Word: gibraltarism
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...Africa, where French West and Equatorial Africa had already gone over to De Gaulle, Morocco was in a state of revolt. Hundreds of Frenchmen were arrested by the Vichy-controlled Government, which still kept a shaky hand on the situation. Eighteen French airplanes were flown to Gibraltar by their rebellious crews...
Through the Strait of Gibraltar one day last week, under the very muzzles of the British guns that guard the Rock, slid a flotilla of six fast warships flying the French flag. They were headed for the Atlantic. Although Marshal Pétain's Vichy Government has severed relations with Britain, and a British fleet in Oran Bay attacked and destroyed part of a French squadron last July, no gun fired on these French warships. They steamed confidently by Britain's scowling fortress, and sped...
Determined not to let the French Fleet fall into Adolf Hitler's hands, the British, on the morning of July 3 handed the Commander of the French Squadron in Oran Bay ( 200 miles east of Gibraltar) an ultimatum giving him six hours to join the British, go to America to be interned or scuttle his ships. The French officers began to argue with one another. Many a sailor refused to fight. Most of them did not even prepare their vessels for action (it takes a considerable head of steam to work the turrets of a battleship...
...last week the Eastern Division of Britain's Mediterranean Fleet had been powerfully reinforced. Three new battleships (King George V, Prince of Wales, Jellicoe) had recently gone into the western Mediterranean, and the Repulse into the eastern. It appeared last week that some of the ships based on Gibraltar had joined the eastern squadron. All went out with lookouts alert-hunting for the will-o'-the-wisp Italian Fleet...
Singapore is one of the four most formidable naval fortresses in the world (others: Helgoland, Gibraltar, Pearl Harbor). Before the war started, Britain's strength at Singapore consisted of three cruisers, one aircraft carrier, nine destroyers, 15 submarines and a number of smaller craft-only enough to play for time until help came from the British China Squadron (four cruisers), from Australia and New Zealand (eight cruisers, five destroyers, some of which are now in the Mediterranean) and from the Mediterranean (now impossible). Singapore's guns are powerful, and the only successful attack would be a long siege...