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| Naval forces ofFree France |
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TheFree French Naval Forces (French:Forces Navales Françaises Libres,FNFL) were the naval arm of theFree French Forces during theSecond World War. They were commanded by AdmiralÉmile Muselier.
In the wake of theArmistice and theAppeal of 18 June,Charles de Gaulle founded theFree French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" (Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL). On 24 June 1940, de Gaulle made a separate broadcast specifically to French servicemen overseas, calling for them to join him; two days later the submarineNarval entered Malta and its crew pledged their allegiance to the FFL.[1] On 30 June, de Gaulle was joined by Vice-AdmiralÉmile Muselier, who had come fromGibraltar byflying boat. Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of de Gaulle.
The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself orAlexandria in Egypt. As part of the first stage of the British effort to capture or neutralise the vessels of theFrench Navy, codenamedOperation Catapult, the ships in the British ports ofPlymouth andPortsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940. The crew of the then-largestsubmarine in the world,Surcouf, which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were the two obsoletebattleshipsParis andCourbet; thedestroyersLe Triomphant andLéopard; eighttorpedo boats; five submarines (includingMinerve andJunon) and a number of other smaller vessels. Some 3,600 sailors operating 50 ships around the world joined with theRoyal Navy and formed the nucleus of the Free French Naval Forces.[2] France's surrender found her only aircraft carrier,Béarn, en route from the United States loaded with a precious cargo of American fighter and bomber aircraft. Unwilling to return to occupied France, but likewise reluctant to join de Gaulle,Béarn instead sought harbour inMartinique, her crew showing little inclination to side with the British in their continued fight against the Nazis. Already obsolete at the start of the war, she would remain in Martinique for the next four years, her and her aircraft deteriorating in the tropical climate.[3]
As early as the summer of 1940, the submarinesMinerve andJunon, as well as fouravisos, departed from Plymouth. Towards the end of 1940, the destroyersLe Triomphant andLéopard followed.Le Triomphant sailed forNew Caledonia and spent the rest of the war based there and in Australia. The ship saw action in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Civilian vessels and crew also rallied to de Gaulle, starting with four cargo ships in Gibraltar - they would be the beginning of the merchant fleet of the FNFL.[4]
To distinguish the FNFL from the forces ofVichy France (which was collaborating with Nazi Germany), Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier created abow flag displaying the French colours with a redCross of Lorraine, and aroundel also featuring the Cross of Lorraine for aircraft of theFree French Naval Air Service (Aéronavale Française Libre) and theFree French Air Force (Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres).
A number of ships were leased from the British to compensate for the lack of warships in the FNFL, among them, theHunt-class destroyerLa Combattante and theFlower-classcorvetteAconit.
The FNFL suffered their first loss when the patrol boatPoulmic hit amine and sank on 7 November 1940 off Plymouth.[5]
Soon after the fall of France, Free France was but a government in exile based in England, with no land of its own to speak of and very few land or sea forces. In an attempt to establish his authority on an important French territory, General de Gaulle attempted to rallyFrench West Africa by personally sailing toDakar with a British fleet which included a few Free French units; at the same time, acruiser force had been sent by Vichy France to reclaim African territories which had already announced their support of de Gaulle (notablyChad). The resultingBattle of Dakar ended in a Vichyite victory. However, after the occupation of Vichy France by the Germans after theAllied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, French West Africa also eventually joined the Free French. As a result, important ships based in Dakar were obtained: the modern battleshipRichelieu; theheavy cruiserSuffren;light cruisersGloire,Montcalm andGeorges Leygues; and a few destroyers, including cruiser-sizedLe Fantasque-class destroyers.
CaptainHenri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves answered the call to join de Gaulle and arrived in London on September 1940. Unable to obtain a sea command, he asked to join theFrench Resistance and was landed in Western France to organise a Resistance network. Betrayed and arrested by theGestapo in January 1941, d'Estienne d'Orves became an inspiring symbol after he was tortured and executed.
In the summer of 1944, theInvasion of Normandy took place. The FNFL took part in both the naval side of the operations,Operation Neptune, and the landing itself, with the Naval Commandos (Commandos Marine) of CaptainPhilippe Kieffer climbing cliffs under fire to destroy German shore batteries.
Several ships of the FNFL were deployed off the landing sites :
In addition the obsolete battleshipCourbet wasscuttled offArromanches to serve as a breakwater for aMulberry harbour.
The cruisersGeorges Leygues andMontcalm, along with the battleshipUSS Arkansas provided fire support for the infantry until 10 June.
La Combattante silenced Germancoastal artillery deployed atCourseulles. The next day, she started patrolling theEnglish Channel. On 14 July, she ferried General Charles de Gaulle to France.[6]
Le Triomphant, under the command ofPhilippe Auboyneau was transferred to thePacific theatre of the war, where in February 1942 it took part in the evacuation of European and Chinese civilians and military personnel fromNauru andOcean Island in anticipation of Japanese invasionsof Nauru andthe Gilbert Islands.Triomphant was later stationed along the east coast of Australia, where in early 1943 it was involved in the rescue of survivors fromSS Iron Knight, which was sunk by atorpedo launched by theJapanese submarine I-21. After the rescue,Triomphant then searched forI-21 for a day, but without success.[citation needed]
From 1944, the battleshipRichelieu and destroyer leadersLe Terrible andLe Fantasque operated with the BritishEastern Fleet in combat operations against Japan, and later took part inOperation Tiderace, the takeover of Singapore a month after the end of the war, during whichRichelieu was damaged by a mine.
The FNFL also harboured technical innovators, such as CaptainJacques-Yves Cousteau, who invented the modernaqua-lung; andYves Rocard, who helped perfectradar. The aqua-lung became a major improvement for commando operations. However, Jacques Cousteau joined the FNFL only after theliberation of France. He had spent the entirety of the war to that point in France and developed the aqua-lung in Paris during the German occupation.
The merchant fleet of the FNFL suffered heavy casualties, amounting to one quarter of its men.
A number of warships were lost, notably the submarineSurcouf, possibly sunk in afriendly fire incident. Other losses include thedestroyersLéopard andLa Combattante; the submarineNarval; thepatrol boatsPoulmic andVikings, and thecorvettesMimosa andAlysse.
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