Talk:Ship/@comment-5256985-20150322212954/@comment-1637496-20150323131152

>didn't the French scuttle or evacuate their fleet before the Nazis/Vichy could do much with them anyway?

It was the Vichy itself to scuttle the fleet when the Germans attempted to seize the ships, fulfilling the promise that Darlan made personally to Churchill in 1940, but that the Englishman didn't consider sufficent to avoid the useless bloodbath at Oran.