Escorted by the Vichy destroyer Simoun, four French freighters nosed out from Casablanca, French Morocco, into the Atlantic last week, making via the Strait of Gibraltar for Oran, French Algeria. "Stop and submit to search," signaled the British patrol in the Strait, but the Vichy ships ploughed on.
This was not too remarkable, for a few days earlier Vice Premier Admiral Darlan of France had given out a fat sheaf of statistics on steady French cargo traffic through the British blockade in the Mediterranean. While the British had sunk seven French food ships, said Admiral Darlan, they had never sunk, or...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
