''Algérie'' was the last

treaty cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Tr ...

constructed for the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

. Designed and built in response to the Italian's of 8-inch gun cruisers, she was a totally new design and not based on the previous ships. The armoured caisson system used in and was abandoned in favour of a full

armoured belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to t ...

enclosing both the

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

and machinery spaces. She abandoned the unit propulsion system used previously and grouped her boilers forward leading to the reduction to a single funnel. She was one of the first vessels to utilize super heating boilers. Welding was used primarily in place of the normal rivetting in previous vessels. She maintained the same main armament but her secondary guns were increased to 100 mm guns. She served in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

after entering service then searched for German surface raiders at the beginning of the war. She was at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

, France, at the time of the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...

and remained there until

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

in November 1942. Normally major ships of the Marine Nationale were named after famous people or statesmen but instead she was named to honour the 100 years of French colonial rule of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Design and description

Hull and protection

Ordered on 15 May 1930, she was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 19 March 1931 as Project C4 with her hull designated as hull no 141 at the

Arsenal de Brest The Brest Arsenal (French - ''arsenal de Brest'') is a collection of naval and military buildings located on the banks of the river Penfeld, in Brest, France. It is located at . Timeline *1631-1635 Beginning of the foundations of the port infra ...

. ''Algérie'' was launched on 21 May 1932. Her hull was between the perpendiculars with an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of and a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . At her

normal displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

of she had a draught of . Her

full load displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

was . Her hull was flush decked with no raised

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

. Her

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

structure was a tower and no

tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...

of the earlier ships would be installed. Her protection would be an

thick made of high tensile 80 kilogram (kg) steel. This belt varied in height from to from the forward main

to just aft of the machinery spaces. From the machinery spaces to the end of the after main magazines it was a uniform height of . It extended below the waterline at normal displacement. Each end of the belt was joined by transverse armoured bulkheads of . The deck of the vessel had of the 80 kg steel. The

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...

had sides with a roof. She was the first treaty cruiser to have an extensive underwater protection system against a hull breach. The double bottom was extended up to the main deck. Inboard of this was the fuel bunkers. Between the machinery spaces and the fuel bunkers was a space of . The outer wall of the machinery spaces was of 60 kg steel increasing to to at the ends providing splinter protection for the magazines and machinery spaces.

Machinery

She was one of the first major vessels to utilize the super heating boilers which produced a pressure of at . She would ship six vertical small tube boilers built by Indret. In boiler rooms 1 and 2 there were four identical boilers with a heating surface of . In boiler room 3 to starboard there was a larger model with a heating surface of and a smaller one to port with only of heating surface. The small boiler was for auxiliary systems and did not drive the turbines. The boiler rooms were all grouped just forwards of amidships reducing the vessel to a single

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...

. Four Rateau-Bretagne single reduction gear steam turbines were fitted reverting to the four shaft arrangement of the s. These would produce 84,000 CV (chevaux or horses) for a designed speed of . She would carry 3,190 tons of oil fuel giving a range of at or at .

Armament

The requirement for main the armament of eight guns housed in four armoured turrets with 120 rounds per gun and with maximum magazine storage of 150 rounds per gun during wartime was retained in ''Algérie''. The weapon used was the 203 mm/50 (8 in) Model 1924 naval gun. The guns were mounted in four Cruiser Two Gun Turret Model 1931 providing a separation of the axis of the guns by 74 inches. The turret was more heavily armoured. The face had of 80 kg nickel-chrome steel plate angled at 41 degrees, the sides and roof were of thickness with the back . The mount provided an elevation from minus 5 degree to plus 45 degrees with an elevation rate of ten degrees per second. The mount could be trained to plus or minus 90 degrees from the centerline of the vessel with a train rate of six degrees per second. The guns could be loaded at any degree of train but only between minus 5 and plus ten degrees in elevation. The loading cycle started with the rammer cocked by the recoil of the guns. A dredger hoist brought the shell and two half charge bags to the breech. The rammer drove the shell into the breech with the powder being loaded by hand. The breech would close and the gun would be fired. The guns could maintain a rate of fire of four to five rounds per minute. The medium anti-aircraft armament was augmented with four 37 mm/50 (1.46 inch) model 1925 guns in Model 1925 single mounts. With an elevation only to plus 85 degrees they had a slow rate of fire, 15 to 21 rounds per minute therefore were not effective against modern aircraft when installed. To complete the light AA armament sixteen 13.2 mm (0.5 inch) Model 1929 machine guns were installed in Model 1931 quad mounts. Two would be mounted forward on the lower bridge wings and the second pair aft. For

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es two launchers Model 1929T for 550 mm torpedoes were fitted to port and starboard When in the locked position the starboard launcher faced forward and the port launcher faced aft. The tubes could be trained and fired either locally or from the armoured conning tower. The ships initially carried the 55 cm (21.65 inch) 23DT, Toulon torpedo. Nine torpedoes were carried, six in the tubes with three spares. Her catapult was of the compressed air type. The catapult was 22.3 meters long with the launching system using 21 meters of the length. She operated two GL 811/812 mono

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

s. The GL series was replaced with the

Loire-Nieuport 130 The Loire 130 was a French flying boat that saw service during World War II. It was designed and built by Loire Aviation of St Nazaire. Development The Loire 130 originated from a mid-1930s requirement from the French Navy for a reconnaissance se ...

floatplane by 1939. Her catapult was mounted to port and not on the centreline.

Service history

War service

''Algérie'' started World War II as flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron which also included the cruisers , , , , and destroyers from the 5th, 7th and 9th '' contre-torpilleur'' divisions. ''Algérie'', ''Dupleix'', the

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

and the British

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

were based in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

French West Africa French West Africa (french: Afrique-Occidentale française, ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burki ...

, while searching for the German heavy cruiser . In March 1940, after refitting at

, she accompanied the battleship to Canada, with 3,000 cases of French gold. In April, ''Algérie'' returned to the Mediterranean and when

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

declared war on France, she helped shell

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in June.Rohwer & Huemmelchen, p.28 Her last mission before the French surrender was as a convoy escort. After the French defeat in 1940, ''Algérie'' remained with the

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...

fleet based at Toulon. Her only mission for the Vichy navy was to escort the battleship back to Toulon, as the battleship had been summarily repaired after the damages received during the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir in 1940. In 1941, her secondary and anti-aircraft weaponry was strengthened and in 1942, she was fitted with the early French-built

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

. She was still there when the Germans invaded the so-called " Free Zone" on 27 November 1942. She was among the ships scuttled in the

scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon The scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon was orchestrated by Vichy France on 27 November 1942 to prevent Nazi German forces from taking it over. After the Allied invasion of North Africa the Germans invaded the territory administered by Vic ...

. Demolition charges were set on the ship. The Germans tried to persuade her crew that scuttling was not permitted by Armistice provisions; her captain requested the Germans to wait until his superior could advise, as the fuses were lit. When Admiral Lacroix finally arrived, he ordered the ship evacuated; as the Germans were preparing to board, he told them that the cruiser was about to explode. She was blown up and burned for 20 days. The Italians raised her in sections on 18 March 1943. The remains were bombed and sunk again on 7 March 1944, and were finally raised and broken up for scrap in 1949.''Warship International'', No. 3, 1997, p. 310.

Notes

* all ship statistical data from ''French Cruisers 1922 - 1956'' (Jordan & Moulin, Chapter 3, The Suffren Class, Design and Construction, Building Data and General Characteristics: Suffren and Colbert) unless otherwise noted * French sources do not use shaft horsepower rating for the power output of their machinery. Instead the term 'chevaux' (CV) or horses is used. To convert the French measure to SHP simply multiply the CV value by 0.98632 to find the true SHP value. Jane's did not do this nor has many of the English language sources. The reference ''French Cruisers 1922 - 1056'' shows the horse power values as only CV and gives the value for conversion to SHP used in many sources.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

203 mm/50 (8in) Model 1924 naval gun

100 mm/45 (3.9 in) Model 1930 naval gun

37 mm/50 (1.46 in) Model 1933 naval gun

13.2 mm(0.5 in) machinegun Model 1929

French Pre-war Torpedoes
*
French cruiser ''Algérie'' at alabordache.fr

{{DEFAULTSORT:Algerie Cruisers of the French Navy World War II cruisers of France Ships built in France 1932 ships World War II warships scuttled at Toulon Maritime incidents in November 1942