History
of the Ship
Unlike cruisers
of the "Galissonnière" class, for example, cruisers
of the "Suffren" class are not really sister ships. Indeed
the "Suffren", "Colbert", "Foch" and
"Dupleix", of the same class, however present all four
of the particularities. They differ in particular by the armament
or the protection.
- The "Suffren" was launched on May 3, 1927.
- The "Colbert" was launched on April 20, 1928.
- The "Foch" is launched on April 24, 1929
- and finally The "Dupleix" is launched on October 9,
1930
The Cruiser "Suffren" will be assigned to the Mediterranean
Wing as soon as it leaves. He therefore left the port of Brest in
April 1930 to join Toulon. He will participate in May in the Navale
magazine organized in Algiers, Algeria, to commemorate the centenary
of the conquest of Algeria. He entered a refit in Lorient in 1934
and did not leave until November 1935. During the Spanish Civil
War, in 1936 he patrolled along the Spanish coast before joining
the instruction division. In 1939 he again entered a major refit,
and then joined Saigon, in Indochina in June 1939. At the declaration
of war, he left Indochina, to be integrated into the Franco / British
Maritime Forces charged with tracking down the German Battleship
"Admiral Graf Spee which rages in the Atlantic. At the beginning
of June 1940, the cruisers" Suffren "," Duquesne
"," Tourville "and" Duguay-Trouin "accompanied
by destroyers will bomb the Italian coasts, in the Vado region in
response to the bombing of Toulon by the Italians. Then assigned
to Force X, based in Alexandria, it will be disarmed and blocked,
according to the conditions of the Armisitice in the port of Alexandria,
in June 1940, in company Cruisers "Duquesne and Tourville".
She remained at anchor in this port until 1943. She joined Dakar
in September 1943, but the American shipyards, overwhelmed, could
not ensure its upgrading. The works will therefore be carried out
in the rt of Dakar with the meager means present on the spot. Its
Aviation system is removed, catapults and seaplanes as well as the
torpedo launch tubes. Its silhouette is modified with the removal
of the rear mast, this modification making it possible to carry
new anti-aircraft defenses. It will resume its patrols in the central
Atlantic until June 1944 before reaching Casablanca where its boilers
will be retubed. It will not resume service until April 1945. After
the Armistice, from June to August 1945, the "Suffren"
undergoes modernization work aimed at strengthening its Anti-Air
defense again and receives Radar equipment.
In September 1945, the cruiser left for Indochina where he supported
the ground forces with his artillery before returning to Toulon
on November 21, 1945. In February 1946, he left for a new mission
in Indochina until March 1947.
It was decommissioned and placed in reserve in October 1947. In
the company of, in particular, the Battleship "Lorraine"
and the Cruiser "Emile Bertin", it was used for training
in anti-submarine warfare until the opening of the center of naval
instruction of Saint-Mandrier in 1971. The Cruiser was then condemned
in March 1972, and stored at the bottom of the port of Toulon before
being sold to a Spanish shipyard for demolition on November 5, 1975.
Note that in 1963, the name
"Suffren" was given by the Navy to a new Missile Frigate:
the old Cruiser therefore lost his name and became "Ocean"
