In addition, the French Navy also has 9 heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers, more than 80 destroyers and more than 100 submarines, both the number of capital ships and the total displacement can be ranked 4th in Shijie, and because many new Japanese ships have not been disclosed at this time, most countries at this time think that the French Navy is Shijie third.

In 1932, in the face of the threat from the German Navy's "Deutschland" class pocket battleships, the French Navy began to build Dunkirk-class battlecruisers. This ship type surpassed the imaginary enemy in terms of displacement, speed, train and armor thickness. Soon after, France began construction of the Richelieu-class battleship, which was comparable in performance to the Bismarck-class under construction in Germany at that time and the "King George V" class under construction in Britain, and was one of the most Haode battleships on the Shijie. In late 1940 and early 1941, after the completion of three Richelieu-class battleships, France began construction of three more powerful and improved Richelieu-class battleships

The ambitious French Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Darlan, did not just aim to defeat the weak German Navy, but also to use its growing naval power to rival Britain and gain greater interests in the post-war period. However, man is not as good as heaven, and due to the collapse of the ground forces, the French navy not only did not have a place to use, but also fell into an extremely dangerous and embarrassing situation

After France surrendered to Germany, Hitler, taking into account the strong national feelings of the French people, did not immediately ask the French army to join the Axis side to fight against the Allies. However, in order to prevent the French army, especially the French navy, from defecting to the Allied side, he demanded that the ships of the French navy be temporarily concentrated in several ports in southern France, such as Toulon and Marseille, and then streamlined according to the terms of the armistice agreement to reduce the French navy to 100,000 men (about two-thirds of the ships could be retained), and the warships that were eliminated were divided between Germany and Italy

At this time, the French navy was in a very awkward position, they had no enemies and no allies before they could use their strengths, and the question of where to go was troubled by the soul of the French navy, Admiral Darlan. In order to fly the French flag on French warships, and in order to preserve half of France and the vitality of the French navy, he chose to obey the Vichy government. Naval ships were ordered to be stationed in several ports in southern France. Among them, the capital ships were basically concentrated in the military port of Toulon.

But the choice of the French navy greatly displeased the hard-line British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who could not tolerate the possibility that the mighty French navy Liliang would one day become a threat to the British mainland or threaten its sea lines, either possess it or destroy him. So at his behest. Britain instituted a military operation codenamed "Ballista Jihua" aimed at controlling or eliminating the French navy. The operation was carried out in three areas:

August 24, 1941. On the third day after the signing of the Franco-German armistice, the British navy raided the French warships anchored at the British military ports of Portsmouth and Plymouth, disarmed them and took over the fleet; September 3 of the same year. In the French West Indies, the local French fleet, in agreement with the United States, disarmed; As for Toulon, the main assembly place of the French Navy, the Royal Navy developed a special plan of action in order to ensure that nothing went wrong, for which they concentrated most of the battleships and aircraft carriers of the British Royal Navy and numerous auxiliary ships to form an unprecedentedly large "H" fleet, which was commanded by Vice Admiral James Brown. Sir Somerville was in charge of the battleships King George V, Revenge, Resolve, Sovereign, Ramillis and Royal Oak, the aircraft carriers Radiance, Dreadnought, Victory and 1 heavy cruiser, 3 light cruisers and 12 destroyers, even if the French resisted. Sir Somerville was also confident that he could smash him to the scum

However, before the "H" fleet could assemble, the battleship HMS Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay mysteriously exploded and sank during the night, and due to the power of the explosion (Note 1), the warship was directly blown into several pieces and could no longer be repaired, and only a few dozen of the more than 900 officers and men on board survived

Churchill was devastated when he learned of this, because the "Royal Oak" had visited many countries as the seat of the British king, and the throne of the British king was permanently placed in the VIP room on the ship, and the portraits of the British kings were hung on the walls. In the eyes of the British people, the "Royal Oak" is a symbol of the invincible Royal Navy, and its sudden sinking will undoubtedly further demoralize the British military and civilians, who have been devastated by successive defeats.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Royal Navy set up a commission of inquiry consisting of 15 experts. After analysis and investigation, the Commission concluded that the Royal Oak had been sunk by a torpedo fired by a German submarine. However, the channel of Scapa Bay is narrow and tortuous, there are floating batteries and blockade ships at the entrance to the base, and even ordinary surface ships need to be guided by navigators, and the base commander once asserted that "there is no threat from the sea in Scapper Bay!" Experts could not imagine how the German submarine had bypassed many obstacles from underwater to enter the harbor in the middle of the night.

A bewildered Churchill ordered the dismissal of all senior officers at Scarpa Bay Naval Base, but falsely claimed that the HMS Royal Oak had sunk due to a boiler explosion. It wasn't until the end of World War II that the British learned that a German spy had infiltrated Scapa Bay, and after investigating everything, they guided the German submarine to complete this unexpected sneak attack

The accidental sinking of the battleship "Royal Oak" cast a shadow over the expedition before it had even begun, and the loss of one battleship was also a big blow to the strength of the "H" fleet. However, the "H Fleet", under the command of Vice Admiral Somerville, succeeded in encircling the French fleet in the port of Toulon and issued an ultimatum to it: either join the Allied forces in the war against Germany, or sink all ships within six hours

Note 1: Because Hu Weidong reminded the Germans of the problem of low torpedo fuse trigger rate, the reliability of German torpedoes has been greatly improved compared with history, so the torpedoes that hit and successfully detonated in this sneak attack were 5 instead of 3 in history, and the result can be imagined, even if the British have also mastered the liquid air method, this battleship should not be salvaged and repaired (to be continued......