In a tragic confrontation at Mers-el-Kebir,

the British -fearful that the French fleet would

fall into the hands of the Nazis - gave their former ally an ultimatum to neutralize their ships or face destruction. Confronted with death or dishonor, the French chose the only reply their pride would allow.

As a young sailor during WWII, I served aboard the USS CHAMPLIN (DD-601) which escorted an Allied convoy to Oran, Algeria, in the spring of 1943. The nearby harbor of Mers-el-Kebir was still littered with the battered and rusty hulks of some of the French warships sunk three years earlier by ...

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