France – La Galissonnière, Gloire, Georges leygues, Montcalm, Jean de Vienne, Marseillaise The best French light cruisers? The La Galissonière class (good luck pronouncing that!) was the last of this type (the next class, De Grasse, was laid down in 1939, way too late to be completed). Arguably the latter completed post-war after many modifications … Read more
Fast Battleships: FS Richelieu, Jean Bart, 2 more French top battleship Ordered in response to both the German Scharnhorst and the Italian Littorio, the Richelieu and jean Bart took up the essence of the previous design, but incorporated a much more powerful machinery to cope with a much higher armor. They definitely draw a line … Read more
France (1923-1940), about 80 subs Post WW1 policy cleanup After the great war, the move started in 1912 towards a more standardized navy ended the “prototype-mania” that plagued French submarine construction before and during WW1. By 1919, war reparations included German U-boats, which allowed French engineers a close look at that technology, rationalized and optimized … Read more
(1923-1939), about 90 ships Almost 20 years of development French Destroyer Frondeur of the L’Adroit-class – Official U.S. Navy photo NH 55990 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Almost 20 years of development: From the 1920s mass-produced “three-pipers” to the 40 knots, super-destroyers of the Mogador class, destroyer development in France went … Read more
France (1928-45), Minelayer Diesel Electric Submersibles. Diamant, Nautilus, Perle, Rubis, Saphir, and Turquoise France’s most successful ww2 subs This class of “diamonds” became the best known during the war among french subs, the only ones to gain fame within the allied forces and pass to posterity with a new class of nuclear attack submarines named … Read more
French Navy – Minelayer cruiser The shortest lived French cruiser The Pluton (formerly La Tour d’Auvergne) was the shortest-lived French cruiser of WW2: Commissioned in May 1931, she served eight years, until her accidental explosion in September 1939, just 12 days into the war. But Pluton was also an oddity, the first “special service” cruiser … Read more
French Navy – Duguay-Trouin, Primauguet, Lamotte-Picquet First French cruisers since 15 years: These three light cruisers, Duguay-Trouin, Lamotte-Picquet and Primauguet, were the first French cruisers built since 1906. The main reason was like for other countries, the revelation of HMS Dreadnought caused a brutal shift in naval spendings towards the new breed of Battleships. It … Read more
