Relations with Britain nearly tipped into war when on 4 July the British, still terrified that France’s navy would fall into German hands, bombed part of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in North Africa after first offering it the chance to sail under British escort to the West Indies. Thirteen hundred French sailors were killed at Mers-el-Kébir. The Vichy government retaliated by bombing Gibraltar but drew back from declaring war. From now on there were no official diplomatic links between the French and British governments; contact took place through informal emissaries. The British
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