The Scene of the Battle

Much of the action described in my book Operation Catapult took place in this crescent-shaped harbor at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria.

French battleships were anchored inside the man-made breakwater toward the top of this photo, with their big guns facing the shoreline and their sterns, for the most part defenseless, facing the Mediterranean Sea.

Force H - seventeen Royal Navy warships under the command of Vice Admiral Sir James Somerville - approached, unannounced, from the west (i.e. from the top of the picture) in the early morning hours of July 3, 1940 after an overnight passage from Gibraltar.

The Association des Anciens Marins de Mers-el-Kébir (Association of Former Sailors of Mers-el-Kébir) recently posted this picture (taken late last year) with the heartfelt inscription: “Let it be a symbol for you of the gentleness and calmness that these images of the port of Mers-el-Kebir inspire, where the souls of our sailors float forever.”