This WWII Attack That Was The Ultimate Betrayal No, not Barbarossa or Pearl Harbor

[DGUtley]

On July 3rd, 1940, the French dreadnought battleship Bretagne was struck by a heavy shell. The resulting explosion tore through the battleship and sank her instantly taking a thousand French crewmen down with her. The attack came as a surprise to the French sailors in port and they watched in horror as one of France’s aging premier ships went up in flames with hundreds of their fellow Frenchmen aboard.

The perpetrator of the attack was not Nazi Germany nor was it their Italian allies. It was the British. The attack stunned France, who had recently been forced to sue for peace with Adolf Hitler, and was seen as one of the greatest military betrayals in their history.

What caused Winston Churchill to turn his back on Britain’s former ally?


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https://medium.com/exploring-history...b3a5a4d516----

[Peter1469]

Britain didn't want that battleship in Nazi service.

[Daily Bread]

Churchill did the right thing and France should have expected the response . A matter of survival if Germany was able to gain control of those warships .

[Peter1469]

Churchill did the right thing and France should have expected the response . A matter of survival if Germany was able to gain control of those warships .

The French should have scuttled their own ships or if there was time to beat feet elsewhere like the US while France surrendered.

[Daily Bread]

The French should have scuttled their own ships or if there was time to beat feet elsewhere like the US while France surrendered.

Agreed - than they wouldn't have been in fear of supplying the German enemies according to the plan but they didn't so Great Britain had to make the tough and correct decision . I'm surprised they didn't destroy the whole fleet but Churchill was a lot more reasonable than I .

[US Conservative]

There were a lot of French ships in Vichy France and at the time, the axis had a relative naval superiority in the Mediterranean. Germany alone was causing major issues in the north sea and north atlantic.