The Deadly Stroke

A history of World War II’s Battle of Mers-el-Kebir, in which Churchill ordered the sinking of the French fleet to keep it from the Nazis.

With the defeat of the French forces by the Germans, Winston Churchill was determined that the French fleet would not fall into German hands, and to that end he ordered that every French ship from Alexandria to Martinique, Portsmouth to Dakar either surrender or be seized. Only those in Algeria committed to the Vichy government refused. In a tragic and ironic battle, the British sank the French fleet at Oran, the author explores in detail the events surrounding this incident.

With an introduction by Sir John Colville