Marine Nationale go all Free French in June 1940...

French bases in North Africa, the Atlantic and the Far East gave the Allies reach beyond the fleet itself.

France and Italy fielded broadly comparable fleets, but French deployment was global while Italy concentrated in the Mediterranean.

Delayed investment in dry docks can create maintenance backlogs that leave ships and submarines unavailable.

North African repair facilities and nearby airfields could sustain Allied ships and convoys in the Mediterranean.

The Brest force combined fast capital ships, cruisers, destroyers and the limited but useful carrier Béarn.

Provence, Bretagne and Lorraine could deter raiders despite being outmatched by modern fast battleships.

A Revenge-class battleship could protect its convoy by refusing to chase one German raider while the other approached the merchant ships.

Atlantic convoy escort and raider searches offered Béarn useful work away from concentrated enemy air power.

French fast capital ships complemented a Royal Navy fleet with many slower battleships.

Destroyers, sloops, minelayers and submarines supported imperial routes, coastal waters and Allied convoys.

Older battleships retained escort and bombardment value even though modern German ships held advantages in a direct fight.

A raider can win a gunfight yet emerge with damage that makes a later engagement more dangerous.

A substantial French submarine force in the Mediterranean could reduce the need to withdraw British forces from the Far East.

The 31 Redoutable boats illustrate France's investment in long-range patrol submarines during the treaty era.

Coastal boats and minelayers gave France's submarine fleet useful roles beyond the conspicuous Surcouf.

French stations from Casablanca and Dakar to Indochina extended patrol and escort coverage.

The fleet included fast battleships, Béarn, cruisers, destroyers, submarines and smaller vessels that the Allies could have used.

Britain feared the French fleet might be handed over after the armistice, amid the loss of ships and trained crews to the Allied cause.

The navy's ability to continue fighting was separate from the government's decision to end the campaign.

One interpretation links France's 1940 decision to World War I trauma and unstable interwar leadership.

The scenario identifies Admiral François Darlan's combined naval posts as a possible route to a fleetwide departure in June 1940.

A proposed evacuation would send floatable ships and useful supplies to Britain or French overseas bases before surrender.

German forces might seek concessions from a French armistice government while avoiding a renewed land campaign.

The French fleet's continued resistance would burden Italy most, while rivalry between Hitler and Mussolini could limit a shared Axis response.

Darlan might lead a continuing French state while de Gaulle handled mobile land forces; Corsica's choice remains uncertain.

French forces advancing from Tunisia could threaten the rear of Italy's Libyan army or force it to divide its strength before Operation Compass.

Libya is expected to fall during 1940 in this scenario, but Allied supply limits could let more Italian troops escape.

A larger French submarine force could make supplying Libya by sea exceptionally difficult.

Radar could improve night engagements by telling lookouts where to search, even when the guns depended on other aiming methods.

Freeing Ark Royal from Force H commitments could concentrate more carriers in the Mediterranean and make a much larger Taranto strike possible.

Sending Renown into the Adriatic with Force X could confront Italy with reports of an Allied capital ship operating close to its coast.

Extra torpedo hits could keep Italian battleships out of service through the greater repair burden, even if they sank in the same shallow water.

French capital ships could reduce Britain's need to hold Renown at Gibraltar, while French submarines could ease withdrawals from the Far East.

Béarn could protect important convoys by disrupting Condor reconnaissance and threatening surfaced U-boats.

French fast ships operating with the Home Fleet could cover Hood's absence while she received a needed refit.

A larger Allied Mediterranean fleet would still face attacks by Italian torpedo specialists.

An early end to fighting in Libya might free troops and supplies, while denying them hard-won combat experience.

Losing Libya and Ethiopia after a much heavier Taranto attack could deepen Mussolini's political difficulties, but his removal remains uncertain.

An early end to the Libyan campaign could bring rested Allied troops to Greece sooner, while Mussolini's possible fall opens different diplomatic outcomes.

Holding Crete would bring Romanian oil fields within bombing range, with North African airfields and ports helping sustain the island.

An Italian political crisis might lead to neutrality, which would also change German commitments around the Mediterranean.

A shorter Mediterranean war could spare equipment while leaving later Allied armies with less campaign experience.

A stronger Allied Mediterranean position might reopen more direct convoy routes toward the Far East.

Holding Crete could expose a concentrated German oil supply to bombing, even though Romania was not Germany's only source.

French fast battleships could reinforce the Home Fleet as British readiness and refits changed its available strength.

A crippled Italian surface fleet could let Eagle concentrate on fighter cover while Ark Royal and possibly Illustrious returned to the Atlantic.

More Allied fast ships and carrier aircraft could make Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's 1941 Atlantic raid more dangerous.

A major raider loss could shift German choices among surface ships, a carrier and submarines.

French strength could compound Allied naval gains, but losses and German choices still shape the result.

British interest in attacking ships in harbour shaped Taranto planning and torpedo techniques that were less helpful at sea.

The German surface fleet's need to justify its existence could encourage raiding despite a stronger Allied response force.

Allied control of French Indochina could delay Japan's attack on Malaya and give a larger Force Z time to assemble.

If German fast capital ships had been lost, older Allied battleships might be enough to guard Arctic convoys against cruisers.

The scenario stops near 1941 because later changes build on too many uncertain earlier decisions.