And that they did-at 14:00, a ND.118 B Floatplane from the cruiser Jules Ferry spotted a British carrier force sailing out of Portsmouth, with 4 carriers, 3 very large warships, and numerous escorts. Ahead of the main force were a small group of 3 light cruisers and 6 destroyers, intended to provoke a British response to the raid. On November 12, 8 French fleet carriers, a light carrier, and many escorts slipped out of their camouflaged berths in port, and headed towards the channel. After British home fleet assets sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to ward off this fake attempt, Morier would take the French fleet carriers and strike hard at the remaining British home fleet, their carriers suspected to be still forward deployed at Portsmouth. A good portion of the French light carriers and battle forces would sail to the Mediterranean, and forces would skirmish off the coast of Egypt, driving fears among the British of an attempt to take the Suez canal. Realizing the losses in these skirmish actions were unsustainable, and hoping to end the war before the Germans could be convinced to join the British side, the French high command came up with a plan. Two more French destroyers were lost to gunfire in the skirmishing(to one British), and a seventh French destroyer was sunk by an aerial torpedo from the British carrier Colossus Otherwise, the battle did not go in the French favor, two battleships and a carrier were damaged by bombs from land based aircraft, and two divisions of destroyers ran directly into a dense British minefield, losing 4/12 vessels. The old TPS failed to stop any of the blast, which directed to the aft magazines, which promptly detonated. In September 1939, another skirmish was fought between the opposing fleets, a lone French torpedo bomber flying off Marseillaise managed to slip through British defenses and hit Ramillies' sister and class namesake, Empress of India.
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