good morning jacob

  

a brutal choice

Marshal Petain surrenders France to Hitler.

The question for Britain now is

what becomes of the French fleet? 

- 2nd only to the Royal Navy in 

European power.  In Nazi hands

they endanger British survival.

Vichy Admiral Francois Darlan assures

Churchill the French fleet will not fall 

into Hitler's hands.

LIKE HELL.

Churchill dispatches Britain's Force H out of Gibraltar

to put muscle into a 10 Downing Street proposal

he will extend to the North African French.

 

Their target is the French fleet harbored just

outside Oran in Vichy-controlled Algeria.

In a heated confrontation British Admiral Somerville

informs the French commander he has only hours

to agree upon turning his ships over to British

control or have them quickly destroyed.

Certainly, they must be bluffing

concludes Admiral Gensoul.

After all, just two weeks ago we were allies

fighting the Germans shoulder to shoulder. 

Their demands not met by the appointed hour

British ships fired the first of several salvos

towards the unsuspecting French warships

quietly anchored.

The fleet at Mers el-Kebir suddenly erupted.

Several ships were quickly damaged.  

The battleship Bretagne was first to sink.

1,300 dead were among the casualties.

No matter Churchill's rationale for his decision.

For the French everywhere the word was

British treachery killed their sailors.

It would not take long before 

Allied forces would reap the

lethal results of French animosity.

American troops would soon come

ashore along North African beaches

thinking they'd be welcomed as liberators

by French descendants of Lafayette.

Maybe Oran thought the Yanks were Brits.

_______________

love

   dad

©  Tom Taylor

coldValentine