La Motte-Picquet (ship, 1924)
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The La Motte-Picquet (lettering on the hull: LAMOTTE-PICQUET) was a light cruiser of the French Navy from 1924 to 1945. The ship was named after the French admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte .
prehistory
Since 1909, the French Ministry of the Navy dealt with the procurement of light cruisers. In 1912, the construction of the planned ships was placed on a legal basis with a fleet law. The construction projects differed between 4,500 ts and 6,000 ts in size. 13.8 cm guns were provided as armament. Finally, on July 17, 1914, the Ministry of the Navy issued the construction contracts for three light cruisers. Two were to be built at private shipyards, the third ship was to be built at the Toulon state shipyard and given the name La Motte-Picquet . If implemented, the new buildings would have had a length of 138 meters, a width of 13.8 meters and a draft of 4.8 meters. The tonnage should be 4,500 tons and the speed 29 knots. Construction should begin in November 1914. The outbreak of World War I set other priorities for French armaments and construction was postponed until the post-war period.
Construction and properties
The old plans were outdated after the end of the war and were changed accordingly. The three new cruisers approved in 1920 had a design displacement of 7,249 ts and, fully loaded, an operational displacement of 9,350 ts. The main armament now consisted of eight 15.5 cm caliber guns, a version of a powerful army gun that had only been designed in 1920 and had a range of 26.1 kilometers. The anti-aircraft defense consisted of four 7.5 cm guns that were not finished until 1922. However, this was too small a caliber for heavy air defense. Already during the First World War , the Royal Navy used the 10.2 cm caliber and the German Imperial Navy used a 8.8 cm caliber . As a replacement for the non-existent light flak, four machine guns came on board. The range of only 4,300 nautical miles at 14 knots cruising speed was sufficient for missions in the Mediterranean , but for the intended overseas uses there could be difficulties in war conditions. On the other hand, the newly planned cruisers were very fast at 33 knots. The high speed was bought, among other things, with the fact that armor was almost completely dispensed with. The speed protection concept was introduced here in France for the first time : only 166 tons of armor material, i.e. 1.9% of the total tonnage, were dedicated to the defensive properties of the cruiser design.
On August 4, 1922, the hull of the first ship was stretched at the Brest naval shipyard . Construction of the second unit began on January 17, 1923 at the Lorient naval shipyard , and finally construction of the third and final cruiser began on August 16, 1923 at the Brest naval shipyard. It was noteworthy that the construction was awarded exclusively to state-owned companies, because when the cruiser was first attempted to build in 1914, private companies were also considered. The Duguay Trouin was launched on August 14, 1923, the Primauguet as the last ship of the class on May 21, 1924. The La Motte-Picquet was so far completed on February 1, 1926 that she was under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau EJF Cras could start with the first test drives.
Far East and the Second World War
Until 1933 the ship was based in Brest , where it served as the flagship of the 3rd Light Division. On January 8, 1936, the La Motte-Picquet became the flagship of the French Far East Squadron. The politico-military situation in East Asia came to a head during this time, because Japan began a campaign of conquest against China. Japan was not yet allied with Germany and Italy, but the three powers were already on friendly terms. Siam ( Thailand ) sympathized with Japan and made claims against France. On September 3, 1939, France declared war on the German Reich because of its invasion of Poland . This did not change much for the French Far East Squadron, as only a limited European war had broken out. Thailand had signed a non-aggression pact with France in June 1940. At the same time, however, Japan began to confront the weakened Vichy France with numerous demands. First, the trade routes between Vietnam and China should be cut in order to promote Japan's fight against China. The Thai Army has caused occasional border incidents since September 1940, and in October and November these fighting increased in scale and intensity. The French commander-in-chief in Indochina knew that his forces were too few to defend the entire border and wanted to concentrate on the highways and the inland routes. Further in the hinterland, bases were to be expanded and the resistance organized. The coming Thai advance routes were also suspected there.
The Far East Squadron
On December 9, 1940, the Far East Squadron, the Forces Navales d'Extreme Orient , formed a combat group called Groupe Occasionnel . You belonged to all reasonably powerful, deep-sea units in the Far East. In addition to the La Motte-Picquet, there were two modern gunboats, the Amiral Charnier (1933) and the Dumont d'Urville (1932). Both displaced 1,969 t, ran 15.5 knots, were armed with three 13.8 cm guns, four 3.7 cm flak and six machine guns. They were also equipped with 50 mines and a seaplane. There were also two obsolete gunboats, the Marne (i.d. 1917, 601 ts, 21 kn, four 10 cm, two 6.5 cm and one 4.7 cm guns) and the Tahure (in service 1920, 644 ts, 19 kn, two 13.8 cm and one 7.5 cm gun). In addition, there was a maritime squadron with eight Loire 130 aircraft . They also relied on the support of the local fishermen, because the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians were not happy about the prospect of coming under the rule of Thailand.
On January 6, 1941, the long-awaited Thai attack broke out. The invasion began at Poipet / Aranyaprathet and Ubon. The French put up hesitant resistance and slowly withdrew. Despite ongoing air strikes, the Thai casualties were heavy and the advance was slow. The French troops kept the context and remained intact.
On January 16, 1941, a French counterattack began, which did not penetrate, but at least brought the enemy advance to a standstill. To support this attack, the navy should intervene in the fighting. The "Groupe Occasionnel" had been working together since the beginning of December 1940. This turned out to be difficult because the gunboats managed 15 knots at best, while the cruiser was more than twice as fast. Should the combat group operate together, the cruiser therefore had to orient itself to the gunboats. On January 13, 1940, Admiral Decoux issued his attack orders to Capitain Berenger: "Search and destroy the Thai navy forces between Satahip and the Cambodian border." The Thai navy had not established an outpost service, and so the French approach went unnoticed. On the morning of January 16, 1941, a Loire 130 reconnaissance flew along the Thai coast. It had not yet been determined which naval base the French combat group should attack. In Koh Chang one were ironclad and three torpedo boats , in Satahip a gunboat , four destroyers and two submarines detected.
The Battle of Koh Chang
Admiral Decoux decided to attack Koh Chang because with his slow gunboats he could only achieve this goal the following morning. Already on January 15th at 4:00 p.m. the La Motte-Picquet had united with the four gunboats. Their position was now 20 miles north of Poulo Condre. The association ran towards its goal at a speed of 13.5 knots. No Thai aircraft or security vehicles reported the group. On February 17, 1941 at 5:30 a.m., Capitain Berenger had reached his destination. Now he divided the group in order to be able to attack all targets in the harbor and in the roadstead at the same time . The La Motte-Picquet steered easterly courses towards Koh Klum and Koh Chang, the Amiral Charner and Dumont d'Urville were to attack the central area between Koh Kva and Koh Klum, and the two older gunboats covered the western area of the bay.
At sunrise Berenger wanted to attack the enemy base from the southwest. At 6:14 a.m., the ironclad in the harbor opened fire. After sunrise, morning mist made visibility difficult and the grenades were fired without aiming accurately. This enabled Berenger's ships to recognize the positions of their opponents. The La Motte-Picquet was only about 9,000 meters away, and on the cruiser you could see the muzzle flash of an ironclad and the torpedo boats lying in the harbor .
At 6:15 a.m., the first French 15.5 cm shells hit a target. On the cruiser it was believed that one of the two ironclad ships had been hit. In fact, there was only one ironclad in the base, and the hits hit the torpedo boats Chonburi and Soughkla (both in service in 1936, 318 ts, 31 knots, three 7.6 cm guns, two 2 cm flak, three Torpedo tubes). The missed shots of the cruiser destroyed the telephone lines on land. Koh Chang was cut off from the outside world. At 6:20 a.m. the cruiser turned and fired three torpedoes to sink the ironclad. The Thai torpedo boats were already out of action and sank.
At 6:38 a.m., the lookouts on the cruiser made out the ironclad Dhonburi , whose 8 inch guns fired as fast as they could without hitting anything. The distance was 10 kilometers. Between the two opponents there were small islands that sometimes obscured the view. Capitain Berenger had to reduce the speed of his cruiser to 15 knots because the water was shallow and heavily polluted and he feared damage to his propellers. After the ironclad could achieve any goal, it took a change to the target at 7:15 AM Amiral Charner ago. Almost at the same time, a 15.5 cm salvo from La Motte-Picquet struck the Dhonburi stern and put the rear 8 " turret out of action. The ironclad was now on fire in several places. His commander feared it would sink and headed for the flat coast so that it would be easier to raise the Dhonburi later . The ironclad already had a strong list. At 7:50 am, the La Motte-Picquet fired three more torpedoes at the ironclad from a distance of 15 kilometers, then it disappeared behind an island, burning.
The five French ships cruised in the bay until 8:40 a.m., rescuing numerous Siamese sailors in distress. Then Capitain Berenger ordered the retreat. He believed he had sunk all worthwhile enemy targets, including two ironclad ships. In fact, only the Dhonburi had been in the base. It was badly damaged and was still swimming, but later sank. Of the three existing torpedo boats, the Trad was undamaged. In addition, the mine- layer Nhomg Sarhai (in service in 1935, 408 ts, 13 knots, two 7.5 cm guns and two 2 cm flak) and the fishing protection ship Thiew Uthok swam . Both units had been in the northern part of the bay and did not take part in the battle. They were therefore undiscovered.
800 Siamese had died or were taken prisoner. On the morning of January 18, 1941, Capitain Berenger's squadron reached Saigon unscathed.
Saigon 1942-1945
In July 1941, the cruiser had to visit the Saigon shipyard in order to carry out overhaul work that had long been necessary and to clean the boiler. The work lasted until August 1941. However, the cruiser had to be brought into a dry dock for repairs to the outer hull. As a result of the improvement in Franco-Japanese relations, the Japanese finally agreed to have this work carried out in one of their shipyards. When the La Motte-Picquet left Osaka on September 27, 1941 , the French transporter Kinda had loaded two new boilers for the machinery that were to be installed in Saigon. After riding a typhoon , both ships reached Saigon on October 9, 1941.
The installation of the new boilers proved to be too difficult for the shipyard in Saigon, and without new boilers the engine of the cruiser threatened to collapse. Although the storm damage could be repaired from October 10 to November 17, 1941, the ship was only navigable to a very limited extent. The La Motte-Picquet was shut down in 1942. It was hoped that the work would be carried out by August 1942. In 1943 the hope was given up of being able to get the cruiser back on the road without the help of a suitable shipyard.
Sunk by US bombers in 1945
On January 12, 1945, American bombers attacked Saigon and other bases in southern Vietnam from the aircraft carriers of Task Force 38 under the command of Vice Admiral McCain as part of Operation Gratitude . Despite the hoisted tricolor , the cruiser fell victim to the American bombs and sank to the bottom of the harbor basin.
Maintenance of tradition
At the beginning of the 1970s, the French navy was planning a major armaments project. The construction of 24 missile destroyers was prepared under the designation "Corvettes C 70". The sixth new building was named La Motte-Picquet when it was launched on February 6, 1985 . The commissioning took place on February 18, 1988. While the La Motte-Picquet (D 645) specializes in fighting submarines and has anti-submarine torpedoes and helicopters , it also has medium and light (fully automatic) artillery as well Anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.
For France, Koh Chang has a special meaning: It was the only victory at sea in both world wars. The last before that dates from the time of the American War of Independence , when France supported the American colonies against Great Britain.
literature
- Jean Guiglini, Albert Moreau: Les Croiseurs de 8000 T Duguay-Trouin, La Motte-Picquet, Primauguet. MARINES édition, Bourg en Bresse o. J. (1996), ISBN 2-909675-20-3 .
- Jean Guiglini, Albert Moreau: French Light Cruisers - The First Light Cruisers of the 1922 Naval Program . In: Warship International Vol. XXXVIII (2001), No.3, p. 269 ff.
- Henri Le Masson: The Complex Development of the French Light Cruiser 1910-1926. In: Warship International Vol. XXII (1985), No.4, p.374 ff. And Vol. XXIII (1986), Vol.2, p. 142 ff.
- Paul Auphan, Jacques Mordal: The French Navy in World War II . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis MD 1959.
- Jean Labayle Couhat: French Warships of World War II . Ian Allan, London 1971, ISBN 0-7110-0153-7 .
- P. Vincent-Bréchignac de Balincourt (Ed.): Les Flottes de Combat . various years, Société d'Éditions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris.
Web links
- History of the cruiser La Motte-Picquet (French)
- netmarine.net
- alabordache.fr (French)
- lamotte.picquet.free.fr