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The ''La Galissonnière'' cruiser class was commissioned by the French Navy in the 1930s. They were the last French cruisers completed after 1935, until the completion of ''De Grasse'' in 1956. They are considered as fast, reliable and successful ships. Two cruisers of this class, ''Georges Leygues'' and ''Montcalm'', took part, in late September, 1940, in the defence of Dakar. With the cruiser ''Gloire'', they joined the Allied forces, after the successful Allied landings in North Africa, on November 1942. The three other cruisers of the ''La Galissoniere'' class, held under Vichy control in Toulon, were scuttled on November 27, 1942. After refitting, ''Georges Leygues'', ''Montcalm'' and ''Gloire'' took part in various Allied operations, including the Normandy landings in 1944. Postwar, several of the class acted as Flagship of the French Mediterranean Squadron, and carried out operations off Indo-China, till 1954, and afterwards were deployed during the Suez crisis and operations off Algeria They were scrapped between 1958 and 1970. ==Background== The French Navy emerged from World war I with light cruisers, in very small numbers, aged and exhausted by war service. One Austrian (''SMS Novara'') and four German light cruisers (''SMS Kolberg'', ''SMS Stralsund'', ''SMS Regensburg'', ''SMS Königsberg''), were received as reparations for war losses. They were renamed from Alsace-Lorraine towns, respectively ''Thionville'', ''Colmar'', ''Mulhouse'', ''Strasbourg'' and ''Metz'', armed with nine 100 mm guns for ''Thionville'', and six to eight 150 mm guns for the other ones, 4,000 tons for ''Thionville'', from 5,000 to 7,000 tons for the other ones, with a speed of 26-27 knots. They were retired from active service by the early 1930's. After it had been considered in 1920, to build 5,200 tons light cruisers, with 5.5 in (138.6 mm) guns, capable of over , funds were granted in the 1922 budget for the three s, known as ''8000 tons'' cruisers, which were launched in 1923-24. They had four turrets mounting two guns each. The 155 mm (6.1-inch) caliber, in regular use by the French Army was chosen to facilitate a streamlined ammunition supply chain. With nearly no armour, they had a speed of 34 knots. Also remaining in service were armoured cruisers, built between 1900 and 1910, obsolete when they had been commissioned. With their armament arrangement in two double turrets of 194 mm caliber, and single turrets and casemates of generally 167.4 mm, (only the ''Edgar Quinet'' and ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' cruisers had fourteen 194 mm guns as their main armament ), a speed of 23 knots, an armoured belt of 90 to 170 mm, for a displacement of 12,000 to 14,000 tons, they were outgunned by their British or German contemporaries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「La Galissonnière-class cruiser」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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