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Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon

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Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon
Part of World War II
Image:Toulon 1942.jpg
The French fleet scuttles itself: left is the Strasbourg (bridge above the water but clearly sunk) ; next to her, burning, is the Colbert ; under the smoke, the Algérie ; to the right, the Marseillaise. <ref>Position des bâtiments au matin du 27 novembre 1942, Netmarine.net</ref>
Date 27 November 1942
Location Toulon, France
Result German failure to capture the French fleet
Combatants
Vichy France Nazi Germany
Commanders
Jean de Laborde, André Marquis
Casualties
whole fleet scuttled ; 12 killed ; 26 wounded. 1 wounded.

The scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon occurred on the 27 November 1942. On the order of the Admiralty of Vichy France, units of the French fleet were scuttled to avoid capture by Nazi Germany

Contents

[edit] Context

After the Fall of France and the Armistice of 1940, France was divided in a zone occupied by the Germans, and a so-called "Free zone", administrated by Vichy France. The armistice stipulated that the French fleet should be largely disarmed and confined to its harbours, under French control. The destiny of the French fleet, which included some of the most advanced units of the time, was a matter of concern for the Allies, triggering the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir by the British ( 3 July 1940), and the later Battle of Dakar (23 September 1940).

On the 8 November 1942, the Allies invaded North Africa, in Operation Torch. Eisenhower, with the support of Roosevelt and Churchill, made agreements with Admiral François Darlan, commander of Vichist forces in North Africa, that he would be given control if he joined the Allied side. When Adolf Hitler found out what Admiral Darlan intended to do, he immediately triggered Case Anton, the occupation of Vichy France, and reinforced German forces in Africa.

[edit] Prelude

[edit] Political aspect

From the 11th November, negotiating took place between Gemany and Vichy France. The settlement was that Toulon should remain a "stronghold" under Vichist control, defended against the Allies and the "French enemies of the government of the Marechal". Großadmiral Raeder commander of the Kriegsmarine, believed that French Navy officers would fulfil their armistice duty not to let the ships fall in the hands of any foreign nation, and managed to have the ear of Hitler. Raeder was led to believe that the German aim was to use anti-British sentiment amongst the French sailors to have them side with the Italians, while Hitler was in fact preparing a forcible seizure of the fleet. Hitler's plan was to have German sailors board French ships, secure them, and turn them over to Italy; officers put in the secret of the plan were critical of it, but, as often with Hitler, their objections were ignored. Orders to implement the plan were given on the 19th.

On the 11, as German and Italian troops encircled Toulon, the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Auphan, ordered Laborde and Marquis to

  1. oppose, without spilling of blood, entry of foreign troops in establishments, airbases and buildings of the Navy
  2. similarly oppose entry of foreign troops aboard ships of the Fleet; find settlements by the mean of local negotiating
  3. if the former proved impossible, to scuttle the ships.

Initial orders were to scuttle the ships by capsizing them, but engineers, thinking of recovering the ships after the war, obtained that the orders be changed to sinking on an even keel.

On the 15th, Laborde met with Pétain and Auphan. In private, Auphan tried to persuade Laborde to set sail and join with the Allies ; Laborde refused to obey anything short of a formal order of the government. Auphan resigned shortly after.

[edit] Technical and tactical aspect

On the French side, as a token of good will towards the Germans, coastal defences were strengthened as to safe-guard Toulon from an attack from the sea by the British. These preparations included setups for scuttling the fleet, in case of a successful landing by the Allies. French forces were commanded by Admiral Jean de Laborde (chief of the "High sea fleet", composed of the 38 most modern and powerful units) and Admiral André Marquis (préfet maritime, commanding a total of 135 ships, either in armistice custody or under repairs).

Under armistice provisions, the French ships were supposed to have their fuel tanks quasi empty; in fact, through falsification of reports and tampering with gauges, the crews had managed to salvage enough fuel to reach North Africa. One of the cruisers, the Jean de Vienne, was in drydock, helpless. After the remains of the French Army were disbanded on German request, French sailors had to man coastal defence artillery and anti-aircraft guns themselves, which made it impossible to swiftly gather the crews and have the ships depart.

Crews were initially hostile to the Allied invasion but, out of the general anti-German sentiment and as rumours about Darlan's defection circulated, this stance evolved towards backing of De Gaulle. The crews of the Strasbourg, Colbert, Foch and Kersaint, notably, started chanting "Vive De Gaulle ! Appareillage !" ("Long live De Gaulle ! Set sail !"). In the afternoon of the 12th, Admiral Darlan further escalated the tension by calling for the fleet to defect and join the Allies.

Vichist military authorities lived in fear of a coup de main organised by the British or by the Free French. The population of Toulon was in majority favourable to the Allies; the soldiers and officers were hostile to the Italians, seen as "illegitimate victors" and duplicious, and defiant of the Germans. The fate of the fleet was particularly seen doubtful. Between the 11th and the 26th, numerous arrests, controles and expulsions took place. The French admirals, Laborde and Marquis, ordered their subordinates to take a pledge of allegiance to the regime (two of the senior officers, colonel Humbertand and capitaine de vaisseau Pothuau, refused). The crews were first kept aboard their ships, and when they were allowed ashore, the Service d'ordre légionnaire was monitoring all places suspected to be targeted by the Resistance.

[edit] Operation Lila

On the 19 November, operation Lila was triggered, with objective to capture Toulon and the French fleet. Preparation was underway until the 27th.

German forces were to enter Toulon from the East, capturing Fort Lamalgue, headquarters of admiral Marquis, and Mourillon arsenal; and from the West, capturing the main arsenal and the coastal defences. German naval forces were cruising off the harbour to engage any unit attempting to flee, and mines were laid.

In the morning of the 27th, at 4:30, the Germans entered in Fort Lamalgue and arrested Marquis, but failed to prevent his chief of staff, contre-amiral Robin, from calling the chief of the arsenal, contre-amiral Dornon. The attack came as a complete surprise to the Vichist officers, but Dornon transmited the order to scuttle the fleet to admiral Laborde, aboard the flagship Strasbourg. Laborde was taken aback by the German treason, but transmitted orders to prepare for scuttling, and to fire on sight on any unauthorised intruder.

Twenty minutes later, German troops entered the arsenal and started machine-gunning the French submarines. Some of the submarines set sail to scuttle in deeper water. The Casabianca left her mooring, sneaked out of the harbour and dived at 5:40, escaping to Alger.

The German main force got lost in the arsenal and was behind schedule by one hour; when they reached the main gates of the base, the sentries pretended to need paperwork, as to delay the Germans without engaging in open fight. At 5:25, German tanks finally rolled through, and the Strasbourg immediately transmitted the order "Scuttle ! Scuttle ! Scuttle ! " by radio, optical signals and dispatch boats. French crews evacuated, and scuttling parties started preparing demolition charges and sea valves on the ships.

At 6:45, fighting broke out around the Strasbourg and the Foch, killing a French officer and wounding five sailors. When naval guns started engaging the German tanks, the Germans attempted to negotiate; a German officer demanded that Laborde surrender his ship, to which the admiral answered that the ship was already sunk.

As the Strasbourg settled on the bottom, her captain ordered the ignition of the demolition charges; the armament and vital organs of the ship were blown, and the fuel around ignited; she was a total loss.

A few minutes after, the Colbert exploded.

The German party which was trying to board the Algérie, hearing the explosions, tried to persuade her crew that scuttling was forbidden under the armistice provisions, but the ship exploded. She burnt for 20 days.

Meanwhile, the captain of the Marseillaise ordered his ship capsized and demolition charges lit. German troops requested permission to come aboard; when this was denied, they did not try to board. The ship sank and exploded. She burnt for 7 days.

As tensions escalated, German troops forcibly boarded the Dupleix, put her crew out of the way, located and closed the sea valves. The ship's captain, capitaine de vaisseau Moreau, ordered the scuttling charges in the main turrets to be lit with shortened fuses and when they exploded and fires took hold, Moreau ordered the final evacuation. French and Germans aboard all fled the vessel. Explosions of the ship's torpedo stores destroyed the vessel, which burned for 10 days.

The Jean de Vienne, in drydock, was boarded by German troops, who disarmed the demolition charges, but the open sea valves filled the ship. She sank, blocking the drydock. In another drydock, the captain of the Dunkerque at first refused orders to scuttle, but was persuaded by his collegue of the nearby La Galissonnière. The holes in the hull caused by earlier British torpedo attacks were used to sink the ship, and demolition charges blew her vital organs. As the Dunkerque exploded, the La Galissonnière reproduced the manoeuver executed by the Jean de Vienne.

Officers of the Provence and of the Commandant Teste managed to talk and chat with the German officers until their ships were completely sunk.

Similar scenes occurred with the destroyers and submarines. The Germans eventually seized three disarmed destroyers, four badly damaged submarines, three civilian ships, and the remains of two pre-dreadnought battleships of no value.

[edit] Aftermath

Operation Lila was a failure. The French destroyed 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 13 torpedo boats, 6 sloops, 12 submarines, 9 patrol boats, 19 auxiliary ships, 1 school ship, 28 tugs and 4 cranes. 39 small ships were captured, most of them sabotaged and disarmed. None of the scuttled ships was salvageable. Some of the ships were ablaze for several days, and oil spoiled the harbour in such a way that it was two years before it was possible to swim.

Some submarines ignored orders to scuttle themselves and choosed to defect to Free France. Two of them reached Alger (the Casabianca and the Marsouin); one, Oran (Le Glorieux); and one, Barcelone (the Iris). The Vénus eventually scuttled herself in the entrance of the harbour. One surface ship, the Leonor Fresnel, managed to escape and reach Alger.

General De Gaulle blasted the Vichist admirals for not ordering the fleet to flee to Alger.

The regime of Vichy lost its last token of power, as well as its credibility for trusting the Germans.

[edit] Ships scuttled

[edit] Battleships

[edit] Seaplane tender

[edit] Cruisers

[edit] Destroyers

  • Cassard
  • Aigle
  • Gerfaut
  • Lion
  • Linx
  • Indomptable
  • Mogador
  • Panthère
  • Tigre
  • Kersaint
  • Tartu
  • Valmy
  • Vauban
  • Vauquelin
  • Vautour
  • Guépard

[edit] Torpedo boats

  • Casque
  • Bordelais
  • Bison
  • Bayonnaise
  • Froudroyant
  • Trombe
  • Siroco
  • Poursuivante
  • Mars
  • Hardi
  • Palme
  • Cyclone
  • Mameluk

[edit] Submarines

  • Redoutable
  • Eurydice
  • Diamant
  • Thétis
  • Sirène
  • Vénus
  • Vengeur
  • Naïade
  • Pascal
  • Espoir
  • Achéron
  • Fresnel
  • Caïman
  • Henri Poincaré
  • Galatée

[edit] Sloops

  • Épargne
  • Iberville
  • Chamois
  • Yser
  • Impétueuse
  • Curieuse
  • Granit
  • Dédaigneuse

[edit] Notes and references

<references/>

[edit] External links

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