Operation Catapult: Winston Churchill and the British Attack on the French Navy at Mers-el-Kébir

The Associated Press called the Royal Navy’s July 1940 attack on the French fleet “the strangest of all naval actions in the world’s history,” and said Winston Churchill’s ensuing speech to the House of Commons was “like no other every heard in its ancient halls.”

This little-remembered incident from Churchill’s second month as Britain’s Prime Minister briefly shocked the world. During a one-sided bombardment at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria, the Royal Navy killed 1,257 French seamen.

Two thousand miles to the east, as French and British admirals in Alexandria worked toward a brittle compromise to save lives, Britain’s actions at Mers-el-Kébir jeopardized the French Admiral’s willingness to cooperate.

In the view of Churchill biographer Paul Reid, this story has “all the vital ingredients - action, diplomacy, Winston Churchill, betrayal, heroics.”