The Dakar Expedition and Dudley North Affair
Continuing on from his study of the Oran operation of July 1940, when the French warships were attacked at Mers-el-Kebir, the author investigates the Allied expedition of September that year, with De Gaulle present, which attempted unsuccessfully to break the French at Dakar away from the Vichy Government. Additionally he tells the story of Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, Flag Officer Commanding Gibraltar at the time, who was relieved from his post after allowing a French Naval Squadron to slip out of the Mediterranean and so jeopardise the Dakar Operation.
The per project of Prime MInsiter Winston Churchill, it was undertaken against all advice, and turned in to a fiasco.
Using Admiralty and Cabinet papers, as well as private sources of information Marder weaves a skilled course through all the complex material to produce a masterly case study of how an operation is mounted and how it can go disastrously wrong. It is a classic, tragi-comic illustration of the 'fog of war'.
ISBN: 9781848323902
Format: Paperback
Author(s): Arthur J Marder
First Publishment Date: 01 June 2016