Dunkirk Evacuation

ATTACK ON THE THE FRENCH FLEET AT ORAN, NORTH AFRICA, 1940

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Catalogue number
  • HU 63611
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  • object category: Black and white
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photographs

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Object description

French sailors escape from fires below deck on board an unidentified French battleship which had been damaged during the attack by Royal Navy warships on the French Fleet at Oran. The controversial attack, which was designed to prevent the French Fleet falling under the control of Germany following the fall of France, was carried out by Force H under the command of Admiral Sir James Somerville, after the French had refused the British Government's demand that its Fleet either scuttle itself or sail to a British port.

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