March 17th, 1941
End of the Battle of Corsica
In the middle of the night, the cruisers La Galissonnière and Jean-de-Vienne and the destroyers Le Fantasque, Le Terrible and Le Malin*, escorting the Île-de-Beauté and the Glengyle, reach Propriano for a last evacuation. The Eagle, under French escort, moves to the west of Sardinia to cover the convoy the next day until it was out of range of the
Luftwaffe bombers. Carrying more than 5,500 men, the convoy leaves the Gulf of Valinco at 04:00 am for Algiers. Before starting to embark soldiers and civilians, the La Galissonnière and Jean-de-Vienne leave a last souvenir for the Germans approaching Sartene in the form of a 40-minute bombardment with their 18 152 mm guns.
In the morning, the German bombers launch themselves to the attack of the evacuation convoy, but are intercepted by the French G-36A and the English Fulmar of the Eagle, with serious losses. A second raid is carried out by Bf 109Fs armed with 250 kg bombs. Faster, these fighter-bombers are more successful. The Jean-de-Vienne is missed by a small margin twice and has to be repaired in Oran. The Malin, hit at the level of the bridge, is seriously damaged. Part of its crew and the refugees who had embarked during the night are transferred to the Glengyle and the destroyer is taken in tow by Le Terrible. Unfortunately, as a third attack is announced, Le Terrible cuts the towline in order to maneuver. The attack, led by SM.79 Sparviero without escort, is easily repulsed and several Italian aircraft shot down. But at this moment, a submarine alert prevents Le Terrible from resuming towing. Under the threat of new air raids, Admiral Bourragué (who commanded the operation on the La Galissonnière) decides not to repeat the mistake of the "K" class destroyers the day before and scuttles Le Malin...this is the last naval loss of Merkur.
.........
Sartene is taken in the afternoon by German troops. Then, all organized resistance ceases on the island. However, a good number of men, legionnaires in particular, who could not be evacuated the night before, decide to go underground with the help and support of the local population. This is the birth of the armed resistance movement in Corsica. Other soldiers gather in the bay of Propriano and, thanks to a radio transmitter, manage to contact the Fresnel and Protée submarines, which enter the gulf the following night and succeed in taking 208 men with them. Finally, only 3,000 French soldiers are taken prisoner.
The battle of Corsica is over.
"The analysis of the results of the "Merkur" operation shows that both sides suffered heavy losses, mainly in the last two weeks of February.
The Allied losses were mainly related to the loss of airspace control around Corsica and Sardinia, once the French airfields in the north of Corsica were put out of action. However, at night, the combined power of the French Navy and the Royal Navy still ensured an important support to the ground forces.
It should be noted that, if the losses of the Regia Marina were very heavy from the first to the last day of the operation
the last day of the operation, the Italian Navy won a strategic victory, by ensuring an almost constant flow of troops and equipment to the bridgeheads in Corsica and Sardinia. It therefore played an important role in the Axis victory, but at such a cost that it was a Pyrrhic victory...it has lost 2 heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers, 5 large destroyers, 3 small destroyers, 7 torpedo boats, 1 auxiliary cruiser and 2 speedboats, in addition to 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 2 large destroyers, 1 small destroyer and 1 speedboat heavily damaged.
For their part, the Allied navies lost control of the Tyrrhenian Sea as soon as the Axis air power was massed in the Gulf of Genoa and on the Tuscan coast. The loss of the Béarn showed that the air defense of a fleet with only a small number of aircraft carriers, and therefore of fighters, could too easily be overwhelmed in the vicinity of the enemy grounds. From then on, very early in the battle, both the French Navy and the Royal Navy were reduced to night-time interdiction operations in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The success of some of these operations cannot hide the fact that the Allied navies were operating at high risk, as any damaged ship would probably be lost the next day if they were unable to withdraw at relatively high speed.
Axis air power gradually extended its reach, and in the very last days of "Merkur", even the western approaches to Corsica and Sardinia were clearly unsafe for Allied ships. However, the effectiveness of the air cover provided by the carriers improved with experience and the lack of efficient long-range fighters in the Axis camp led to heavy losses in the bomber formations.
Naval bombardments by the French Navy and the Royal Navy were moderately effective. The best results were obtained by the fast battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg during the night of February 20th-21st, but they were largely compensated by the vigorous reaction of the Luftwaffe the following day to support the paratroopers and above all by the sacrifice of the Italian units in charge of the protection of the large reinforcement convoy heading towards Solenzara and by the obstinacy of the commander of this convoy, which resumed its route the next morning. If the French squadron had given priority to the destruction of the convoy, one can wonder if the French counter-offensive towards Solenzara, even if it had been slowed down by the air attacks in the afternoon of the 21st, could not have resumed during the night and thrown back into the sea the German parachutists, who had lost most of their equipment in the shelling. Of course, it is very likely that more ships would have been sunk during the day by the Luftwaffe..." (Jack Bailey, op.cit.).
* Le Malin, victim of a machine problem, had not been able to join his comrades of the 8th Division for the previous day's operation. The damage repaired, it is decided to join him to the two survivors of the 10th Division.
