May 23, 2026

Excerpt from Finest Hour, issue 212

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Bill Whiteside, Operation Catapult: Winston Churchill and the British Attack on the French Navy at Mers-el-Kébir, Naval Institute Press, 299 pages, 2026, $45 / £32. ISBN: 978–1682479698

Review by W. Mark Hamilton

Bill Whiteside has an extremely well written and deeply researched account of Operation Catapult. He also provides interesting facts about all the key personalities in minute detail. While the book could have done with more analysis of the extensive facts (what were the lessons, both negative and positive, from the attack?), it is still highly recommended for all students of Churchill and military history.

After the First World War, the victorious but exhausted powers of Great Britain and France were pulled together by the threat of a vengeful Germany. Both of the victorious nations maintained a sizable number of warships, but the Royal Navy was over-stretched, having, as the author notes, “too many waves to rule.” Nevertheless, many of the officers in the two navies developed close working relationships.

With the shock of the rapid French surrender to Germany in June 1940, however, the relationship between the two allies significantly changed. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the British Cabinet faced the possibility of the French Navy falling under the control of Germany and Italy. Whiteside shows, however, that many French naval officers and government officials feared the possibility of their ships coming under the control of their more ancient rivals, the British. Additionally, many in France believed that after the fall of their own country, the Germans would soon defeat Britain. Notably, while France had been going down to defeat, Churchill urged a union of the two nations, which would merge the two navies. As with other events in the book, Whiteside provides a very detailed account of these discussions and the personalities involved. The French cabinet rejected the bold proposal with Marshal Philippe Pétain, the hero of Verdun, supposedly saying, “Why a fusion with a corpse?”

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