French Navy after the Second World War. L

The French National Navy is an important part of the French Army. If we look back into history, for many years the country's main rival was Great Britain. Due to the fact that England has long been the undisputed leader in the production of ships, the French were forced to keep up and also develop their fleet. However, during World War II, Germany captured France and was going to use its fleet. In this regard, in 1942, the teams independently sank 77 warships so that they would not be captured by the Nazis.

A modern fleet performs defensive functions against possible adversaries and protects the political and military interests of its country around the world.

Structure and deployment of the French National Navy

The central command of the Navy is located in Paris, and it controls all naval zones located both in France and abroad:

1. Atlantic Ocean (CECLANT) – main headquarters Brest;
2. Mediterranean (CECMED) – headquarters Toulon;
3. North Sea and English Channel (COMAR MANCHE) – Cherbourg headquarters;
4. Antilles (COMAR Fort de France) – Northeast of South America;
5. Indian Ocean (ALINDIEN) – French island of Reunion near Madagascar;
6. Pacific Ocean (ALPACI) - the islands of New Caledonia and French Polynesia belong to France;
7. UAE – the basing of the French fleet has been agreed upon.

Aircraft carriers

The nuclear attack aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French fleet. It is the second largest aircraft carrier after the Russian Admiral Kuznetsov (not counting the undisputed leader - the United States). Accommodates up to 40 aircraft, including the Super Etendard attack aircraft, Rafale M fighters and SA-365 helicopters.

Mistral class helicopter carriers are represented by 3 ships that can accommodate 16 heavy helicopters or 35 light ones. Also on board are Simbad homing missiles, a Narwhal cannon, and more.

Submarines

French submarines are represented by 10 ships of the following types:

• 4 Triumphant strategic nuclear submarines carrying M45 (M51.1) ballistic missiles, Exocet SM39 cruise missiles, ECAN L5 Mod.3 torpedoes;
• 6 multipurpose submarines "Ruby", the smallest nuclear submarines in the world. Armament includes Exocet anti-ship cruise missiles, 550 mm caliber and L5/F17 torpedo tubes.

Destroyers

Destroyers of the Georges Legy class F70 - of the 7 ships built at the moment, 4 remain. On board are 2 Westland Lynx helicopters, Exocet anti-ship cruise missiles and 550-mm torpedo tubes.

Battleships

Since the end of World War II, not a single new battleship has been produced. This is due to the fact that its production is too expensive. At the same time, the development of missile weapons and jet aircraft make it too vulnerable.

Frigates

Frigates occupy the largest share of the entire navy. Among them are the following types:

• Anti-aircraft F70 AA - 2 ships, armament includes 1 Westland Lynx or AS565 helicopter, KD 59E and L5 mod 4 torpedoes. The ships are planned to be decommissioned in 2018.
• Anti-aircraft "Horizon" - 2 ships, armament includes 1 Merlin EH101 HAS helicopter, MM40 Exocet anti-ship missiles, Teseo Mk 3 anti-ship missiles and other guns. Due to their size, these ships are also often classified as destroyers.
• FREMM – 3 of the planned 8 frigates are already in service, weapons include Exocet missiles, Silver A43 (A70), MU90 torpedoes and one NH90 helicopter.
• Light frigates of the Lafayette class (5 ships) with Exocet guided missile weapons and an NH90 or Panther helicopter.

Boats

Patrol and landing boats conduct their service along the entire coast of France - from the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and North Seas. The total number of ships is more than 20 units. Most of them have Exocet missiles on board, as well as L3 or L5 torpedoes/

Minesweepers

Mine minesweepers of the Éridan, Vulcain and Antarès types are in service with France in the amount of 18 units. There are machine guns of three different calibers on board. If necessary, the ships provide escort missions.

Corvettes

A light patrol ship - a corvette, represented by the Floral type in the amount of 6 vessels. The armament includes the Mistral air defense missile launcher, the Exoset anti-ship missile launcher, and 1 AS565MA helicopter.

Sebastiano Castiglione is a successful businessman. He has everything in his life - money, power, women. The only thing he lacks is the position of CEO of the family company. His grandfather is strictly convinced that Sebastiano is not yet ready to take up this position. After all, he still doesn’t have a family. Sebastiano decides on a desperate adventure and invites Poppy, whom he met a few hours ago, to play the role of his bride in exchange for the fulfillment of her three cherished desires...

Michelle Conder
Master class from playboy

Chapter 1

Sebastiano glanced at the expensive Rolex on his wrist as he ran up the stairs to the SGC Tower, his company's London office. From the very morning he had a premonition that today would be a special day.

He had been waiting for this day for two years. And finally, his stubborn grandfather is ready to give up and transfer the reins of the family business into his hands.

The guard gave him a curt nod at the entrance, not the least bit surprised to see his boss on a Sunday morning.

Did you watch the game yesterday, boss? - Bert asked, grinning widely.

“Don’t gloat,” Sebastiano retorted.

Sorry, sir,” the guard replied, smiling even wider.

The friendly teasing amused Sebastiano. Too often, people around him hid behind a mask of impatient deference, wanting to profit at his expense. And all because he was born into wealth and luxury.

There was a newspaper on Bert's table. Sebastiano glanced at his photograph. The paparazzi photographed him last night as he left a chic and unbearably boring party. Apparently his ex-lover saw the same photo on the Internet. Today she arrived early in the morning at his house on Park Lane to find out why he had not invited her.

The answer “I didn’t think about it” was a failure. The relationship, one might say, went downhill and ended when she gave him an ultimatum: either they move to the next level or they break up. Sebastiano pursued her with a ruthless determination that landed him on the Forbes 500 list at the age of thirty-one, and he only slept with her once.

Which doesn't look much like him. He was a young, healthy man with very obvious needs. But lately his sex life has subsided slightly. Apparently because of the damn situation with my grandfather. Not to mention, he worked twenty hours a day to complete the deal that would put him first in the hotel construction market.

Of course, he apologized to the world famous ballerina. She was not at all impressed. She blew him an elegant kiss, purred that he had lost her forever, and gracefully walked out of his life.

Better luck next time, boss? - Bert said with feigned remorse.

Sebastiano laughed. He knew that Bert was referring to yesterday's football match, in which his favorite team crushed Sebastiano's favorite team to smithereens.

Yours won again,” Sebastiano said, heading towards the elevators. - I'll raise your salary.

Sebastiano entered the elevator and pressed the button for the desired floor. He hoped that his assistant, Paula, had time to piece together the reports he wanted to present to his grandfather that morning.

It's not that the grandfather didn't have faith in his grandson's business acumen. No, he wanted Sebastiano to marry a beautiful girl who would one day become the mother of a dozen little Sebastian children. The old man wanted to have something besides work, some balance between work and life. For my grandfather, this is, of course, his incomparable Nonna.

How can I entrust you with another responsible position if you don’t know how to rest at all? - his grandfather said just a month ago. - Your grandmother and I want you to be happy, Bastian. You know how worried we are about you.

You know, I can take care of myself! - Sebastiano growled. - And you don't die. At least for now.

But his grandparents were Italians of the old school. They were convinced: if a beautiful woman does not prepare food for him and does not warm his bed, then he is lonely and his life has no meaning.

For Sebastiano, the meaning of life was work. Every morning he woke up with the desire to open new opportunities for his business, to challenge the business world.

There was no place for love or marriage in his life. And he wasn't going to change anything. And if there were lonely nights in his life when he simply enjoyed the view from the window of the sparkling lights of the city in which he found himself... well, so be it.

He was now in the prime of his life and, having just bought Britain's largest steel and concrete supply company, there was no better time to take on the role of head of Castiglione Europe. The two businesses meshed so well that Sebastiano had already asked his marketing and sales team to develop a plan to move into the hotel refurbishment industry throughout Eastern Europe.

He just needs to convince his hard-working grandfather to resign and spend his final years with his adored wife at the family villa in Amalfi, Italy, on the Sorrento Peninsula on the Gulf of Salerno. Then, and only then, will Sebastiano be able to repair the damage he caused to his family fifteen years ago.

Sebastiano got out of the elevator on the executive floor, turned on the lights on automatic and heard a message arrive on his phone. Turning on the coffee machine on the way to his office, he opened the message and tensed.

He read it twice. Apparently Paula was currently in the emergency room. Her husband injured his ankle. The report he requested was still on her computer.

He replied that he hoped everything would be okay with her husband, took her laptop from the table and moved it to his office. Sebastiano ran his eyes over all the icons and folders on the laptop screen, but did not see a single folder that could contain the report he needed.

Amazing. Simply wonderful.

Poppy checked the Mickey Mouse watch on her wrist and groaned. She needs to get out of here. Simon, her brother, was waiting for her and he always got nervous when she was late. Mary Ann, their wonderful neighbor who was like a mother to both of them, was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For a woman so beautiful not only externally, but also internally, this was a cruel blow.

Trying not to think about the terrible news, Poppy pulled her hair tighter into a ponytail and continued to review the legal report she wanted to present to management tomorrow morning. She only had one week left of her internship at SGC International, and she wanted to make sure she had it all covered. Who knows, once she gets her law degree, maybe she'll be offered a position here if she makes a favorable impression on the powers that be - the higher authority, her boss's boss, Sebastiano Castiglione. They didn't know each other personally, but she saw him in the office.

Poppy found herself daydreaming about a mysterious, attractive man, and reminded herself that this man had a reputation for being a womanizer. She put the files she was working on back into the closet and turned off the computer. Poppy would love to work from home today, but the laptop she used for school was older than her grandmother and did not run the program she needed to work.

Poppy stretched and was about to leave when she noticed the law book she had borrowed from Paula a week ago. Tomorrow would be a busy day, so it made sense to return the book on the way home.

She actually didn't have access to the big boss's sacred land, but since her boss lent her his pass, she has access today. However, she hesitated for a moment. She didn't want to get Mr. Adams into trouble; on the other hand, she did not want to delay the borrowed book, and then apologize for the delay for a long time and tediously.

Having made up her mind, she grabbed the book and headed towards the elevator. From the age of twelve, Poppy moved around orphanages and foster families, taking care of her younger brother, who was deaf from birth; she knew very well that the only way out of a miserable existence was self-improvement. Fate gave them a second chance when Mary Anne found her and her brother huddled close to a heater at Paddington station eight years ago.

The girl activated her access card, pressed the executive floor button on the elevator, and waited patiently for the elevator to stop at the desired floor. Walking across the soft carpet of Mr. Castiglione's reception room, Poppy paused to admire the stunning view of London that she had so rarely seen. Despite the pale gray skies, the city looked beautiful with a mix of new and old architecture. It seemed as if no trouble could reach you while you were here. But Poppy knew that if you went down, all the evil in the world could consume you if you let it.

French Navy of World War II

The lessons of the First World War, which France approached with an unbalanced and outdated fleet, were generally useful.

Despite the interwar economic turmoil and the pacifism that gripped the country, vigorous measures were taken to create a powerful modern fleet.

Naturally, modern - in the sense as it was understood in the 1930s. In France (as in other countries), the threat from aviation and submarines was underestimated, although the French were leaders in the development of radar technology for a long time. Their ships were distinguished by a number of original technical solutions and had a pronounced “national flavor”. The terms of the Washington Agreement of 1922 had a huge impact on the development of the French fleet. By establishing parity between the French and Italian fleets, politicians predetermined the transformation of Italy into the main rival, and the Mediterranean Sea into the main theater of the future war. For these waters, cruising range and (to a certain extent) seaworthiness faded into the background. In the strategic “separation of roles” that emerged by the end of the 1930s in the Anglo-French tandem, the French fleet was “responsible” for the Mediterranean Sea.

But the “German threat” was not ignored either. Battleships of the "Dunkerque" type were specially designed as a counterweight to the German diesel "pocket battleships".

In September 1939, the deployment of the main forces of the French fleet looked like this:

in Brest there were the most combat-ready ships that made up the "Force de Raide" - 2 LCs of the "Dunkerque" type, 3 light cruisers of the "La Galissonniere" type and 8 leaders (2 of the "Mogador" type and 6 of the "Le Fantasque" type); this formation was intended to combat surface raiders and blockade runners in the Atlantic;

in the Mediterranean Sea - LC "Bretagne", "Provence" and "Lorraine", 6 heavy and 3 light cruisers, 18 leaders and 6 destroyers;

in the Far East - 1 heavy and 1 light cruiser;

With a hostile Germany and a neutral Italy, the French fleet would control the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay and the western Mediterranean.

The rapid defeat of the ground forces in May - June 1940 put the fleet in an extremely difficult situation. However, the French managed to withdraw almost all of their ships from the enemy. Both former allies and former opponents soon began a real hunt for them. During Operation Catapult, the British took control of the French ships in their ports and tried to neutralize the rest. 2 LCs, 2 leaders, 8 destroyers, 6 submarines, 13 advice notes, 1 minzag, 16 submarine hunters, 7 TKAs and about three hundred auxiliary and merchant ships fell into their hands.

Of the fleets of the countries participating in World War II, the French Navy suffered perhaps the most bizarre fate. And its tragedy is second only to the fate of the destroyed Japanese fleet. The French had to fight literally with everyone: Germans, Italians, British, Americans, Thais, Japanese...

The French fleet survived the June armistice of 1940, and the split into “Gaullists” and “Vichys,” and the need to fight “not against those with whom we should,” and the capture of ships in Bizerte, and Toulon, and helplessness before the Japanese in Indochina.

However, the history of the French fleet in World War II is too complex and confusing for a brief summary, despite the fact that the “biographies” of the ships are not rich in external events and military successes. The career of most units of the main classes ended on November 27, 1942 - one of the greatest tragedies of World War II - the self-sinking of the fleet in Toulon. After this date, a new page began in the history of the once fourth most important fleet in the world.

It is worth remembering that the bulk of the ships scuttled on November 27 were raised by the Italians and Germans. But they were never actually put into operation (although they were included in the Italian fleet) and almost all met their end under Allied bombs.

The ship composition of the French Navy in 1939 - 1945.

The number of ships under construction is indicated in brackets

Garros L.

French Navy in World War II

PREFACE

The victory over fascism in World War II was the result of coalition actions. France took its rightful place among the victorious powers. But her path to the camp of the anti-Hitler coalition was tortuous. The fleet shared all the ups and downs with the country. There is a book about its history by the French military historian L. Garros.

The material presented to the readers is divided into two parts. This issue includes chapters on the actions of the French Navy in 1939–1940: the Norwegian and French campaigns, the actions of the fleet in the war with Italy, and then the battles with the British in Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar. The second part of this book describes the events of 1941–1945: the armed conflict with Siam, actions off the coast of Syria in 1941, the Madagascar operation, events related to the North African landing of the Allies and the history of the naval forces of the Free French.

L. Garros's book is very original in some aspects. After reading it, you will probably notice a number of features.

Firstly, this is the French “specificity” of this work, which is unusual for our readers. L. Garros has a high opinion of Marshal Petain, considers General de Gaulle almost a traitor, the history of the French Navy in World War II is essentially reduced to the history of the Vichy fleet, for which the naval forces of the Free French were the enemy.

Secondly, the absence of a number of known episodes is puzzling. The book does not say a word about the participation of French ships in the search for German raiders and intercepting blockade breakers, the convoy activity of the fleet is poorly reflected, the raid of destroyers on Gibraltar in September 1940 and some other operations are not described, and the outstanding successes of the underwater minelayer "Ruby" are ignored. ... But there are a lot of fictitious victories and savoring, perhaps courageous, but actions that did not have any influence on the course of the war. Sometimes the author almost slips into a frankly adventurous genre, for example, describing the adventures of officer Boilambert, who spent the night unknown where and with whom.

Those who are well acquainted with the historiography of the Second World War will also notice a third feature, namely the presence of extensive borrowings from the works of other French historians. In particular, Garros's first four chapters largely follow Raymond de Belot's The French Navy in the Campaign of 1939–1940.

In connection with all of the above, someone may have a question: was it worth publishing this book at all? If it were about the British, American or German fleet, whose actions, although not exhaustively, are still described in Russian literature, the answer would be negative. With the French Navy, everything is different so far. It still remains a "blank spot". Therefore, any publication that sheds light on this problem, it seems to us, should be of some interest. In addition, let’s think about how many names of French historians are known who write about the actions of the fleets in the Second World War? Raymond de Belot, Gabriel Ophan, Jacques Mordal, Claude Juan... and that's it. Therefore, the discovery of each new name in French naval historiography of this period is an event in itself. Undoubtedly, the above-mentioned French interpretation of events presented by Garros, which differs from what we are accustomed to seeing in Russian historiography and translations by English and German historians, deserves attention. And finally, Garros’s book is interesting because it describes the actions of the fleet, and not the history of any one type of ship, as is mostly done now.

We publish L. Garros' book in full, with the exception of the paragraphs "English Considerations" and "Explanations of Winston Churchill", the content of which, for obvious reasons, is more reminiscent of political libel. The author's text is provided with comments, including those of a critical nature. The original photographic material is supplemented by photographs from the collection "Retrospectives of the War at Sea". It was decided not to Russify the maps, since they are clear enough without translation, and, in addition, with Russification they would lose their French style. In the matter of transcriptions of French names and titles, we tried, if possible, to meet the translator’s desire to bring the Russian spelling of words as close as possible to their French pronunciation, which sometimes ran counter to the recommendations of the reference book “Foreign names and titles in the Russian text”. At the same time, all the norms for transcribing ship names that have developed in the series “Retrospective of the War at Sea” remain in force for this issue. In particular, the names of cities and ships bearing their names are given as they are written on the map ("Paris", "Strasbourg"), some names are given in translation for euphony ("Cyclone", "Australia"). In addition, given the difficulties associated with transcribing French words, we decided to compile a list of all names and their transcriptions. It will be placed in the second part, which, we hope, will be released soon after the first.

FRENCH NAVY IN 1939

When the war began in September 1939, the French fleet consisted of seven battleships, including two old battleships, Paris and Courbet, three old, but modernized in 1935-36. battleships - "Brittany", "Provence" and "Lorraine", two new battleships "Strasbourg" and "Dunkirk".

There were two aircraft carriers: the aircraft carrier Béarn and the air transport Commandant Test.

There were 19 cruisers, of which 7 1st class cruisers - Duquesne, Tourville, Suffren, Colbert, Foch, Duplex and Algerie; 12 2nd class cruisers - "Duguet-Trouin", "La Motte-Pique", "Primogue", "La Tour d'Auvergne" (formerly "Pluto"), "Jeanne d'Arc", "Emile Bertin", " La Galissoniere", "Jean de Vienne", "Gloire", "Marseillaise", "Montcalm", "Georges Leygues".

The torpedo flotillas were also impressive. They numbered: 32 leaders - six ships each of the Jaguar, Gepar, Aigle, Vauquelin, Fantask types and two Mogador types; 26 destroyers - 12 Bourrasque type and 14 Adrua type, 12 Melpomene type destroyers.

The 77 submarines included the cruiser Surcouf, 38 class 1 submarines, 32 class 2 submarines and 6 underwater minelayers.

The total displacement of the 175 ships listed above was 554,422 tons. Apart from five old battleships, all other ships entered service after 1925, i.e. the fleet was relatively young.

There were four battleships under construction: Richelieu, Jean Bart, Clemenceau and Gascony. The first two were supposed to enter service in 1940. Two aircraft carriers were also built - Joffre and Painlevé - but they were not completed.

In construction were 3 2nd class cruisers (De Grasse, Chateau Renault, Guichen), 4 Mogador class leaders, 12 Ardi class destroyers, 14 Fier class destroyers, 5 1st class submarines , 16 class 2 submarines, as well as 4 underwater minelayers. In total, there were 64 ships at various stages of construction with a total displacement of 271,495 tons.

To this list should be added advice, gunboats, minesweepers, sea hunters, torpedo boats, supply vessels. The latter were called up (requisitioned) during mobilization.

Naval aviation is too weak, but growing, and consisted of 45 attack aircraft, 32 bombers, 27 fighters, 39 reconnaissance aircraft, 46 torpedo bombers, 164 spotters, etc. In total, there were 159 ship-based aircraft and 194 coastal aircraft.

Veterans of the French Navy recall that its personnel were united, disciplined, possessed of high moral qualities and completely devoted to the nation.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy was Admiral Darlan. Since 1939 he was the chief of the Main Naval Staff. Before him, Admiral Durand-Viel held this post for seven years. Both of them were highly qualified specialists and sought to renew the fleet after 1919. Darlan had the rank of full admiral (five stars on his sleeve) - the highest in the French fleet. He was a very experienced, active and determined person. However, he did not delve too deeply into questions of strategy, did not know the American fleet well, and underestimated the Russian one. But he changed his views in April 1940, and we will see how later. He enjoyed very high authority in the navy.

In September 1939, the structure of the fleet looked like this. Subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Darlan, were the commanders of the naval forces in the theaters of war, the commanders of the high seas forces and the prefects of the maritime areas. There were five of these districts: Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Toulon, Bizerte. Vice-Admiral Michelier, head of the ports department, earned his authority by directing the commissariat, sanitary service, shipbuilding and naval artillery.

Based on the readers' reaction to it, two things became clear:
- most of the readers still do not know what “allies” in the person of London Stalin had to deal with during the Second World War and therefore are surprised by their shootings of demonstrations and bombings of Greece;
- a minority know all this and, as an example, recall the British attack on the allied French fleet in the summer of 1940.
A treacherous stab in the back.

One of the most famous photographs of the summer of 1940 is of Hitler “dancing”, rejoicing at his incredible success in France. The German Reich Chancellor indeed had plenty of reasons to smile. But the same facts, unlike Hitler, did not add optimism to the leaders of Great Britain. In September 1939, the two superpowers declared war on Germany. Nine and a half months passed and one of them no longer existed. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered.

Under the terms of the surrender, the French had to demobilize their armed forces: the French army no longer existed. But the British were most worried not about the army, but about the French fleet. What if French warships are captured by the Germans?

The British acted decisively. Operation Catapult was prepared by the British in an unprecedentedly short time and carried out just 11 days after the surrender of France. The piquancy of the situation was that this time the British were striking at their ally, and not at their enemy. An ugly scene took place on the decks of French ships stationed in the English ports of Portsmouth, Plymouth and Devonport. The French sailors, naturally, did not expect an attack from their comrades in arms.

“The speech was unexpected and, by necessity, sudden,” 1 Churchill would later write. All the ships - 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 12 submarines and about 200 minesweepers and submarine hunters - were forcibly captured by the British in the early morning of July 3, 1940. The attack was so unexpected that only the crew of the Surcouf submarine managed to provide armed resistance to the British. The French crews of the ships were forcibly put ashore and interned “not without bloody incidents” 2 . Vessels captured in this pirate manner were included in the British naval forces...

But the main tragedy took place not in English ports, but in the French fleet's anchorages in Oran, Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar. On the morning of the same July 3, 1940, a British squadron under the command of Admiral Sommerwell approached Oran. The French admiral Zhansoul, commander of the French squadron, was offered the following ultimatum by the British:

• continue to fight against Germany and Italy as part of the British fleet;
• simply transfer the ships to English ports, with the French crews returning to France and the ships remaining in British hands until the end of the war;
• transfer the ships to the French West Indies or sink them within 6 hours. 4

Admiral Zhansul rejected the British ultimatum. Churchill was reported about this, and at 18.25 (on the eve of the expiration of the ultimatum), the commander of the English squadron received the final order of his prime minister: “The French ships must either accept our conditions, or sink themselves or be sunk by you before dark.” 5 But British Admiral Sommerwell, to maintain surprise, opened fire without waiting for the ultimatum to expire! At 18.00 he radioed that he was fighting 6. Something happened that the French sailors never expected: the English ships actually started shooting! This was not a battle, not a naval battle. It was an execution of the French who were completely unprepared to fight back.

“...The ships in Oran were in no condition to fight. They were anchored without any possibility of maneuver or dispersal... Our ships gave the English ships the opportunity to fire the first salvo, which, as we know, at sea is decisive at such a distance. The French ships were not destroyed in a fair fight.” 7

The battleship "Brittany", stationed in Oran, was blown up by a direct bomb hit in the powder magazines and disappeared into the depths of the sea within a few minutes. The battleship Provence, having received heavy damage, washed ashore; The battleship Dunkirk, with limited room for maneuver, ran aground. The battlecruiser Strasbourg with five destroyers and several submarines, although damaged by British torpedo bombers, still managed to break through the British squadron to its home shore in battle.

The British Admiralty might have been pleased: all of France's newest battleships were put out of action. The last of them, the Richelieu, which was in Dakar, was attacked by British torpedo bombers from the Hermes aircraft carrier and was badly damaged. In total, about 1,300 French were killed during Operation Catapult 8. In response to this act of treachery, the French government, without declaring war on England, broke off diplomatic relations with it.

But could the Germans have captured the French fleet? Perhaps the British attack on yesterday's comrades was justified. The answer to this question is negative. The French fleet in its ports was subject to disarmament. No documents were signed stipulating the transition or transfer of French warships to the Germans. “...The conditions of the truce did not contain any direct attacks by the Germans on the French navy,” 9 says Charles de Gaulle in his memoirs. The only obligation that France took upon itself was to no longer fight against Germany.

Only two years after Catapult, on November 26, 1942, German troops first attempted to capture the French fleet - when they entered Toulon 10. Did Hitler manage to take control of the French ships? No, the French fleet there was scuttled by order of the Vichy government.
The following went to the bottom: 3 battleships, 8 cruisers, 17 destroyers, 16 destroyers, 16 submarines, 7 patrol ships, 3 patrol vessels, 60 transports, minesweepers and tugboats 11. As you can see, the French did not waver. Why? Because they were never German puppets, and they were not going to give up their fleet to either the Germans or the British. And on the eve of the insidious British Operation Catapult, France gave Churchill guarantees that warships would not fall into the hands of the Germans under any circumstances...

But history, as we know, is written by the victors. Today, almost nothing is written about Britain’s treacherous strike on its French allies. And if they do mention it, the emphasis is placed as follows: it was a forced act, there was no choice.

Photo from the Wehrmacht magazine “Signal” (Hitlers wartime picture magazine, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1976):

The agony of the battleship "Brittany"

1 Winston Churchill. "The Second World War", p. 406
2 S. de Gaulle. War memoirs. Conscription 1940-1942., M: AST, 2003. p. 110
3 The attack on the French fleet was carried out by the British simultaneously in all ports, otherwise surprise would have been lost - the key to the destruction of ships.
4 K. Pullman. Ark Royal./The first salvos of the British fleet. M.: AST, 2004, p. 531
5 Ibid., p. 531
6 Ibid., p. 532
7 S. de Gaulle. War memoirs. Conscription 1940-1942. M: AST, 2003. p. 321
8 A. Taylor. The Second World War/The Second World War: two views. M... 1994, p. 421
9 S. de Gaulle. War memoirs. Conscription 1940-1942., M., 2003, p. 111
10 Shortly before this, the British and Americans landed in Algeria, i.e. in the African territory of France. After stubborn resistance to the Anglo-Saxons, the French admiral Darlan went over to their side. Therefore, Germany was forced to occupy the territory of the remaining “free” France in order to avoid a possible landing of the British and Americans there.
11 S. de Gaulle. War memoirs. Unity. 1942 -1944. M: AST, 2003. p. 59