Evening star., 1942-11-28
TouIon Tragedy

VeaIed with each item of fresh news.
frances mighty naval base on the
Meolterranean is flaming inferno
OF exploding magazines and blazing
OIL. The deliberate suicide of the
French Navy was no bloodless per-
formance like the scuttling of the
surrendered German high seas fleet
at Scapa Flow. Pressed for time by
the German assault on the outskirts
OF Toulon, the desperate French sea-
men blew up their ships under them
or sunk each other by mutual gun
hre and point-blank salvos from
coastal batteries ashore. Thousands
of French sailors are reported to
have perished in this frenzied hara-
kiri, the officers going down on the
bridge, as in battle, rather than face
Nazl vengeance. 1t is perhaps the
most remarkable instance of self
abnegation in modern history.
The destruction is seemingly COM
plete. Every one of the sixty-two
French warcraft at Toulon, including
three battleships, four heavy cruisers
and large squadrons of destroyerS
and submarines, are shattered hulks,
most of them unsalvageable save for
scrap steel. The big drydocks, shore
installations, repair shops and coast
defenses also are said to have been
destroyed. The harbor is so clogged
with hulks and wreckage that it is
presumably unusable.
That, at least, is the story broad
cast by the Vichy radio before it sud-
denly went off the air, with the brief
statement that further functioning
was mpossible-probably because
German soldiers were taking over
the studio. In fact, the last SEM
blance of French authority has van
iShed. Hitler himself has announced
that all French armed forces are
being disbanded and that every part
of France will henceforth be run
under the direction of Axis military
authorities in what amounts to mar
tial law. Thus the Vichy regime dis
appears and the Nazi mail fist,
stripped of its moth-eaten velvet
glove, stands forth in all its brutal
reality.
But other matters than the fleet
and Vichy have gone with the
wind" The last pretense of a Hit
lerian new order" in Europe has
likewise evaporated. After the he
roic tragedy of Toulon, it is incon-
ceivable that any Frenchmen can be
found to function with and for the
Axis except handful of traitors so
double-dyed in their treason that
they must cling to their masters to
save their own skins The prohtless
ruin of Toulon, which is all the Ger
mans have to show for their latest
aggression, is symptom of the
greater ruin that has befallen their
vain attempts to integrate France
and the other conquered lands into
an effective European fortress" to
withstand United Nations assaults
from without. Henceforth, only Ger
man soldiers, elite guards, and Ges-
tapo agents can be depended upon
to repel assaults from the outside
and hold down the swelling tide of
rebellion within. That is a stagger-
ing double burden, which becomes
heavier as German manpoWer is
decimated on the plains of Russia
and the deserts of North Africa.
With each reverse, military and
psychological, the reliability of the
italians and other Axis satellites,
must become less and less certain.
| Greed and fear are not a good ce-
ment for an alliance wherein the
| dominant member has exploited the
| junior partners almost as ruthlessly
as the common victims of their Joint
enterprise.
From the Axis viewpoint, Toulon
is symptom of desperation and
moral bankruptcy. For France, this
new abasement has a redeeming
| touch. In the words of a great
French captain lying mortally
wounded on a battlefield of long ago:
"All is lost-save honor!" Whatever
the woes of the present, that spiritual
salvage means much for the future.
|