Marine Nationale (1933-1950): La Melpomène, La Pomone, La Flore, L’Iphigénie, La Bayonnaise, Bombarde, L’Incomprise, La Poursuivante, La Cordelière, Branlebas, Baliste, Bouclier Originally designed as escort vessels, later reclassified as torpedo boats, the “600-ton” class, and “Melpomène” for most authors, was the only class of French operational Torpedo Boats when WW2 broke out. Another class was … Read more
French Navy – Contre-Torpilleurs de 2500 tonnes. 6 built 1930-1934, in service until 1942: Le Fantasque, L’Audacieux, Le Malin, Le Terrible, Le Triomphant, Le Fier*. The Le Fantasque-class were a group of six large, very fast destroyers (officially classified as “contre-torpilleurs”) built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) in the 1930s. These ships were among … Read more
France (1916-1953): Bretagne, Provence, Lorraine Choices made in 1905 meant France only ever had two classes of Dreadnoughts ever: The Courbet and Bretagne, a total of seven ships, all sharing the same hull essentially, and only differing by the artillery type and arrangement. The three Bretagne (4 planned initially, the extra one for Greece) were … Read more
French Navy – Contre-Torpilleurs de 2500 tonnes. 6 built 1930-1934, in service until 1942: Vauquelin, Kersaint, Cassard, Tartu, Maillé Brézé, Chevalier Paul. The Vauquelin-class destroyers were a group of six large destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy in the early 1930s. They were an improvement over the previous Aigle class and were intended to … Read more
French Navy – Contre-Torpilleurs de 2400 tonnes. 6 built 1927-1930, in service until 1942: . The Aigle-class destroyers (“contre-torpilleurs”) were built for the French navy in 1931-34. Very similar to the previous Guepard class, they still had an improved machinery with higher pressure boilers for an extra 0.5 knots (0.93 km/h; 0.58 mph) in top … Read more
French Navy (1949-70), Rebuilt Battleship Backstory: An unfinished battleship in WW2 FS Jean Bart was the sister ship of Richelieu, the last class of French battleships. And if the first was barely completed when the 1940 summer offensive commenced, the second still was months ahead before completion. She had to sail out in emergency from … Read more
France (1928-45), Oceanic Submersibles, 31 completed. France’s largest submarine class The “Redoutable class” -official name was 1500 tonnes- was initiated in 1925. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, signed by France indeed, tried to prevent a future naval arms race by limiting fleets and warship types. Like Italy, France was fairly limited in numbers of … Read more
Marine Nationale, French seaplane carrier (1927-1942) The French Marine Nationale interwar seaplane carrier The Commandant Teste was France’s only dedicated fleet seaplane carrier in 1939. She was a large ship based in the Mediterranean where weather conditions favored the use of seaplanes to screen for the fleet, equipped with four catapults, cranes, hangar and workshops … Read more
French 2nd class oceanic submersibles (1925-1938) Sirène (4), Ariane (4), Circé (4), Argonaute (5), Diane (9), Orion (2), Minerve (6), total 34. The largest French Submarine serie. In September 1939, with 34 boats, a good chunk of the total submarine force of the French, the 600-630 series were supposed to defend French interests in the … Read more
French Marine Nationale – Oceanic Types 1923-1947: Caïman, Dauphin, Espadon, Marsouin, Morse, Narval, Phoque, Requin, Souffleur The Requin (“shark”) class submarines: Continuing with our study of interwar submersibles in 2023 with 100 years of distance (1923) here is another entry: The first French Oceanic submersible design of the interwar, launched 1924-27. The 1,000 tonnes models … Read more
