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The Road to Oran: Anglo-Franch Naval Relations, September 1939-July 1940 (Cass Series--Naval Policy and History) PDF

257 Pages·2004·3.77 MB·English
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Preview The Road to Oran: Anglo-Franch Naval Relations, September 1939-July 1940 (Cass Series--Naval Policy and History)

ii THE ROAD TO ORAN CASS SERIES: NAVAL POLICY AND HISTORY Series Editor: Geoffrey Till ISSN 1366-9478 This series consists primarily of original manuscripts by research scholars in the general area of naval policy and history, without national or chronological limitations. It will from time to time also include collections of important articles as well as reprints of classic works. 1. Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904–1914 Milan N. Vego 2. Far-Flung Lines: Studies in Imperial Defence in Honour of Donald Mackenzie Schurman Edited by Keith Neilson and Greg Kennedy 3. Maritime Strategy and Continental Wars Rear Admiral Raja Menon 4. The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament 1942–1947 Chris Madsen 5. Naval Strategy and Operations in Narrow Seas Milan N. Vego 6. The Pen and Ink Sailor: Charles Middleton and the King’s Navy, 1778–1813 John E. Talbott 7. The Italian Navy and Fascist Expansionism, 1935–1940 Robert Mallett 8. The Merchant Marine in International Affairs, 1850–1950 Edited by Greg Kennedy 9. Naval Strategy in Northeast Asia: Geo-strategic Goals, Policies and Prospects Duk-Ki Kim 10. NavalPolicy and Strategy in the Mediterranean Sea: Past, Present and Future Edited by John B. Hattendorf 11. Stalin’s Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programmes, 1935–1953 Jürgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. Monakov 12. Imperial Defence, 1868–1887 Donald Mackenzie Schurman; edited by John Beeler 13. Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond Edited by Phillips Payson O’Brien 14. The Royal Navy and Nuclear Weapons Richard Moore 15. TheRoyal Navy and the Capital Ship in the Interwar Period: An Operational Perspective Joseph Moretz 16. Chinese Grand Strategy and Maritime Power Thomas M. Kane 17. Britain’s Anti-submarine Capability, 1919–1939 George Franklin 18. Britain, France and the Naval Arms Trade in the Baltic, 1919–1939: Grand Strategy and Failure Donald Stoker 19. Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective Edited by Christopher Bell and Bruce Elleman THE ROAD TO ORAN Anglo-French Naval Relations September 1939–July 1940 David Brown Introduction by Geoffrey Till FRANK CASS LONDON AND NEW YORK First published in 2004 in Great Britain by Taylor & Francis Ltd 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. and in the United States of America by Taylor & Francis Inc 29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001 Copyright © 2004 Margaret Brown British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Brown, D.K. (David Keith), 1928–2001 The road to Oran: Anglo-French naval relations, September 1939–July 1940. – (Cass series. Naval policy and history; 20) 1. Mers-el-Kebir, Attack on, 1940 2. World War, 1939–1945 – Naval Operations, British 3. World War, 1939–1945 – Naval operation, French 4. Great Britain – Military relations – France 5. France – Military relations – Great Britain 6. Great Britain – Military policy I. Title 940.5′423 ISBN 0-203-49911-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-58215-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-7146-5461-2 (cloth) ISSN 1366-9478 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, David, 1928–2001 The Road to Oran: Anglo-French naval relations, September 1939–July 1940/David Brown; introduction by Geoffrey Till. p. cm. – (Cass series – naval policy and history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7146-5461-2 (cloth) 1. Mers-el-Kébir, Attack on, 1940. 2. Great Britain–Military relations–France. 3. France–Military relataions–Great Britain. 4. World War, 1939–1945–Naval operations, British. 5. World War, 1939–1945–Naval operations, French. 6. Mers el Kébir (Algeria)–History, Naval–20th century. I. Title. II. Series. D766.99.A4B76 2003 940.54′23–dc21 2003048998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. Contents List of illustrations vii Series Editor’s Preface ix Foreword by Contre-amiral Jean Kessler xi Preface xv Dramatis Personae 1939–40 xix Introduction by Geoffrey Till xxiv 1 Anglo-French Naval Staff Planning and Cooperation on the Eve of War 1 2 The Phoney War 8 3 The Mediterranean, 27 March–27 May 1940 19 4 Dunkirk to Bordeaux, 4–15 June 25 5 Political Collapse, 16 June 34 6 Pétain’s First Day, 17 June 41 7 Last Meeting of the Admirals, 18 June 50 8 Bordeaux, 19–21 June: Armistice or Africa? 58 9 The Other Side of the Hill, 17–21 June 72 10 The Armistice Terms, 22 June 78 11 23 June 88 12 24 June 97 13 The Armistice, 25 June 110 14 The Cruise of the Richelieu, 25–26 June 119 15 27 June 129 16 28 June 137 17 29 June 149 18 30 June 156 19 1 July 163 20 Orders for Operation ‘Catapult’, 2 July 171 21 Mers-el-Kébir: The Parley, 3 July 182 22 The Bombardment of Mers-el-Kébir, 3 July 198 Bibliography 206 Index 209 List of illustrations Between pages 92 and 93 1. The action during the Battle of Oran. 2. In the heat of the battle French sailors attempt to put out the flames on deck. 3. The battleship Strasbourg fires on the British squadron before breaking away on her high-speed run to France. 4. Vice-amiral Godfroy’s Force Xwarships alongside British vessels in harbour at Alexandria prior to the armistice. 5. French leaders grouped prior to the fall of France, including Paul Reynaud, Premier of France and Minister of Defence until 16 June 1940, and Général de Gaulle. 6. Amiral Darlan meeting with Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, American General, Mark Clarke, and General Anderson in Algiers following Operation ‘Torch’, the successful Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. 7. The French battleship Jean Bart. 8. Admiral Sir Dudley Pound on board HMS Prince of Wales examining charts with Sir John Dill and Sir Wilfred Freeman. 9. The French battleship Richelieu as she returned to Oran in the service of the Allies in 1943. 10. The harbour at Mers el-Kébir. Panoramic view taken as British warships returned to the harbour in 1943. 11. The French battleship Strasbourg alongside a scuttled French cruiser, possibly Colbert or Algérie, in Toulon harbour. 12. The effects of the bombardment on Oran, taken from the Queen’s Baths. 13. The first bombs falling on the jetty. 14. The battleshipBretagnetaken before she was sunk at Mers el-Kébir. 15. Bombs falling around the battleship Provence. 16. Commodore (Vice Admiral Retd) N A Wodehouse RN. Acknowledgements: photographs 1–11 courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London; photographs 12–16 courtesy of the Naval Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, London. Series Editor’s Preface David Brown began writing this book towards the end of his long period of service as Head of the Royal Navy’s Naval Historical Branch (NHB) from 1977 to 1999. The task of the Branch during that turbulent and sometimes difficult period was to ensure that a well- argued historical perspective informed contemporary debate about the purposes, functions and composition of the Royal Navy. Further, by capturing and recording recent and existing data the aim was and is to make it possible for future generations of naval policy-makers to have the same advantages. In addition to this, David became a noted naval historian in his own right, starting off in the area with which he had been most familiar as a naval officer – carrier aviation. He master-minded the fiftieth anniver- sary conference on the Battle of the Atlantic held at Liverpool in 1993, which produced an excellent book edited by Stephen Howarth and Derek Law, and what is arguably the definitive work on the role of the Royal Navy in the Falklands war of 1982. The Road to Oran was his last work, but tragically, in August 2001, David died before it could be completed. Although David’s prose speaks for itself in very large measure, he was aware of the need for an overarching review of all the detailed material he had so meticulously assembled, but sadly had too little opportunity to supply it himself. While some might feel that the book may not in fact need such a review, it was generally felt that the following might help the uninitiated reader into the complexities of the subject that this book addresses. In large measure, this analysis is based on David’s own work, on an early Admiralty Study, RN, by Commander Stitt, on a commentary on this by Professor E.L. Woodward, Official Historian of the War in the Mediterranean, and on documents to be found in the Somerville Papers as published in 1995 by the Navy Records Society. The Series Editor acknowledges with real gratitude the help of Captain Chris Page and his team at the Naval Historical Branch in completing this project, which is respectfully dedicated to the fond memory of its author, David Brown, historian extraordinary. Geoffrey Till Series Editor

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On 3 July 1940, soon after the collapse of the French front and France's request for an armistice, a reluctant Royal Navy commander opened fire on the French Navy squadron at Mers-el-Kebir. Some 1,300 French sailors lost their lives. The late David Brown's detailed account finally conveys an objecti
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