Léon Gambetta-class cruiser
Léon Gambetta
| |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Léon Gambetta-class cruiser |
Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Gloire class |
Succeeded by | Jules Michelet |
Built | 1901–1907 |
In commission | 1905–1928 |
Completed | 3 |
Lost | 1 |
Scrapped | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Armored cruiser |
Displacement | 12,550 t (12,352 long tons) |
Length | 148.35–149.07 m (486 ft 9 in – 489 ft 1 in) ( o/a ) |
Beam | 21.4 m (70 ft 3 in) |
Draft | 8.18 m (26 ft 10 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 3 shafts; 3 triple-expansion steam engines |
Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
Range | 7,500 nmi (13,900 km; 8,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 734; 779 as a flagship |
Armament |
|
Armor |
|
The Léon Gambetta class consisted of three
During World War I, the cruisers escorted convoys as well as the capital ships of the French fleet. The ships participated in the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea until 1917. Léon Gambetta was sunk by an Austro-Hungarian submarine in April 1915 with heavy loss of life. In mid-1917, Jules Ferry became a transport and Victor Hugo was reduced to reserve. She was joined by her sister in mid-1918.
They were reactivated in 1921 to serve with the Atlantic Flying Division (Division volante de l'Atlantique). In 1922–1925, the sisters alternated service in the Far East, but were again placed in reserve upon their return. Jules Ferry was sold for scrap in 1928 and Victor Hugo followed two years later.
Background
The French humiliation during the Fashoda Incident of 1898, where the British forced them to withdraw from the Sudan, coupled with the earlier war scare with the British over the navigable portion of the Niger River, forced the French to realize that they were grossly unprepared for war with Britain as they could neither defend their colonies nor break through any British blockade of Metropolitan France. To their credit, the factions in the government and the navy were mostly able stop squabbling amongst themselves to reconsider their naval strategy and the types of ships that they would build.[1]
They realized that the advocates of the Jeune École (Young School) had built enough torpedo craft that the British could no longer maintain their long-time strategy of a close blockade of French ports without risking the loss of their capital ships, which would allow the battleships favored by the traditionalists to sortie and defeat the blockading squadron. Countering this with a distant blockade strategy would require the British to keep their capital ships at home to react to any attempt by the French to break out en masse. The distant blockade strategy required smaller ships to monitor the ports and notify the battlefleet of any attempt to break out. The armored cruisers favored by the Jeune École for the commerce-raiding role could easily defeat those light forces.[2] The value placed by the new strategy (French: marine de pauvre, lit. 'poor man's navy') on the armored cruiser was reflected in the Naval Law (Statut Naval) of 1900 with a requirement for a new generation of five ships, of which the first three became the Léon Gambetta class.[3]
Design and description
The Gambettas were designed as enlarged and more powerful versions of the
The ships were powered by a trio of four-cylinder
Armament
The main battery of the Léon Gambetta class consisted of four 40-caliber 194-millimeter Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure.[6] The guns fired 75–90.3-kilogram (165–199 lb) shells at muzzle velocities ranging from 770 to 800 meters per second (2,500 to 2,600 ft/s). This gave them a range of about 11,500 meters (12,600 yd) at the turrets' maximum elevation of +15 degrees. Each gun was provided with 100 rounds which it could fire at a rate of two rounds per minute.[7]
The cruisers'
Léon Gambetta was equipped with five 450-millimeter (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. One pair was submerged and the other was above water, both firing on the broadside, and the last tube was above water in the stern. The ship carried sixteen torpedoes for them. Her sisters were not fitted with the above-water tubes and they only carried six torpedoes for their underwater tubes. The first two ships were provided with facilities to handle ten naval mines, while Victor Hugo could handle twenty mines.[11]
Protection
The Léon Gambetta-class ships were protected by 3,011 metric tons (2,963 long tons) of armour. It consisted of a
Both of the armored decks consisted of three layers of
The main-gun turrets were protected by 138 millimeters (5.4 in) of armor, backed by two layers of 13-millimeter (0.51 in) mild steel plates, on their front and sides; their roofs consisted of three layers of 17-millimeter (0.67 in) mild steel plates, of which only the topmost layer was hardened. The armor plates protecting the secondary turrets were 102 millimeters (4 in) thick and were backed by two layers of 9-millimeter (0.35 in) mild steel. Their roofs had a total thickness of 39 millimeters (1.5 in), arranged in the same manner as the main-gun turrets. The outer wall of the casemates consisted of 102 millimeters of armor and the inner wall was 64 millimeters (2.5 in) of armor backed by two layers of 8-millimeter (0.31 in) plates. The forward end of the forward casemates formed part of a transverse bulkhead that had a total thickness of 120 millimeters (4.7 in). For the first time in a French ship, the barbettes for all of the turrets were in the form of an inverted truncated cone with a total thickness of 164 millimeters for the main-gun turrets and 120 millimeters for the secondary turrets. The front and sides of the conning tower were protected by 174 millimeters (6.9 in) of armor and its rear by 110 millimeters (4.3 in). It had a roof that had a total thickness of 40 millimeters.[14]
Ships
The ships were named after notable
Name | Builder[16] | Laid down[16]
|
Launched[16]
|
Commissioned[16] | Fate[17] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Léon Gambetta | Arsenal de Rochefort
|
15 January 1901 | 26 October 1902 | 21 July 1905 | Sunk by SM U-5, 27 April 1915 |
Jules Ferry | Arsenal de Cherbourg
|
19 August 1901 | 23 August 1903 | 1 June 1907 | Sold for scrap, 1928 |
Victor Hugo | Arsenal de Lorient
|
2 March 1903 | 30 March 1904 | 16 April 1907 | Sold for scrap, 26 November 1930 |
Service history
Léon Gambetta was assigned to the Northern Squadron upon commissioning and became the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron (1re Division de croiseur) while Jules Ferry became the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet's Light Squadron (Escadre légère) upon completion and was joined by Victor Hugo. Unlike her sisters, the latter ship never served as a flagship. She visited the United States in 1907 to participate in the Jamestown Exposition; the following year Léon Gambetta participated in the Quebec Tercentenary in Canada. After a reorganization of the French Navy and unit redesignations in late 1909, the ship was transferred to the Mediterranean in early 1910 and joined her sisters in the 2nd Light Division (2e Division légère (DL)) by 4 April 1911. Victor Hugo was reduced to reserve shortly afterwards and missed participating in the fleet review by Armand Fallières, President of France, and the Navy Minister, Théophile Delcassé, off Toulon on 4 September with her sisters.[18]
After the Agadir Crisis of 1911, the French and British governments agreed in 1912 that the Royal Navy would defend the northern French coast and the French would concentrate her fleet in the Mediterranean and defend British interests there. The French designated the consolidated fleet the 1st Naval Army (1re Armée Navale) and grouped its two DLs into the 1st Light Squadron.[19]
World War I
When
At the end of the month, the French began intermittently escorting single
At the end of 1915, the French and British decided that the
The sisters were reactivated in 1921 and assigned to the Atlantic Flying Division (Division volante de l'Atlantique). Victor Hugo was transferred to the Far Eastern Division (Division navale de l'Extrême Orient) in 1922 and returned to reserve after her return the following year. She was replaced by Jules Ferry which joined her sister in reserve when she returned in 1925. The sisters were stricken from the
References
- ^ Ropp, pp. 306–307, 324–325
- ^ Ropp, pp. 329–330, 332, 334
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 136
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 143
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 143, 157–158
- ^ a b Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 306
- ^ Friedman, p. 218; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 104, 145, 148
- ^ Friedman, p. 223; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 143, 145, 148
- ^ Silverstone, p. 80
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 148
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 145, 150–151
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 151, 154–155
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 154–155
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 154–156
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 140–141, 160; Ropp, pp. 167–168, 257
- ^ a b c d Jordan & Caresse, p. 140
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 252, 259
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 160, 210–211, 215
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 210, 214
- ^ Freivogel, pp. 96, 101; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 218, 222, 227
- ^ Freivogel, pp. 98–100, 117–122; Halpern, p. 4; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 230–231
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 232–233
- ^ Freivogel, p. 219; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 238–240, 243–245
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 253–254, 259
Bibliography
- Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Dai, Wei (September 2020). "A Discussion on French Armored Cruiser Identification: From the Gueydon Class to the Edgar Quinet Class". Warship International. LVII (3): 199–221. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Freivogel, Zvonimir (2019). The Great War in the Adriatic Sea 1914–1918. Zagreb: Despot Infinitus. ISBN 978-953-8218-40-8.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- ISBN 0-253-34379-8.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2019). French Armoured Cruisers 1887–1932. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4118-9.
- ISBN 0-87021-141-2.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.