The Cyrano Fleet: France and Its Navy, 1940-42 Review

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(More customer reviews)An excellent summary of an often overlooked story, but one that's fascinating with political and military intrigue. While telling the story of what the navy did in the 28 months between the collapse of France and Hitler's crushing of vichy in November '42, the author's main points are that they Vichy Navy was not a fascist puppet as he alleges is popularly imagined, and that the VIchy navy men themselves, Admiral Darlan (head of the fleet and eventually #2 man in the VIchy government) especially, had little choice to follow the course they did.
The author shows that regardless of the degree of cooperation the Vichy government gave Hitler (which he downplays by ignoring most recent scholarship which paints a decidedly different picture) the navy was concerned with maintaining its independence. He also shows clearly the centrality of the French fleet to both Hitler's and the allies' attitudes and conduct towards Vichy.
On top of that, the author contends that French public opinion to this day is widely aware of how Anglo-Americans perceive Vichy's history and that of the navy, and that this colors Franco-American relations to this day. He contends the French army's resistance enabled the British to evacuate Dunkirk (partially true) notes the alleged hostility the British displayed in only taking British troops for a time from Dunkirk, and the French Man-on-the-street knows this, so no wonder there are occasional tensions in our relations with them. This is far and away his weakest case, one that few historians professional or amateur, or students of modern day French public opinion, would find even partially plausible much less compelling. His eagerness to give the French the benefit of every doubt extends to never acknowledging the shockingly rapid collapse of the French army in the face of the German attack, or that it's the British who were let down by their French allies in 1940 in the form of non-existent flank cover which came within a whisker of costing them their army and arguably World War II and Western Civilization.
The author's most bizarre contention, however, is that the allies should have waited 6 months before they launched Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa) because that would have given Vichy enough time to prepare to switch sides and have a functioning army ready to spring up against the Nazis the day the allies hit the beaches. How in the world such preparation would have escaped Hitler's notice, who was highly suspicious of Vichy and indeed the author shows as soon as he got wind of possible preparations to sail the Vichy fleet to the allies after Torch, he never says. Similarly the author never backs up his contention that Darlan wanted to switch sides before Torch, and if the Allies had only reached out to him, this could have happened (though apparently it would have taken 6 months in the author's estimation.) An interesting thesis, but one he never proves, although he does show how Darlan made a bit for Vichy to become a full-fledged Axis ally in their war effort, which makes his alleged eagerness to switch pre-Torch hard to see since in October '42 the outcome of the war seemed very much in doubt.
But while the author misses the mark on these tangents, that doesn't change the fact that 95% of the book is very informative and enjoyable to read (although his style is workmanlike rather than brilliant and occassionally hard to understand through lack of context.) The degree to which the French navy played a critical role in importing food to mainland France from her colonies is unknown largely, as are the other skirmishes the French fought to attempt to keep their navy and their possessions independent. After finishing this book, it is indeed eady to appreciate the dilemma French navy officers and ranks were in during this difficult period and to sympathize with their reasoning for overwhelmingly staying loyal to Petain and Vichy, even though historical hindsight and De Gaulle's uncompromising mythmaking cast these judgements in a different light.

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