Text 35826, 72 rader
Skriven 2006-08-03 09:34:56 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
  Kommentar till text 35787 av BOB KLAHN (2:292/854)
Ärende: Israel
==============
03 Aug 06 12:49, Ward Dossche wrote to BOB KLAHN:

The French Marine Minister Admiral Darlan had given Churchill his word
that the French fleet would never be allowed to fall into the hands of the
Nazis. But what neither knew at the time was that Hitler had no interest
in acquiring it-only neutralizing it by scuttling or by internment for the
duration in French ports "under German or Italian supervision". Hitler's
naval emphasis had been on submarine warfare and he simply did not have
the manpower to staff a fleet of seven battleships, twenty cruisers, two
aircraft carriers and dozens of destroyers and auxiliary ships.

The words "under German or Italian supervision" ultimately found their way
into Article Eight of the armistice agreement which had been drafted in
French. It immediately sounded alarm bells in the British Admiralty
because of inclusion of the French word contr“le. In French it means to
keep custody of and to inspect, but not to exert operational control. The
British, never known for their interest in foreign languages, quite
naturally took the word to mean that the Germans would take over control
of the French fleet. Feeling betrayed, a meeting of the British War
Cabinet on June 24, 1940 concluded that Article Eight's assurances were to
be disregarded. This resulted in a cascading distrust between two nations
that had every need--and reason--to feel solidarity with one another, even
though one had been beaten by a common enemy.


 >> It sounds more like the French had no intention of fighting, but
 >> wouldn't, or couldn't surrender.

 WD> There was an agreement with the Germans that the capital ships of the
 WD> French navy would sail to African ports and disarm themselves there.
 WD> The logic behind this is that the Germans rather had disarmed French
 WD> floating metal in an African port than a surface fleet larger than
 WD> anything they could come up with joining the British.

 WD> Admiral Sommerville was unaware of this and, indeed, when he sent
 WD> Captain Holland to the French Admiral, the latter refused to abide
 WD> with any of the terms as there was already an agreement with Germany.
 WD> All of the sailors on board of the French ships, whatever their rank,
 WD> had families in occupied territory as well.

 WD> The French capital ships all were anchored with their bows pointing
 WD> to land and the rear batteries and been trained as much forward as
 WD> they could to show their unwillingness to fire.

 WD> Sommerville related the French unwillingness to comply, but also
 WD> their intention to disarm, to his admiralty and suggested not to take
 WD> action. Rather follow-up what the French would be doing. Action could
 WD> always be taken as the ships were anchored in a kind of voluntary
 WD> rat-trap anyway.

 WD> The Admiralty ordered to fire anyway and for 13 minutes there was an
 WD> exchange of gunfire. Many French sailors perished and it clouded
 WD> Anglo-french relations for quite a while since nearly all of these
 WD> men and ships had participated in the rescue-attempt of the British
 WD> expeditionary forces at Duinkerke.

 WD> Detail, Captain Holland was to be promoted to Admiral. We know him as
 WD> Lancelot E. Holland who went down with the HMS Hood after his tragic
 WD> errors during the battle against Bismarck.

 WD> Take care,

 WD>  \%/@rd

 WD> --- D'Bridge 2.55
 WD>  * Origin: "Leonard will be free" - http://www.leonardpeltier.org
 WD> (2:292/854)

               R\%/itt

--- Twit(t) Filter v2.1 (C) 2000
 * Origin: Hacienda de Rio de Guadalupe * South * Texas, USA * (1:1/22)