Whither The French Fleet?

JULY

MON 1 JULY 1940
Navy awards contracts for 44 ships.

Headquarters Marine Aircraft Wing, Fleet Marine Force (Brigadier General Ross E. Rowell, USMC) is established at the Marine Corps Base, San Diego, California.

U.S. Ambassador to France William C. Bullitt has lengthy private interview with the President of the French Council of Ministers, Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, in which the latter informs the envoy that orders had been given "to every captain of the French Fleet to sink his ship rather than permit [it] to fall into German hands." The same day, Bullitt also has interview with Admiral François Darlan, who informs him that if the Germans should demand the Fleet, it had orders to leave at once for Martinique and Guantanamo to place its ships in U.S. hands. He echoes Marshal Pétain's declaration that French ships had orders to scuttle if the Germans attempt to seize them.

Destroyer O'Brien (DD-415) reaches Santos, Brazil, as her shakedown cruise to Latin American ports continues (see 3 July).