In fact the French had little choice but to keep their ships in Oran as they had no fuel and would have been sunk by the Germans immediately if they were to leave, and they also realised that they risked being sunk by the RN if they allowed their vessels to fall under control of the Germans. They therefore signed a compromise deal with the Germans - they would be allowed to keep their ships in Oran harbour, under French flag, they would not attempt to leave, and in return the Germans would not attack them.
Surely it would have been better to have been sunk by the occupying enemy trying to leave in order to deny access to the harbour, or to have scuttled
to prevent access to the harbour? Talk of a compromise deal to keep their warships all shiny and tied up, instead of being used somehow in order to achieve some sort of strategic aim is completely bizarre. What are they for, if not to do their part in
some way?
I'm quite laissez faire about the whole business of Frog bashing (although I do resent the way French seems to creep into our language) but with respect, what you have posted adds to any doubts I might have about French competence and motivation. The British were surely right not to have trusted the word of the Germans, and the decision to attack the ships was surely, the correct
military one.