De Gaulle's Failure: The Battle of Dakar during WW2

The Battle of Dakar was the first main throws of De Gaulle's Free French forces. Here, they were hoping to not only prove that the movement had legitimacy to his British Allies, but also show the French colonies that the Vichy forces were not on the winning side of the war. However, a mis-calculation would shutter the Free French movements, and the Battle of Dakar in many ways, extended the length of the war.
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The two sides facing one another were of roughly equal numbers. The Allies had at hand one aircraft carrier, that of the HMS Ark Royal. two battleships, the HMS Resolution and HMS Barham. Five cruisers, including the Australian heavy cruiser Australia, ten destroyers, and transport for 8,000 troops, a mix of British and French Foreign Legion men. The Vichy forces in turn, would consist of the battleship Richelieu, a brand new French heavy class ship. Richelieu would face attacks from British vessels prior to the invasion, so while she was unable to be used on the high seas, her impressive contingent of 8 15in guns and anti-aircraft weaponry, left her as a valuable floating battery. To support her, would be two cruisers, Georges Leygues (lege) and Montcalm, including a fellow contingent of 4 destroyers and 3 submarines. While the Allies would hold a large troop advantage over the Vichy defenses, no landing could be attempted until the coastal defenses were reduced, and as such, the battle would be decided both on the sea, and in the sky's.

On the morning of September the 23rd, three allied aircraft would land at the airport, carrying with them French officers acting as diplomats, however, all three, as well as the pilots, would be arrested instantly. Additionally a boat filled with French representatives would be fired upon by coastal batteries, with their British escort craft coming under anti-aircraft fire from the Richelieu crew. Vichy ships would attempt to leave port at 10 but were intercepted by Australia, who would attempt to chase the vessels back into port. The Coastal Batteries would again open fire, resulting in a multi-hour exchange between the Allied ships and the Vichy batteries. Free French forces would attempt to land at Rufisque but were spotted by Vichy craft, and faced heavy fire from strongboxes along the beach. De Gaulle, not wanting to quote “shed the blood of Frenchmen for Frenchmen” and refused to carry out another attempt.

The following day saw the allies attempting to sink the Richelieu by way of aircraft, Nine British Swordfish bombers would be assigned to this operation, and while they managed to score some hits on the ship, damage was minimal and cost was high. Three swordfish would be gunned by the Vichy gun crews, while another four would be downed via dogfights with the Vichy Curtiss Hawks, who would manage to dominate the sky's for the rest of the engagement. By the 25th, Allied command knew that any further attempts would be largely futile, and withdrew. Striking a death blow to the West African base of operations for much of the war.

The cost overall was substantially more then anyone had expected. While the Vichy forces would lose two of their three submarines, 120 men, as well as heavy damage to one of their cruisers. The allies losses numbered that of the seven Swordfish bombers, an armed trawler sunk by the coastal batteries, heavy damage to both battleships, Resolution damaged so heavy that it needed to be towed to Cape Town in South Africa, as well as a loss of life numbering 37 men. While small on a military scale, the damage done was largely political, as De Gaulls free French appeal was massively damaged in the eyes of the Allies, while resources would still be dedicated to his operations, everyone knew that a bloodless switching of sides for the French colonies was no longer in the cards, and in merely two months, it would determine whether De Gaull was willing to shed the blood of Frenchmen for Frenchmen.

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