Subject: WWII-L Digest - 26 Nov 1993 to 27 Nov 1993

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1993 00:00:44 -0500

There are 2 messages totalling 103 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. PERSONALITY: Leon Degrelle [Re: Vichy France]
  2. French Navy at Armistice

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Date:    Sat, 27 Nov 1993 10:32:22 -0500
From:    Akira Takiguchi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: PERSONALITY: Leon Degrelle [Re: Vichy France]

     Terry, thanks for the interesting information.  One question:
you spelled his name "DeGrelle" but my references say "Degrelle".
Which is right?  I would like to spell everybody's name correctly
(I spelled badly in my previous message :-().

     As a throw-in for readers :-) here are a couple of excerpts.

     "... military court of his home country Belgium sentenced him
in absentia to death for collaboration with Germany.  Spain rejected
extradition request."  (_Ritterkreuztraeger der Waffen-SS_ Kraetschmer)

     "Leon Degrelle, the Rexist leader and Belgian Waffen-SS hero, an SS-
Sturmbannfuehrer decorated with the Oak Leaves, had in fact only joined
the Waffen-SS in order to thwart Himmler's plan to separate Flemish-
speaking Belgium from the rest of the country and incorporate it in the
Reich."  (_Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf_ Hoehne.  This description
is based on Knoebel, _Racial Illusion and Military Necessity_)

     I'm told that following references about Wallonien Divisions exists:
I would like to get Mabire/Lefevre if possible.  Does anyone have more
info about it (like it is sold at so-so bookstore for $$)?

Degrelle _Die Verlorene Legion_ K.W.Schuetz Verlag 1972
Littlejohn _Foreign Legions of the Third Reich_ Bender Publishing 1982
Mabire/Lefevre _Leon Degrelle et la Legion Wallonie, 1941-45_ Art et
  Histoire D'Europe 1989
--
      Akira Takiguchi  VP, ATSON, Inc.  (a subsidiary of the Asahi Shimbun)
             CANAL TOWER  9-3 Nihonbashi-Koamicho Chuo-ku Tokyo 103  Japan
   +81 3 3666 2881(voice) 2882(fax)  EMAIL TO <[email-masked]>

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Date:    Sat, 27 Nov 1993 22:44:44 CST
From:    Steve Alvin <[email-masked]>
Subject: French Navy at Armistice

Terry,

I'm sending this to the list because I think (hope? :-)) it may be
of interest to others.

The French navy stayed active in 1940 up until the Armistice.  On
14 June, Vice Admiral Duplat sortied the 3rd Squadron with four
cruisers and 11 large destroyers from Toulon against the Italian
coast.  |The 1st Cruiser Div. with the Algerie & Foch along with
the DD's Vauban, Lion, Aigle, Tartu, Chevalier Paul, & Cassard shelled
Vado.  The @nd Cruiser Div. with the Colbert & Dupleix and the
destroyers Albatros, Vautour, Guepard, Valmy, and Verdun shelled
Genoa.  Six days later, An Anglo-French squadron under Vice-Adm
Tovey including the BB Lorraine, the British cruisers Neptune,
Orion, & sydney, and the DD's Stuart, Decoy, Dainty, and Hasty
shelled Bardia.  The Lorraine accompanied the British to Alexandria.

Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, the French cooperated with the evacuation
of the remaining British forces and most of the ships seemed to
have fled to English ports.  On 18 June, the 7th Panzer occupied
Cherbourg and five subs are scuttled.  Before Brest was occupied,
four more submarines, a destroyer, and a sloop are scuttled.  At
Lorient, a sloop is scuttled.  Also leaving Brest on the 18th
was the unfinished BB Richelieu, which sails to Dakar with the
destroyers Fougueux and Frondeur.  The next day the Jean Bart
is towed out of St. Nazaire, and acccompanied by the DD's Le Hardi
and Mameulk sails to Casablanca.

On 3 July, in conjunction with the British fleet's attack on the
French at Mers-el-Kebir, all French ships in Britain are seized.
These include the following:  in Portsmouth the BB Coubert, the
large DD Leopard, the TB's Branlebas, La Cordeliere, La Flore,
L'Incomprise, and La Melpomene, six sloops, and the supply ship
Pollux; in Plymouth the BB Paris, the DD's Mistral & Ouragan, the
TB Bouclier, three sloops, the SS's Surcouf, Junon, & Minerve;
in Falmouth the SS's Ondine and Orion, and three sloops; and in
Dundee the SS Rubis.  On Mistral and Surcouf the crew resisted and
there were casulties on both sides.  In addition, 3 minelayers, 16
subchasers, 7 motor torpedo boats, 98 mine sweepers and guard ships,
42 tugs and harbor craft, and 20 trawlers were seized.

Those French who declined to join the Free French were repatriated.
Many of the ships continued to fight under the French flag, including
the Coubert (used as an AA and radar training ship), the destroyers
and the submarines.

On 7 July in Alexandria, Agreement was reached between the English
and Vice Admiral Godfroy, commandere of French Force X for the
demobilization of the French ships including the BB Lorraine, the
CA's Duquesne, Suffren, and Tourville, the CL Duguay Trouin, and
the DD's Basque, le Fortune, and Forbin, plus the submarine
Protee.

In 1943, most of these ships were reactivated by the Free French
navy.

--
Steve Alvin
[email-masked]

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End of WWII-L Digest - 26 Nov 1993 to 27 Nov 1993
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