The colony's proximity to Canada and Newfoundland could offer German submariners an excellent position to re-supply and coordinate attacks upon Allied convoys.

There was also concern that local fishery products could be sent to Germany through mainland France and, in turn, contribute to the Axis war effort.

However, an invasion did not come to fruition as Canada's War Cabinet refused to initiate an action for fear of offending the American State Department.

[4] On 23 December 1941, a French flotilla consisting of the submarine Surcouf and three corvettes, Mimosa, Aconit and Alysse, carrying 230 men sailed from Halifax under the pretext of a training mission.

Acting against the orders of Royal Canadian Navy Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray, at 3 am on 24 December 1941, the flotilla arrived off the port of Saint-Pierre and disembarked 230 armed sailors.