Strasbourg (ship)
 The Strasbourg on her maiden voyage
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The Strasbourg was a battleship of the French Navy . She was the second Dunkerque- class ship and was used in World War II. It survived the war undamaged until France surrendered, escaped when the British tried to destroy it in 1940 and was finally sunk by its own garrison in Toulon in 1942 in order to prevent the Axis powers from accessing it.
planning
The Strasbourg and her sister ship, the Dunkerque , were the French answer to the German armored ships of the Deutschland class . Construction began at the Chantiers de Penhoët shipyard in Saint-Nazaire in November 1934 - it was launched on December 12, 1936. Home port was Toulon .
Mission history
In the initial phase of the Second World War, the Strasbourg mainly escorted convoys. On October 7, 1939, she drove with the British Force X against German units in the Atlantic. On October 25, 1939, she succeeded in bringing up the German freighter Santa Fe.
After the defeat of France in 1940, the Strasbourg was moved together with the Dunkerque to the port of Mers-el-Kébir in French Algeria . The Dunkerque was badly damaged in the British bombing of the French naval units lying in Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940 . The Strasbourg , which the commanding Admiral Marcel Gensoul had designated as the lead ship of a battleship formation running in the keel line, had just left her anchorage when British shells struck there. The destroyers Mogador , Volta , Lynx , Le Terrible and Tigre joined the attempt to break out. Mogador received a direct hit that destroyed her stern, leaving her behind; Volta and Le Terrible steered through a gap in the network lock that protected the harbor from submarines; Strasbourg passed the spot six minutes later . Because of the billows of smoke over the harbor prevented from close observation and convinced that the barrier from sea mines that British aircraft had placed in front of the port entrance would stop fleeing ships, the British noticed the escape of the ships only late. The Strasbourg ran with extreme force at 28 knots and had already brought 18 nautical miles between herself and the HMS Hood when Admiral Somerville set out to pursue the Hood . A light bomb attack carried out by six Swordfish bombers from the carrier HMS Ark Royal had no effect. Exploiting their speed of up to 40 knots, the escorting destroyers dropped back behind the Strasbourg and launched torpedoes with maximum range against the pursuing British fleet so that it could only follow carefully. Two hours after the eruption, Somerville broke off pursuit of the Strasbourg and she made it safely to Toulon. There she became the flagship of Vichy France .
| Remodeling January 31 to April 25, 1942 | |||
| The Strasbourg was modernized despite the difficult supply situation after the failure of important industrial sites in occupied France, according to the possibilities. It was one of the few ships that received a French radar system . The combination of ME-140 transmitter and MR-126 receiver units from Sadir covered the front 45-degree area of the ship and should plan aircraft up to 50 km away with an accuracy of +/- 1 ° and +/- 50 m can locate. With the installation of the system, the 5-meter rangefinder on the roof of the bridge tower was no longer necessary.
The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced by several heavy machine guns that were set up on both sides of the bridge structure, and another was mounted on the roof of the hangar. |
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After the occupation of Vichy France by German armies ( company Anton ) and the attempted access to the French Mediterranean fleet lying in Toulon, it , including the Strasbourg , sank itself on November 27, 1942.
Admiral de Laborde , who had set his flag on Strasbourg , had received the order from Admiral Darlan to set sail with the fleet and hand the ships over to the Allies , but received it too late when German soldiers had already penetrated the extensive area of the naval port were; so he gave the order to the fleet to initiate the prepared self-sinking.
Lieutenant de vaisseau Georges Fay, in command of one of the battleship's 130mm turrets, swung the turret into position to engage the Panzer IV as they were advancing to the berth. During the subsequent exchange of fire between a tank, turret number 5 and several machine guns from the Strasbourg , Fay was fatally wounded by splinters after being hit by a tank shell . Despite his injuries, Fay continued to monitor the installation of explosive charges that minutes later rendered the tower unusable. The shooting gained about 10 minutes for the sabotage. At 6:00 a.m. local time, de Laborde gave the order to set the French flag on all ships. At 6:05 am, the radio equipment was rendered unusable, and 250 Strasbourg sailors began using cutting charges and welding torches to destroy turbines in the engine room and locks of guns, to wedge watertight doors when they were open and to lay explosive charges.
When de Laborde was finally asked by three Germans from the pier at 6:10 a.m. to hand over the ship, he informed them that Strasbourg was already sinking.
The ship sank on a level keel after opening the sea valves on the shallow harbor floor, so the entire superstructure remained above water.
The End
The Strasbourg was later raised. In 1944 she was dragged into the bay of Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer . There she was hit by American bombs and sunk again. On October 1, 1945, it was raised again and used as a test object. From May 27, 1955, it was scrapped.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 .
- Robert Dumas: Les cuirassés Dunkerque et Strasbourg. Marines Editions et Réalisations, Bourg-en-Bresse 1993.
- Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau (eds.): Conway's All the World Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
- Vincent P. O'Hara: Struggle for the Middle Sea. The great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940-1945. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2009, ISBN 978-1-591-14648-3 .
Web links
- Pictures of the Strasbourg on maritimequest.com
- Brief information about the Dunkerque class at bobhenneman.info (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Vincent O'Hara: Struggle for the Middle Sea. , Chapter 2 "The defeat of France"
- ↑ a b Collection of texts on self-immersion, viewed on December 2, 2013
- ↑ - Officiers et anciens élèves - Georges Marie Dominique FAŸ on ecole.nav.traditions.free.fr, viewed on December 2, 2013