REJUVENATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 158, 5 July 1940, Page 6

REJUVENATED.

P6WERFUL FORCE.

MONSTER "SUB. ,,

MANY RECENT ADDITIONS.

MAIN STRENGTH IN CRUISERS.

Not eince the anxious years of 1803-5, when the all-conquering Xapoleon Bonaparte threatened, even as Adolf Hitler to-day, to invade the soil of England by. sending a mighty army across the seas, has there been eueh intense interest among British people in the fate of the French Xavy. This is illustrated by the Empire-wide rejoicing at the successful enterprise of the Royal Xavy in preventing a substantial section of the French Xavy from surrendering, under term* of the armistice, to the Germans and Italians.

At the beginning of last century, Britain's concern was to bottle up Napoleon's fleet, so that Marshal Xey's army of 150,000 at Boulogne, might be prevented from crossing the English 'Channel under naval escort. To-day her concern ie that Italian and German naval forces, numerically inferior to the Royal Navy, may not be reinforced by valuable French unit*. Xews of the forceful action taken by the Royal Xavy reminds students of history of the "blockade in 1804 of part of the French Fleet at Toulon by Lord Xelson, of another section at Brest by Admiral Sir W. Cornwallis, and, even more, of the necessity-dictated aggressiveness of the Royal Xavy in boldly sailing in to Copenhagen in 1807, to 'begin a furious bombardment and "borrow" the Danish Fleet.

French Fleet Enlarged. Even in the war of 1914-18, the fleet of France was not of much account. All the limelight was on the Royal Navy. Brought up in a firm and unshakable belief in the immortality of the Xelson spirit, the general public has nearly always regarded any other nation's navy with what amounts almost to an amused tolerance. The rejuvenation of the French Xavy is of recent date. For years it suffered from the instability of successive French Governments. There were, for instance, no fewer than forty different Ministers of Marine from 1870 till 1907, with an average of more than one a year. Almost every Minister reversed the policy of his predecessor!

At the opening of the last war France hed two Dreadnoughts, six ships of the smaller-than-Dreadiiought type, already out of date, and five battleships, only one of which could make more than IS knots. She had no light cruisere of the 4000 to i>ooo tons type, and her two armoured cruisers were too big and slow. There were six flotillas of destroyers, a number of smaller ships, and two squadrons of submarines, 15 in all. However, the personnel of these ships was of high quality. France has always been a seafaring nation, and her tough Breton sailors, of whom there was a high proportion, earned themselves as high a reputation as Britain's men of Devon.

The Big Ships. The declaration of war in 1939 found the French Fleet a vastly different maritime fighting unit. Admiral de la Flotte Francois Darlan had made it a powerful force. First and foremost came the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, the Dunkerque, reported to-day to be ablaze in consequence of British action, and her frieter ship, the Strasbourg. Then came the Lorraine, the Bretagne and the Prrfvenee, battleships of 22,000 tons, built during the last war, but recently com-1 pletely modernised. The Provence* is also reported to-day to be on fire. These three ships were considered by experts to be too slow for modern condition?, and in- i sufficiently protected ajrainst mines and torpedoes. Fiance had also seven fast cruisers of approximately 10,000 tons each—the Duquesne, Tourville, Suffren, Colbert, Foch. Dupleix and the Algerie. All these were launched between 1925 and 1932. They carried eight Sin guns and were capable of from 31 to 33 knots. Additional to these ships were nine cruisers of between 7000 and 7600 tons* Then there was the Jeanne d'Arc. of 6000 tous, which was at Auckland in February, 1938, the Pluton, of 4800 tons, and the Emile Bertin. of 5900 tons. A useful unit consisted of 32 smaller ships, intended to correspond with the British destroyer leaders, but actually as large a craft as the English light cruisers. t\ further 36 craft, classified by the French as torpedo boats were, by British standards, small destroyers. France had also a considerable submarine fleet, which included the largest submarine in the world, the Surcouf, a remarkable monster of 2900 tons surface displacement and 4300 tons displacement when fully submerged. The Surcouf, behind her two Bin guns, carried an aircraft hangar, and had two anti-aircraft guns and ten torpedo tubes. Her complement was 150 officers and men. Her surface speed was 18 knots. She is now in British hands.

Ocean-going Submarines. Twenty-nine of the French submarine's were completed between 1928 and 1938. Ocean-going, they were of a highly successful design. Before the war so'me of them did unescorted cruises to the West Indies, Indo-China and in South Atlantic waters. They carried a 3.9 in gun, two anti-aircraft guns and 11 torpedo tubee. Each had a complement of about'7o officers and men. In addition France had nearly 50 other submarines, of various types and sizes. In personnel France had 4900 naval officers, 17.000 warrant and petty officers and 65.000 able seamen and "ordinary seamen, to make up the necessary establishment for manning the fleet and also for coastal defence purposes. Just prior to the war French naval critics were not satisfied with the fleet. They were reasonably happy concerning cruisers, but it was felt that there was a serious shortage of big ships of the line. There were four battleships of 35.000 tons building—the Richelieu, the Ciemenceau. the Gaseoigne and the Jean Bart. An American report earlier in the week stated that the Jean Bart had been towed to a British port. All these ships were due for completion in l!>-}0. hut French expert* felt that construction should have been speeded up. However, despite misgivings of the exj>erts. Frame eould still command a powerful force. and she had 300,000 tons under construction, the fate of which, following the eapituUtion of the Bordeaux Government, is of concern to Great Britain.