The Fleet Without a Friend

In July 1940, Winston Churchill faced an impossible choice: risk the French fleet falling into Axis hands or attack the ships of a recent ally.

The result was Operation Catapult, one of the most dramatic and controversial naval actions of the Second World War.

Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and first-hand accounts from both British and French participants, John Vader reconstructs the planning, execution and aftermath of the operation in the critical summer of 1940, following the fall of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk.

He reveals why Churchill and the War Cabinet believed the threat posed by the French fleet was too great to ignore and shows how the attack was planned and carried out just eight days after the French Armistice came into effect.

The Fleet without a Friend sheds new light on one of Britain’s most controversial wartime decisions.