Battle of the Third Reich

As a matter of fact, the claims of the French are reasonable. Sixteen military ships of various sizes, with a total of 1,759 lives, are not something that can be written off with a single stroke.

At that time, the French Mediterranean Fleet stationed in Alexandria had no casualties other than the fleet commander and chief of staff since the martyrdom. However, there were British air strikes on Mirskbil, Oran, Saint-Nazaire, Port of Toulon, and Portsmouth. With the fire in Plymouth Port, the French navy suffered heavy losses.

The two old French battleships docked in the Portsmouth port, as usual, half of the crew were on the shore vacation, because the information was unclear for a while, so the two captains did not issue a convening order. These French who remained on the shore Although the navy officers and soldiers were placed under house arrest by the British army afterwards, they finally saved a precious life.

However, the fate of the half of the crew who stayed on duty was quite different. On that **** night where iron and fire were intertwined, the [Lonely] and [Paris] attracted more than 90% of the firepower of the British coastal artillery and surface ship forces.

The kind of tenacious fighting will shown by these French naval officers and soldiers that night made the Royal Navy feel incomprehensible. According to a captain of an American oil tanker who witnessed the entire fire on the balcony of the Naval Dormitory in the Yard Harbor District, after the war, he recalled to the media that the French battleship [Lonely] was on the night until one side of the deck was submerged in the water. The main gun is still insisting on the counterattack. The brave performance of this French battleship is completely worthy of the tricolor flag on the top of the high canopy.

Both of these warships are part of the Fifth Squadron of the French Navy, and the [Lonely] and [Paris] are both classified as artillery training ships. There are many new sailors in the crew, interns in the naval officer school and Reserve officer who just graduated.

The French Naval Command declared that the two warships were sent to the United Kingdom to enter the Atlantic to carry out training missions. In fact, in addition to this, to avoid these two old and slow battleships, the plain loss was in the hands of the Germans because Under the rapid attack of the Luftwaffe, these two old battleships with poor air defense firepower may not last for fifteen minutes.

At that time, the French Navy even thought about allowing these two warships to be repaired and upgraded in the British military port. As a result, Churchill launched the "Operation of the Catapult" before the two-week suspension.

The original full strength of the [solitary] class battleship was 1,108. At this moment, as a training ship, an additional number of internship sailors and reserve officers were added, and the total number of the crew reached 1,550.

In addition to the officers and men who stayed overnight on the shore that night, there were 677 naval officers and men on board. When the battle was over, the Royal Navy rescued only 65 people from the water and the remaining 550. Twelve officers and soldiers sank to the bottom of the sea together with the "Gu Liao".

Until two weeks after the incident, the Royal Navy could still find the bodies of French officers and soldiers floating on the surface. It is estimated that there are still many corpses that fell into the mud at the bottom of the port and could not rise to the surface, and more people remained in the port. Inside the hull.

The convergence of these French remains did not really begin until the end of the war, because the port had been bombed by the German Air Force, the port equipment was severely damaged, the loss of naval personnel was also very serious, and Portsmouth was beaten. The mess was almost a waste port. At that time, even if the Royal Navy had any ideas, it was already overwhelmed.

By the time the British began to clear the ports and waterways under the supervision of the German occupation forces, everything seemed too late. Most of the corpses have been highly corrupted in the sea water, and some have been engulfed by marine life and have become ossified. Returning this corpse to the French navy is simply sprinkling a lot of salt on the French wound.

Although the British tried to conceal the matter, the French finally learned the truth from the Germans, but Betan had no choice but to be angry. He had to complete the reconciliation with the British, which was related to Germany. The head of state’s European strategy cannot in any case refute von Stade’s face on this issue.

Peitang could be a marshal, of course, not a Virgin figure, so he simply pretended to be deaf and dumb, as if he had never heard of it.

The family members of the French navy officers and soldiers who died in the months after the war went to the naval headquarters for three days, and the French high seas fleet stationed in the port of Toulon also procrastinated the handling of the incident, which generally caused dissatisfaction. In terms of a satisfactory explanation, President Bedan will be quite embarrassed here.

The problem is that in this matter, the British are completely unprepared to face, Chamberlain's cabinet first blamed the incident on Churchill and the wartime cabinet, but at the same time it was just a regrettable misunderstanding. They were willing to apologize to the French government in the name of the Cabinet of the British Empire, but rejected the French side’s request to punish the person directly responsible, and finally came up with a compensation plan worth 400,000 pounds.

The Royal Navy also promised to be responsible for salvaging the self-sinking French ships in the port and the body of the fallen soldiers, while searching for the remains of the missing officers and soldiers as much as possible.

Of course, France will not accept this kind of plan. In fact, apologies and the like are all official articles. Everyone knows the tricks in it. As long as the media can get through, there is no problem in the name of anyone. But dealing with the person directly responsible is purely to appease the hearts of the navy. After all, now that there is a big French, only the high seas fleet can be left on the table.

The French believe that the British should at least throw a scapegoat with enough weight to let France pretend to be a good one. Then, the military court will be sentenced to more than ten years in prison, and Marshal Betan will be brushed in the navy. Take the prestige and at the same time the French people can have a good time.

It's not a big wait for a year and a half to pass the limelight, and find another opportunity to issue a presidential amnesty order, and then both sides will compensate for the bad luck. Isn't it a happy ending.

The other is the compensation of 400,000 pounds. At first glance, it seems quite a lot, but note that the British mentioned in the agreement is a total value of 400,000 pounds. This means that part of the payment is repaid in kind, even It may not even be the real thing, there are too many greasy things to play with.

The British declared that the war had caused a severe blow to the British economy, and the domestic financial situation was so bad that they could not mobilize too much funds for the time being. However, the British government has prepared a lot of strategic resources for war preparations, which can be handed over to France as compensation.

In addition to the famous woolen textiles, there are a number of second-hand agricultural machinery and processing machine tools in the plan. The British eyes are very poisonous. These are the most urgently needed in France. And in order to show a friendly attitude, the UK claims that these will only be calculated Cost price.

Petain did not know how much the German had robbed from Britain before, but he knew how much France had lost. Britain should only have a lot more than France. Hundreds of thousands of pounds can't make it.

In the end, after continuing to pull the skin for more than half a month, both sides made some concessions. The United Kingdom agreed to throw a scapegoat, and Betan agreed to the rest of the British settlement plan.

It is because the British finally made a big move that made President Betan have to be willing to follow suit.

Before Renault ordered a batch of treasury gold to be sent to Canada as a reserve for buying weapons and equipment in the Americas. As a result, after the French surrendered, the Canadian government froze this batch of gold, and after the war, the Canadians found a bunch of All kinds of reasons, anyway, do not want to return this gold to the French.

This time the British Cabinet stated that if France agrees to this "compensation plan", then the British government will urge Canada to unfreeze the gold and return it to the French people as soon as possible.

Petain never thought there could be such an operation between countries. The shamelessness of the British gave the old marshal an eye-opener.

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