Select Malta mail of the French Navy in WWI

Abstract

When the first world war loomed inevitable in 1914, the two main Allies, Great Britain and France, agreed to share and divide their maritime spheres of responsibilities. France would be the foremost actor in the Mediterranean, while Great Britain would assume military leadership in the Channel, the Atlantic and the North Sea. For the duration of the war, the British Mediterranean fleet acted under the supreme command of a French Admiral, and the French navy followed British orders in the North. The cooperation between the two navies was fraught with major difficulties, misunderstandings and rivalries, but survived the duration of the war. The powerful French warships moved base from Toulon to Malta, and arrived, to great popular excitement and festivities, in the Valletta harbours on August 11 , 1914, just before the formal declaration of war. One aspect that distinguished the two fleets in Malta was censorship. While the British authorities enforced a total ban on photographing British shipping in the harbours for fear of security breaches, no such restrictions seem to have hit French warships in the Malta harbours. Photos of British ships in Maltese waters taken during the war are almost impossible to find, while images of French warships in the Malta harbours abound. [excerpt]