The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (30 page)

As a result of the surrender of France,
a study had been made of the possibility of aerial attack on the United Kingdom, possibly followed by a seaborne invasion.

Since it is clear from the activity of the Luftwaffe that their Air Fleets are reorganising and building up strength in Northern France, it is taken as given that some sort of bombing campaign will ensue. RAF Fighter Command has already been planning for this, as have the AA defences, but there are problems due to the insufficient number of fighters available.

The Navy is already well advanced with its preparations to repel any seaborne invasion, but in the meantime they offer the help of the FAA to defend the country. While the FAA aircraft can communicate with the RAF stations (common frequencies and equipment has been worked on since the FAA took over defence of Scapa Flow and had to coordinate with the RAF), operational procedures are different.

The FAA can offer 36 Goshawks (these are the operation reserve held in the UK for the carriers, plus a further 18 aircraft from HMS Formidable (currently undergoing repairs for her torpedo damage). In order to simplify the integration of the forces, it is suggested that the FAA take over responsibility for the North. This will allow Fighter Command to allocate 3 squadrons of replaced fighters into the south. In view of the Goshawks range and training in working over water, this area is thought particularly appropriate for them to defend. The FAA say that while more planes will be available soon (as in the Spitfire and Hurricane factories, the Goshawk has been given priority and production will soon be at nearly 50 planes a month), they have a shortage of pilots.

The FAA had been building up its pilot roster from the RNVR and new pilot trainees as they knew they had five carriers finishing this year. As a result, they have not had the chance to build up a pool of replacements (this was scheduled for after the new carriers airgroups had been filled out), and they have had to replace their losses over Norway. If they were to provide more pilots for the air defence of the UK, then the fleet carriers would be underprotected, and Norway has already shown how dangerous this is. As a compromise, some of the pilots serving on the light carriers escorting convoys were marked as emergency replacements.

Looking at the planes they have in reserve, the FAA can probably supply another couple of squadrons if it can find the manpower - this would be useful, as five squadrons of the longer-ranged Goshawk can probably cover the North of England. Then someone wrestling with the problem wonder
ed what happened to the RAF pilots who used to fly with the FAA up till late 1939, when they finally had enough pilots to manage on their own?

The old French battleships
Courbet and Paris and several destroyers and submarines, including the giant Surcouf, are in British ports. They were boarded and seized by the Royal Navy, but not before there are casualties on both sides; three British personnel and a French seaman die in scuffles on board the submarine Surcouf; In total 59 French warships are seized; they will all be commissioned into the Royal Navy, where most of them will end up being manned by the Free French forces.

In Alexandria, Admiral Cunningham is able to reach agreement
, after considerable discussion, with the French Admiral Godfrey on the demilitarisation of battleship Lorraine, four cruisers and a number of smaller ships.

There is, however, a
considerably more serious problem with the French ships at Mers-el-Kebir near Oran. The French force here is much more powerful (the old battleships Provence and Bretagne, the modern battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg, the Seaplane carrier Commondante Teste, and 6 destroyers), under the command of Admiral Gensoul.

The British force, commanded by Admiral Somerville, consisted of the battleships Hood, Resolution and Valiant, the aircraft carriers Ark Royal, Glorious, and Implacable, and supporting cruisers and destroyers. Somerville is under strict orders from Churchill to make sure the French ships do not fall into German hands, even if that means sinking them himself. Somerville is not himself enthusiastic about the order, but he has received a message from Frazer tellin
g him that he will back his attempts to negotiate with the French, but that the ships must not get away to France.

Accordingly, Somerville starts by letting the French see his force, before the carriers pull out to sea and he sends Captain Holland, the Ark Royal commander, to negotiate. Before he leaves, Holland informs him that the French Admiral is very conscious of protocol, and asks if Somerville will negotiate in person (with him to translate) if it would seem to offer better results. Somerville has no objection; he is quite confident that with three fleet carriers available the French ships cannot escape without being damaged and
then brought down by his battleships.

Holland, who knows some of the French officers personally, finds that indeed Gensoul would be offended by talking terms with him. He signals this to Somerville, who joins him ashore. The terms from the British are simple:

(1) Sail with us and continue the fight until victory against the Germans.

(2) Sail with reduced crews under our control to a British port. The reduced crews would be repatriated at the earliest moment.

If either of these courses is adopted by you we will restore your ships to France at the conclusion of the war or pay full compensation if they are damaged meanwhile.

(3) Alternatively if you feel bound to stipulate that your ships should not be used against the Germans unless they break the armistice, then sail them with us with reduced crews to some French port in the West Indies - Martinique for example — where they can be demilitarised to our satisfaction, or perhaps be entrusted to the USA and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews being repatriated.

(4) If you refuse these fair offers, I must with profound regret, require you to sink your ships within 6 hours.

(5)Finally, failing the above, I have the orders from His Majesty's Government to use whatever force may be necessary to prevent your ships from falling into German hands.

Gensoul is unhappy with all of these options, but having been told
of the force Somerville has outside the harbour, he felt there was little or no chance of his ships escaping to France unless they could escape under cover of night, or maybe with the aid of submarines. He has already sent a signal asking for submarine support.

The British are happy to negotiate for either of the first three options. They do point out (having a reasonable idea of what options Gensoul has to break out) that the area off the coast is being patrolled by their planes, and in view of th
e risk from Axis submarines, any submarine sighted that attempts to submerge will of course have to be sunk 'as a precaution'. Gensoul hadn't told Admiral Darlan of all the options he has been given, and tries to stall the negotiations until dark.

Oddly the British don't seem too concerned at this, and the reason why is shown as twilight deepens; Gensoul has ordered his ships to be at 30 minutes notice, and these preparations are shown in clear detail by the flares dropped by the first of what will be a continual stream of Swordfish (who seem to be stuffed full of flares) that circle the harbour all night. The British point out blandly that this is just 'to make sure no unfortunate incidents happen that might be confused by darkness'. He has already been informed that the British carriers haven't gone away, they are just out of sight; that evening, French Curtiss H-75 fighters flew over the British battleships in a show of force; one answered by a full squadron of Goshawks, who obligingly tailed and escorted them over the fleet and home again.

By the morning, Gensoul realised he had run out of options. Somerville has pointed out he MUST have a decision that day, and asks if it would help if he signalled Admiral Darlan himself? Gensoul knew that if this happens his mendacity will be exposed, and that Darlan will probably be unhappy. His decision was helped by the news that Admiral Godfrey at Alexandria has agreed to demilitarise his ships. He will now not be the first French Admiral to allow his ships to be rendered impotent.

According he agreed
, very grudgingly, to sail to Martinique under US escort and be interred there. The USA will handle the arrangements, which means that the French ships will not appear to have been taken there by the Royal Navy. He didn't see he has any option; the results of the Royal navy's carriers and surface ships off Norway made him think he had no chance of reaching France with a breakout.

For his part, Somerville is satisfied; he had no desire to have to sink the French ships, and he knew they would have been easy targets (unknown to Gensoul some 60 bombers have been spotted on the carriers, armed and fuelled, to fly off if any French ships were seen to attempt to leave the harbour). He has been politely ignoring constant signals from Churchill to hurry up, aided by Fraser who has been pointing out that with the carriers and battleships there they is little chance, short of divine intervention by the weather, of the French ships making an escape.
While Churchill was adamant that the French ships must not end up in German hands, the performance of the Royal Navy and the FAA off Norway made the decision to allow Somerville more time acceptable to him.

Twelve Cormorant dive bombers of 813 Squadron, nominally assigned to
HMS Courageous (they were actually the reserve force at Alexandria), had been forwarded to an advanced airbase near Sidi Barrani, giving them the range to hit shipping in and around Tobruk, 110 nm away. Besides sinking the destroyer Zeffiro and the destroyer Euro, one merchant ship was sunk and one damaged.

The actions of the Royal Navy in impounding the
French ships in British ports was condemned by the Vichy government, who broke off diplomatic relations. The actions in North Africa to peacefully resolve the situations was announced by London as a major diplomatic success, and a special effort was made to point this out to any and all French colonies, many of which were still wavering over supporting Vichy.

HMS Warspite arrived at Gibraltar. She wa
s intended to join the East Mediterranean fleet at Alexandria and allow one of the ships there to go home for a short refit - she had received an updated radar while her damage from the Gneisenau battle was being repaired.

The Sudan Defence Force at the frontier post is attacked by a greatly su
perior Italian force, but fought a successful delaying action and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.

7th - 8th July - Dakar, off Africa

The Royal Navy ca
rrier HMS Colossus and the heavy cruisers HMS Dorsetshire and HMAS Australia, with accompanying destroyers, laid off Dakar Harbour. Their mission was to obtain a surrender from the French garrison, but the French blocked the port to prevent it being delivered. Colossus was carrying a full deck park for the first time, as there wasn't another carrier immediately available to support her (42 planes have been squeezed onto the light carrier, her deck officer praying daily they don't encounter bad weather).

The British sent
a small boat to deliver the ultimatum anyway. After it docked, 12 Swordfish and 12 Cormorants flew over the port in a show of force. After recent events, it's a rather unsubtle reminder of what the Royal Navy can do to ships in port. Despite this the Vichy French authorities sent the British messenger back, ultimatum unopened. As a result, the British make a dummy run over the Richelieu, to make it clear what they are going to do. AA fire is desultory and ineffective.

The next wave of aircraft drop torpedoes. Immobilised in the harbour, the Richelieu is a helpless targe
t, and was hit by 3 torpedoes. She took on an immediate list. The FAA break off their attack - there are no heavy repair facilities at Dakar, and the ship is now effectively immobilised. It is an unsatisfactory ending for the allies, but they have no troops with them and while they could sink all the ships in the harbour, it seems that this would be unlikely to force the commander to surrender.

6th July - Mediterranean Sea, Battle of Calabria

On the 6th of July an Italian convoy left Naples, destination Benghazi. It was escorted by three grou
ps of ships; a close escort of eight destroyers and four torpedo boats, six heavy cruisers and four destroyers 35 miles to the east, and the main force consisting of the battleships Cesare and Cavour, eight light cruisers and 16 destroyers.

At the same time the Royal Navy was involved in its own convoy run, this time from Al
exandria to Malta. Two convoys were actually involved, a fast convoy at 13kt and a slow one at 9kt. Protecting them were three groups of ships; Force A, with five cruisers and a destroyer, Force B with the battleship Malaya and five destroyers, and Force C with the battleships Ramilles and Royal Sovereign, the carrier Courageous and 11 destroyers.

At 0800 on the 8th,
Admiral Cunningham received a report from the submarine HMS Phoenix that at 0515 she had sighted two Italian battleships and four destroyers some 200m east of Malta, steering south. Malta was instructed to search the area with flying boats, and Cunningham altered course to the NW.

While this search was going on, Cunningham's force received unwelcome visits from the RA. First the fleet was located by two Cant Z.506 reconnaissance seaplanes from Tobruk. While they radio
d the location back to Admiral Campioni, the two slow seaplanes very soon learnt that attempting to shadow a fleet covered by Goshawks is a very dangerous undertaking. One was shot down; the second was damaged but managed to make its escape by hiding in the clouds. Admiral Campioni ordered his fleet to defend the convoy by turning eastward and preparing for action. The Italian Supreme Command, however, was reluctant to risk its warships in a night time encounter, and they ordered the fleet to avoid contact.
During the initial positioning the Italians suffered technical problems on three destroyers and two light cruisers, so these ships, with several additional destroyers, were detached to refuel in Sicily.