Operation Catapult at Mers El Kebir (World War II)

The attack on the French fleet at Mers el Kebir took place on July 3, 1940, during World War II (1939-1945). Events Leading up to the Attack During the closing days of the Battle of France in 1940, and with the German victory all but assured, the British became increasingly worried about the disposition of the French fleet. The fourth largest navy in the world, the ships of the Marine Nationale possessed the potential to alter the naval war and threaten Britains supply lines across the Atlantic. Voicing these concerns to the French government, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was assured by Navy Minister Admiral Franà §ois Darlan that even in defeat, the fleet would be kept from the Germans. Unknown to either side was that Hitler had little interest in taking over the Marine Nationale, only ensuring that its ships were neutralized or interned â€Å"under German or Italian supervision.† This latter phrase was included in Article 8 of the Franco-German armistice. Misinterpreting the language of the document, the British believed that the Germans intended to take control of the French fleet. Based on this and a distrust of Hitler, the British War Cabinet decided on June 24 that any assurances provided under Article 8 should be disregarded. Fleets and Commanders During the Attack British Admiral Sir James Somerville2 battleships, 1 battlecruiser, 2 light cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, 11 destroyers French Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul2 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, 6 destroyers, 1 seaplane tender Operation Catapult At this point in time, the ships of the Marine Nationale were scattered in various ports. Two battleships, four cruisers, eight destroyers, and numerous smaller vessels were in Britain, while one battleship, four cruisers, and three destroyers were in port at Alexandria, Egypt. The largest concentration was anchored at Mers el Kebir and Oran, Algeria. This force, led by Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul, consisted of the older battleships Bretagne and Provence, the new battlecruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg, the seaplane tender Commandant Teste, as well as six destroyers. Moving forward with plans to neutralize the French fleet, the Royal Navy began Operation Catapult. This saw the boarding and capture of French ships in British ports on the night of July 3. While the French crews generally did not resist, three were killed on the submarine Surcouf. The bulk of the ships went on to serve with Free French forces later in the war. Of the French crews, the men were given the option to join the Free French or be repatriated across the Channel. With these ships seized, ultimatums were issued to the squadrons at Mers el Kebir and Alexandria. Ultimatum at Mers el Kebir To deal with Gensouls squadron, Churchill dispatched Force H from Gibraltar under the command of Admiral Sir James Somerville. He was instructed issue an ultimatum to Gensoul requesting that the French squadron do one of the following: Join the Royal Navy in continuing the war with GermanySail to a British port with reduced crews to be interned for the durationSail to the West Indies or the United States and remain there for the rest of the warScuttle their ships within six hoursIf Gensoul refused all four options, Somerville was instructed to destroy the French ships to prevent their capture by the Germans. A reluctant participant who did not wish to attack an ally, Somerville approached Mers el Kebir with a force consisting of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution, the carrier HMS Ark Royal, two light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. On July 3, Somerville sent Captain Cedric Holland of Ark Royal, who spoke fluent French, into Mers el Kebir aboard the destroyer HMS Foxhound to present the terms to Gensoul. Holland was coldly received as Gensoul expected negotiations to be conducted by an officer of equal rank. As result, he sent his flag lieutenant, Bernard Dufay, to meet with Holland. Under orders to present the ultimatum directly to Gensoul, Holland was refused access and ordered to leave the harbor. Boarding a whaleboat for Foxhound, he made a successful dash to the French flagship, Dunkerque, and after additional delays were finally able to meet with the French admiral. Negotiations continued for two hours during which Gensoul ordered his ships to prepare for action. Tensions were further heightened as Ark Royals aircraft began dropping magnetic mines across the harbor channel as talks progressed. A Failure of Communication During the course of the talks, Gensoul shared his orders from Darlan which permitted him to scuttle the fleet or sail for America if a foreign power attempted to claim his ships. In a massive failure of communication, the full text of Somervilles ultimatum was not relayed to Darlan, including the option of sailing for the United States. As talks began to stalemate, Churchill was becoming increasingly impatient in London. Concerned that the French were stalling to allow reinforcements to arrive, he ordered Somerville to settle the matter at once. An Unfortunate Attack Responding to Churchills orders, Somerville radioed Gensoul at 5:26 PM that if one of the British proposals was not accepted within fifteen minutes he would attack. With this message Holland departed. Unwilling to negotiate under threat of enemy fire, Gensoul did not respond. Approaching the harbor, the ships of Force H opened fire at an extreme range approximately thirty minutes later. Despite the approximate similarity between the two forces, the French were not fully prepared for battle and anchored in a narrow harbor. The heavy British guns quickly found their targets with Dunkerque put out of action within four minutes. Bretagne was struck in a magazine and exploded, killing 977 of its crew. When the firing stopped, Bretagne had sunk, while Dunkerque, Provence, and the destroyer Mogador  were damaged and run aground. Only Strasbourg and a few destroyers succeeded in escaping the harbor. Fleeing at flank speed, they were ineffectively attacked by Ark Royals aircraft and briefly pursued by Force H. The French ships were able to reach Toulon the next day. Concerned that the damage to Dunkerque and Provence was minor, British aircraft attacked Mers el Kebir on July 6. In the raid, the patrol boat Terre-Neuve exploded near Dunkerque causing additional damage. Aftermath of Mers el Kebir To the east, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham was able to avoid a similar situation with the French ships at Alexandria. In hours of tense talks with Admiral Renà ©-Emile Godfroy, he was able to convince the French to allow their ships to be interned. In the fighting at Mers el Kebir, the French lost 1,297 killed and around 250 wounded, while the British incurred two killed. The attack badly strained Franco-British relations as did an attack on the battleship Richelieu at Dakar later that month. Though Somerville stated we all feel thoroughly ashamed, the attack was a signal to the international community that Britain intended to fight on alone. This was reinforced by its stand during the Battle of Britain later that summer. Dunkerque, Provence, and Mogador received temporary repairs and later sailed for Toulon. The threat of the French fleet ceased to be an issue when its officers scuttled its ships in 1942 to prevent their use by the Germans. Selected Sources HistoryNet: Operation CatapultHMS Hood.org: Operation Catapult

Little Rock, Arkansas - New Futures for Youth - an Independent, Non-profit Organization Free Essay Example, 2750 words

Ms Threet possesses a Bachelor s Degree in Psychology and has been with New Futures for seventeen years. Ms Threet possesses a Bachelor s Degree in Psychology and has been with New Futures for seventeen years. When asked how does age, gender, marital status, and tenure affect hiring and supervision decisions, Mr Vogler explained that aside from the administrative and volunteer positions, the major requirement for employment with New Futures is that applicants possess a four-year degree received from an accredited college of higher learning (Vogler, personal communication, July 16, 2010). When Ms Threet was asked the same question, she stated very simply that, maturity and commitment to youth development were the major hiring criteria of New Futures (Threet, personal communication, July 19, 2010). When asked to elaborate, Ms Threet explained that gender, marital status and tenure are not usually applicable. New Futures currently plans to hire three new staff members, to be outplac ed in area high schools, working directly with youth in a pilot project. Gender will be considered in hiring to match male staff with male youth and female staff with female youth. However, this is not a requirement, only a consideration to meet the needs of the youth. Through personal communication with both staff member s, it appeared that they differed in their opinions of what were the most important hiring criteria for employees. Ms Threet explained that an obviously qualified applicant (who was also an internal applicant) applied for a promotion within New Futures and was hired for the position and the applicant did not have a four-year degree. This could very well explain why the two differed in their responses to the hiring criteria of employees. In terms of the professional make-up of the organization, both staff members explained that the organization consisted of a wide variety of disciplines, i.e. social workers (LMSW and LCSW level); Program Specialist; Program Liaisons; Communications Specialist; and Research and Evaluation Analysts. When asked about the types of professional development training that the program offered, both employees provided very different responses. We will write a custom essay sample on Little Rock, Arkansas - New Futures for Youth - an Independent, Non-profit Organization or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now

Transferable Personal Skill Development Education Essay Free Essays

Introduction: A better definition of movable accomplishments would include a broad scope of different accomplishments that are non merely utile for a broad scope of occupations, but will besides fit pupils for a productive calling as a research scientist. Critically measuring informations ; being able to compose clearly and efficaciously in a scope of manners ; pass oning via formal presentations or the media ; networking and pull offing your clip efficaciously are accomplishments that are utile in many different occupations. Constructing a nucleus competence in these countries will besides surely make you a better scientist. We will write a custom essay sample on Transferable Personal Skill Development Education Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is besides of import to recognize that your function as a research worker will alter dramatically as you progress from pupil, to research helper and beyond. In this regard larning about the procedure of acquiring published ; how to compose grants that will acquire funded and how to pull off fundss and lead squads of scientist are all indispensable in smoothing the passage to go a Principal Investigator or PI. Although these might non look to be the most ‘transferable ‘ of accomplishments, the mundane activities of a PI are so radically different from a pupil who works at the lab bench that it is efficaciously a wholly different occupation. Communication Application of Number Information Technology Working with Others Bettering Own Learning and Performance Problem Solving Time-management Research Public speech production Literature position: ‘The Government is content for the Authority to mount a little graduated table pilot of different agencies of independently measuring these Key Skills. However, I remain doubting about the feasibleness of such independent appraisal, and would see such work as holding a lower order of precedence than either the work on the first three Key Skills or on developing the wider Skills through Progress File. ‘ ‘The movable accomplishments that employers identify be given to be those that support organizational public presentation. They may be identified as follows: Interpersonal accomplishments Communication accomplishments Self-management accomplishments Intellectual accomplishments It is easy to place occupationally relevant accomplishments acquired through preparation and instruction but much more hard to nail movable accomplishments. ‘ ‘We are societal animate beings and need the input from and interaction with others to work efficaciously as persons. ‘ ‘One of the most important ways in which communicating can act upon single behavior is through its ability to alter single perceptual experiences and perceptual prejudice. ‘ Movable accomplishments are of import accomplishments which persons should possess, non merely for the intent of academic programmes of survey, but besides for that of operating efficaciously within one ‘s occupation function in the workplace. Movable accomplishments can be seen to be that which are slightly cardinal accomplishments which benefit persons with the undertaking at manus. A good illustration of this is the ability to work good in a team- this is something which is of import both when perusal and holding a occupation. Case survey: PDP is a procedure of reflecting and entering my experiences to assist me to do the most of my clip at Guildhall. It provides a scope of specific, targeted techniques that I can utilize to: derive new positions on my surveies, calling and life in general proctor and record my endowments and accomplishments identify ends and be after my term-time survey work load and/or my hereafter calling assist me present my accomplishments and achievements to prospective employers. The results of PDP should be: greater apprehension of how much advancement I ‘ve made in all countries of my class better apprehension of my strengths and failings by both me and my Coach clearer apprehension of what I need to make following understanding on puting ends and marks an action program that summarizes all this. My academic surveies, whilst being the primary portion of my experience at Guildhall, are non the ‘whole bundle ‘ . Some of the most important alterations I ‘ll meet will be in the country of personal development. My skylines – geographical, cultural and rational – will be broadened by the experience of analyzing in Guildhall ‘s international environment, and by the extra-curricular activities and chances you choose to prosecute. If this is my first clip off from place, life and analyzing in Guildhall will promote me to be more independent, self-assured, and resourceful, better at pull offing my clip and your money, and better at working with others. In a word, more mature. If I are a mature pupil, I am already likely to hold some experience of accomplishments mapping, brooding pattern, larning manners, calling planning, CV and interview technique. The determination to return to instruction may hold been step one of my calling program. It is still of benefit to reevaluate your ends from clip to clip. Very merely, geting basic competence across a scope of movable accomplishments will do me better equipped for any calling you chose to follow. Unless you are of course gifted at everything you do, everyone can profit from some good structured and focussed preparation classs. It ‘s besides clear that deriving a scope of movable accomplishments is of import in happening your following occupation. Several studies of employers have found that although PhD alumnuss were technically adept, extremely motivated, and resourceful, they needed extra preparation on â€Å" soft accomplishments † such as working in a squad, communicating, and calling planning. Learning Result: If I say something about myself two old ages before I have come to London for analyzing with the different people in a different environment. At the beggary clip I had less able to pass on with the other states people and another thing is that instruction system is different. Day by twenty-four hours I am seeking to develop my communicating accomplishment. Besides, I am working a portion clip occupation in the Burger male monarch which is most popular fast nutrient store in the Europe. I started at that place as a gross revenues helper. I have to pass on with the assorted sorts of clients. I have to pull off so many state of affairss. After few months subsequently I become a Supervisor. I have to pull off all my staff, telling the bringing, having the bringing, pull offing the worst state of affairs. So I can state communicating accomplishment and clip pull offing those are the two most affect full transferable accomplishment I have achieved to acquire the success. Always I try to go to in my category in clip and my work topographic point. That is why I can acquire the full lesson in the category and I got the repute in my work topographic point because of clip keeping. I ne’er be defocus depending on clip direction. Another thing is that for my well communicating accomplishment I can discourse about my survey with instructors and my category mates every bit good as I can pull off my all the staffs and the clients in the store. Decision: In add-on to these good grounds for passing some clip geting movable accomplishments, I will besides happen that they are an of import subject at the Institute. Indeed, I will hear your supervisor and the Education Support squad reference movable accomplishments on a regular basis. This is because there is now a demand for pupils to pass 10 yearss per twelvemonth on movable accomplishments preparation and without making this we ca n’t finish our PhD. How to cite Transferable Personal Skill Development Education Essay, Essay examples