Why didn't the French just give up their ships to the British?

Why didn't the French just give up their ships to the British?

Why didn't they just join the Brits? If the free French army became a thing, why not the fleet too?

At that time the Royale was heavily traditionalist, understand tone deaf, the whole thing was a matter of honour: "we won't fall in the hand of the enemy, if you don't believe us, fuck off"

Because there was an armistice and de Gaulle had no more legitimacy at that point than Pétain.
It also would have likely provoked german punishments on french civilians (or, more of them).
You can't just turn over an entire fleet like that. Ships are incredibly important.

Because why would you give up a tremendous national military asset to a foreign power that has been your enemy and rival for much of the past thousand years? "But they asked real nice though" doesn't count as an answer. Put yourself in the French admiral's position. He would have looked like a cowardly buffoon and traitor had he acquiesced.

The french literally invented the word for collaboration.

if it had been matter of honor the french would have honored their earlier promise to sail the fleet to britain before signing any armistice, as it was the fleet at mers el kebir had a standing order to accept internment in the US if it was ever offered an offer the on scene commander ignored when it was made

>He would have looked like a cowardly buffoon and traitor had he acquiesced.
he was a arrogant buffon for refusing, he had orders to accept the internment offer if it was made, he threw a snit because the officer sent as messenger was only a captain

Some of them did.

Battleships were so aesthetic. Dreadnoughts too.

Very cool picture, user!

Thanks have a gif.

The Brits sent a french speaking Captain to perform the negotiations before the attack. The french Admiral Gensoul was offended by this so sent a Leuitent to do the negotiating on his on his behalf. This massivley confused the proccesses when time was in short supply.

One of the options presented to the french by the brits was sailling to the US (then a neutral country) so they keep themselves safe until the end of the war. As this was also part of what the french nval minister had instructed Admiral Gensoul to do in this situation in a shame he had to complicate things.

As a Brit I think the perfidous albion title is often perfectley accurate, but its a shame such a thing needed to happen.

Any mong spelling or grammer is due to the huge volumes of alchol if been drinking since the Scotland rugby win over Australia.

The UK and France had functioned like a two man UN security council since just after the Napoleonic wars. Rivalry was a thing but both countries could work together. That Britian was willing to take big losses in ww1 to assist the french means i doubt the french would quite see them as a potential enemy.

>scotland
devolved powers were a mistake

The old French drama, they are lovers, but think they are warriors. Delusional they take on fights with real warriors, ending in total defeat.

Hadn't the English mined the harbor before sending the negotiator though? Further, the rank of your diplomat is indeed always important. In negotiations where you're never sure who gets fucked in the end, appearances matter a fucking lot. That's why diplomats iron their shirts.

Also I never counted Scotland in the "perfidious Albion", which I tend to restrict to England sole.

Don't mistake us for weak warriors because we lost 2 wars at the age of machine guns. We conquered Europe -and dominated it- at sword point.

t. anglo

>we

>nous etions les rois et merdre

bombarding ships stuck in harbour is not a fight with 'warriors'
though the French shouldn't have been so stuffy, considering what had just happened.

>ywn live in a timeline where carriers and naval attack aircraft never became a thing and battleships still rule the oceans
Why must we suffer like this?

I'm in your boat, user. Truly brings a tear

no you didnt, even at the brief zenith of french power there was strong resistance, with defeat looming on the horizon.

every other time you got close you got stepped on hard, whether by the british, the spanish, the disparate germans or some combination of the above

Because the French were sitting back and waiting to see how things turn out between Britain and Germany.

The French were in a sort of Cold war with both Britain and Germany once the armistice was signed. And of coarse once the USA became the hegemon following WW2, it became every-bodies best interests to pretend to be friends long enough that it actually happened. Now lets see in modern times, if the EU falls apart how, how nice the Euros keep playing together.

>if the EU falls apart
>if

OK then, 'how' might be a better word then. Who falls into France's sphere of influence, Germany's, Russia's, etc.