With the signing of the Armistice, the whole of France gave a huge sigh of relief. It was left to each of the arms of the armed forces to look at what it had and what it was going to need the most urgent. The French, looking at the Fleet, knew exactly what it needed. Modern ships of all classes. The latest Bretagne class battleships were a generation behind the latest British, German, US, and Japanese ships. The newest ships being built at 45-50,000 tons staggered the French Navy. It had no money to try and build even one of those huge monsters. Thankfully for France the Washington Treaty stepped in and those monsters disappeared, for now. Looking at its cruiser stocks they were worse off than the battleships. Their most modern cruisers were the three old Ernest Renan type armoured cruisers of 1911. The only way to improve this was to get as many of the modern, war built, surrendered German ships. They would fill a gap until the French building industries could catch up. The War Reparations Committee that was overseeing the dispersal of the surrendered ships was made aware of the French shopping list. With the agreement of Britain and the US, the French were allowed to nominate the German ships they would need. This included four capital ships, six cruisers and a dozen destroyers. Other miscellaneous ships, such as minesweepers, were also sourced. Along with the completed ships, the German building yards had may ships under construction and nearing completion. Two extra Dresden II class uncompleted ships were towed to French yards for completion. These eight German cruisers would fill the French Fleet for the next fifteen years. The French may have looked down on them but they were still first class ships. When the French started looking at upgrading its medium sized weapons, the Royal Navy experts pointed to the 5.9" guns on the cruisers and said copying the breech blocks from those would give a good weapon.
The French ended up with two Magdeburg class ships with 7x5.9", two Konigsberg II class with 8x5.9", and two completed Dresden II class with 8x5.9. A further two uncompleted Dresden II class made up its allocation of German cruisers. The French figured they would only need to serve for a minimum of 10 years while their replacements were being built. In the end, only the two Magdeburg class did not make it to World War Two, being discarded and scrapped in 1938. The other six had had various levels of refits and rebuilding that took them into WW2
These first three drawings represent a pair of cruisers each, in the configuration they would have arrived in French waters, joining the French Fleet. In real life the French made very few improvements to the ships. A few light AA guns and that was it. With my having the Japanese abrogating the London Treaty in 1930, these ships are going to get a reprieve and like a lot of old cruisers, kept in service longer than they might have otherwise done. Both pairs of Koln and Konigsberg class ships were taken in hand from 1936 to refit them as escort cruisers. This removed all of the 5.9" which was good for the French as it was one less size of shell needing to be kept in the inventory. These were replaced with four twin 3.9" mounted fore and aft as above. The torpedoes were kept. The other minor weapons were removed and replaced with twin 37mm and 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannons. One of the priorities for the French Navy was to guard the transfer of the French North African Army to mainland France. These ships were earmarked for that job. On completion of that task two of the ships were transferred to Fort de France to become AA escorts for the Bearn. The other two were held at Mers-el-Kebir as AA escorts for the Commandante Teste.
The next drawing in the series has to be the uncompleted Koln II class ships and what the French did to them for French service. The ships were in an incomplete state. No armament or superstructure had been fitted. The machinery had been installed but never run. All the decks were in place.
.png)
The ships design still had more than half of the armament mounted on the broadside. So their eight gun broadside could actually only fire five guns to either side. This is on a 5,600 ton cruiser. The equivalent British 'C' class had the same 5 gun broadside but on a 4,400 ton cruiser. Definitely a win to the British. The two ships swung around their buoys in Brest Harbour while plans were made as to what could be done to the ships to improve them. The French were also planning the Duguay Trouin class of three six inch cruisers, and it was decided that with a bit of rejigging of the internals a main armament of 3 twin turrets of the Duguay Trouin type could be mounted on the hulls. The rest of the armament was six 75mm AA guns, further AA machine guns and cannons were added in the late 1920's and 1930's.
_(1940).png)
The Saint Nazaire received its major refit in 1940 and had just left the builders yard in Brest, bound for Fort de France, when the armistice was called. The ship had its orders and kept going. Joining the Bearn and other units in self internment at Fort de France. Sistership Calais was in the Mediterranean and due to go to Toulon for its major refit, but this was cancelled and the ship ordered to join the Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. What happens to them post 'Torch' in 1942 is yet to be written.
_scuttled_17_June_1919.jpg)