[0:00]At 5:57 p.m. on July the 3rd, 1940, the port of Merce El Kabir in French Algeria suddenly erupted into chaos. The deafening roar of canons erupted outside the harbor entrance and a rain of high explosive shells plunged down upon the French naval fleet anchored within. geysers of water and flames shot into the air as deadly projectiles slammed home and within minutes the whole anchorage was a blaze. aboard their ships, French sailors scrambled to their battle stations and attempted to return fire, but their aim was obscured by thick clouds of black oily smoke. When the bombardment finally ended 10 minutes later, one major warship had been sunk, five severely damaged and 1,297 French sailors lay dead with 350 wounded. But the attacking fleet belonged neither to the German Krieg's Marine nor the Italian Regia Marina, but rather the British Royal Navy. The first time the two nations had fought each other since the Napoleonic Wars more than a century before. But what could possibly have caused the British to open fire on the French, then their close ally? Well, this is the forgotten story of Operation Catapult, one of the most controversial actions of the Second World War and one which Winston Churchill dubbed the most hateful decision of his career. Just before we get back to Simon and why Britain straight up intentionally attacked their ally and its semen, you know who's never attacked anything except the idea that it should be difficult to make a website? Today's sponsor Squarespace, the easiest way to build a website without selling your soul to the tech gods or staying up till 2:00 a.m. learning to code. If you've got something to say, sell, or show off Squarespace gives you everything you need to make it real and make it look really good. 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They even have built in email campaigns and social sharing tools so you can send updates, launch promos, or just casually remind everyone you exist before you, as in everyone who has ever existed, are inevitably forgotten in time. But don't go quietly into that good night, make your website and put your distinctive stamp on the Interwebs. Whether you're building a brand, launching a business, or just making a site so your parents stop asking you what you do all day, Squarespace has your back. Head to squarespace.com/brainfood for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code brainfood to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Go build something great because you can and because you are capable of achieving that dream. Now, let's get back to Simon discussing why Britain ended so many of their allied French sailor's dreams, sending them to the dark abyss of the depths of the ocean to be forever forgotten. Because they didn't have a website with Squarespace preserving their memory for posterity. The Second World War in Europe began on September the 1st, 1939, when 66 divisions of the German Wehrmacht stormed across the border into Poland. Two days later, on September the 3rd, France and the UK, bound by treaty to defend Poland's neutrality, declared war on Germany. For nearly a year, however, relatively little direct combat took place between allied and Axis forces, a period commonly known as the Phony War or Sit's Creek. But this uneasy waiting game came to a sudden, shocking end on April the 9th, 1940, when the Nazis launched Undertarman Veserburg, the invasion of Norway and Denmark. This was followed one month later on May the 10th by Fall Gelb, or Case Yellow, the invasion of France and the Low Countries. The French Army and British Expeditionary Force crumbled under the might of the German Blitzkrieg and were swiftly driven back with the BEF evacuating back to Britain from the beaches of Dunkirk. But the French fought on. On June the 10th, fascist Italy, which had signed a military alliance with Germany on May the 22nd, 1939, attacked from the south, occupying a small area of the French Alps. On June the 14th, Paris was declared an open city and occupied by the Germans, while on June the 17th, Marshall Philip Petin, hero of the Battle of Verdun in the First World War, was the newly appointed French Prime Minister. And the newly appointed French Prime Minister broadcast to the nation that quote, "It is with a broken heart that I tell you that it is necessary to cease fighting." Five days later, Poton signed an armistice with Germany and Italy, bringing the Battle of France to an end. France was subsequently divided into two regions, an occupied zone in the north, administered directly by the Third Reich, and a southern zone Libre governed by Poton from the spa town of Vichy. To the British, France's capitulation came as a terrible shock, the two nations having signed a treaty in March 1940, pledging not to seek a separate peace with Germany. Now, with the French army out of the picture and most of BEF's vehicles, weapons and other equipment left behind on the beaches of Dunkirk, only the English Channel and the might of the Royal Navy stood between Britain and Nazi domination. But one key factor threatened Britain's long-held naval supremacy, the ships of the French Marine Nationale. At the time, the French Navy was the fourth strongest in the world after those of Britain, the United States and Imperial Japan, counting among its strength the brand new battleships Dunkirk and Strasbourg, deliberately built to outmatch Germany's most powerful ships. The heavy cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst as well as the newly completed fast battleship, Richelieu and Jean Bart, which British Admiralty rated as among the most powerful capital ships in the world. In mid-1940, the service fleet of the German Kriegsmarine was relatively small, while the Italian Regia Marina, while formidable, was built for service in the Mediterranean. But if the powerful French fleet fell into access hands, the balance of power on the high seas would shift away from the Royal Navy, allowing the Germans and Italians to cut Britain off from the Mediterranean and its overseas colonies like India, launch a cross-channel invasion of the British Isles and decimate the vital transatlantic shipping convoys, starving the island nation into submission. It was an outcome British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to avoid at all costs. Throughout the first year of the war and even during the Battle of France, Churchill made numerous trips across the Channel to confer with the beleaguered French government. During the last such trip made on June the 13th, 1940, the commander of the French Navy, Admiral of the Fleet, Jean Francois Darlan assured the British Prime Minister that the French fleet would never be allowed to fall into German hands. On June the 17th, after the British cabinet finally acceded to French wishes for a separate peace, Churchill reiterated his demands, stating in an official communique to Darlan that, I wish to repeat to you my profound conviction that the French Navy will not injure their ally by delivering over to the enemy the fine French fleet.
[7:11]Such an act would scarify their names for a thousand years of history.
[7:19]But once again, Darlan refused to scatter his fleet, citing Article 8 paragraph 2 of the Armistice of June the 22nd, which stated that quote, "The German government solemnly declares to the French government that it does not intend to use the French War Fleet which is in harbors under German control for its purposes in war, with the exception of units necessary for the purposes of guarding the coast and sweeping mines... It further solemnly and expressly declares that it does not intend to bring up any demands respecting the French War Fleet at the conclusion of a peace... All warships outside France are to be recalled to France with the exception of that portion of the French War Fleet which shall be designated to represent French interests in the colonial empire." In compliance with these terms, Admiral Darlan ordered the French Atlantic fleet to sail to Toulon and demobilize with orders to scuttle their ships if the Germans attempted to seize them. But Churchill, having witnessed many times the dubiousness of Adolf Hitler's assurances, was not convinced, declaring in a speech before Parliament, What is the value of that? Ask half a dozen countries, what is the value of such a solemn assurance? Finally, the armistice could be voided at any time on any pretext of non-observance. At the time, around 40% of the French fleet anchored at Toulon, 40% in French North Africa and the rest in overseas ports such as Alexandria in Egypt and Martinique in the French West Indies. This left the bulk of the fleet highly vulnerable to seizure by German or Italian forces. As a result, the British repeatedly called on Admiral Darlan to order his ships to Britain to join forces with the Royal Navy or to flee to ports in the United States or France's overseas colonies far out of German reach. But Darlan stubbornly refused, and following the signing of the Armistice refused to answer any further British requests. In late June, British diplomats repeatedly met with French naval officers in Oran, Algeria and Casablanca, Morocco, but failed to make any headway. Soon after, the French released 400 Luftwaffe pilots to Germany, pilots who would soon attempt to bomb Britain into submission. To Winston Churchill, this confirmed that the armistice terms were far flimsier than the French had claimed. He was thus left with one last grim option to neutralize the French fleet by force. The British War cabinet, however, was horrified by this prospect and initially refused to back Churchill's plan. Not only, they argued, was France still an ally, but such an attack might backfire spectacularly. At best, it would turn French public opinion against the British, making France's overseas colonies less likely to defect to the allies, and at worst, if the attack failed to neutralize the French fleet, then the then neutral Vichy government might join the war on the Axis side, exactly the outcome the British were hoping to avoid. Furthermore, the attack could potentially inflict serious damage on the British fleet, which was already stretched dangerously thin. But Churchill doggedly persisted, and on June the 27th, after the final attempts at diplomatic negotiation had failed, the War Cabinet finally approved the plan under the code name Operation Catapult. As the port of Toulon was well defended by coastal artillery, the decision was made to attack the French naval base at Merce El Kabir, near Oran in French Algeria. Meaning great port in Arabic, Merce El Kabir had been a major anchorage in the region since Roman times when it was known as Portus Magnus. The harbor was variously controlled by the Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Spanish and Ottomans before finally being conquered by the French in 1830, who turned it into one of the primary naval bases in its North African Empire. But while Merce El Kabir had been extensively modernized during the early 20th century, by the outbreak of the Second World War, much still remained unfinished. For example, plans to deepen the main basin remained unrealized, limiting the ability of ships anchored within to train their guns and engage enemy ships outside the harbor. This limitation would have a major impact on the events that were to transpire. In late June 1940, Merce El Kabir was home to a large force of 25 ships under the command of Admiral Marcel Bruno Gensoul. These included multiple battleships, destroyers, torpedo boats, a seaplane tender, a colonial gun boat and four submarines. Meanwhile, on June the 30th, a Royal Navy strike force dubbed Force H was assembled at Gibraltar under the command of Admiral James Somerville. Sideline at the start of the war by about tuberculosis, the then 58-year-old Somerville had nonetheless distinguished himself during the Dunkirk evacuation and was personally selected by Churchill to lead the attack on Merce El Kabir. Somerville was acutely aware of the grave and distasteful nature of his assignment, captured in a message sent to him by First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, quote, "You are charged with one of the most disagreeable and difficult tasks that a British Admiral has ever been faced with, but we have complete confidence in you to carry it out relentlessly." Force H was comprised of 17 vessels, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the battle cruiser and flagship of the fleet HMS Hood, two battleships, two cruisers and 12 destroyers. Despite being fewer in number, the ships of Force H had heavier, longer range guns than their French counterparts and enjoyed greater freedom of maneuver. HMS Ark Royal also carried a squadron of 23 Fairey Swordfish and Blackburn Skua aircraft with bombs, torpedoes and aerial mines. While the British made their final preparations, Admiral Darlan attempted to find a compromise that would satisfy both German and British demands. On June the 26th, he issued a communique to the fleet, ordering that demobilized ships are to stay French, under French flag, with reduced French crews. Secret precautions for sabotage are to be made in order that any enemy or ex-ally seizing a vessel by force may not be able to make use of it. In no case obey the orders of a foreign Admiralty. To respond to outside interests would lead our territory into becoming a German province. Our former allies are not to be listened to. Force H departed Gibraltar on the evening of July the 2nd and sailed southeast toward Merce El Kabir, arriving early the following morning. At around 8:00 a.m. the destroyer HMS Foxhound entered the harbor carrying Captain Cedric Holland, commander of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. A fluent French speaker, who had served as naval attache to France from January 1938 to April 1940, Holland knew Admiral Gensoul personally and was specifically chosen by Admiral Somerville to lead the negotiations. Like Somerville, Holland was vehemently opposed to Operation Catapult, a sentiment captured in a message sent by Somerville to the Admiralty reading quote, "After talk with Holland and others, Vice Admiral Force H is impressed with the view that the use of force should be avoided at all costs. Holland considers offensive action on our part would alienate all French everywhere they are." But the response from London was unequivocal. Firm intention of His Majesty's government that if French will not accept any of your alternatives, they are to be destroyed. Holland thus boarded the battleship Dunkirk, bearing the following ultimatum for Admiral Gensoul. "It is impossible for us, your comrades up to now, to allow your fine ships to fall into the power of the German enemy. We are determined to fight on until the end, and if we win, as we think we shall, we shall never forget that France was our ally, that our interests are the same as hers, and that our common enemy is Germany. Should we conquer, we solemnly declare that we shall restore the greatness and territory of France. For this purpose we must make sure that the best ships of the French Navy are not used against us by the common foe. In these circumstances, His Majesty's government have instructed me to demand that the French fleet now at Merce el Kabir and Oran shall act in accordance with one of the following alternatives. Sail with us and continue the fight until victory against the Germans. Sail with reduced crews under our control to a British port. The reduced crews would be repatriated at the earliest moment. If either of these courses is adopted by you, we will restore your ships to France at the conclusion of the war or pay full compensation if they are damaged meanwhile. Alternatively, if you feel bound to stipulate that your ships should not be used against the Germans lest they break the armistice, then sail them with us with reduced crews to some French port in the West Indies, Martinique for instance, where they can be demilitarized to our satisfaction, or perhaps be entrusted to the United States and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews being repatriated. If you refuse these fair offers, I must with profound regret, require you to sink your ships within 6 hours. Finally, failing the above, I have orders from His Majesty's government to use whatever force may be necessary to prevent your ships from falling into German or Italian hands." This ultimatum was also transmitted in the clear to all ships in the harbor, encouraging their crews to defect to the British. This broadcast angered Admiral Gensoul, whose men, largely reservists, would be demoralized and mutinous. He thus ordered them to battle stations, transmitting a message to the fleet stating, English Fleet has proposed unacceptable armistice. Be prepared to answer force with force. The ships were also ordered to raise steam and make for the open sea at the first sign of trouble. Finally, 42 aircraft based at airfields around Oran, previously grounded under the terms of the armistice, were made ready for combat. Unfortunately, despite his credentials and personal connections, Captain Holland proved a poor choice to lead the negotiations. A stickler for protocol, Admiral Gensoul was insulted that a junior officer had been sent to parle and refused to grant Holland an audience. Instead, he sent his flag gate, Lieutenant Bernard DeFe in his place, causing much delay and confusion. And when negotiations finally did begin, Holland, who was at the time dealing with family issues related to his keeping a mistress, was visibly nervous, sweaty, and unsure of himself, which further failed to endear him to the French. At 8:47 a.m. Admiral Gensoul ordered Holland and HMS Foxhound to leave the harbor. Holland, knowing that hundreds of lives were on the line, pretended to leave, but then boarded a motor launch and returned to Dunkirk. He was met once again by DeFe, who explained that Gensoul still refused to meet him. Desperate, Holland handed DeFe a briefcase containing the text of the British ultimatum, which he had intended to deliver orally. DeFe duly delivered the text to Gensoul, who upon reading it became incensed and radioed the French Admiralty for advice, stating that, "An English force composed of three battleships, an aircraft carrier, cruisers and destroyers before Oran has sent me an ultimatum. Sink your ships, six-hour time limit, or we will constrain you or do so by force. My reply was, French ships will answer force with force." Significantly, Gensoul failed to mention the option of sailing his ships to a British or neutral port, further ratcheting up tensions. Unfortunately, at that moment, the Admiralty was in the process of moving its headquarters from Bordeaux to Vichy, and Admiral Darlan could not be reached. Gensoul only managed to reach his deputy, Rear Admiral Maurice Le Luc, who ultimately ordered six cruisers to sail from Algiers, and nine submarines to sail from Toulon to intercept the British fleet. He also sent a coded message to all ships anchored in British ports to either steam for France or scuttle themselves. But it was already too late for early on the morning of July the 3rd, the British launched its first phase of Operation Catapult code named Operation Grasp, dispatching naval boarding parties to seize French ships berthed in the harbors of Plymouth, Sheerness and Portsmouth, including the battleships, Paris, Corbet, Lorraine. All vessels were captured without casualties with one exception, the Surcouf, the largest submarine in the world at the time and among the most unusual, being equipped with a pair of 203 mm guns for surface raiding and a watertight hangar for a small reconnaissance float plane. On the morning of July the 3rd, Surcouf was berthed in Devonport, having made a daring escape from Brest Harbor on June the 18th, ahead of a Nazi invasion. On receiving the signal from the French Admiralty, Surcouf's captain, Paul Martin, immediately took measures to secure his vessel against seizure, locking down all but one hatch and boasting centuries on deck. But at 4:30 a.m. the submarine was stormed by a force of 60 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines armed with pistols and clubs who overwhelmed the crew and herded them into the officer's wardroom. There, they handed Captain Martin a forged letter from French admiral aboard the battleship Paris, interned in Plymouth, urging him to join the Free French. But Martin saw through the sham and called the boarding party's bluff, asking to speak to the Admiral in person. As soon as Martin left Surcouf, the situation became even more tense with several French sailors attempting to flee or sabotage the boat. Soon, the commander of the boarding party, Captain Dennis Lofty Sprag, ordered the officers to leave Surcouf. When they refused, Sprag ordered leading Seaman Albert Webb to shoot French duty officer, Lieutenant Emile Cressant. In response, a Lieutenant Boullion in charge of Surcouf's main gun battery, drew a concealed pistol and shot Sprag three times. Then all hell broke loose with French and British sailors opening fire within the cramped confines of the submarine. When the smoke finally cleared, five men had been shot. Lofty Sprag, Albert Webb, Lieutenant Boullion, able Seaman William Heath, Lieutenant Patrick Griffiths and French officer mechanic Yves Donyel. Webb died instantly, while Sprag, Griffiths and Donyel later died of their wounds. The rest made full recoveries. Though Boullion wanted to fight on, the other officers overruled him and chose to surrender to the British. After being allowed to gather their personal belongings, the crew of the Surcouf was interned at a makeshift camp at a race track in Liverpool, with all but one officer eventually being repatriated to France. Meanwhile, back at Merce El Kabir, negotiations were still going nowhere. With the noon deadline fast approaching, Admiral Somerville extended Admiral Gensoul a one-hour grace period. Then around 1,300, he decided to ratchet up the pressure by dispatching six Swordfish and three Skua aircraft from the HMS Ark Royal to drop magnetically fused sea mines at the harbor entrance, preventing the French fleet from leaving. This force was intercepted by a flight of five French Curtis P-36 Hawk fighters, which shot down one Skua with the loss of its two crew. These were to prove the only British casualties of the entire operation. In response, Gensoul sent a message to Captain Holland via Lieutenant DeFe reading, "The assurances remain unchanged. In no case, anytime, anywhere, anyway, and without further orders from the French Admiralty, will the French ships fall intact into the hands of the Germans or the Italians. Given the form and substance of the veritable ultimatum which has been sent to Admiral Gensoul, the French ships will defend themselves with force." This, of course, was unacceptable to Somerville, who signaled Gensoul to accept the British terms by raising a white flag, or else he would open fire. Gensoul replied, asking Somerville to wait until he heard back from his superiors. Disobeying his orders once again, Somerville agreed, extending the grace period another two hours to 15:30. It was then that Gensoul received a message from the French Admiralty stating, "Do not demobilize reinforcements are on the way." Hoping to stall for time, at 15:30, Gensoul signaled Somerville, announcing that he would receive Captain Holland in person. Overjoyed, Somerville extended the deadline by a further two hours, though with the caveat that, "If none of the British proposals are accepted by 17:30 BST, it will be necessary to sink your ships." Unfortunately, the audience was hardly the breakthrough the British had hoped for, for upon meeting Holland in person, Gensoul merely presented him with orders from Admiral Darlan, instructing him to scuttle his ships or sail them to the United States if the Germans or Italians attempted to seize them. However, as Churchill made abundantly clear, such assurances were no guarantee against the Axis capture of the French fleet, and Holland was forced to leave Merce El Kabir empty-handed. As he later recorded, Gensoul appeared not to understand that Force H was at that very moment poised to open fire on the French fleet. But as he watched Holland re-board HMS Foxhound and steam out of Merce El Kabir, Gensoul grimly told a fellow officer, "I have done everything to gain time. Now it is finished." He then ordered four of his submarines to sail out and confront Force H. But at that same moment, the British Admiralty in London sent a message to Admiral Somerville, informing him of the French warships approaching from Algiers and Toulon and ordering him to quote, "Settle matters quickly or you will have reinforcements to deal with." And so, at 17:57, just as HMS Foxhound was clearing the harbor entrance, Force H opened fire on the French fleet from a range of 16 kilometers. The first salvo failed to score any hits, but the second slammed into the battleship Breton with 15-inch shells from HMS Hood penetrating her decks and touching off her magazines. At 6:09 p.m. the battleship erupted in a massive explosion and sank to the harbor bottom, taking 977 sailors with her. Meanwhile, within 90 seconds of the British opening up, the battleship Provence began returning fire. Dunkirk and Strasbourg were slow to respond, being anchored with their former turrets facing away from the harbor entrance. But the moment Dunkirk managed to pull away from her berth, she was struck by a pair of 15-inch shells knocking out her electrical system and flooding her boiler room. Her captain, MJ Chen, chose to beach the battleship to avoid blocking the narrow harbor channel. Provence also suffered several direct hits but was saved from Breton's fate by her crew, who promptly flooded her magazines to prevent them from exploding. Together, Dunkirk, Provence and Strasbourg managed to unleash 30 salvos at the attacking British fleet, but the aim of their gunners was obscured by the thick black smoke shrouding the harbor and they scored no hits. It was the first time British and French ships had exchanged fire since the Napoleonic Wars, nearly a century and a half earlier. Finally, the destroyer Mogador had her stern blown off when a shell ignited her depth charges, and she was forced to run aground to avoid blocking the channel. The seaplane tender, Commandant Teste, was lightly damaged. Meanwhile, aircraft from Ark Royal wheeled overhead, directing the fleet's fire, but these were soon driven off by a flight of 13 French MS-406 and three Curtis Hawk fighters.
[24:08]The savage bombardment carried on for 10 minutes, whereupon Admiral Gensoul signaled the British fleet, "All my ships are out of action. I request you cease fire." Lacking a white flag, Gensoul was forced to improvise, running a tan blanket up Dunkirk's mast. Admiral Somerville complied with the request and at 18:24, Force H ceased firing. Amid the smoking ruins of the harbor, 1,297 French soldiers lay dead and 350 wounded. But Somerville remained wary, signaling Gensoul that, "Unless I see your ships sinking, I shall open fire again." Somerville then moved Force H out of range of French shore batteries, confident that the mines previously laid at the harbor entrance, as well as aircraft from the Ark Royal, would prevent a French breakout. But to his surprise, the battleship Strasbourg along with three destroyers and the Aviso Rigaut de Genouilly managed to evade the mines and escape into the open sea. Somerville immediately ordered Ark Royal to pursue and her Swordfish and Skua aircraft began attacking the fleeing warships. French anti-aircraft gunners shot down two Swordfish whose crews were later rescued by the destroyer HMS Wrestler, while a French shore-based aircraft also bombed the British fleet. Meanwhile, the Aviso Rigault de Genouilly made contact with Force H and began exchanging fire with the battle cruiser HMS Hood and the light cruisers HMS Arethusa and Enterprise. The French ship fired 19 shells before being struck by enterprise and withdrawing. At the same time, British aircraft spotted the submarines Danae and Oritis which Admiral Gensoul had dispatched from Merce El Kabir. The vessels were duly depth charged by a British destroyer, but managed to slip away undamaged. At around 20:00 hours, Admiral Somerville learns of the six heavy cruisers steaming from Algiers to rendezvous with Strasbourg. Realizing he would soon be outgunned, Somerville ordered Force H to break off the pursuit, while Swordfish from the Ark Royal continued to harass the French battleship. She and her destroyer escort escaped across the Mediterranean and soon reached the safety of Toulon. His mission complete, Somerville ordered Force H to return to Gibraltar and not a moment too soon. For the submarines Ariane, Danae, Diane and Uritis had taken up a north-south patrol line off Merce El Kabir, awaiting for the British Task Force to return. When they failed to show, the French submarines returned to port. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Mediterranean, a similar standoff achieved very different results. Off the coast of Egypt, another British task force under the command of Admiral Andrew Cunningham had assembled to blockade the French Force X anchored in Alexandria Harbor. This force was under the command of French Admiral Rene Emogue Gaufre, unlike Somerville at Merce El Kabir, however, Cunningham managed to open a successful dialogue with his opposite number and on July the 7th, both sides finally reached a peaceful settlement with Godfrey agreeing to neutralize his ships by draining their fuel oil tanks and handing their gun breech blocks over to the British. Some of Godfrey's sailors later joined the Free French forces, while others were repatriated to France. The ships of Force X remained interned at Alexandria until May the 17th, 1943, when they were reactivated and integrated into the Free French Fleet. But this did not bring an end to the bloodshed. Later that same day, the British submarine HMS Pandora encountered the Rigault de Genouilly off the Algerian coast and mistaking her for a cruiser, torpedoed and sank her with the loss of 12 lives. In response, on July the 5th, a French Armee de L'Air launched a small air raid on Gibraltar, but failed to inflict any significant damage. Then, on July the 8th, the British, not believing the French fleet had been sufficiently neutralized, launched a follow-up attack code-named Operation Lever. During the attack, a Swordfish aircraft from HMS Ark Royal successfully torpedoed the patrol boat Terre Neuve, whose cargo of depth charges detonated and severely damaged the battleship Dunkirk, moored alongside. At the same time, Swordfish from the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes attacked the French battleship Richelieu at its anchorage in Dakar, French West Africa, today Senegal, inflicting severe damage. In response, the four French submarines based at Merce El Kabir sailed out once again to counter further British attacks, though none ever came. The British attacks infuriated the Vichy government, who officially severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on July the 8th. A livid Admiral Darlan impulsively ordered his fleet to attack any Royal Navy ships they encountered, but he was swiftly overruled by Marshall Petain and French Foreign Minister, Paul Baudouin. However, on July the 18th and again on September the 24th, Vichy French aircraft launched further attack raids on Gibraltar. This attack was half-hearted with many French pilots deliberately dropping their bombs wide of their targets, though one British soldier and four civilians were killed in the process. That same day, French and British destroyers exchanged fire off Gibraltar, while on September the 23rd, a combined Royal Navy and Free French Navy force launched Operation Menace, an attempt to capture the port of Dakar and overthrow the pro-Vichy government of French West Africa. The operation was unsuccessful, despite suffering heavy casualties over two days of fighting. The Vichy forces refused to back down and the allies failed to capture the port. Back in Europe, Operation Catapult and its follow-up attack turned French public sentiment firmly against the British and ratcheted up tensions between Prime Minister Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle, who had just been appointed commander-in-chief of the Free French forces. The Nazi propaganda machine had a field day with the British betrayal, while back at home, even Admiral Somerville condemned the attacks, calling them, "The biggest political blunder of modern times, which will rouse the whole world against us. We all feel thoroughly ashamed." While Churchill admitted that the attack on Merce El Kabir was, quote, "The most hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned." But he nonetheless staunchly defended his decision, arguing it was necessary to demonstrate Britain's commitment to fight on and resist access aggression, no matter the cost. In this, he was extremely successful, with Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano remarking that Operation Catapult demonstrated, quote, "that the fighting spirit of His Britannia Majesty's Navy is quite alive, and still has the aggressive ruthlessness of the captains and pirates of the 17th century." There was also a larger strategic dimension to the attacks, with Eric Seal, Churchill's private secretary, later writing that, "Churchill was convinced that the Americans were impressed by ruthlessness in dealing with a ruthless foe, and in his mind the American reaction to our attack on the French fleet in Oran was of the first importance." Indeed, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was deeply impressed. The day after Operation Catapult, Roosevelt told French ambassador Rene Doyenel de Saint Quentin that were he in the same position as the British, he would have done the same. At the time, Roosevelt's government had been seriously considering withholding military aid to Britain, believing they would soon sue for peace with the Nazis. But the ruthless conviction showcased by Operation Catapult changed the Americans' minds and on September the 2nd, 1940, the U.S. and U.K. governments signed the Destroyer for Bases deal, wherein 50 obsolete U.S. Navy destroyers were traded for 99-year leases on air and naval bases in British possessions in the Western Hemisphere, including Jamaica, Bermuda and Newfoundland. This agreement was followed by the Lend Lease Act of March 11th, 1941, which allowed the still neutral United States to supply even greater amounts of military aid to Britain and her allies. Finally, following the Japanese and German declarations of war on December the 7th and the 11th, 1941, the United States finally entered the conflict on the allied side, a decision influenced in no small part by Churchill's controversial decision to destroy the French fleet. And despite the inevitable diplomatic fallout with the French, the attack on Merce El Kabir did much to further Winston Churchill's political career and cement his image as the dogged and immovable face of British wartime resistance. On July the 4th, Churchill delivered a speech before Parliament in which he stated, "However painful the action we have already taken should be, in itself, sufficient to dispose once and for all of the lies and Fifth Column activities that we have the slightest intention of entering into negations. We shall prosecute the war with the utmost vigor by all the means that are open to us. I leave the judgment of our action, with confidence, to Parliament. I leave it to the nation, and I leave it to the United States. I leave it to the world and to history." For the first time in his tenure as Prime Minister, Churchill received a unanimous standing ovation. Yet despite its positive political and diplomatic outcomes, Operation Catapult was in many ways a strategic failure. While the British attack succeeded at a stroke in eliminating 84% of the French fleet capital ships strength, it also prompted Admiral Darlan to recall and concentrate his ships, previously scattered all around the world, in the port of Toulon, creating a formidable striking force even more vulnerable to capture by the Axis. Even worse, in the wake of the failed Operation Menace attack on Dakar, the Germans allowed the Vichy government to break the terms of the armistice and operate a large portion of its fleet at full fighting capacity. Yet despite this increased threat, for the next three years, the British and French Mediterranean fleets maintained an uneasy truce, with both agreeing not to engage the other. And as the war dragged on, it became increasingly clear that Operation Catapult had been largely unnecessary, and that the French Navy was as committed as they claimed to keeping their ships out of Axis hands. Indeed, Germans and Italians greatly feared the defection of French ships to the allies, allowing Vichy to use the fleet as a powerful bargaining chip in the armistice negotiations. Furthermore, the major differences and incompatibilities between German and French naval equipment, particularly ammunition for the guns, meant that even if the Axis managed to seize the French fleet, it would take them months, if not years to get the ships fully crewed, equipped and ready to fight. But the most definitive demonstration of French conviction came in November 1942, when following the Allied Operation Torch landings in French North Africa, the Germans launched Operation Anton, the military occupation of the Vichy Zone Libre. This invasion included Operation Lila, which called for the seventh Panzer Divisions and units of the second SS Panzer division, Das Reich, to capture the French fleet anchored at Toulon. However, then Vichy Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Gabriel Offon, anticipated this move and ordered the commander of the Toulon base, Admiral Andre Marquis to scuttle as many ships as possible. Marquis succeeded in destroying 77 ships, including several battleships and cruisers. Several other vessels also managed to slip out of the harbor and joined the Free French Navy. With this defiant act, the French held true to their promise. The French fleet was completely neutralized, and the German Krieg's Marine denied the means of greatly bolstering its weak surface fleet. Of course, at the time of Operation Catapult, the British had no way of knowing the true strength of French convictions. As far as Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet knew, neutralizing the French fleet by force was the only option left. As Churchill wrote in his 1949 memoirs, "The War Cabinet never hesitated. Those ministers who, the week before, had given their whole hearts to France and offered common nationhood resolved that all necessary measures should be taken. This was a hateful decision, the most unnatural and painful in which I have ever been concerned. It recalled the episode of the destruction of the Danish fleet in Copenhagen harbor by Nelson in 1801. It was a Greek tragedy. But no act was ever more necessary for the life of Britain and for all that depended upon it. The elimination of the French Navy as an important factor almost at a single stroke by violent action produced a profound impression in every country. Here was this Britain which so many had counted down and out, which strangers had supposed to be quivering on the brink of surrender to the mighty power arrayed against her, striking ruthlessly at her dearest friends of yesterday and securing for a while to herself the undisputed command of the sea. It was made plain that the British War Cabinet feared nothing and would stop at nothing. Some historians, however, argue that the outcome of the Anglo-French dispute was not as inevitable as it's commonly claimed. For example, if Admiral Somerville had negotiated with Admiral Gensoul in person, or if Captain Holland had been more authoritative and diplomatic, then perhaps a peaceful settlement like that negotiated the following day in Alexandria might have been reached. We may never know for sure, but whatever the case, Churchill's fateful decision made further fratricidal violence inevitable as Allied forces were forced to neutralize Vichy France's overseas colonies, including Algeria, Morocco, Madagascar, Syria, Lebanon, French West Africa, and French Equatorial Guinea, today Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Chad. This now largely forgotten campaign led to some truly surreal episodes, such as in Syria, where two halves of the famous French Foreign Legion, one Vichy aligned and the other Free French, found themselves fighting each other, but that's a story for another video. Over time, the betrayal at Merce El Kabir was gradually forgiven and the British and French ended the war just as they'd begun it, as close allies. Still, this largely forgotten operation stands as a testament to Britain's truly desperate situation in the dark early years of the Second World War and the lengths to which Winston Churchill and other leaders were prepared to go to in order to defeat the threat of Nazism. Thank you for watching.
