From Versailles to Mers el-Kébir
Subtitle: the promise of Anglo-French naval cooperation, 1919-40
By: George E. Melton
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Annapolis, Maryland
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9781612518794; 9781612518800
Subjects: HISTORY / Military / Naval; Mers-el-Kebir, Attack on, 1940; Naval strategy; Mediterranean Sea; French Naval operations; World War, 1939-1945; British Naval operations; History; Foreign relations; HISTORY / Military / Other
Description: "This book concerns itself with one of the most unlikely relationships in the two decades before World War II: the alliance of the Royal Navy and the French fleet. By the mid 1930s, both fleets had overextended themselves with global defense commitments, owing mainly to the collapse of the world war alliances and to an ominous shift in the balance of world naval power. To maximize their power, England and France combined their assets in a naval alliance. The union was not an altogether happy one, but it survived in one form or another until the British attack upon the French fleet at Mers el-Kébir in 1940. George E. Melton brings new insights to the diplomacy that led to this often strained cooperation, and reinterprets some of the most important events of early World War II"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Toward a global imbalance; title: Fascist aggression in the Mediterranean; title: Tensions in Spanish waters; title: The road to Nyon; title: Solving a Mediterranean problem; title: An informal naval entente; title: From Nyon to Munich; title: An Anglo-French naval alliance; title: War on the periphery; title: Twilight of the Anglo-French Naval Alliance; title: Toward a violent solution; title: Blunder at Mers el-Kébir; title: The cover-up and after; title: Conclusions.