Quote Originally Posted by Brenus
“Britain had attacked and killed French soldiers without declaration of war” Ok, this one is difficult to explain. I had a member of my former family in law who was in the FNFL (Forces Navales Francaises Libres) at the moment of Mers El Kebir. He told me that that was a tough moment for the Free French. However, the German propaganda trying to exploit the thing made a mistake. The diying French Sailor was wearing the 2 black ribbons of the Kriegsmarine, not the Red pompom of the French Navy.
I never heard that before. Can you confirm that. From all I heard I always had the feeling that the Germans did not have any influence on the French fleet in Africa and furthermore, that Hitler did not want to take it away from the French, at least not in 1940. Therefore the British operation would have been hyperbolical.

By the way, did you know that the French bombed Gibraltar as a responce to the attack of the French fleet. So war between GB abd France was very close I guess. Can you imagine that a nation makes an air raid against Gibraltar and Britain does not declare war, esp. with a PM like Churchill?