FAN Amiral Aube (CA-1937)
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The French received an order for a cruiser from Greece. Turkey had ordered a
cruiser from Germany and Greece wanted something better - but cheaper. As the
London Treaty had been broken by Japan, the French could build as big a ship as
Greece wanted - and could pay for. The Turkish ship was to be a
Von der Tann class cruiser armed with 9x8".
The Greek ship was to be a hybrid between the Suffren and Algerie. What the Aube
did do was to introduce French cruisers to triple turrets. The French designers
pointed to the 12x7.6" casemate guns being removed from the Edgar Quinet class
and said to the Greeks 'we can put those into a triple turret for just about the
price of the turret. Not unsurprisingly the Greeks were happy with that. The
French designers made sure that the same turrets would take the French 8" guns
and those would be fitted to the Algerie.
Work proceeded slowly on the ship, from payment to payment which was almost
always late. The order for the ship had not been popular in Greece and raising
the funds was always slow. 1934 and Greece has a change of Government. The
incoming party had won a landslide and part of the manifesto they had campaigned
on, was getting rid of the new cruiser - no matter how cheap it was. And that is
what happened, the new Greek Government cancelled the order with the ship about
75% complete. The shipyard offered the ship for sale to the world but got no
takers. Fifteen months later the French Navy strike a deal with the shipyard to
complete the ship for the French Navy. Which is why, even though the ship
christened "Amiral Aube", was laid down before the Algerie it was not completed
till almost three years later. A long drawn out process.
Displacement | 14,600 tons normal, 17,800 tons full load | |
Length | 650 ft | |
Breadth | 64 ft | |
Draught | 21 ft | |
Machinery | 4 shaft steam turbines, 150,000shp | |
Speed | 33 knots | |
Range | 4000 miles at 15 knots | |
Armour | 3.9" belt, 2" deck, 3" turrets | |
Armament | 12 x 7.6" (4x3) 12 x 3.9" AA (6x2) 12 x 25mm (12x1) |
|
Torpedoes | 6 x 21.7" (2x3) | |
Complement | 815 | |
Notes | FAN Amiral Aube |