Attack on Mers-el-Kébir 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 3 July 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Algeria | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Operation Catapult | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 35.7195, -0.6889 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The attack on Mers-el-Kébir (Battle of Mers-el-Kébir) on 3 July 1940, during the Second World War, was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir, near Oran, on the coast of French Algeria. The attack was the main part of Operation Catapult, a British plan to neutralise or destroy French ships to prevent them from falling into German hands after the Allied defeat in the Battle of France. The British bombardment of the base killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five other ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed. The attack by air and sea was conducted by the Royal Navy, after France had signed armistices with Germany and Italy, coming into effect on 25 June.
Of particular significance to the British were the three battleships of the Bretagne class and the four fast battleships of the Richelieu and Dunkerque classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that the ships would fall into Axis hands. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, assured the British, even after the French armistices with Germany and Italy that the fleet would remain under French control.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (revision 1379779948), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Capture of Mers-el-Kébir (1505) 1505 · 3 km
- Battle of the Habrah 1835 · 4 km
- Siege of Oran (1790–1792) 1790 · 6 km
- Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir 1563 · 6 km
- Siege of Oran (1556) 1556 · 6 km
- Siege of Oran (1693) 1693 · 6 km
Browse more: battles in Algeria · Africa · World War II era battles