Fleet du Levant

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As Levant Fleet ( east wind fleet ) was during the old regime , the Mediterranean fleet of the French Navy called. Similarly, the French Atlantic fleet was called Flotte du Ponant ( west wind fleet ). The main area of ​​application of the Flotte du Levant was the Mediterranean Sea and the protection of the sea routes into the Levant . The main base of the Mediterranean fleet was and is the military port of Toulon .

designation

The marine district of Toulon / Mediterranean and its recruiting area or hinterland

Ponant and Levant are the names for westerly and easterly winds occurring in the Mediterranean; the terms are derived from the Vulgar Latin "sol ponens" (sinking sun) and "sol levens" (rising sun).

The names of the two fleets are first mentioned in the assignments of the State Secretaries in 1626, when Cardinal Richelieu was appointed Grand Master of Navigation ( Grand Maître de la Navigation ). The two fleets were united in 1642, but separated again in 1661. In the following year, both were placed under the control of Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who in 1661 had become superintendent of finance, trade, transport, the navy and the colonies and in 1669 was appointed first secretary of state for the navy ( Secrétaire d'État à la Marine ). From this point on, the entire French Navy was always under the supreme command of the Secretary of State or, from 1791, the Minister of the Navy (until 1947). Since the reorganization of the naval prefectures by Napoleon Bonaparte , the term Mediterranean squadron or Mediterranean fleet has been more common.

In the Toulon Marine Museum , the Toulon section of the Musée national de la Marine , numerous paintings and exhibits on the history of the Flotte du Levant and the Mediterranean Fleet can be seen.

  • Toulon Naval Prefecture

  • Toulon Naval Museum

  • Toulon military port

French Mediterranean Fleet

Toulon is the home port of the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle"

From the late 17th century ( Battle of Palermo , 1676) until the end of the 18th century ( Battle of the Nile , 1798), the du Levant fleet practiced the naval supremacy in the Mediterranean off.

The Mediterranean Fleet comprised and includes most of the entire French Navy; around 60 percent of all warships were and are mostly stationed in Toulon. The naval district of Toulon is therefore the largest of the French naval districts and, in addition to Toulon, also includes the port arsenals of Marseille (former main port of the galley fleet) and Bastia . Until the end of the Napoleonic Empire , the naval arsenals of Genoa and La Spezia also belonged to the naval district of Toulon, and until the end of the French colonial empire also the war ports of Oran , Mers-el-Kébir , Algiers and Bizerta . The Prefect of the Marine District of Toulon is also Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet (Commandant en chef pour la Méditerranée, CECMED); currently this is Admiral Yann Tainguy.

As the most important French naval port, Toulon was repeatedly used by France's enemies, d. H. mainly attacked or blocked by the British Royal Navy ; In the two and a half centuries from the beginning of the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century, the French Mediterranean fleet was sunk three times in the port of Toulon (scuttled in 1707 , scuttled by the British in 1793 , scuttled in 1942 ). It was destroyed twice by the Royal Navy on the way to merge with the French Atlantic Fleet ( 1759 near Lagos , 1805 near Trafalgar ) to prevent a French invasion of Britain. The attempt by the French government to expand the area of ​​operation of the Mediterranean fleet to the Black Sea during the Russian Civil War led in 1919 to an uprising in the French Black Sea Fleet that encompassed all Mediterranean bases .

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