Mers el Kebir

There was a fascinating More 4 progamme on Mers el Kebir last Saturday. Many young people must be hard-wired into Winston Churchill legend after The Darkest Hour but I suspect ignorant of a crisis that confronted him in July 1940 two months into his Premiership.

France had fallen but still had a powerful navy – two of its capital ships, the Strasbourg and Dunkerque, more powerful than anything in the Royal Navy.

Some of the fleet was in British ports, some in Alexandria but the bulk in Mers el Kebir in the protected harbour of Oran, Algiers.

Should this fall into Nazi hands they would have a massive naval advantage.

Churchill offered French Admiral Dahlan either a take-over by the British or a move to French West Indies. Dahlan rejected both but assured Churchill he would scuttle the fleet if the Nazis sought to take his ships over.

Churchill set a deadline and dispatched Admiral Somerville with a task force headed by HMS Hood. The French senior naval officer Mers el Kebir refused to parlay as he considered his British negotiator inferior in rank so Somerville subjected the fleet to a barrage that resulted in the death of 1,200 sailors.

The French never forgave the British, bombing Gibraltar ineffectually. Ironically the Strasbourg escaped to Toulon and was scuttled when, in 1942 as part of Operation Anton, the Nazis sough to commandeer it.

Churchill was physically sick when he heard the news of Mers el Kebir and was fearful of the reaction of the Commons. In fact he received overwhelming support. It was a crucial factor in Roosevelt’s decisions to support Britain as he was impressed by the resolve.

It maintained the supremacy of the Royal  Navy though the wolf packs of U-boats inflicted huge damage on the convoys until Bletchley broke the codes and – above all – it sent a clear message to Hitler that Britain would fight dirty.