On this
day in 1942, French Admiral Jean de Laborde sinks the French fleet anchored in
Toulon harbor, off the southern coast of France, in order to keep it out of
German hands.
In June
1940, after the German invasion of France and the establishment of an
unoccupied zone in the southeast, led by Gen. Philippe Petain, Adm. Jean Darlan
was committed to keeping the French fleet out of German control. At the same
time, as a minister in the government that had signed an armistice with the
Germans, one that promised a relative "autonomy" to Vichy France,
Darlan was prohibited from sailing that fleet to British or neutral waters. But
a German-commandeered fleet in southern France, so close to British-controlled
regions in North Africa, could prove disastrous to the Brits, who decided to
take matters into their own hands by launching Operation Catapult: the attempt
by a British naval force to persuade the French naval commander at Oran to either
break the armistice and sail the French fleet out of the Germans' grasp—or to
scuttle it. And if the French wouldn't, the Brits would.
And the
British tried. In a five-minute missile bombardment, they managed to sink one
French cruiser and two old battleships. They also killed 1,250 French sailors.
This would be the genesis of much bad blood between France and England
throughout the war. General Petain broke off diplomatic relations with Great
Britain.
But two years later, with the
Germans now in Vichy and the armistice already violated, Admiral Laborde
finished the job the British had started. As the Germans launched Operation
Lila, the attempt to commandeer the French fleet, Laborde ordered the sinking
of 2 battle cruisers, 4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 1 aircraft transport,
30 destroyers, and 16 submarines. Three French subs managed to escape the
Germans and make it to Algiers, Allied territory. Only one sub fell into German
hands. The marine equivalent of a scorched-earth policy had succeeded.
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-scuttle-their-fleet [27.11.2014]
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