Unwilling to return to occupied France, but likewise reluctant to join de Gaulle, Béarn instead sought harbour in Martinique, her crew showing little inclination to side with the British in their continued fight against the Nazis. 3,600 sailors operating 50 ships around the world joined with the Royal Navy and formed the nucleus of the Free French Naval Forces France's surrender found her only aircraft carrier, Béarn, en route from the United States loaded with a precious cargo of American fighter and bomber aircraft. Other ships were the two obsolete battleships Paris and Courbet, the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard, eight torpedo boats, five submarines ( Minerve, Junon) and a number of other smaller vessels. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. The then-largest submarine in the world, Surcouf, which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. At the first stage of Operation Catapult, the ships in the British ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940.
Some vessels were in port in France others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or Alexandria in Egypt. Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of De Gaulle. On 30 June, De Gaulle was joined by Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier, who had come from Gibraltar by flying boat. On 24 June 1940, de Gaulle made a separate call specifically to servicemen overseas to join him, and two days later the submarine Narval entered Malta and pledged its allegiance to the FFL. In the wake of the Armistice and the Appeal of 18 June, Charles de Gaulle founded the Free French Forces ( Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" ( Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL). They were commanded by Admiral Émile Muselier.įNFL recruitment poster History General De Gaulle inspecting sailors on Léopard at Greenock in June 1942 The Free French Naval Forces ( French: Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL) were the naval arm of the Free French Forces during the Second World War.
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