Battle
On September 23, the Fleet Air Arm dropped propaganda leaflets on the city of Dakar. Then Free French aircraft flew off Ark Royal and landed at the airport, but their crews were immediately taken prisoner. A boat with representatives of de Gaulle entered the port, but was fired upon. At 10:00, Vichy ships trying to leave the port were given warning shots from Australia. As the ships returned to port the coastal forts opened fire on Australia. This led to an engagement between the British fleet and the forts. In the afternoon Australia intercepted and fired on the Vichy destroyer L'Audacieux, setting it on fire and causing it to be beached.
Also in the afternoon, an attempt was made to set Free French troops ashore on a beach at Rufisque, to the south-east of Dakar. The attack failed due to fog and heavy fire from strongpoints defending the beach. General de Gaulle declared he did not want to "shed the blood of Frenchmen for Frenchmen" and called off the assault.
During the next two days, the Allied fleet continued to attack the coastal defences and the Vichy forces continued to defend them. Richelieu was hit by two 15" shells from Barham. On the first day of action guns 7 and 8 in turret number 2 of Richelieu failed on the first round. The following day, the crews were switched and main turret number 1 was used. Lower propellant charges were used but these gave a significant reduction in range and caused problems of fire control. Over the two days Richelieu fired a total of 24 rounds. No hits were recorded by Richelieu.
During these engagements, two Vichy submarines (Persée and Ajax) were sunk, and the destroyer L'Audacieux damaged.
The Allied fleet also suffered damage: Resolution was torpedoed by the Bévéziers and Barham was hit by two shells from the coastal defence batteries which had been manned by crew from the No 1 main turret of Richelieu. Two cruisers were also damaged.
Overall, the Battle of Dakar did not go well for the Allies. The Vichy forces did not back down. Resolution was so heavily damaged she had to be towed to Cape Town. During most of this conflict, bombers of the Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l'Air de Vichy), based in North Africa, bombed the British base at Gibraltar. On September 24 about 50 aircraft dropped 150 bombs while on September 25 about 100 aircraft dropped 300 bombs on the harbour and dockyards. Most of the bombs missed. Some damage was caused, but few casualties were suffered. Only the British armed trawler HMT Stella Sirius was sunk by direct hits. Finally, the Allies withdrew, leaving Dakar and French West Africa in Vichy hands.
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