FRENCH FLEET

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1940, Page 5

FRENCH FLEET

NAVAL REPORT

SUCCESS AGAINST CAPITAL SHIP

(United Press Association —By Electri« Telegraph—Copyright).

LONDON, July 9. An authoritative statement has been issued as follows: — “Continuing the oerations to prevent important units of the French Fleet from falling into enemy hands, the Royal Navy early on Monday successfully took action agajinst the most recently completed French capital ship, the Richelieu.

THE DUNKERQUE BOMBED. GRENOBLE, July 8. A French naval communique states: British war planes again attacked the Dunkerkue with bombs and, machineguns, killing and injuring over 200 sailors, and inflicting additional heavy damage. BRITISH ADMIRALTY DENIAL. LONDON, July 8. An Admiralty communique states: — The Vichy Government is reported to have issued an account of the British action at Oran, containing allegations that our forces machine - gunned French sailors, both on the deck of ..the Dunkerkue, and while they were trying to abandon their ship. There is aio truth whatever in such allegations, which the Germans clearly dictated to the French Government Machine guns were not used in either action against the Dunkerque. It will be recalled that the first adtion occurred after Admiral Gensoul signalled that -ho was ordering the crews to evacuate the vessels. There should, therefore have been no . man aboard the Dunkerque when the second action was taken. ORAN NAVAL ACTION. I •'* GEN. DE, GAULLE’S VERSION. (Per British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 8. . General de Gaulle, in a French broadcast, referred to the tragic shelling at Oran, which he described qs a particularly cruel episode. There was not a Frenchman, he said, who had not heard with grief ‘ and anger that units of the French Fleet had been sunk by the Allies. The French Fleet were at their mooring, unable to move or scatter. That- gave to the British ships the advantages of the first salvoes, which. General de Gaulle added, are decisive at short range “Their destruction,” he continued “was not the result of a fight. This is what a French soldier tells his British Allies —all the more clearly as he respects them in naval matters. “Next speaking to the French people, I ask them to consider this from the only point of view which must count —that of victory and liberation. following the dishonourable agreement the Government which was at Bordeaux had accepted, to hand over our ships to the enemy’s discretion. There calnulot be the slightest doubt that, on principle and out of necessity, the enemy would have used them, either against Britain or against the French Empire. And I say without hesitation that it is better they should have been destroyed. I would rather know that the Dunkerque, our beautiful and beloved Dunkerque, is aground at Oran, than see her one day manned by Germans, shelling British ports or Algiers, Casablanca, or Dakar.” LONDON, July 9.

General de Gaulle, in the course of his broadcast, asked they British people not to regard the Oran engagement as a direct naval success, because, he said, the French ships were unable to fight. They were moored at Oran. They were unable to manoeuvre or to scatter, with the officers and the men corroded for a fortnight, by the worst moral sufferings. They gave to-the British ships the advantage of firing the first salvoes, which advantage was decisive at such range. “Spare us,” he added, “from the interpretation that their destruction lias resulted from a fight.”