3rd July 1940.
The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult. The operation was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.
The combined air-and-sea attack was conducted by the Royal Navy after the Second Armistice at Compiègne between Germany and France on 22 June. The only continental ally of Britain had been replaced by a government administered from Vichy, which inherited the French navy (Marine Nationale). Of particular significance to the British were the seven battleships of the Bretagne, Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that France would hand the ships to the Kriegsmarine, giving the Axis an advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.
Ships :
Royal Navy
Set-up
Assume an 8x6 table with long edges denoting North and South. Set up the French fleet about 2' up from the South end of the table.
Force H comes from the North side of the table.
Coastal guns are in effect from Fort Santon and Fort Mers-el-Kebir.
Aircraft are Swordfish and Skuas for the British, Curtiss H-75 fighters for the French.
Swordfish can drop magnetic mines and/or torpedoes but not in the same attack.
All French ships are stationary at the start of the battle. Surprise by the British will mean that the French ships can only respond after d3+2 turns (3-5 turns). Roll individually for each capital ship.
Coastal guns can return fire after 3 turns. Assume equivalent of 13.5" guns - 2 per fort. British ships can engage the forts coastal guns (check GQ rules).
Response means both returning fire and moving. Note the tight confines of the harbour and the necessity of not fouling on the defensive boom means that French ships will move at a maximum 1/4 of their maximum speed until clear of the boom.
Ships can exit the boom in single file (capital ships) or side by side (destroyers). If the British have mined the boom exit, roll for mine attacks for ships exiting the boom.
Once out of the boom French ships can aim to escape from any table edge.
Objectives / victory conditions
British
Sink / cripple 3 or more French capital ships
French
Have 3 capital ships escape off table.
Referees Notes
The French player(s) will be up against it from the start so make it clear that they are not expected to win by engaging the British fleet directly but to escape to fight another day (although they will need to fight in the escape if only to reduce the amount of incoming fire!). It is recommended to have more stoic players play the French.
Alternative Scenarios
a) The French have advance warning of British intentions and get underway from the end of Turn 1
b) French warships dispatched from Toulon and Algiers in a reprise attack engage Force H as it returns to Gibraltar. The French fleet consists of the remaining three battleships of the main classes of the French fleet with commensurate cruiser and destroyer escorts. British ships are any remaining (and carrying over the damage) from the scenario above.
The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult. The operation was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.
The combined air-and-sea attack was conducted by the Royal Navy after the Second Armistice at Compiègne between Germany and France on 22 June. The only continental ally of Britain had been replaced by a government administered from Vichy, which inherited the French navy (Marine Nationale). Of particular significance to the British were the seven battleships of the Bretagne, Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that France would hand the ships to the Kriegsmarine, giving the Axis an advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.
Ships :
Royal Navy
- HMS Hood – battlecruiser – Flagship
- HMS Resolution – battleship
- HMS Valiant – battleship
- HMS Ark Royal – aircraft carrier
- HMS Arethusa – light cruiser
- HMS Enterprise – light cruiser
- HMS Faulknor – destroyer
- HMS Foxhound – destroyer
- HMS Fearless – destroyer
- HMS Forester – destroyer
- HMS Foresight – destroyer
- HMS Escort – destroyer
- HMS Keppel – destroyer
- HMS Active – destroyer
- HMS Wrestler – destroyer
- HMS Vidette – destroyer
- HMS Vortigern – destroyer
French Navy (Marine Nationale)
- Dunkerque – battleship – Flagship
- Strasbourg – battleship
- Bretagne – battleship
- Provence – battleship
- Commandant Teste – seaplane tender
- Mogador – destroyer
- Volta – destroyer
- Terrible – destroyer
- Kersaint – destroyer
- Lynx – destroyer
- Tigre – destroyer
Set-up
Assume an 8x6 table with long edges denoting North and South. Set up the French fleet about 2' up from the South end of the table.
Force H comes from the North side of the table.
Coastal guns are in effect from Fort Santon and Fort Mers-el-Kebir.
Aircraft are Swordfish and Skuas for the British, Curtiss H-75 fighters for the French.
Swordfish can drop magnetic mines and/or torpedoes but not in the same attack.
All French ships are stationary at the start of the battle. Surprise by the British will mean that the French ships can only respond after d3+2 turns (3-5 turns). Roll individually for each capital ship.
Coastal guns can return fire after 3 turns. Assume equivalent of 13.5" guns - 2 per fort. British ships can engage the forts coastal guns (check GQ rules).
Response means both returning fire and moving. Note the tight confines of the harbour and the necessity of not fouling on the defensive boom means that French ships will move at a maximum 1/4 of their maximum speed until clear of the boom.
Ships can exit the boom in single file (capital ships) or side by side (destroyers). If the British have mined the boom exit, roll for mine attacks for ships exiting the boom.
Once out of the boom French ships can aim to escape from any table edge.
Objectives / victory conditions
British
Sink / cripple 3 or more French capital ships
French
Have 3 capital ships escape off table.
Referees Notes
The French player(s) will be up against it from the start so make it clear that they are not expected to win by engaging the British fleet directly but to escape to fight another day (although they will need to fight in the escape if only to reduce the amount of incoming fire!). It is recommended to have more stoic players play the French.
Alternative Scenarios
a) The French have advance warning of British intentions and get underway from the end of Turn 1
b) French warships dispatched from Toulon and Algiers in a reprise attack engage Force H as it returns to Gibraltar. The French fleet consists of the remaining three battleships of the main classes of the French fleet with commensurate cruiser and destroyer escorts. British ships are any remaining (and carrying over the damage) from the scenario above.
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| French ships at Mers el Kebir |
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| Mogador runs aground after being hit by a 15 inch shell |
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| Strasbourg under fire |
2 comments:
Thanks Phil, that saved me a job! I have been working on the aircraft rules and if Russ is ready with the French and Jon is available I can put this on next week.
It probably won’t surprise you all that I have all the British ships for this scenario. The battleships are the slow old ladies of the Royal Navy which would be easily outrun by a pocket battleship but guns are still pretty tasty. The more modern battleships of the Royal Navy (KGV, Prince of Wales, Rodney and Nelson) are at this point of the war poised at Scapa Flow waiting for one of the big German assets to make a breakout, and we all know what happened to HMS Hood when the Bismarck made a break for the Atlantic.
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