Operation Royal Marine
Operation Royal Marine | |
---|---|
Part of the Military Intelligence Research [MIR(c)], Royal Navy parties | |
Outcome | Temporary suspensions of German river traffic and damage to barge barriers and bridges |
of north-eastern France |
Operation Royal Marine was a military operation in May 1940 of the
The mines caused some damage and delay to German river traffic on the Rhine from Karlsruhe to Koblenz and damaged bridges and protective barriers. Part of the plan was for Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers to drop the mines into rivers and canals on moonlit nights but this had hardly begun when the campaign ended. The success of the plot was nullified by the Allied defeat and the Franco-German Armistice of 22 June 1940.
Background
Despite the concerns of the French government during the Phoney War, over German air attacks and reprisals against French waterways, it was intended that the operation would take place simultaneously with Operation Wilfred, a scheme to mine the waters around Norway. The novelty of Operation Royal Marine was intended to divert American attention from the possible illegality of Operation Wilfred.[1] Wilfred was to force German convoys transporting Swedish iron ore into international waters, where they could be attacked by the Royal Navy.[2]
Simultaneous attacks with fluvial (river) mines against Germany was intended to deflect criticism that the Allies were not making war on Germany but the small countries around it, that they claimed to be protecting. A decision of the
Prelude
Plan
The plan had been presented to the British Cabinet in November 1939 by Winston Churchill, as a means of retaliation against illegal German minelaying.[6] (Sir Edward Spears claimed that he had originally proposed the idea to Churchill, when they visited eastern France in August 1939 but by the time the operation began, Churchill believed the idea to be his.)[7] A stock of 2,000 fluvial mines, with 1,000 more being produced per week, were to be put into rivers in France that flowed into western Germany, by naval parties led by Commander G. R. S. Wellby. The sailors were to be based in the Maginot Line, about 5 mi (8.0 km) distant from the Rhine, to put mines in the river, interfering with commercial traffic for 100 mi (160 km) beyond Karlsruhe.[8]
The mines would sabotage barge traffic and other river craft but become inert before reaching neutral territory at the Netherlands border. On 6 March 1940, the Cabinet was notified that mines would be ready for release from riverbanks on 12 March and to be dropped by RAF bombers by mid-April, between Bingen am Rhein and Koblenz on moonlit nights. Neutrals were to be warned and the first 300–400 fluvial mines were ready by the night of 14/15 March; after French objections for fear of German retaliation, the plan was postponed.[6] In April, Churchill tried to persuade the French to drop their objections to Royal Marine and remarked after meeting the French Prime Minister, Édouard Daladier, "Nous allons perdre l'omnibus".[9]
Mines
The mines were specially developed for the operation by
Operation
On 10 May 1940, mines were released into the
Aftermath
In Assignment to Catastrophe (1954), Edward Spears, the representative of Churchill to the French Prime Minister, who had first mooted the mining of German rivers in 1939, quoted Churchill from Their Finest Hour (1949) that,
The success of the device was, however, lost in the deluge of disaster.
— Churchill[19]
Footnotes
- ^ Derry 2004, p. 24.
- ^ Roskill 1957, p. 156.
- ^ Butler 1971, pp. 122–123.
- ^ Roskill 1957, pp. 156–158; Derry 2004, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Butler 1971, pp. 181–182.
- ^ a b Butler 1971, p. 114.
- ^ Spears 1954, p. 21.
- ^ Ellis 2004, p. 52; Spears 1954, p. 21.
- ^ Spears 1954, pp. 104–105.
- ^ Macrae 1971, pp. 35–51.
- ^ Telegraph 2003.
- ^ Macrae 1971, p. 40.
- ^ Macrae 1971, p. 52.
- ^ Rowe 1959, pp. 138–139.
- ^ Spears 1954, p. 149; Rowe 1959, pp. 155; Butler 1971, pp. 181–182; Churchill 2005, p. 36.
- ^ Ellis 2004, p. 52.
- ^ Rowe 1959, pp. 237.
- ^ Churchill 2005a, p. 647; Ellis 2004, p. 53.
- ^ Spears 1954, p. 149.
References
Books
- Butler, J. R. M. (1971) [1957]. Grand Strategy: September 1939 – June 1941. ISBN 978-0-11-630095-9.
- Churchill, Winston (2005a) [1948]. "Appendix Q - Operation Royal Marine - Note by the First Lord of the Admiralty, March 4, 1940". The Second World War: The Gathering Storm. Vol. I (Penguin Classics ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-14-008611-9.
- ISBN 978-0-14-008612-6.
- Derry, T. K. (2004) [1952]. ISBN 978-1-84574-057-3. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- OCLC 603643856.
- OCLC 881709135. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
- Rowe, V. (1959). The Great Wall of France: The Triumph of the Maginot Line (1st ed.). London: Putnam. OCLC 773604722.
- OCLC 929260462.
Newspapers
- "Obituary: Rear-Admiral Roger Wellby". The Daily Telegraph (online ed.). 3 December 2003. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 October 2016.