I doubt the British had the luxury of getting close enough to be sure of doing a little bit of damage, but not too much.
The French ships had big guns too.
And close or not, the difference between wounding a ship and blowing the crap of it can depend on whether a shell hits the mess hall or the fuel tank. (To put it in an oversimplified sense).
Whether we’re talking police shootings or military bombardments, I think the Monday-morning quarterbacks are far to eager to assume that you can control the difference between dead and wounded.
That’s just another example of “just shoot the gun out of his hand.”
There’s a damn good reason it’s called “deadly force”. Once you resort to it, simple survival and a desire for maximum effectiveness dictates that you shoot to kill.
And, as others point out, even at point-blank range with carefully “called shots”, you’re not going to be able to guarantee a disabling shot, simply because you have no control over whether a fire may break out in bunkerage, or a spark touches off a magazine left open because the French weren’t ready for a fight.
At that point in time, France had surrendered to the Nazi’s and was not a ally of GB. In many ways Vichy France assisted the Nazi regime.
In any case the British gave Darlan a reasonable set of demands:
*(a) Sail with us and continue the fight until victory against the Germans.
(b) Sail with reduced crews under our control to a British port. The reduced crews would be repatriated at the earliest moment.
If either of these courses is adopted by you we will restore your ships to France at the conclusion of the war or pay full compensation if they are damaged meanwhile.
(c) Alternatively if you feel bound to stipulate that your ships should not be used against the Germans lest they break the Armistice, then sail them with us with reduced crews to some French port in the West Indies — Martinique for instance – where they can be demilitarised to our satisfaction, or perhaps be entrusted to the United States and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews being repatriated.
If you refuse these fair offers, I must with profound regret, require you to sink your ships within 6 hours.
Finally, failing the above, I have the orders from His Majesty’s Government to use whatever force may be necessary to prevent your ships from falling into German hands
*
As it was, only one ship was sunk, the Bretagne, though others were badly damaged. So the fleet wasn’t wiped out.
Later on, in 1942, the Allies effectively were at war with the French, Vichy forces opposed Operation Torch in North Africa for example, as well as in Syria and the nearly forgotten operation in Madagascar. Difficult to say how much French hostility was caused by the attack in 1940, although De Gaulle - who was in theory on our side - was absolutely furious so you can imagine the effect on those, and there were many, who were already Anglophobic.
I think I have some of my WW2 history wrong, as most of it comes from playing Wolfenstein. Question: If the French surrendered and were technically on the Axis’s side, why didn’t they oppose the British immediately as they were now technically at war? Why did the French Admiral even say they’d scuttle their own ships, instead of saying “We’re technically the Axis now, so we’re fighting for Hitler’s side”?
There were two “Frances”: Occupied France- part of the Nazi hegemony and Vichy France, nominally neutral but a German puppet for many things. Then, there were the French Colonies which were more Neutral…
My answer is that if you’re an admiral and you’re not certain you’ll be able to carry out an order, then you should tell your superiors before the mission begins and asked to be reassigned or relieved. You don’t wait until you’re in the middle of the situation and then decide you can’t carry out the mission.
On a technical note, France hadn’t surrendered. It had asked for an armistice. So the fighting had stopped but there hadn’t been a formal end to the war.
That was one reason the British felt they had to sink the French fleet. They were aware that Germany might decide to tell France it had to turn over French warships to Germany or the fighting would resume.