Monday, December 1, 2025

Force de Raid La Galissonnière-class cruisers

 The La Galissonniere class of light cruisers are the next part of Force de Raid. 

Four of Six members of this class were assigned to Force de Raid providing the Battle ships with a cruiser escort.  These are solid light cruisers of the 1930s period.  They have good armor only slightly lighter than the Alegre one of the best Prewar Heavy Cruisers.  They have a design speed of 31 Knots though they could reach 35 to 36 knots! if you pulled out all the stops (and were willing to risk engine damage) 

They have nine 6-inch guns for a main armament capable of a rate of fire between 3 and 5  round per minutes.  That's a good if not impressive rate of fire (the US Brooklyn's could manage 10 rounds a minute in short bursts) . They also had a pair of twin torpedo launchers one on each side.  The Galissonnieres are fleet light cruisers focusing on taking out enemy destroyers and cruisers so the battle ships can focus on the other fellows big boys. 
There other function is providing arial scouts each vessel had two sea planes for spotting and scouting.  The rear of the sip included a hanger and seaplane launch catapult on the 3 turret.  The open area be hind the gun is for an ingenious recovery system a wood and canvas mat dragged behind the ship that the seaplane could drive up on to and then be pull up on a crane.  This allowed aircraft to be recovered at spreads up to 15 knots 


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