This short newsreel, produced for the home market, shows the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Footage shows the wrecked seaplane base on Ford Island, the destroyer USS Shaw (DD-373) wrecked in its drydock, the battleship USS Utah (BB-13) capsized, and the mighty USS Arizona (BB-39) a twisted mass of smouldering metal.

At 10:13, the newsreel shows the dramatic battle between the Royal Navy and French fleet at Oran. The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (3 July 1940) also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult, a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five other ships for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.

The attack by air and sea was conducted by the Royal Navy after France had signed armistices with Germany and Italy that came into effect on 25 June. Of particular significance to the British were the five battleships of the Bretagne and Richelieu classes and the two fast battleships of the Dunkerque class, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared that the ships would fall into Axis hands. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.

The French thought they were acting honourably in terms of their armistice with Germany and were convinced they would never turn over their fleet. The British attack was almost universally condemned in France, where grievances festered for years over what they considered a betrayal by their former ally. Marshal Philippe Pétain, who had become the prime minister of France on 16 June, severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on 8 July.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com