Operation Catapult: Winston Churchill and the British Attack on the French Navy at Mers-el-Kébir

In July 1940, just weeks after France signed an armistice with Germany, Winston Churchill made one of World War II’s most shocking and controversial decisions: he ordered the Royal Navy to open fire on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, killing more than 1,200 of Britain’s recent allies. The Associated Press called it “the strangest of all naval actions in the world’s history.” Churchill feared that Hitler would seize the powerful French fleet and turn it against Britain, so when French com...