Operation Menace
| Battle of Dakar | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom Australia Free France
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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John Cunningham Charles de Gaulle
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 Pierre François Boisson
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| Strength | |||||||
| 2 battleships 5 cruisers 10 destroyers 1 aircraft carrier |
1 battleship 2 cruisers 4 destroyers 3 submarines coastal emplacements |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 battleship crippled 1 battleship damaged 2 cruisers damaged 1 armed trawler sunk 6 torpedo planes lost |
1 destroyer grounded 2 submarines sunk 1 battleship damaged Danish freighter MS Tacoma sunk |
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The Battle of Dakar, also known as Operation Menace, was an unsuccessful attempt in September 1940 by the Allies to capture the strategic port of Dakar in French West Africa (modern-day Senegal). It was hoped that the success of the operation could overthrow the pro-German Vichy French administration in the colony, and be replaced by a pro-British Free French one under General Charles de Gaulle.
At the beginning of World War II, the French fleet in the Mediterranean was to have countered the Italian Navy, thereby leaving the British Royal Navy free to concentrate on the German warships in the North Sea and Atlantic.
After the defeat of France and the conclusion of the armistice between France and Nazi Germany in June 1940, there was considerable confusion as to the allegiance of the various French colonies. Some, like Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa, joined the Free French, but others, including the North African colonies, French West Africa, Syria and Indochina, remained under Vichy control. The possibility that the French fleet might come under German control led the British to attack the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on 3 July 1940. While the British had eliminated a potential threat, the attack discouraged other units from joining the Free French and Allies.
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Wikipedia