FREE FRENCH NAVY IN SOUTH ATLANTIC * - FREE FRENCH NAVY
9)GEORGES LEYGUES
Photo. www.wikipedia.org
Cruiser Geoges Leygues moored somewhere in West Africa. Photo. www.wikipedia.org
Completed: 1937
Displacement: 7,600 tons (standard), 9120 tons (full load)
Length: 587 ft
Beam: 57 ft
Draught: 17,6 ft
Propulsion: 2-shaft Parsons single reduction geared turbines, 4 Indret boilers, 84,000 shp
Armament: 9x152 mm (6 inch)/ 54.3 calibre (3x3), 8x90 mm (3.5 inch) anti-aircraft (4x2), 24x40 millimetre (6x4), 4x550mm (21.7 inch) torpedo tubes (2x2)
Speed: 31 kts
Complement: 540
Range: 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 12 knots
Aircraft carried: up to 4 GL-832, later 2 Loire 130 flying boats
Pictures above show both flying boats used by Georges Leygues until she was refitted at Philadelphia, from July until October 1943, removing the aircraft installations and adding light anti-aircraft weapons.
Photos by www.wikipedia.org
Aviation facilities: 1 Catapult
Apart from a transport of bullion to Casablanca in August 1941, the next two years were uneventful until the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) and the German occupation of Vichy France, when she joined the Allies, as did other French warships. Early in 1943, she began Atlantic patrols from Dakar, and on 13 April, she intercepted the German blockade runner Portland which was scuttled by her crew. 59 crewmembers and 48 passengers were rescued.
On the footage above, the launching ceremony of the Cruiser Georges Leygues in 1936 with the presence of Prime Minister Edouard Daladier.
