André Jaffré, a young armourer in the French navy of the Second World War, found himself plunged into the most dramatic events involving the Marine Nationale during the conflict – the tragic shelling of the French fleet at anchor in Mers-el-Kébir by the Royal Navy in 1940, and the attempt by Nazi Germany to seize all units of the French fleet in Toulon in 1942. From frying pan to fire, he then joined the post-war Garde Républicaine – only to be sent to French Indochina as the long struggle to eject France from her colony gathered violent pace.
André’s account of these events is as gripping as it is compelling, and intensely human – told with the skill of the natural writer.
