FAN Amiral Aube (CA-1937)

 

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The French received an order for a cruiser from Greece. Turkey had ordered a cruiser from Germany and Greece wanted something better - but cheaper. As the London Treaty had been broken by Japan, the French could build as big a ship as Greece wanted - and could pay for. The Turkish ship was to be a Von der Tann class cruiser armed with 9x8". The Greek ship was to be a hybrid between the Suffren and Algerie. What the Aube did do was to introduce French cruisers to triple turrets. The French designers pointed to the 12x7.6" casemate guns being removed from the Edgar Quinet class and said to the Greeks 'we can put those into a triple turret for just about the price of the turret. Not unsurprisingly the Greeks were happy with that. The French designers made sure that the same turrets would take the French 8" guns and those would be fitted to the Algerie.



Work proceeded slowly on the ship, from payment to payment which was almost always late. The order for the ship had not been popular in Greece and raising the funds was always slow. 1934 and Greece has a change of Government. The incoming party had won a landslide and part of the manifesto they had campaigned on, was getting rid of the new cruiser - no matter how cheap it was. And that is what happened, the new Greek Government cancelled the order with the ship about 75% complete. The shipyard offered the ship for sale to the world but got no takers. Fifteen months later the French Navy strike a deal with the shipyard to complete the ship for the French Navy. Which is why, even though the ship christened "Amiral Aube", was laid down before the Algerie it was not completed till almost three years later. A long drawn out process.

 

Displacement 14,600 tons normal, 17,800 tons full load
Length 650 ft
Breadth 64 ft
Draught 21 ft
Machinery 4 shaft steam turbines, 150,000shp
Speed 33 knots
Range 4000 miles at 15 knots
Armour 3.9" belt, 2" deck, 3" turrets
Armament 12 x 7.6" (4x3)
12 x 3.9" AA (6x2)
12 x 25mm (12x1)
 
Torpedoes 6 x 21.7" (2x3)  
Complement 815  
Notes FAN Amiral Aube

 

 

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