Sadly as the French could not be trusted at this point in the war (they had just made a separate armistice with the Germans and betrayed the British)and there was good reason to conclude that the pro-German Vichy regime would use the ships against the British. They were told what the would happen if they did not surrender and chose to ignore the warning. This was a clear indication that they would use the ships against the British. So, with a heavy heart, they were attacked. The losses were the fault of the French.



--Previous Message--
: The battleships RESOLUTION and VAILANT were
: part of British attack at Mers El Kébir
: (Oran harbor) on July,3,1940 with the
: battlecruiser HOOD like main ships. With the
: aicrafts carrier ARK ROYAL and a force of
: destroyers they attacked again 3 days later
: on July,6,40.
: Named operation Catapult this Churchill
: action was absolutely not necessary making
: 1300 French sailors dead for nothing as
: except the old obsolete battleship BRETAGNE
: with 900 deads aboard. All ships were
: finally sent back to Toulon to be indemn or
: repaired (And closer under possible German
: hands exactly inverse to the Churchill goal
: with severe anti-Brit filling in public
: opinion and delaying heavily the wished
: French ships back in combat in the war like
: many French and Alies asked).
: Vichy gov or not the Churchill ultimatum in
: Oran to surrender a French fleet not in war
: with UK (Under armistice with Germans by
: the way unable to take over French ships at
: not any time in Africa and lacking crews to
: handle them anyway) French ships were object
: of maintain under French flag to defend
: colonies and a negoce for French and German
: to demobilize and no more suffering to
: France occupation by Germans in the
: armistice attemps .
: Churchill was informed of all these
: conditions by Vichy gov and couldn't ignore
: them .
: Catapult was a total British fiasco, the
: French ships scuttling confirmed the crews
: would never leave their ships to anyone and
: if Churchill wouldn've done Mers El Kébir
: stupid attack , may be a chance existed to
: dont' scuttle in 42 'Like German violated
: armistice themselves takink pretext of Alies
: Africa landing "To defend France
: southern ..." Thus, French amirals in
: Toulon instead to be furiously anti-Brit
: would've been free to desobei at Vichy and
: to take the sea to join Alies like rest of
: the fleet over seas done it in 43 ...
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: The model on the left is Provence, but as
: she
: was practically identical to Bretagne, these
: are perfectly good answers.
:
: In Oscar Parkes' "British
: Battleships", which gives a short
: history for each ship, there is only one
: sentence in the bio for Hood saying she was
: in action against French ships at Oran. No
: mention in the bios for Valiant and
: Resolution that they were also there.
: Perhaps retrospective embarrassment at the
: British action?
:
: (Accidentally put this message in response
: to the Dreadnought post - this is where it
: belongs.)
:
: --Previous Message--
: Identify these ships (and models) and the
: historical connection between them:
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