Long before the famous Dambusters Raid, a plucky band of RAF aircrew flying obsolete aircraft made one of the most important raids of the war to attempt to knock out heavily-defended aqueducts on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The Germans were bringing up thousands of barges along the canal ready to invade England. If the aqueducts were smashed, Germany's invasion timetable would be ruined.
The 'old' aqueduct was badly damaged but it would take the German's less than two weeks to make a full repair. Although the 'bypass' aqueduct was unaffected the attack did hinder the movement of war material to the invasion ports at a most critical point in the war.
1943:
Operation Garlic was an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal by 617 Squadron carried out on 14-16 September 1943. The operation was unsuccessful. The canal was not significantly damaged by the attack, while 617 squadron lost five of the eight aircraft and crews involved in the operation.
The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult. The operation was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.
The attack by air-and-sea was conducted by the Royal Navy after France had signed armistices with Germany and Italy that came into effect on 25 June. Of particular significance to the British were the seven battleships of the Bretagne, Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared already that France would hand the ships to the Kriegsmarine, giving the Axis assistance in the Battle of the Atlantic or Battle of the Mediterranean. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.
After the attack at Mers-el-Kébir and the Battle of Dakar, French aircraft raided Gibraltar in retaliation and the Vichy government severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. The attack created much rancour between France and Britain but also demonstrated to the world that Britain intended to fight on. The attack is controversial and the motives of the British are debated. In 1979, P. M. H. Bell wrote that "The times were desperate; invasion seemed imminent; and the British government simply could not afford to risk the Germans seizing control of the French fleet... The predominant British motive was thus dire necessity and self-preservation".
The French thought they were acting honourably in terms of their armistice with Nazi Germany and were convinced they would never turn over their fleet to Germany. Vichy France was created on 10 July 1940, one week after the attack and was seen by the British as a puppet state of the Nazi regime. French grievances festered for years over what they considered a betrayal by their ally. On 27 November 1942, the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon foiled Operation Anton, a German attempt to capture the rest of the French fleet after the Allied invasion of Morocco and French Algeria in Operation Torch.
Hitler's triumphant tour of Paris, 1940 .
One day after France signed the armistice with Germany in June 1940, Adolf Hitler celebrated the German victory over France with a triumphant tour of Paris. Hitler surveying his conquest with his various companions and became one of the most iconic photos of the 1940s and World War 2. This was the first and the only time he visited Paris.
Adolf Hitler made a swift tour of Paris in the early hours of 23rd June, accompanied by Albert Speer his favorite architect and later Armaments Minister, and Arno Breker his favorite sculptor. The day before (June 22), France signed an armistice with Germany following the Germans’ successful invasion. Hitler’s tour included the Paris opera, the Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. After visiting Napoleon’s tomb and the Sacre Coeur, Hitler left Paris. In all, Hitler spent about three hours in the city.
