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According to Colin Smith's “England's Last War against France”, page 320, there was a battery of 330 mm Mod[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]è[/FONT]le 1931 guns, the same as the main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg, at Orongea Point defending Diego Suarez in 1942. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_13-50_m1931.htm gives these a range of 41.7 km at 35[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]º[/FONT] elevation. Presumably these had been emplaced pre-WW2 and they seem a stupid waste of money to me. However, if we assume that decisions within Third Republic ministries were made by the method described in Clochemerle, we can imagine the same guns sited at Djibouti or rather north of the city of Djibouti on the north side of the Gulf of Tadjoura, where they could command all access to the Red Sea. Now on 3rd July 1940, it is possible that a surprise British attack could capture or disable these guns. However, such an attack might fail. The need for such an attack might be forgotten. Thus after the British Operation Catapult in this POD, France could perhaps have prevented any ships from entering or leaving the Red Sea. Is this a plausible POD with amusing consequences?