Vichy-French navy NAA-57

[CJE]

Well, gents, it's a very touchy question in France even now.
Though I can't deny that Vichy was an implicit ally of Germany and the best industrial partner of the German war effort, I just said that - unlike Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania or Finland - no Vichy unit ever fought against the Allies side by side with German forces.
Vichy made its own undeclared war against British and US (and also Thai and Japan) forces. In all cases, it was a defensive war (Oran, Dakar, Syria, Madagascar...) - but one, two retaliation air raids over Gibraltar in July '40.

I wrote two books in collaboration with Chris Shores on the Vichy Air Force that were published in France in the mid-80's (he re-used part of them in his book "Dust over Middle East"). It's a topic I do know well.

Incidentally, I'm not a supporter of the Vichy régime.