The La Galissonnière-class cruisers''' were commissioned by the French Navy in the 1930s. They were the last French cruisers completed after 1935, until the completion of in 1956. They are considered fast, reliable and successful light cruisers. Two cruisers of this class, and , took part in the defence of Dakar in late September 1940 during World War II. With the cruiser , they joined the Allied forces after the successful Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942. The three other cruisers of the La Galissonière class, held under Vichy control at Toulon, were scuttled on 27 November 1942.
After refitting, Georges Leygues, Montcalm and Gloire took part in various Allied operations, including the Normandy landings in 1944. Postwar, several of the class acted as the flagship of the French Mediterranean Squadron, and carried out operations off Indo-China until 1954, and afterwards were deployed during the Suez Crisis and operations off Algeria. They were scrapped between 1958 and 1970.
Background
The French Navy emerged from World War I with light cruisers, in very small numbers, aged and exhausted by war service. One Austrian () and four German light cruisers (, , , ), were received as reparations for war losses. They were renamed from Alsace-Lorraine towns, respectively Thionville, Colmar, Mulhouse, Strasbourg and Metz, armed with nine guns for Thionville, and six to eight guns for the others, a displacement of 4,000 tons for Thionville, 5,000 to 7,000 tons for the other cruisers, with a speed of . They were retired from active service by the early 1930s.
In 1920 the French Navy made plans to construct 5,200-ton light cruisers, with a main armament of guns, capable of speeds over . Funds were granted in the 1922 budget for the three s, known as 8000 tons cruisers, which were launched in 1923–24. They had four turrets mounting two guns each. The guns, in regular use by the French Army were chosen to facilitate a streamlined ammunition supply chain. With nearly no armour, they had a speed of .
Also remaining in service were armoured cruisers, built between 1900 and 1910, that were obsolete when they had been commissioned. With their armament arrangement in two double turrets of guns, and single turrets and casemates of generally , (only the s Edgar Quinet and Waldeck-Rousseau cruisers had fourteen guns as their main armament), a speed of , an armoured belt of , for a displacement of 12,000 to 14,000 tons, they were outgunned by their British or German contemporaries.
Washington Naval Treaty
The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty forbade the armoured cruiser type, with clauses limiting the cruiser tonnage to 10,000 tons, and the size of their guns to .
As war experience had clearly shown the importance of securing trade routes against surface threats, all the signatories of the treaty had built, until 1930, nearly only Washington heavy cruisers (fifteen each for the United Kingdom and the United States, twelve for Japan, seven each for France and Italy). These cruisers bore eight 203 mm guns in four double turrets, in the British, French and Italian navies, but nine to ten guns in the United States Navy, or the Imperial Japanese Navy, with a speed from , and a very light armour, for the earliest ships built, and a better protection, with a slightly reduced speed, for the next classes. On the first Washington heavy cruisers built, in the French Navy, , the weight of armour was 430 tons, and the maximum speed on trials reached , with , and, for the last one, , the weight of armour was 2,657 tons, and the maximum speed , with .
Germany was not subject to the restrictions in warship building resulting from the treaty, and the German Reichsmarine laid down, between 1926 and 1928, three cruisers of the with a displacement of 6,650 tons, armed with three triple turrets of guns, and a speed of 30–32 knots. In 1929, an improved unit, , with a more powerful cruising diesel engine installation, and a more extended armoured belt, with nearly the same displacement (6,710 tons).
The British Navy considered that the Washington cruiser type was too large for its needs, and, in 1927, a slightly smaller -gun cruiser was laid down, HMS York, with only six 8-inch guns. As the 1930 London Naval Conference had just opened, the United Kingdom announced the cancellation of the next projected 8-inch-gun cruiser design, while the first unit of a new class was to be built, with a displacement of 6,500 tons and armed with eight guns, able to counter Leipzig. It was HMS Leander.
London Naval Treaty
The 1930 London Naval Treaty introduced a distinction between Type A cruisers (commonly called "heavy cruisers"), with guns over (the main armament mounted on the Duguay-Trouin-class cruisers) and up to , and Type B cruisers (commonly called "light cruisers"), with guns of or under. It fixed the limit for the number of Type A units of each signatory to the number of existing cruisers, and authorized their replacement only twenty years after their completion.
In 1926, as France had started to produce classes of destroyers (, , and es) which were superior in displacement and firepower to the destroyers of that period, in order to counter this, Italy decided to produce a new class of cruiser that would be of intermediate size between the new French destroyer classes and the cruisers built in that period. The four units of the Da Giussano class (first sub-class of the cruisers group) were laid down in 1928, and completed in 1931–32, respecting the newly signed London Naval Treaty. On a displacement of about 5,200 tons, they were armed with eight 152 mm guns in four double turrets, and could attain the remarkably high speed of , but with negligible armour and short radius of action.
A new French cruiser had been ordered in 1926 and launched in 1930, specially designed as a school ship for midshipmen. The cruiser had the same 6.1-inch guns, in double turrets, as the Duguay-Trouin class. But when, after the London Naval Treaty, a new cruiser was designed to operate both as a minelayer and as a destroyer flotilla leader, she was armed with a completely new armament and turret layout, nine guns in three triple turrets, for the first time in the French Navy. She had two double and two single mounts of for secondary anti-aircraft (AA) artillery. Reaching on speed trials, with , she was the fastest of the French cruisers ever built.
The triple turret was unusual in the French Navy, which had preferred the double turret on its battleships, and on its previous cruisers, or the quadruple turret. In 1910, the Chief Naval Constructor, French Navy, had designed the s with three quadruple turrets, and the quadruple turret was broadly used, on the s, as the mounting for the main armament, and for the dual-purpose secondary battery. Triple turrets have been common in the Italian Navy battleships (uninterruptedly since the first Italian dreadnought built, ) as in the Russian, World War I Austro-Hungarian, U.S. Navies (since the to the battleship classes), and even in the British Royal Navy, with the s. On cruisers, the triple turret was used in all the U.S. Navy Washington heavy cruiser classes, on the Reichsmarine light cruisers, and on "pocket battleships".
This was on the basis of Émile Bertins armament, and on s protection and propulsion that was designed the lead ship of the La Galissonnière class, launched in November 1933.
Large light cruiser
The Imperial Japanese Navy, and its Pacific Ocean rival the U.S. Navy, were both interested in large cruisers, whether they were classed "heavy" or "light". In the 1931 Building Program, Japan ordered the first units of a new light cruiser class, the , with fifteen guns, in five triple turrets, and a speed of , announcing, falsely, a displacement of 8,500 tons. The U.S. Navy answered with the , with fifteen guns, a speed of , but a more exact displacement of 9,700 tons. The first units of this class were launched in 1937–38. The Royal Navy had laid down a class of four light cruisers, the , smaller than the Leander class with only six guns. They were launched between 1934 and 1936. In reaction to the building of the Japanese and U.S. large light cruisers, the United Kingdom canceled some projected units of the Leander and Arethusa classes. The two first British large light cruisers, after drawing drafts for a so-called Minotaur class, became the which were launched in 1936. They were fitted with twelve 152 mm guns, in four triple turrets, and aircraft installations at the center of the ship, had a speed of , and were nearly respecting the 10,000-ton displacement.
Three vessels, De Grasse, Guichen and Chateaurenault, were authorized shortly before the war as improved La Galissonnière class, with a displacement of 8,000 tons, the same armament and arrangement of three triple 152 mm turrets, two fore and one aft, and three twin AA 90 mm aft, one axial and two lateral. Aircraft installations, two catapults, crane and hangar, accommodating three/four seaplanes, would have been fitted in the ship's center, aft of a single large funnel. They were intended to have more powerful propulsion machinery, , to reach . The silhouette, with a massive fore tower, would have been inspired by Algeries. But only the name ship was actually laid down in the Lorient Navy Yard, and as work was suspended during the war, she was launched in 1946, and completed only in 1956, as an integral anti-aircraft cruiser design.
DesignLa Galissonière-class cruisers were very different, in displacement, armament, and protection from the London Naval Treaty Type B cruisers, such as the British , American or Italian Da Giussano-class cruisers, with a displacement of 6,000 tons or less, armed with numerous guns sometimes inferior to 152 mm, to the large light cruisers (), the or Town-class cruisers, (about 10,000 tons, and from ten to fifteen 152 mm guns).
With a displacement of 7,500 tons, and nine 152 mm guns, the La Galissonière-class cruisers belong to a middle category, comparable with the last Kriegsmarine light cruiser (an improved version of Leipzig), the Italian cruiser (from the intermediate version of the Condottieri class), or the nine-gun units of the s, reduced version of the Town-class cruisers.
The displacement of French cruisers was around 7,000–9,000 tons, yet it was enough to accommodate both heavy armour and heavy armament, while maintaining good maximum speed.
Armament
The class' main armament, in three triple mountings, concentrated a powerful broadside in a relatively small vessel. Their displacement was of the 7,000-ton class, just like the Italian Condottieri III Group (Attendolo and Raimondo Montecuccoli). While the Condottieris had four turrets with eight 152 mm guns, French cruisers had only three turrets with nine guns. The use of triple turrets allowed, as on the U.S. Navy cruisers, the deployment of nine 203 mm guns, or even fifteen 152 mm guns, on hulls of 10,000 tons, or on the German light cruisers, to have nine guns, with less than 7,000 tons displacement.
The armament consisted of the 152 mm gun (152 mm/55 Model 1930), the only French-built gun of this caliber. The cruiser mount was the Model 1930, that displaced 169.3 tons (172 mt). The rate of fire was one shell every 12 seconds (5 rounds per min).
The secondary armament consisted of the 90 mm/50 cal Model 1926. It was a decided improvement over the old 75 mm guns, being mounted single or twin. La Galissonnière cruisers had four twin mounts. These ships were also fitted with two twin torpedo tubes, on sides, amidship. The torpedoes were the 23 DT model, in service since 1925. Their aircraft installations, with hangar and derrick on stern, and a catapult fitted on the top of the aft 152 mm turret, could accommodate four Loire 130 seaplanes.