That feeling when the scene from your book cover surprisingly appears in a new movie

Charles de Gaulle’s name appears in Operation Catapult 44 times, so it was interesting to learn last week that a two-part movie about de Gaulle’s wartime escapades and heroics will be out this summer. I was especially eager to watch the two-minute trailer, curious about how the filmmaker (Antonin Baudry) would portray the slice of history that I know the most about.
 
I was absolutely unprepared, however, for the scene that appears at the 21-second mark in the trailer – a cinematic depiction of the opening seconds of the British attack on French ships at Mers-el-Kébir while British biplanes flew overhead. I don’t think I talk to my computer screen very often, but I will admit to an involuntary and loud “Oh my God!” the first time I watched that scene, and compared it with the with illustration on the cover of Operation Catapult.

The trailer shows a massive explosion on a French ship as it is hit by a 2,000 lb. shell fired from ten miles offshore. The ship shown in the movie has the silhouette and the precise location of the French battleship Bretagne, which (as you will finally get to read about in one month and one day) was the first ship to be hit by British fire on July 3, 1940. I’ve written about this battle in brutal detail. But to see it depicted in such furious clarity was striking.

From my perspective, this brief battle scene is remarkably accurate. Its inclusion in the film also provided welcome (if somber) affirmation of the attack's historical relevance.

Simon Russell Beale, the actor who plays Winston Churchill, appears in the trailer as well. It would be an understatement to mention that Churchill and de Gaulle had a complicated relationship.
 
De Gaulle: Tilting Iron and De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge will be released by Pathé (in France at least) on June 10 and July 3, 2026 respectively. (July 3, once again, is the anniversary of the attack at Mers-el-Kébir).

I posted the picture below several weeks ago. I thought it would be fitting to once again show the tranquility of the harbor at Mers-el-Kébir in 2026.
 
Thanks for reading (and, eventually, watching),
Bill