Fiasco at Dakar

In 1795 the British were persuaded by French emigres that a monarchist uprising against the revolutionaries could easily be started in France, and that it would soon sweep the country, to the glory of Britain and her throne. The British backed a handful of braided and powdered French officers with phony French money printed by the solid Bank of England. These cadres were also supplied by the British with arms and uniforms for 17,000 infantrymen and 6,000 cavalrymen, who were supposed to be waiting for their chance. When the expedition arrived at Quiberon Bay, it found less than half the recruits it expected, its staff work was atrocious, and the expedition was a blood-saturated flop.

The British have a weakness for lost causes like that of Quiberon. There have been others--Barcelona in 1705, Toulon in 1793, Norway in 1940. But the worst of them all, because the job looked so easy and the repercussions of failure were so drastic, was last week's fiasco at Dakar.

Some time ago General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the emigres of 1940, went to see Brigadier General Edward Louis Spears, a tall, hearty, wealthy part-owner of shoe and cement factories and of a hotel chain, then (as in World War I) liaison officer between French and British High Commands. The British had just about concluded that General de Gaulle was a mediocrity, who by accident had achieved world prominence, not to be taken very seriously. But his story to General Spears was entirely plausible.

The French colonies in Equatorial Africa, he said, had declared for him and the cause of continued resistance. But French West Africa, an area eight times as big as France, had not. He had good reason to believe that the Germans were much interested in West Africa, had indeed sent more than 300 technicians and advisers into the area to develop pro-Axis airfields, garrisons, sentiment. Therefore he proposed that he personally lead a French force to Dakar, the capital, and subdue it by persuasion. He was sure that overwhelming opinion favored him rather than the Germans. General Spears took the idea to the Prime Minister; and Winston Churchill, the author of Gallipoli, approved--even ordered a supporting British force. If De Gaulle succeeded, the adventure would be a spectacular coup; if he failed--well, nothing risked, nothing gained.

But the risks at Dakar were bigger than Charles de Gaulle figured. It was a harbor inside a bay, terribly confined for naval action. It was a town guarded by four forts and three regiments of about 7,000 French and Senegalese--wide-eyed Negro troops, some of whom had come back from France with bogy tales of German soldiers with wings that no Senegalese could reach so as to cut their ears off. The place was strengthened by five newly arrived pro-Vichy warships. Of the six which had escaped from Toulon and through Gibraltar without so much as a cough from the British (TIME, Sept. 30), one had put into Casablanca with engine trouble. These vessels, which were armed under the armistice clause permitting French defense of the French Empire, had brought about 3,000 more men, all of whom would be a long time forgiving the British for the Battle of Oran. The new battleship Richelieu which the British crippled last July was in drydock at Dakar, but there was nothing wrong with her 15-inch guns.

When General de Gaulle and his force (identified by the defenders as the battleships Barham and Resolution, four cruisers, six destroyers, six transports, but probably including three French gunboats taken by the British after the fall of France) arrived at Dakar, they got the surprise of their lives. The commander dispatched two airplanes ashore with an invitation to surrender. The planes did not return. General de Gaulle and some aides--including Captain Becourt Foch, grandson of the late Marshal--boarded a launch and made for the basin, waving a white flag and a tricolor. They were greeted by gunfire, and two aides were wounded. General de Gaulle boarded his flagship and signaled an ultimatum. Dakar rejected it. From Vichy, Minister of the Navy Admiral Jean Darlan wired: "Remember the words of Joan of Arc, that 'peace is won only at the point of a lance.' "

General de Gaulle's Free French troops and vessels opened fire on the town. During the night they tried several times to effect a landing on Rufisque beach across the bay, but each time machine-gun fire drove them back. The commander of the supporting British squadron threatened attack unless the town gave in. Governor General Pierre Boisson, who lost a leg fighting the Germans in 1917, signaled in reply: "France has confided Dakar to me, and I shall defend it to the end." British guns spoke. Their conversation touched the Governor General's house, the town radio station (so that for several hours Vichy heard nothing), the French and native cities, Wakam airport, the railroad line to St. Louis, the city's main boulevard. Three pro-Vichy submarines put out, two of which were sunk. Altogether there were about 600 casualties, half civilian, half military. By way of reprisal, French planes armed for patrol duty in Algeria bombed Gibraltar two days. And Dakar did not surrender.

Suddenly, for no reason that anyone in either London or Vichy understood, General de Gaulle withdrew.

The British later explained that it be came clear that Dakar could not be taken without "a major military operation," which Britain did not wish to undertake against the former ally. But this rationalization was not enough for the rest of the world to swallow. No explanation would make Dakar anything but defeat. Furthermore, it was a serious defeat. Dakar, being the westernmost point on Africa's bulge, potentially commands the Atlantic. It is the terminus of airlines from Europe and interior Africa. It is only 1,700 miles from the tip of Brazil. In German hands it would play merry Neptune with Britain's lanes around Africa--Britain's only sea passage to the Orient with the Mediterranean closed. This winter Britain may sorely need a back door to the Southern Theatre.

Quipped a gleeful Roman: "All De Gaulle is divided into three parts."

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