after the capitulation of the French to the Germans in June 1940, the new pro-German French Vichy Government found the presence of Gibraltarian evacuees in Casablanca an embarrassment and sought an opportunity to remove them. That opportunity soon arose when 15 British cargo ships arrived under Commodore Crichton; they were repatriating 15,000 French servicemen who had been evacuated from Dunkirk. Once the rescued servicemen had disembarked, the ships were interned until they agreed to take away all the evacuees. Although Crichton was unable to obtain permission to clean and restock his ships (and contrary to Admiralty orders which forbade the taking on of evacuees), when he saw the mass of civilians pouring through the dockyards, he opened his gangways for boarding. On 3 July 1940, the British Mediterranean Fleet had conducted the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir and destroyed a number of French warships, to prevent them being handed over to the Germans. The attacks killed more than a thousand French sailors and led to high tension between the British and the French, which was evident when Gibraltarian families were forced at bayonet point by French troops to board, only with what they could carry, leaving many possessions behind.