The Cyrano Fleet: France and Its Navy, 1940-42

The first and only scholarly book in English about the French Navy during the reign of the Vichy government, The Cyrano Fleet is a revisionist study presenting the French version of the events of 1940 through 1942. Captain Koburger’s use of French sources has allowed him to put forth evidence that contradicts and often corrects our understanding of this complex period of French maritime history. In particular, he attacks the Anglo-American conception of the Vichy navy as “fascist’. His findings shed new light on the often strained relations between NATO and the French armed forces. This carefully researched book will interest students and scholars of twentieth century history, political science, foreign affairs, and military studies.

It is now half a century since the Allies–the Grand Alliance of the Second World War–managed one way or another to destroy France’s Navy. This Navy had been first an important ally, then a neutral force, and finally the instrument of its own destruction. It is now about time that we re-examined the record, and finally took steps to set it straight? So writes Captain Koburger in the introduction to The Cyrano Fleet, a book that, all these years later, sets the record straight about the Vichy French Navy.