A Hateful Decision: Churchill’s Darkest Hour and the British Attack on the French Navy
Edward Abel Smith
Based on new research, this is billed as a gripping, minute-by-minute account of the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940 and Winston Churchill’s decision to sink the French fleet to prevent it falling into Nazi hands. It was “the act that demonstrated how far Britain would go to win the war”.
Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group), £22.00, 4 June 2026, 9780857509628