Eighty years on. 7th July 1940

Historical

The Royal Navy attacked the brand new French battleship Richelieu in dock at Dakar, Senegal.  Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes hit Richelieu, tearing a 40 foot hole in the hull. Conflict was avoided at Alexandria, Egypt, where negotiations had been ongoing since 3^rd July. Aware of the destruction wrought on the French ships at Mers-el-Kébir by superior British forces, the French Admiral Godefroy agreed that his warships would remain in port to avoid being attacked or captured by British ships.

Overnight the British submarine H43 landed Lieutenant Hubert Nicolle (a native Guernseyman) on the island of Guernsey to make a reconnaissance of the German garrison in preparation for a commando raid on the island.

U-99 sank the British SS Sea Glory and later the Swedish SS Bissen south of Ireland.  U-34 sank the Dutch tanker Lucrecia west of Lands End.

Italy granted permission to the French to keep their Mediterranean bases armed.

General elections were held in Mexico. Manuel Ávila Camacho was elected president, claiming 93.9% of the vote.

Game day 311. France

France, or what was left of it under the Vichy government, collected seven industrial resource points, mostly in the colonies.  Metropolitan France was left with just one point per month.  The cargo ships at Oran were despatched to Indo-China to collect resources, escorted by two battleships.  Aware of the British ultimatum, two further battleships were sent from Oran to Marseilles to disperse the fleet.

Credits:   Historical information:  http://www.worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com, Wikipedia, Chronicle of the Second World War (JL International Publications, 1994).  Background image to game maps: Hasbro Ltd.