# 308 - Mers El-Kébir: The British Attack on the French Navy

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440/308-mers-el-k-bir-the-british-attack-on-the-french-navy
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440/308-mers-el-k-bir-the-british-attack-on-the-french-navy.md
Podcast: [The WW2 Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ww2-podcast-745440)
Published: 2026-06-01T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://ww2podcast.libsyn.com/308-mers-el-kbir-the-british-attack-on-the-french-navy
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ww2podcast/308a_-_Mers_El-Kebir.mp3?dest-id=260446
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ww2-podcast-745440/episodes/308-mers-el-k-bir-the-british-attack-on-the-french-navy
Duration seconds: 2587

## Resource

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone. France had fallen, invasion seemed possible, and Winston Churchill faced a grave question: what should be done about the powerful French fleet? Fearing it might fall under German control, Britain launched Operation Catapult. At Mers el Kébir on 3 July 1940, the Royal Navy opened fire on its former ally, killing nearly 1,300 French sailors in one of the war's most painful and controversial decisions. For this episode, I am joined by Edward Abel Smith , author of ' A Hateful Decision ', which tells the full story of this dramatic moment through new research and eyewitness accounts.

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## Transcript

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