Equestria: World War II (1939-1941)

3RD JULY 1940

-------------------------------------------------------MERS-EL-KÈBIR, FRENCH ALGERIA--------------------------------------------------------
It was now 5:00am here in Mers-El-Kèbir, on the coast of the French colony of Algeria. Despite the fact that the French colonies were still not occupied by the Germans yet, the place was still on high alert, since at any moment, Germans could come storming into the town's naval port, and take it for themselves. The master of the Mers-El-Kébir port, Charles Mercier, was in his cabin, reading the newspaper. The country of France had finally surrendered to the Nazis on 22 June, and they had signed an armistice with the Germans.

Under this treaty that they signed, half of France's territory would be taken by the Germans and ruled under German rules only, but the remaining half and the colonies remained with unoccupied France. It was being headed by Marshal Philippe Pétaine, who the French thought of as a traitor to his country. When the Germans had invaded Belgium, he had sent most of the French forces into that country, which had left in a gap in France's own borders, that had led the Germans to invade in the first place. That, and he had collaborated with the Nazis to give up part of his own country to the enemy, the fucking traitor.

The worst part was that Paris was no longer the actual capital of France. While Paris nominally was still the capital of France, Pétaine and his government had set themselves up in a large government-owned mansion in the holiday of town of Vichy, on the Allier river. France didn't even feel like the country that used to be, it was as if the Germans had eaten the whole country and given the leftovers to Pétaine and the unoccupied region, now called Vichy France. So far, only the northern and western parts of the country had been annexed by the Germans, but the French people were scared that they would come for more.

As Mercier wondered what would be happening, he suddenly heard the sound of aircraft engines. They were coming in low. Mercier instantly realized what was about to happen, grabbed his shotgun that he had been keeping with him in his office for protection, and ran out. As he ran out, he saw one something that made him want to put the shotgun down. The planes were not German. These were British planes. Allied aircraft. Maybe they were coming to liberate France from the Germans.

At first, he was a little suspicious, as he had the rumours of the Germans being able to disguise their planes as Allied planes somehow, but those went away when he saw the planes were making the right maneuvers. Mercier recognized this, being a bit of an aviation geek. As he began to put his gun away, he also saw some British military vessels. That was odd. The ships hadn't called him, since he was the harbour master here. He recognized the ships from times he had handled them in the past.

There was the HMS Hood, a battlecruiser, and two battleships. The HMS Valiant and the HMS Revolution. A few cruisers and destroyers, which he couldn't recognize. As he wondered what the Royal Navy ships were doing here without clearance or prior messages to him, he saw one of them, the Hood, move its guns. Before he realized what was happening, without warning, the big battlecruiser fired a shell, and it landed right on one of the French ships that was docked.

In this case, the ship that got hit was a destroyer, and the shell hit that ship, causing it to instantly burst into flames with a large explosion. In the chaos, Mercier also saw bodies fly off the destroyer, probably sailors who were conducting routine maintenance on the ship. As he watched horrified, realising that he couldn't do anything against the large vessels, as the battlecruiser, along with the other battleships, began firing again at the French ships. However, suddenly, one of the docked French Navy ships suddenly turned its own gun, and fired at one of the British ships. However, the shell only grazed the stern of one of the British battleships, which instantly turned its guns to fire at the French ship.

A naval battle had now begun, and Mercier began to run back to his cabin to call the French Navy for help, and just as he was about to enter the cabin, he heard the planes from earlier, and he watched as they began dropping bombs on the French ships, adding to the already chaotic situation around him. He couldn't believe this. The British were attacking their own allies! Why?! Why?! WHY?!, thought Mercier as he was the phone, calling the French Navy, who agreed to instantly send five destroyers to the port. He also found out that one of the French submarines, the Surcouf, which was the largest submarine in the world at that time, had also been captured by the British.

He watched as he saw nine more planes come towards the port. There six Fairey Swordfish biplanes, and three Blackburn Skuas escorting them. All were bombers, probably coming in to drop a few more on the French ships. He realized that the ships probably had no way of defending themselves against the aircraft, and braced himself for an explosion.


(six of the first and three of the second)

However, as he watched, he saw one of the ships turn its guns, and fire at the British planes. It fired a single shell, which headed directly towards one of the Skuas. Unfortunately, the shell didn't hit the Skua, but it exploded close to the plane, which was hit by its debris. The plane began to descend, and started to turn away from the Mers-El-Kèbir port, and Mercier followed the plane as it continued towards the ocean, trailing smoke. However, the other planes were continuing with their missions, and they continued to drop bombs on the port, and one of them nailed the stern of the destroyer Mogador, badly damaging it.

However, that was when he saw something that made him happy. Five French planes were approaching them. These planes were American-made Curtiss H-75s. He watched as the French planes began chasing away the British planes. However, he knew they were not still out of hot water yet. There was only one way in and out of the harbor, that was currently being blocked by the British ships. And he had already suspected the British ships had laid a nasty little surprise out for any French vessels that came to destroy them.

(this but with French flag and markings)

As Mercier watched the naval battle rage, he was suddenly surprised, as some of the British ships began finally retreating out of the harbor, having felt that they had crippled the French fleet enough. However, just as Mercier thought the British ships were done with the carnage, he suddenly heard and saw a loud explosion, and barely had time to react as the shockwave ripped through his cabin, broke all the windows, and threw him right into the wall. Mercier was almost knocked unconscious as he was thrown onto the wall, and then knocked onto the floor. As he got up, he walked to the door of the cabin, which had been blown off by the shockwave of the explosion.

As he walked out, he saw something horrifying. A ship, in this case, the French Navy battleship Bretagne, had been completely destroyed and burning on the water, sinking from the stern. The ship had not been docked, but had been out in the water and fighting back against the British vessels when it had been hit by something, probably a torpedo. It had probably hit the ammunition, causing the large explosion, and completely destroying the ship's stern. Mercier watched as the ship began to slip under the waters, totally destroyed. Multiple pieces of debris, and human body parts, were floating in the water.

As Mercier took in the horrific destruction of the Mers-El-Kébir port, he collapsed, as he realised that a piece of shrapnel had pierced him in the abdomen, and he had only now realised this. As he lay bleeding on the ground, he wondered what had caused Britain to turn on their own ally, and attack them so fiercely, as if they were attacking Germans instead of the French. He just hoped that this was a case of mistaken identity, and not what he thought it was, as he lay bleeding on the rubble-strewn tarmac, as his vision began to go blurry, and as the lights began to go out, the last thing he saw were the burning remains of the Bretagne.