What seven battleships and seventy-four submarines add

The aggregate force includes roughly seven battleships, a carrier and seaplane carrier, numerous cruisers and destroyers, sixteen sloops, and about seventy-four submarines. Older battleships could guard convoys or serve in secondary theaters, forcing German raiders to risk damage even when the escort could not win outright. Dunkerque and Strasbourg could cover the western Mediterranean, allowing British ships otherwise assigned to Force H to reinforce the Home Fleet or enter dockyard hands. Béarn, the sloops, and the numerous submarines address convoy and anti-submarine duties, though the French fleet still lacks a modern fleet carrier.