On July 3, 1940, British forces attacked French ships at the naval base at Mers-el-Kébir on the coast of Algeria. The attack was part of a British plan to neutralize French ships to prevent them from falling into German hands after the Allied defeat in the Battle of France. The British attack killed nearly 1,300 French servicemen, and sank and damaged numerous vessels. It also seriously jeopardized French and English relations throughout the world. This is the story of the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-Kébir
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2022/august/force-h-mers-el-kebir
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Croiseur_de_bataille_Strasbourg_03-07-1940.jpg
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