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

257 Pages·2004·3.77 MB·English

by  David Brown

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