Battle of Oran:

The battle of Oran was a skirmish on July 30, 1940 when the British navy attack a French flotilla off of Oran. The British were worried that the French, whose homeland was already occupied by the Germans, would hand their ships over to the Axis powers. This would more than likely mean the end of the Allies in the Mediterranean. Thus, the British sent the French ships a ultimatum, and the flotilla was non-responsive. For this reason, the British attacked and destroyed six ships, three of which were battleships. Over 1000 French naval servicemen were killed. The Nazi propagandists attempted to use this incident to mobilize the French against the British, but the French were sympathetic toward the position that the British were in, and did not turn the incident into a pretext for aggression.

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