When persuasion at Dakar collapsed

The expedition relied on spectacle and persuasion, but fog hid the supposedly overwhelming fleet from Dakar. Four Free French airmen landed at Ouakam to seek support, took the airfield commander prisoner, and displayed a success signal before the surrounding garrison arrested them. British aircraft dropped leaflets while de Gaulle broadcast an appeal. A motor-launch delegation carrying his personal message then approached Dakar without first resolving how the senior naval command would respond. Admiral Landriau ordered the delegates arrested as traitors, and their retreat left two officers seriously wounded by machine-gun fire while Richelieu's secondary battery fired after them. The political plan unraveled because its envoys misread local authority and the defenders rejected its premise.