RN Bretagne

Catapult-hadművelet, Mers-el-Kebir, 1940. július 3.

October 23, 1940. Les Actualites Mondiales. On July 3, 1940, the British Admiral James Somerville, commanding Force H at Gibraltar, presented an ultimatum to the French admiral, Marcel-Bruno Gensoul, demanding that the French fleet moored at Mers el-Kebir on the Algerian coast either join with the British navy, move to the West Indies or face destruction. The French admiral rejected the ultimatum. In the afternoon of July 3, the British attacked with the battle-cruiser HMS Hood, the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. The British attack led to the sinking of the old French battleship, the Bretagne, with 977 dead, and damage to the battleships Dunkerque and Provence. The battleship Strasbourg escaped to Toulon. In all, some 1297 French sailors and marines were killed and another 350 wounded.