In June 1940, when France surrendered, the French Navy had six battleships and two battle cruisers. Excluding aircraft carriers, in terms of the number of battleships and cruisers, they have already surpassed the British Royal Navy, which had just been completely annihilated by the German Navy. Regardless of the performance of a single ship and the factors of night fighting, its strength on paper can even compete with the German Navy, which has been in great glory for the past six months -- of course, this is the era of aircraft carriers, and the biggest weakness of the French Navy is the lack of aircraft carriers, and the aircraft carriers "Commander Turst" and "Béarn" are both "under construction."

Among the warships in service, there are three battleships of the "Brittany" class, namely "Brittany", "Provence", and "Lorraine". (Historically, the battleship Lorraine was originally seized in Britain, but this plane has changed too much due to historical changes, and it has become the Dunkirk battle cruiser)

There were three battleships of the "Courbet" class, "Courbet", "Paris", "Ocean", and the fourth ship "Jean. The "Barr" has been decommissioned, and the name of the ship has been vacated to the newly built "Richelieu" class No. 2. The main turrets of the amidships of this class are arranged on both sides, so the maximum salvo fire of the single side is five twin main turrets, which are relatively old ships, which were originally preparing to retreat into the second-line troops and turn into reserves, but were pulled back into the battlefield because of the outbreak of World War II. At the outbreak of the French Campaign, the French Navy did nothing because the lessons of the previous naval battles in the Norwegian Sea had exposed the great threat of aviation to battleships, and the French Navy did not dare to sail battleships into the dangerous English Channel.

In addition, there were two Dunkirk-class battlecruisers, more than two dozen cruisers, dozens of destroyers, and as many as 101 submarines (a significant part of which were old ones). And this is not even the two aircraft carriers under construction, the battleship Richelieu, which is nearing completion (more than 90% complete, with all the main guns installed). The hull work is almost complete, and the first quadruple turret has been installed. The battleship Bar, these battleships under construction are counted.

In terms of the capital in hand, when France was defeated and surrendered in June 1940, the condition of the French navy was in the best state in history.

It is different from the British Navy, which can only buy World War I antiques from the Americans with a single vote. The belongings of the French Navy are much better-looking.

Historically, the British launched Operation "Catapult" shortly after the French signed the instrument of surrender, relying on the huge numerical superiority of the Royal Navy, attacking the French fleet and almost annihilating the French Navy.

But in this plane, in addition to the weakness of the French Navy lacking aircraft carriers, the number of capital ships far exceeds that of the British Navy, and the little capital in Churchill's hands is simply not enough to challenge the French Navy head-on.

In June 1940, when French resistance at home collapsed, the navy suddenly became more important than ever. Unlike the Army. The French Navy did not suffer any defeats. After the defeat of the army, Darlan became the most senior commander in the French army, and the navy became the only remaining organized force in France. Darlan devoted his life to the rebuilding of the French navy, and his command of the naval fleet was practically absolute in every way, and all the officers and men of the navy were loyal to him. Therefore, at this critical moment that determines the future and fate of the country, Darlang's actions suddenly become pivotal.

Darlan, the French admiral, was a very complex character. He was ambitious, self-serving, and very capable, the French Navy before the outbreak of World War II. It is in the best form in the past 50 years, and Darlan's role in the process has been indispensable.

It's just that this person is morally a speculator. He has been watching the political situation in France in order to see the wind and steer the rudder, and bet his bets on the side that is best for him.

When the Germans entered Paris, the complete defeat of the French mainland was imminent, and France was divided into two factions, the Reynaud government, which advocated the continuation of the war, and the Petain regime, which advocated peace with Germany now. As the battle situation gets worse and worse. The voice of the Lords and Factions in France gradually overwhelmed the Lords and Bellists, and Darlan also turned to the Lords and Factions of Petain at a critical moment.

When the French army was losing ground and the French government began to consider an armistice, it made secret contacts with the German representatives. Britain and the United States also engaged in intense diplomatic mediation to prevent the French naval fleet from falling into German hands.

Before the fall of Paris, President Cactus Ghana sent a telegram directly to Renault, urging Renault to ensure the safety of the French fleet. It was hoped that the French Government would reject any temptation offered by the Germans on the condition that the French fleet surrender would be moved, and that the entire fleet would be moved to a safe place, noting that "the preservation of the fleet is a matter of life and death for the sake of France's future".

Over the next few days, he received constant distress telegrams from Renault. For the French Army, whose neck had been put on a noose by the Germans and almost pulled off the planks under their feet, Cactus Garner didn't even have the idea of reaching out to pull them, and what he was most concerned about was still the fate of the French fleet after the defeat in France.

Churchill was more anxious about this than the president of the United States, who was far away on the other side of the Atlantic. When the French government was engaged in secret peace talks with the Germans, Churchill even went to Darlan himself, and said to him, almost in a pleading tone: The Germans must not be allowed to get their hands on the French fleet.

For the past month or so, both the British and the Americans have been fighting for Darlan, hoping that he will be able to take the fleet away and throw it over to the British. For the British, whose navy was completely destroyed by the Germans and needed to be rebuilt, if they could get the French navy to join, their situation of being passively beaten in the Atlantic could be reversed.

However, the hatred between England and France is not much weaker than that between Germany and France. Da Laand hated the Germans very much, but compared with his hatred of the British, it was half a catty to eight taels. In the three naval battles of the Norwegian Sea, the British were beaten to the ground by the German navy each time, and when they repeatedly asked the French navy for help, the French had almost no actual support except for verbal condolences.

When France was defeated and surrendered, most of the capital ships of the French Navy fled to Moroccan ports in North Africa. Even the battleships Richelieu and Jeanbar, which had not yet been built, left the mainland.

After the signing of the armistice between Germany and France, the French were surprised to find that the terms proposed by the Germans in this armistice were surprisingly lenient. In addition to recovering Alsace and Lorraine, which had been taken after World War I, the greatest demand was simply for the French to repay the war reparations paid to France by Germany after World War I.

As for the French Navy's handling of the matter, the Germans simply demanded that the French Navy swear an oath of "permanent neutrality" and promise that there would be no hostile acts against Germany, and they did not even demand the return of the French Navy hiding in Morocco in North Africa.

The main reason why the Germans did not make such demands was that Lin Han, who was well aware of history, knew that the current French government was no longer able to control the French navy, and instead of making these unrealistic demands to bring humiliation on himself, it was better to pretend to have a high posture to appease the heart of the French navy.

Due to the destruction of the main British Grand Fleet, the importance of the French fleet became even more prominent. Become a major power in the Atlantic and Mediterranean...... As long as the French navy was on either side of the belligerents, the outcome of the war would be disrupted. As such, it became one of the diplomatic trump cards on which the new Pétain government maintained its neutrality and survived the world war.

For Germany, which had just won the Battle of France, the armistice was like a reassurance, and it did not have to worry for the time being that the French fleet would fall to the side of the Allies; For Britain and the United States, the French fleet was like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, threatening their security at all times.

If the French navy had joined the German side, and the Italians who had always wanted to join Germany, British shipping in the Mediterranean would have been completely ruined.

For the benefit of both Britain and the United States. Whether it is Cactus Garner or Churchill the Fat, this time is to do their best to win over Darlan, but this cunning Frenchman is simply not exhausted, Darlan is worried that once the French fleet joins the British Navy, it will inevitably trigger German retaliation afterwards, which will only bring a greater crisis to the current France.

When the armistice was signed between Germany and France, the British, taking advantage of their home advantage, suddenly dispatched troops and seized the French battlecruiser Dunkirk, along with the rest of the auxiliary warships.

The originally friendly relations between Britain and France were also overshadowed by this incident.

Another French battleship was also anchored in England, but due to the timely response of the French, the British seizure failed, and the French warship left England with several French warships and returned to the port of Toulon in the south of France. Due to the heavy losses of the Royal Navy in previous battles, it was simply impossible to intercept the fleeing French ship at that time.

But now, as Britain's strategic situation became worse and worse, Churchill had to start attacking the French fleet more and more, nipping a crisis in the bud.

Since the surface gunboats of the British Navy were inferior to those of the French Navy, Churchill and his curtain chatter, after a long time, could only turn their ideas to the aircraft carriers. 、

Cunningham was the Royal Navy's leading expert on air warfare, and because of the defeat in the Second Battle of the Norwegian Sea, he was later locked up for scrutiny, and has not reached a conclusion until now.

This time, in order to deal with the French navy, Churchill took the lead and released him from his confinement.

When meeting Cunningham, Churchill's first words were: "The French navy is now the greatest danger to the empire on which the sun never sets, and you have no way to kill them." (To be continued......) R1292