Britain might not have surrendered as easily, but could have collapsed as quickly had Operation Sealion been successfully executed. Churchill needed to win the Battle of Britain to convince the Americans. He was counting battleships, as usual, and those four French battleships wouldn't have had any more fuel to operate than the six battleships next door in Italy. I agree with Sommerville, who thought the order was disgusting, and more importantly, a mistake.
Another demonstration of the folly of having a
septugenarian running your country.
--Previous Message--
: sadly it was also necessary in order to
: persuade the Americans that Britain was not
: going to surrender as easily as France!
:
: --Previous Message--
: 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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