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5.7.40 [George Orwell]

July 5, 2010 in attack, Churchill, fleet, french, german, German radio, Italian, Mers el-Kébir, Oran, Political, submarines, War-time, warships by orwelldiaries

The almost complete lack of British casualties in the action against the French warships at Oran[1] makes it pretty clear that the French seamen must have refused to serve the guns, or at any rate did so without much enthusiasm…. In spite of the to-do in the papers about “French fleet out of action”, etc., etc., it appears from the list of ships actually given that about half the French navy is not accounted for, and no doubt more than half the submarines. But how many have actually fallen into German or Italian hands, and how many are still on the oceans, there is nothing in the papers to show…… The frightful outburst of fury by the German radio (if rightly reported, actually calling on the English people to hang Churchill in Trafalgar Square) shows how right it was to make this move.

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