany Navy, it would be enough to overwhelm the British Navy, which was already spread thin protecting its empire. (Hitler did not request possession of the Navy, believing that Britain would come to terms in a matter of days, and it wouldn't be necessary.) To counter, Churchill asked FDR for the US to loan Britain 50 battleships for use in the War effort. FDR Refused. Churchill tried pleading and threatening, which actually convinced FDR that the British were about to surrender, and led to the US asking if the British would sail their fleet to Canada before they surrendered to Germany.

Churchill gets desperate. French had already ordered much of its Navy to return to port. So he orders the British Navy to actually occupy and take command of the French fleet that was in the UK and Abroad by any means necessary. Much of this goes off without a hitch. A Fleet arrives at Mers-El Kebir with an ultimatum for the French: Sail to the UK, Sail to the United States, or Scuttle their fleet. The French admiral in charge refuses, and shows an order to a UK Admiral from Paris to scuttle their ships if the Germans come to take command, believing that would be enough. It wasnt. Britain destroyed 4 French Ships in a matter of minutes, Killing over a thousand French Soldiers.

The odd thing about this battle is, that while the French consider it an act of war, and its still hotly debated today about whether it was necessary. (Germans never requested the Navy until 1942, and when they did try to take control, the French scuttled their fleet as ordered.) The United States saw it as proof that Britain was in the war for the long haul. Weeks later, FDR gave Churchill the 50 battleships he wanted, and whe cooperation between the two leaders when the US entered the War the next year set the stage for the relationship both countries have today.

I sometimes wonder whether that battle had any impact on the war, or whether or not it proved to the British Public and the US that they were not going to give up. Because for a good part of 1940, people were convinced a German invasion and British Surrender was "weeks away"

Germany never conquered more than the Chanel Islands (Only British Controlled Country under German Control) and the US was able to use Britain as a way to invade Normandy in 1944.




Fascinating. I never heard or read any of this.