In the French Navy, as odd as it may seem today, the pact between Stalin and Hitler was welcomed with relief. If French sailors had to fight, they would prefer not to have the Communists as allies.
Morale in the Navy was high. All leaves were cancelled and men ordered to report back to their ships immediately. On August 23 the Reservists were called up. Lookout and antiaircraft defenses were manned. Exchange of liaison officers was arranged: French officers to Malta, Gibraltar, Plymouth, Dover; British to Bizerte, Toulon, Brest, Dunkirk. Sizable naval missions were established in Paris and London. On August 25 a Franco-British signal code, prepared in great secrecy, was taken out of the security vaults and put into effect. Central Mediterranean trade was suspended; merchant ships and fishermen were advised to depart from German or Italian waters as speedily as possible. Even before mobilization a few trawlers were being obtained from willing owners for conversion to minesweepers. On the 30th the convoy and routing sections charged with the wartime dispatching of merchant shipping set up offices in the principal ports.
Little by little, the various wartime commands were activated. At the summit were Admiral of the Fleet François Darlan, Chief of the General Staff of the French Naval Forces, and General Gamelin, the Commander in Chief of the Army, each of them answerable only to the Government. The Minister of the Navy retained only the responsibility of operating the navy yards and maintaining the ships of the Fleet. The Commander in Chief, Darlan, had under his direct control the commanders of the various theaters of naval operations, each one responsible to Darlan for the conduct of all routine operations in his respective zone—convoys, escorts, air reconnaissance, antisubmarine warfare, etc.—as well as for special operations, for which the necessary ships were assigned to them. Under these theater commanders, in turn, were the commandants of the naval districts, who were responsible for the coastal defenses. As a rule the Commander in Chief reserved to himself the operational control of the high seas forces, the most powerful of which would be the Raiding Force (Force de Raid), under Admiral Marcel Gensoul. This force, to be set up on mobilization, consisted of the battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg, the aircraft carrier Béarn, and some ten cruisers or super-destroyers.
In accordance with the war plan, the principal subordinates of the Commander in Chief were as follows: in the Mediterranean, Admiral, South (Admiral Jean Pierre Esteva), with headquarters at Toulon—or, in case of war with Italy, at Bizerte; in the North Atlantic, Admiral, West (Admiral Jean de Laborde), with headquarters at Brest; in the English Channel and North Sea, Admiral, North (Admiral Raoul Castex at first, and later Admiral Jean Abrial), with headquarters at Dunkirk; in the Far East, Admiral, French Naval Forces, Far East (Admiral Jean Decoux), with headquarters on board the Lamotte-Picquet, usually at Saigon; in the Caribbean Sea, Admiral, Antilles (Admiral George Robert), with headquarters at Martinique. Early in the war another theater commander, Admiral, Africa (Admiral Emmanuel Ollive), was established, with headquarters at Casablanca and with an operational zone reaching from Gibraltar to Dakar, and extending westward to include the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands.
Such was the worldwide extent of the French naval establishment, yet the organization was simple, adaptable, and efficient. It relieved the Commander in Chief of routine chores, it gave him time to think, and it allowed him to devote his attention to the global concept of a war at sea.
All tourists familiar with Paris know the Ministry of the Navy, that beautiful colonnaded building which borders the Place de la Concorde to the east of the Rue Royale. Its ornate facade dates back to Louis XV, and even before the Revolution it had the aspects of a museum. Except for a forest of antennas on the roof, the edifice in 1939 was externally much as it had been for 150 years. But the Navy had constructed a gastight underground air raid shelter there of reinforced concrete, designed to provide a safe working place for all the personnel in the building. It was at Rue Royale, center of information from all over the world, that the decision was made in August, 1939, to place the Navy on a war footing. And it was there that the final fatal information was received that plunged France into the chaos of another world conflict.
At daybreak on the 1st of September, following a so-called refusal on the part of the Warsaw Government to discuss the latest unacceptable proposals from Hitler, the German Army invaded Poland. In Berlin the British and French ambassadors solemnly warned Hitler that their countries would honor their commitments to Poland if this aggression was not halted immediately. In France general mobilization was decreed.
With the Navy’s personnel now up to strength of about 160,000,11 the Navy’s forces took their initial stations as planned in case of war with Germany and Italy. On the assumption that there would be a German raid toward the Moroccan coast, a barrier line of large submarines was posted off Vigo and the Portuguese coast. Other submarines were stationed in the Mediterranean.
Regulars—91,093, of which 5,486 were officers; Reserves—69,243, of which 4,820 were officers.
However, during the day Italy declared herself provisionally neutral. Accordingly orders were issued immediately to all French ships and planes that Italian shipping was to be approached with the utmost caution and provoking incidents were to be carefully avoided.
The 2nd of September was a day of suspense, with frantic diplomatic negotiations proceeding in all the capitals. The French Parliament voted the military credits asked for by the Government, but not once was the word “war” mentioned. The navy yards began ship conversions according to program.
That same day the Navy Ministry received information indicating that the German Fleet had sortied in force from its bases two or three days previously, but, upon being questioned, the British confessed that they had no information of its whereabouts. Remembering the bombardments of Bône and Philippeville which had marked the beginning of World War I, the French now feared a similar raid on the Moroccan ports. Accordingly the Raiding Force was ordered to proceed at high speed from Brest toward Casablanca, and the minelaying cruiser Pluton to lay a protective minefield off the Moroccan coast. However, these emergency measures were countermanded when later intelligence rendered them unnecessary. Even though there was no fighting, however, the French suffered their first naval casualty of the war, for the Pluton was destroyed on September 13 by an explosion while her mines were being disarmed prior to off-loading. The French Navy lost 215 officers and men killed or missing in the explosion.
The 3rd of September was the day when the question of war or peace would be decided. Unfortunately the diplomats of France and Britain had not coordinated their efforts, for the British ultimatum to Germany expired at 11 a.m., while the French ultimatum did not expire until 5 p.m. Consequently the Royal Navy’s liaison officers already working beside their counterparts in the French Naval Ministry had some anguished hours while they faced the possibility, however unlikely, that they might find themselves alone in the conflict. However, 5 o’clock came, with no reply from Hitler, and the hours of peace in Europe had run out.
General Gamelin, speaking for the Army, advised the Navy that he would not undertake any operations until 5 o’clock the next morning, the 4th of September. With the authorization of the Premier, however, the Navy sent out a plain language radio message to all its ships and stations notifying them of a state of war.
Within two days Paris had its first air raid alarm. At the Navy Ministry, a beehive of activity, all hands grabbed gas masks and rushed to the armored shelter underground. The alarm proved to be false, but it confirmed one thing: the shelter was far too small, and it was unbearably hot. At the “all clear” the exhausted, perspiring officers and men climbed from the enclosure and stretched themselves out, panting, on the floors and desks, without regard to rank or station. And Admiral Darlan decided that he and his staff would move immediately to the “standby”