British Capture French Ships (# 119)
British Ultimatum (# 120)
British Open Fire (# 121)
British and French Negotiations (# 122)

From the moment those comrades turned their guns against France, the French no longer entertained any scruples. they had been freed from any such. The English had thought only of themselves - now France had only to imitate them and think of France first. The break could, of course, only profit the Germans.

The French Navy, driven out of its Atlantic bases by the Germans and now out of its African bases by the British, had nowhere to go but Toulon and there, by their very nearness, they offered a constant temptation to the Germans -- to which the Germans finally succumbed on 27 November 1942, when they attempted to get their hands on it.

Anyone would presume that the new F.F.N.F. (Free French Naval Force) after Admiral Muselier’s General orders announcing the founding of the F.F.N.F. dated 1 July 1940 to every Flag and General officer, to all officers, warrant officers, petty officers and non-commissioned officers, seamen, and airmen of the French armies of the air and of the sea, to fight for France alongside of England, would have drawn many recruits from among the 20,000 sailors who were then in England. Many had fought heroically at the side of the English. But the Free French propaganda, with its attacks on the legal government of France, only succeeded in recruiting a few hundred men from all French sailors who were quartered on shore, but not a single recruit from the crews of the French ships in port.

The crews of the French ships in English ports amounted to around 12,000 men. Their will to continue the fight might perhaps have triumphed over their sense of discipline if the British had not perpetuated the tragedy of Mers-el-Kebir and the seizure of the ships at Portsmouth and Plymouth. these actions almost killed the F.F.N.F. in the bud. There were, of course, other factors as well.

Rightly or wrongly, there were wide differences of opinion over the personal characteristics of Admiral Muselier and especially over his differences with Admiral Darlan and their reaction to distrust anyone who was apparently allied with the English. This reaction expressed itself in the camps by very active counter propaganda against the British and the associates of General de Gaulle primarily.

Much less resentment was felt against Admiral Muselier, who had a far better understanding of the feelings of the restricted French sailors. On 3 July 1940, the personnel strength of the F.F.N.F. was about 400 men, of whom about a dozen were officers. Among the 1st French ships to re-enter the fight were two submarines.

Of these, the NARVAL (pictured at right) with its division in the harbour of Sousse, Tunisia at the time of the armistice. Without saying a word to anyone, her Commanding Officer Lieutenant Francois Drogou, took her to sea and proceeded to Malta from which place he later announced his accession to the Free French Forces.

(HARRY’S NOTE - the French submarine NARVAL suffered a similar fate as the famed SURCOUF; namely she disappeared without a trace and rumors flew that she was hunted down by the Royal Navy and destroyed under suspicion of aiding the Germans. There is no proof of this at all, and no trace of NARVAL or her fate. In fact, the Allies used Madame Drogou in a counter-propaganda effort in which the widow of the Skipper stated that she did not believe the British sank her husband’s submarine.)

The other submarine was the RUBIS (pictured at right). This submarine minelayer had been operating with the British in the Norwegian campaign, during which it distinguished itself by its boldness and effectiveness when, at the beginning of June 1940, France had recalled all her submarines in the North Sea. The British had been so insistent in their request to retain the RUBIS that the boat was left under their orders. When the armistice talks began, RUBIS was at its base in Dundee, Scotland.

At the urgent request of the British Admiralty, Vice Admiral Lord Odend-Hal consented to its making a last patrol on 21 June, to use the supply of mines which she had just taken aboard. In return, Admiral Phillips solemnly promised that the moment the armistice went into effect, the RUBIS would be recalled as otherwise, its crew might run the risk of being treated as pirates if she were captured by the Germans.

That promise was not kept. On 26 June, the day after the armistice went into effect, the RUBIS was permitted to plant mines in the approaches leading to Trondheim. Two days later, a German sub-chaser was lost in that minefield. It was the fourth victory for RUBIS, and the previous ones had already won the respect of the British Admiralty.

All this however, did not spare her the indignity of being forcibly seized along with the other French ships on 3 July. Her seizure had been particularly easy since all her crew had been granted a well-earned rest ashore. After a week’s deliberation, her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Georges Cabanier, overcame his feeling of rancor, and he and his men decided to continue the fighting on board the ship which they had handled so well.

Under his command and later under Lieutenant Henri Rousselot, his successor, RUBIS was to make an exceptional record. She carried out 22 war patrols along the enemy coast, always under perilous conditions. Reliable German sources later confirmed that she was responsible for the sinking of 17 enemy ships, 15 of which have been positively identified.

Outside of these two submarines which had joined the Free French fully manned and trained, only the colonial sloop SAVORGNAN de BRAZZA had been able to recruit an important portion of her former officers and crew. In the case of all others, it was necessary to supply practically all new compliments, and their return to active service was relatively slow.

On 14 July 1940 - BASTILLE DAY, the National Holiday, Admiral Muselier created a battalion of ‘Fusiliers Marins’, better known as the Marines. The Free French who continued the fight took pleasure in seeing this successor to the famous Marine Brigade of 1914 ‘Les Demoiselles Au Pompom Rouge’ or the Maidens with the red pompoms.

This new battalion of about 200 or 300 men, the kernel of a future regiment, first were engaged in the overseas operation undertaken by General de Gaulle at Dakar, at Gabon and in Syria. Later they were seen at Bir Hacheim under the command of Lieutenant Commander Hubert Amyot d’Inville, fighting this time with General Pierre Koenig’s brigade in action against the Germans. Still later they took part in the campaign in Italy, in the landing in Provence, and in the final breakthrough in Germany which took them to the Danube.

The attack on Dakar by General de Gaulle, although disapproved by Admiral Muselier, will be expanded on later in this work with other naval actions by the French and English.

In the meantime, the British learnt that on 2 July a directive by the OKW (OberKommando der Wehrmacht or Armed Forces High Command) and Hitler decided that under certain conditions a landing in Britain might be considered.

HARRY’s NOTE - please keep VIC HAWKINS in your prayers as he is going through a very tough time, fighting cancer. VIC, we are all pulling for you and praying that you defeat this foe.