World War II Database

On 19 Nov 1942, German leaders in Berlin set Operation Lila in motion, with the objective of capturing the French port city of Toulon, along with the French fleet in its harbor. German forces were to attack from both east and west. From the east, the plan was to capture Fort Lamalgue, headquarters of Admiral André Marquis, and the Mourillon arsenal; from the west, the plan called for the capture of the main arsenal and the coastal defenses. German naval forces were cruising off the harbor to engage any ships attempting to flee, and naval mines were laid.

At 0430 on 27 Nov, the execution of the operation began. Marquis was quickly captured at Fort Lamalgue, but the German forces failed to prevent his chief of staff Rear Admiral Robin from contacting Rear Admiral Dornon at the arsenal, who sent the recommendation to scuttle the fleet to Admiral Jean de Laborde aboard flagship Strasbourg. Twenty minutes later, German troops entered the arsenal and began machine gunning French submarines that had not yet set sail to be scuttled in deeper water. Some time after 0500, behind schedule, German troops arrived at the main naval base. After some delay by French sentry, German tanks broke through the entrance barriers at 0525, and Admiral Laborde ordered the scuttling to begin via radio, visual signals, and dispatch boat. At 0645, fighting broke out near battleship Strasbourg and cruiser Foch, with Germans drawing first blood by killing one French officer and five sailors, but Strasbourg's naval guns quickly posed a serious threat for German tanks, even as Strasbourg was on her way down to the bottom of the harbor. As Strasbourg reached the harbor bottom, the demolition charges were set off, destroying her armament, machinery, and fuel stores. A few minutes later, cruisers Colbert, Algérie, and Marseillaise were destroyed in similar manners. Cruiser Dupleix was boarded by force by German troops, but they failed to prevent Captain Moreau from setting the demolition charges to destroy the ship. In the port's drydock, demolitions set up aboard cruiser Jean de Vienne were disarmed in time by German troops, but the open sea valves brought her to the bottom, blocking the drydock. Shortly after, in another drydock, battleship Dunkerque was destroyed by demolition charges, then cruiser La Galissonnière was scuttled to block that drydock.

Against orders, several submarine captains refused to scuttle their boats, and chose to defect to the Free French instead. Submarines Casabianca and Marsouin reached Algiers, Le Glorieux reached Oran, and Iris reached Barcelona to reach that end. Submarine Vénus failed to leave the harbor, and was scuttled at the entrance to Toulon harbor instead.

One surface ship, Leonor Fresnel, managed to escape and reach Algiers.

During the scuttling operation, the French destroyed 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 13 torpedo boats, 6 sloops, 12 submarines, 9 patrol boats, 19 auxiliary ships, 1 school ship, 28 tugs, and 4 cranes. In the end, the Germans were only able to capture three disarmed destroyers, four damaged submarines, three civilian ships, two obsolete battleships of little military value, and 27 other small vessels, some of which were damaged. Toulon harbor burned for several days, and oil pollution was so bad that it took two years before the harbor water cleared.

The destruction of the French fleet at Toulon symbolically ended the Vichy government.

Photographs

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