French fleet, scuttling of

French fleet, scuttling of. Under the terms of the Franco-German armistice of June 1940 the French fleet, apart from those units needed for the security of French colonies, was to be demobilized under German and Italian control. However, after the British bombardment of French warships at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940, the order was only partially implemented by the reduction of some crews; so that when the survivors of Mers-el-Kébir, and other warships which had left for North Africa to escape the Germans, rejoined the French squadron at Toulon the French fleet remained a powerful entity.

Following the North African campaign landings by the Allies in November 1942 Hitler ordered the occupation of Vichy France on 11 November and on 19 November, after some hesitation and complicated negotiations with the French, the seizure of the fleet. In Toulon at that time were about 80 warships totalling 200,000 tons (a third of the fleet's tonnage in 1939) which included two modern battle-cruisers, Strasbourg and Dunkerque, and the battleship Provence. German forces attacked the dockyard at dawn on 27 November and were fired on by the French. Five submarines then managed to escape, but the rest of the fleet was scuttled by its crews before the Germans could find their way to them, thus fulfilling the pledge given by Admiral Darlan to the British in June 1940 that the ships would never fall into German hands intact.