Opération Menace

[Igor Geiller]

Hello

I'm looking for the OOB of the British fleet ( called Force M), during the Opération Menace ( attack against Dakar).
I have used two sources, "The war at sea. 1939-1945 ( volume 1)" by S.W Roskill, and a book published by the Historical service of the French Navy.

These two books agree about:
- battleships "Barham" and "Resolution"
- aircraft carrier "Ark Royal"
- heavy cruisers "Devonshire", "Cumberland" and "Australia"
- 10 destroyers

The french books gives also the name of two light cruisers, "Delhi" and "Dragon", but not Roskill. Who's right ? And could you give me the names of the 10 destroyers ?
Thanks !

Regards
Igor

P.S: I hope my english is understandable

[Andy H]

http://users.swing.be/baten/tg/1542.html

The above website should help I hope

Andy H

[Igor Geiller]

Thanks for your answer Andy ... but it's funny, because this is the webmaster of this website ( http://users.swing.be/naveditoen/edito/9855.html#220766 ) who asked me a question about the Force M.
In fact, I'm looking for the official version on this naval force, from the Royal Navy sources. Can I consider the books of S.W Roskill ( "The war at sea") as the official version ?
Thanks.

Igor

[Jack Nisley]

"The War at Sea" by Roskill is the official history. I've always found him to be an interesting and reliable historian.

In "Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945" by Rohwer, the OOBs are:

British: Vice Admiral J. H. D. Cunningham
Battleships: Barham, Resolution
Aircraft Carrier: Ark Royal
Heavy Cruisers: Devonshire, Cumberland, Australia
Light Cruisers: Delhi
Destroyers: Faulknor, Foresight, Forester, Fortune, Fury, Greyhound, Inglefield, Eclipse, Echo, Escapade
Sloops: Bridgewater, Milford
Free French Sloops: Savorgnan de Brazza, Commandant Duboc, Commandant Domine
3670 Free French troops on transports Pennland (16,381 tons) and Westernland (16,479 tons) and four (unnamed ) freighters
4270 British troops on four more (unnamed) troop transports and one (unnamed) freighter.
One (unnamed) tanker and one (unnamed)Free French armed tug.

Vichy French:
Battleship: Richelieu
Light Cruisers: Georges Leygues, Montcalm
Large Destroyers: Le Fantasque, L'Audacieux, Le Malin
Destroyer: Le Hardy
Sloops: D'Entrecasteaux, D'Iberville, Calais, Commandant Riviere, Le Suprise, Gazelle
Five Auxilary Crusiers
Submarines: Beveziers, Persee, Ajax

Australia was a replacement for Light Cruiser Fiji, torpedoed by U32 on 1 Sep while enroute to Freetown.
The website Andy referenced lists 5 auxiliary cruisers which should be the ones present. Only correction is "Victor Schoelcher", not "Schoelcher".
Houduce is probably the Free French armed tug.

Jack Nisley

[Igor Geiller]

Ok Jack, thanks for this very complete answer.
For "Président Houduce", you're right, it is a Free french ship ( a patrol boat).
The french source gives the name of the 11 transport ships: "Westernland" ( with général de Gaulle aboard), "Pennland", "Ettrick", "Kenya", "Karanja", "Sobieski", "Anadyr", "Fort-Lamy", "Nevada", "Casamance" and "Belgravia".
The oil tanker is "Ocean Coast".

Best regards
Igor