Millions of soldiers from dozens of nations fought and died across the globe during World War II, a conflict that defined the modern world. Amidst this massive conflict were hundreds of smaller stories consisting of individual battles, events, and people. Some of these events are well known, D-Day, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Fall of France, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to name just a few. However, many other events are less extensively studied or discussed in everyday life. One of these events is Operation Catapult which was an assault by the British navy against a French fleet located in Algeria. The goal of the attack was to prevent the fleet from being seized by the fascist powers and used against the British Empire. The Operation was a resounding success, with the British forces successfully destroying a key battleship and damaging several other French ships.

This thesis will endeavor to prove that the United States played a key role within Operation Catapult. While U.S. forces were not directly involved in the attack, the United States was incredibly influential in other ways, specifically in terms of political and intelligence support to the British Empire. The United States had a vested interest in the fate of the French fleet, and provided political support to the British Empire while Washington D.C. encouraged the British to take actions to secure the French fleet. All of these efforts are surprising because the United States was officially a neutral at that point in the war, but it defied neutrality to give intelligence support to the British regarding French reactions to the attack. Additionally, this thesis will prove that these type of actions on the part of the United States were not unique to Operation Catapult and continued in the months after the attack when the U.S. government again cooperated with the British in regards to dealing with another French naval force, this
one in Martinique.