France’s defeat created a problem far beyond Europe because France retained an extensive overseas empire and important naval bases. Dakar in Senegal and Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria were the principal French naval bases outside metropolitan France, and Dakar was far more useful than Freetown. Freetown remained useful to Britain, but Dakar was more developed, better positioned, and the administrative centre for France’s West African Atlantic territories. Britain had concentrated larger peacetime facilities at Gibraltar and the Cape, while France had made Dakar a major regional infrastructure hub, so the two West African ports were not interchangeable.
Chapter · 5:18-7:13
Dakar versus Freetown as an Atlantic base
Dakar’s position and facilities made it a more valuable Atlantic naval hub than Britain’s existing base at Freetown.