AT SEA: Friends Against Friends

In the night of July 2-3 at various ports in England and Scotland, armed parties of British officers & men quietly boarded all major French ships berthed with the Home Fleet, mostly at Portsmouth and Plymouth. These included two elderly battleships (Paris and Courbet), two light cruisers, eight destroyers, several submarines. At the same time, the officers of some 200 minesweepers, sub-chasers and other small craft were notified that they were in custody. To reach the submarine Surcouf, world's biggest (2,880 tons), the boarding party had to cross the deck of a larger French ship. The...

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