Chapter 389: The French Navy

In the timeline that Akado originally came from, after the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle of 1894, the once-mighty Beiyang Fleet was eventually cornered and annihilated by the Japanese army and navy at Weihaiwei. This is an eternal pain in the heart of every Chinese person.

And similar histories always seem to repeat themselves. Just over fifty years later, the well-equipped navy of another great power ended its mission in an even more tragic way—the French Navy in World War II.

The one who dealt the merciless death blow was not its weak enemy, the German Navy, but France’s own ally in World War II: the British Royal Navy!

After the First World War, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan signed the Washington Naval Treaty in Washington, D.C., aimed at limiting armaments. The treaty stipulated that the total tonnage of the French Navy would be 175,000 tons, making it the fourth-largest naval power in the world.

Shortly after, in 1926, the soul of the French Navy—Admiral François Darlan—took office and brought new life to the fleet. The moment this general, who came from a naval family, came to power, he began the task of rebuilding the French Navy.

In 129, faced with the threat from the “Lützow”-class armored ships of Akado’s rebuilt German Navy, the French Navy finally approved the construction plan for the light battleship Dunkerque. As the first French battleship of the post-WWI era, this class surpassed the “Deutschland”-class pocket battleships in displacement, speed, firepower, and armor thickness.

Soon after, France began construction of the Richelieu-class battleships. In terms of performance, this class was not inferior to the newest warships in the world at the time and could even rival Britain’s King George V-class, making it one of the best battleships in the world.

By 1937, when Admiral Darlan was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Navy at the start of the Polish campaign, the French Navy had become one of the most modern in the world. It possessed 1 aircraft carrier, 10 battleships (Bretagne-class: Bretagne, Lorraine, Provence; Dunkerque-class: Dunkerque, Strasbourg; Courbet-class: Courbet, Jean Bart, France, Paris; Richelieu-class: Richelieu), 7 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers, over 50 destroyers of various types, and a total of 101 submarines. Its overall strength ranked fourth in the world, a formidable naval force.

Subsequently, on January 6th, 1938, war officially broke out between Germany and France. In just over ten days, the French army was beaten back in defeat after defeat. The French Navy, lacking an operational plan, had not even left port before France surrendered. Its only action was an order to hunt down the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee in the North Sea, an operation that came up empty due to inaccurate French intelligence.

Thus, this massive fleet was preserved almost completely intact, becoming a vital force that both Britain and Germany coveted. After a rush job, the battleship Richelieu was commissioned on January 30th. The French Navy, far from suffering any losses, had actually “added to its family,” gaining a brand-new, state-of-the-art battleship.

So it was no wonder that Raeder and Lütjens were drooling over the French Navy; its sheer size was simply too great. If these warships were to be brought under German control, the German Navy’s size would at least double in a short period.

What had once been a prize coveted by all had now become a piece that both sides wanted to eliminate. The British Navy knew that under the current circumstances, it was impossible to expect the French Navy to side with them. Thus, on February 5th, they launched a brazen surprise attack on the important French naval port of Brest.

Two British aircraft carriers launched 30 Swordfish torpedo bombers in one go, with an escort of 10 Skua fighters, to bomb the French port and destroy the fleet within. More than ten minutes earlier, the British battleships HMS King George V and HMS Valiant had already closed in on Brest, preparing to attack the French warships inside with their large-caliber guns.

At 10:21 AM, the battle officially began. HMS King George V was the first to open fire, followed by HMS Valiant. Just two minutes later, the French fleet began to return fire.

The British were taken aback by the swift reaction of the French fleet. Lawrence, whose instincts had been sharpened in the Battle of the North Sea, immediately sensed that something was wrong. He ordered his own ship, the HMS Ark Royal, to move south, leaving only the HMS Furious to continue its eastward course.

The commander of the French Navy, Darlan, was on board the newest battleship, the Richelieu, and was pounding the British battleship Valiant with his eight 380mm main guns. Although for a time the two sides were evenly matched, British fighters soon arrived, and the situation began to tilt in Britain’s favor.

Boom! The main guns of the French warship fired another salvo. But not far behind them, a heavy cruiser was hit by a shell from the King George V and was slowly sinking, wreathed in smoke.

“General, this is not a solution. We are fighting off an air attack while dueling with the superior British. If this continues, we may be annihilated in the harbor,” an aide-de-camp said. He had just received a radio message from the land-based anti-aircraft units; their gun positions had just been hit by British naval gunfire, and they had lost two of their main anti-aircraft batteries.

Speaking of this, Darlan was furious. The Brest naval port had originally had coastal artillery positions on both sides, equipped with numerous large-caliber guns and anti-aircraft cannons. That was the real guarantee of Brest’s impregnability. But now, because the German army was scheduled to take over these areas in a few days, the enraged French had either sabotaged or abandoned most of them, and now they were useless.

Truly, you reap what you sow, Darlan lamented with a sigh. He gave an order to his aide. “Never mind all that. We can only rely on ourselves now! Continue to return fire! Even if our entire fleet is annihilated, we cannot let the British get the better of us! These treacherous bastards, I will get them back for this one day!”

Although Darlan was putting up a brave front and was determined to hold on, in reality, he was on the verge of collapse. A heavy cruiser had been sunk, and two gunboats were also sinking in a cloud of smoke from an air attack. Less than 15 minutes into the battle, the French fleet had already suffered heavy losses.

Let alone the other warships, his own flagship, the Richelieu, had already been hit twice. Fortunately, due to its excellent protection, no major tragedy had occurred. But everyone, including Darlan, knew that if they continued to hold on like this, in at most an hour, there would be nothing left of the main French fleet in the harbor.

What was keeping Darlan fighting here was not some patriotism or spirit of defiance, but rather the promise that his former enemy, the German military, had just given him. He didn’t know how long he had to hold on, but he knew that as long as he did, the promised German support would surely arrive.

At that time… at that time, at worst, I’ll just have to work a little harder when I’m working for the Germans. I’ll hit the British hard a couple of times out of revenge, and that will count as repaying the favor I owe them today, Darlan thought with a wry smile, shaking his head. The commander-in-chief of the mighty French Navy, reduced to such a tragic state. I don’t know whether to call myself pitiful or ridiculous.

A shell from a British battleship landed in the water not far from the Richelieu, throwing up a massive column of water dozens of stories high. The French battleship returned fire again, its eight 380mm guns at the bow once again spitting huge tongues of fire. A message came from a still-functioning land-based observation post on the outskirts of the port: one of the shells had hit the battleship Valiant, but the damage did not seem to be serious.

The British seemed to have found their rhythm. A large-caliber shell once again struck the Richelieu, hitting its B turret directly, a perfect shot on the armor between the two main guns. Although the shell did not penetrate the turret, it caused severe deformation, rendering the B turret unable to fire again.

The French, who had not had an advantage in large-caliber guns to begin with, had just lost more than half of what they had. It had to be remembered that although France had four battleships, the other eight were not in Brest at this moment. The only other ship fighting alongside the Richelieu that could be considered a decent opponent was the Dunkerque, with its 330mm main guns. The rest of the warships were not in the same class as the British battleships.

However, at this moment, the Dunkerque had already been hit twice. The entire warship was wreathed in smoke, and its guns had long since fallen silent. The damage control crews were trying to save this French “light battleship.” Let alone continuing to fight, it was uncertain whether the ship could even be saved.

“Those bastards! Those treacherous whores!” Darlan’s aide-de-camp, having just steadied himself against the chart table after the Richelieu was hit, cursed emotionally. “If I survive today, I will be irreconcilable with those British sluts!”

Survive today? Can we survive today? Darlan thought to himself, his hand on his forehead. Could it be that the Germans, to eliminate the French Navy, have used this trick of killing two birds with one stone? The British are despicable for this attack, but the Germans, for not coming to our aid, are not much better!

As he was lost in these thoughts, he suddenly heard a cheer from the warship. Darlan was taken aback, then, through the glass of the command room, he saw a British fighter in the distant sky, trailing a long plume of black smoke as it crashed into the sea.

Before Darlan could react, an officer ran over and hugged him, laughing and shouting with joy, “General! General! Our reinforcements have arrived! The German fighters are here! Their planes are here!”

To take out the British warships that were attacking the French Navy, the German fighter force had deliberately carried out a meticulous battlefield coordination. And it was precisely because of the complexity of this coordination that they were a full 20 minutes late. But this lateness was of great significance, because when they arrived from all directions, the 30 British planes that had entered the harbor discovered that they were surrounded by a full 90 German fighters.