[quote=Chisum]
Quote:
For the french Navy, Toulon was of course a tragedy but also Mers El Kebir...
Personnaly, I have never understand why the ships are not going out Toulon to going in England...
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Because as you probably intuitively understood , there is a "before and after " Mers el Kebir in 3rd July 1940 . Before Mers el Kebir , many French vessels joined Britain to continue the struggle , but "after" , there was a trauma .
French officials repeatedly told the British that French large Navy would not fall into German hands and remain neutral , the surprise attack on French ships docked in the narrow harbour of Mers el Kebir has completely changed the situation . The French Navy didn't expect the attack , the ships were not armed/prepared for battle and had no chance to defend , result is 1300 dead , 1 battleship destroyed and other vessels damaged . Another attack at Dakar docks torpedoed battleship Richelieu .
After Mers-el Kebir , propaganda of Vichy had it very easy and Britain lost the occasion to rally other French pavillon vessels that would have been numerous to join the British Fleet . Britain Admiral Somerville said at the time about Mers-el Kebir that it was "the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us…we all feel thoroughly ashamed…" .
Today French view on this is mixed , i do not want to enter into details , but the ultimatum sent by British troops is known today to never have been read by Admiral Darlan and the possibility that they could sail into American waters was not submitted to his mind as he never had the chance to read the full text of ultimatum , most historians agree that the attack was unnecessary , but my point of view is that Britain at that time was in great danger ( summer 1940 ) and what happened understandable given their situation .
Though , a few other French ships joined the Allies , French fleet at Alexandria (1 battleship , 4 cruisers and lesser ships ) then joined the Allies in battle by 1943 , also later on after the Battle of Dakar , the modern battleship Richelieu , heavy cruiser Suffren , light cruisers Gloire , Montcalm
, Georges Leygue, and a few destroyers, including Fantasque class destroyers who had the size of a cruiser were captured .
When Hitler tries to capture the French fleet at Toulon in 1942 (Operation Lila ) , all the ships were scuttled by the French Navy , the whole fleet , many cruisers , destroyers , and the Battleship Dunkerque and Strasbourg . Submarine Casablanca left quickly and managed to join Britain though . There is also the case of newly built Battleship Jean Bart bombed by US aircraft because the admiral refused to surrender his ship to anyone .
French Navy at the time was powerful and rightfully a worry for the British , they chose to build "super-destroyers" which were considered by the Allies as the equivalent of light cruisers. Le Fantasque was the world's fastest class of destroyer at the time , the Surcouf submarine was the largest and most powerful of its day in 1940. The Dunkerque class battleships was designed specially to fight the German pocket battleship and were despite their size precursors of a new fast battleship generation that emerged later . The Richelieu class battleships are considered by some experts as most successful battleships built under displacement limits of Washington Treaty in the world . It was the 4th largest Navy after British , US and Japan at the time .
At the end of the war , French Navy weight is reduced to 400.000 BRT , many French vessels under pavillon "Free French forces" (FNFL ) with Lorraine cross participated in D-Day operations , but it is especially in the struggle against submarines that they shined when fighting with the Royal Navy , sinking 9 submarines with very limited number of ships , drawing the respect of Royal Navy officers for their zeal and results . For instance , submarine Rubis is attributed 16 ennemy units sunk after 28 missions of war (mine laying ) , Junon and Minerve were tracking Bismarck and Tirpitz near Norway , MBT torpedo boats of 23rd Flotille will sink more than 20 ships , Courbet will down 16 aircrafts etc.. and overall , FNFL will save about 1300 British/Allies lives in the Atlantic in rescue ops , but there was also the FNFL merchant ships, one for example 1 thousand tons of meat to Malta inhabitants who were starved of meat for 6 months , but it's especially the marine commandos who distinguished . FNFL losses 25% of the merchant fleet and 10 warships lost , most famous sailor of the FNFL is probably Jacques Yves Cousteau who had a fantastic life of exploration and scientific interest afterwards , and who about 30 years later after Paul Langevin invented the ASDIC during the first World War , invented the modern aqua-lung which revealed very important for commando operations