Text 15439, 79 rader
Skriven 2005-11-03 09:46:19 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av Dan Ceppa
Ärende: Re: Plates
==================
>> The French fleet was blown out of the water in Morocco.
 
For starters, Mers-el-Kebir is in Algeria, not Morocco. American knowledge of
geography again it seems ... Perhaps New York is in Canada ... ;-)
 
On July 3rd 1940 only the French battleship "Bretagne" sank. Contrary to
popular belief that was the single casualty of the bombing of the Algerian port
by HMS Hood, Valiant and Resolution.
 
"Provence" and "Dunkerque" ran themselves aground to prevent sinking in the
narrow waterway but never showed any sign of going down and were not put out of
action.
 
1,297 French died, most in the explosion of "Bretagne". That was the end of the
action at Mers-el-Kebir ... one ship put out of action. That is totally
different than "a fleet being blown out of the water".
 
There was also a French fleet in the Egyptian port of Alexandria, 1 battleship
"Lorraine" and 4 cruisers. The crews "demilitarised" their vessels to prevent
them from being used by the Nazis. In 1943 they all weighed anchor anyway and
joined the Free French in the UK.
 
The Brits also tried to torpedo the French battleship "Richelieu" in Dakar,
that is in Senegal ... yet another country ... It was damaged but remained
serviceable.
 
The French fleet continued to be used mainly in the Mediterranean and Africa's
west-coast. At some point they sailed into the French port of Toulon, part of
Vichy-France and not occupied by the Nazis. Eventually the Nazis invaded
Vichy-France as well and attempted to capture the French fleet which suddenly
would upgrade their navy to a mighty foe of the Royal Navy with its several
battleships and an aircraft-carrier.
 
This was November 27th 1942. The French scuttled their complete fleet (all
ships) while in port, including the battleships "Dunkerque" and "Strassbourg"
which both were in Mers-el-Kebir. It reminded of the Germens who in 1919
scuttled their high-seas fleet which was interned at Scapa Flow.
 
For the duration of WW2 the Nazis were unable to refloat any of the French
capital ships and put it into action.
 
The Nazis made an incredible propaganda story out of it with photo-series in
their propaganda-magazine "Signal" of which, of course, a complete set is
available in my personal library. If you would like to, and if I get my PC to
work again to which the scanner is attached, I could scan some of the great
photographs.
 
So to set the record straight ... the French fleet was not blown to pieces in
Algeria. Only one battleship was destroyed in Mers-el-Kebir and outside port of
Oran a small gunboat was torpedoed. All other units survived and either saw
action on the side of the Allies or were scuttled in Toulon.
 
> WD> Then you might try to explain why 2 French cruisers and only 1
> WD> American cruiser provided fire-support for troops on Omaha-beach.
> WD> They were not invented.
 
> Yes, they were...
 
The official sources state that 2 French cruisers and 1 US cruiser provided
fire-support for US troops landing on Omaha-beach. Perhaps another story you
haven't heard.
 
> In any event, the French fleet surrendered.  And, I wouldn't call
> 2 ships "a fleet".  There were over 3,000 ships involved with
> that landing.
 
The French fleet "never" surrendered to the Nazis.
 
A quick look-up reveals there were 672 military vessels involved in the
landing. 457 Royal Navy, 196 US, 9 French, 10 other nationalities.
The others were civilian vessels. In that case Belgium also took part in the
landing at Normandy.
 
Greetings,
 
 \%/@rd

--- DB 1.91sl/100000
 * Origin: "Leonard will be free" - http://www.leonardpeltier.org (2:292/854)