military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (07/03/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Wednesday 3 July, 1940 Britain's Force H, including the battlecruiser Hood, battleships Resolution and Valiant, and the carrier Ark Royal, under the command of Vice-Admiral Somerville, begin Operation Catapult. The fleet blockades the French port of Mers el Kebir and sends an emissary to settle the issue of the disposition of the French fleet stationed there under armistice terms. Negotiations fail, and the British forces open fire after dropping aerial mines in the harbor mouth. The French battleship Bretagne is sunk, while the battleship Provence and battlecruiser Dunkerque, together with smaller ships, are damaged. The Dunkerque's sister ship, Strasbourg, escapes to Toulon, despite attacks from Swordfish torpedo bombers. Some 1300 French sailors are killed in the battle. 59 other French warships moored in British ports are taken in hand by the Royal Navy. Among these are the battleships Courbet and Paris and the submarine Surcouf; some fighting takes place aboard the latter. Churchill refuses a suggestion by First Sea Lord Pound that the British Fleet should be withdrawn from the Eastern Mediterranean in the face of the large Italian and French navies. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "This may be a golden opportunity for the United States to assert itself as a great nation." - Kenneth M. Bird, in a letter to the New York Times