Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/26448: Telegram

The First Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Dickerson) to the Secretary of State

Kuibyshev (Moscow), December 12 [11], 1942—noon.
[Received December 11—10:08 p.m.]

1045. Soviet press comment on the scuttling of the French Fleet at Toulon73 has been highly commendatory and has expressed great satisfaction at its successful execution.

Repeated to Moscow.

Dickerson
  1. Most of the French Fleet was scuttled on November 27, 1942, as German troops entered Toulon. A few ships escaped to North African ports. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announced on December 8 that about one quarter of the ships had fallen intact and afloat into German control.↩