''Commandant Teste'' was a large

seaplane tender A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

of the French Navy (french: Marine Nationale) built before World War II. She was designed to be as large as possible without counting against the Washington Treaty limits. During the Spanish Civil War, she protected neutral merchant shipping and played a limited role during World War II as she spent the early part of the war in North African waters or acting as an aviation transport between France and North Africa. She was slightly damaged during the British bombardment of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940. ''Commandant Teste'' was scuttled at Toulon when the Germans invaded Vichy France in November 1942, but was refloated after the war and considered for conversion to an escort or training carrier. Neither proposal was accepted and she was sold for scrap in 1950.

Design

After the completion of

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 ...

, the ''Marine Nationale'' desired another aviation vessel, but the lack of another hull that could cheaply be converted made another aircraft carrier too expensive. It settled for a seaplane carrier () that could act as a mobile aviation base and support seaplanes for a specific attack. The ship was restricted to a maximum size of at standard displacement, which prevented her from counting against France's Washington Treaty capital ship allocation (she could not have been counted as an aircraft carrier, because she did not meet the Washington Treaty requirement for aircraft to be able to launch from the ship and land back on). This also served to keep her costs relatively low.

Description

''Commandant Teste'' was long overall. She had a maximum

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 and a draught of . She displaced at standard load, at normal load and at full load.Jordan, p. 29 Because of the ship's high profile, there were concerns about her stability in bad weather as she had a significant amount of weight mounted high in the ship; notably her catapults, cranes and anti-aircraft guns. To increase her stability, two lateral tanks were fitted with a pressurized butterfly valve connecting them so that water could flow between the tanks to counter her rolling motion. On trials in 1933, the system was judged successful as it deadened the ship's roll by 37–65%. However, maintenance of the system proved to be problematic as the tanks were difficult to access.

Propulsion

''Commandant Teste'' had a two-shaft unit machinery layout with alternating boiler and engine rooms. Her Schneider-Zoelly geared

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s were designed for . Four superheated Loire-Yarrow small-tube

boilers A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

powered the turbines at a pressure of at a temperature of . These were the first superheated boilers in the ''Marine National'' and required some modifications after the ship's trials. The two in the forward boiler room were oil-fired, but the other two could use either

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

or coal. ''Commandant Teste'' had a designed speed of , but she exceeded during sea trials on 23 July 1933. of fuel oil was carried as well as of coal. This provided a range of at or at using only coal. Two 300 kilowatt (kW)

turbo generator A turbo generator is an electric generator connected to the shaft of a steam turbine or gas turbine for the generation of electric power. Large steam-powered turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electricity and are also used b ...

s provided electricity at 235 volts. Three 150 kW diesel generators were fitted to provide power while in harbor.

Armament

''Commandant Teste'' was originally going to carry a mixture of or anti-surface and anti-aircraft (AA) guns, but this was changed before construction began to a homogeneous main battery of twelve Canon de Modèle 1927 45-

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

dual-purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships and ...

s on powered single mounts. Five guns each were mounted on the fore and aft superstructures and two were mounted between the catapults.Jordan, p. 34 Their elevation limits were −10° to +85°. Their rate of fire was 10 rounds per minute. They had a maximum range of about with a

armor-piercing shell Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...

at a muzzle velocity of . 280 rounds were provided for each gun, including 40

star shell A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage so ...

rounds and 19

tracer Tracer may refer to: Science * Flow tracer, any fluid property used to track fluid motion * Fluorescent tracer, a substance such as 2-NBDG containing a fluorophore that is used for tracking purposes * Histochemical tracer, a substance used for tr ...

rounds. Eight /50 cal semi-automatic AA guns were carried by ''Commandant Teste''. Two each were fitted on the fore and aft superstructures and four on platforms around the single funnel. 4,000 rounds were carried; 500 rounds per gun. The guns could depress 15° and elevate to 80°. They fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . Their effective anti-aircraft ceiling was less than . Six twin

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Mitrailleuse de Modèle 1929 machine gun mounts were also fitted, two mounts were positioned on the bridge wings, two on the upper funnel platform, and two on the stern. The Hotchkiss guns had a cyclic rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute, but the practical rate was between 200 and 250 rounds per minute to allow for reloading its 30-round magazines. They had a theoretical ceiling of . Two fire-control directors were mounted to control the 100 mm guns; one above the bridge and the other atop the rear superstructure. Each director was fitted with a stereoscopic rangefinder. An upgrade to rangefinders was planned to improve the director's performance against surface targets, but was never carried out. The midships 37 mm anti-aircraft guns were controlled by a single rangefinder, but nothing was provided for the fore and aft 37 mm guns.

Protection

''Commandant Teste'' had a waterline armor

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with a maximum thickness of abreast the machinery spaces and was high. The ship was protected from axial fire at the waterline by partial transverse bulkheads thick. The magazines were protected by 5 cm sides and 2 cm ends and roofs. The deck consisted of two layers of plating which increased to three layers above the boilers. of armor protected the steering gear. The sides of 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 ...

were thick, but its roof was thick.

Aircraft arrangements

''Commandant Teste'' had a very large hangar amidships that was three decks high and measured approximately . It was partitioned in two by a bulkhead that incorporated the exhaust uptakes for the funnel and the ventilation trunking for the machinery spaces. It could accommodate ten large torpedo bombers with folding wings; two smaller aircraft with folding wings could be stowed in lieu of each torpedo bomber. Two additional large aircraft and four smaller aircraft could be carried dismantled in crates in a hold below the hangar. The aircraft were moved on a system of wheeled trolleys running on

Décauville Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel ...

rails that extended throughout each half-hangar to the quarterdeck at the rear of the ship. The torpedo bombers would be moved to the quarterdeck where their wings would be extended and then they would be lowered into the water by the large crane at the very stern of the ship. The hangar was surmounted by four Penhöet compressed-air catapults, each with a launch capacity of . The smaller fighter and reconnaissance seaplanes were lifted through large hatches in the hangar roofs by one of the four cranes mounted at each corner of the hangar and mounted on the catapult. During trials in 1937, it took three hours to embark or disembark a group of 16 aircraft, 17 minutes to embark a single

Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 The Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY was a 3-seat reconnaissance floatplane, built by Gourdou-Leseurre. Development The prototype, called L-2, was built in 1926-27. It has a steel tube fuselage, and rectangular wooden wing. The tail was two fins, one ...

reconnaissance

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, ...

, and seven minutes to launch a section of four floatplanes by catapult.

Aircraft

''Commandant Teste'' was designed to accommodate the naval version of the

Farman F.60 Goliath The Farman F.60 Goliath was a French airliner and bomber produced by the Farman Aviation Works from 1919. It was instrumental in the creation of early airlines and commercial routes in Europe after World War I. Design and development The ''G ...

torpedo bomber, but they were obsolete when she was commissioned in 1932.

Biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

Levasseur PL.14 torpedo bomber floatplanes were only briefly used as they proved to be too fragile for landing at sea. They were replaced by improved

Levasseur PL.15 __NOTOC__ The Levasseur PL.15 was a torpedo bomber seaplane developed in France in the early 1930s.Taylor 1989, p. 575. It was a follow-on design to Levasseur's PL.14 that had, in turn, been developed from the carrier-based PL.7.Taylor and Al ...

biplanes from July–August 1934. The

Latécoère 298 The Latécoère 298 (sometimes abridged to Laté 298) was a French seaplane that served during World War II. It was designed primarily as a torpedo bomber, but served also as a dive bomber against land and naval targets, and as a maritime reconnaiss ...

monoplane replaced the PL.15 in March–May 1939. The scouting squadron was initially equipped with fixed-wing Gourdou-Leseurre GL-810 floatplanes until the folding wing Gourdou-Leseurre GL-811 arrived in October 1933. They were replaced in turn by the improved Gourdou-Leseurre GL-813 in early 1936. The larger Loire 130

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

replaced the GL-813 from April 1938, although the catapults had to be modified to handle their greater weight. No fighter seaplanes were ever embarked on ''Commandant Teste'', although the Loire 210 floatplane was designed for the role. However, it proved to be greatly out-classed by contemporary land-based fighters and only 20 were built in 1939. It also proved to be a greatly deficient design; within three months of its service debut in August 1939, five had crashed due to structural failure of the wings and the remaining aircraft were grounded.

Service history

''Commandante Teste'' served with the Mediterranean Squadron upon commissioning in 1932. She was refitted between November 1935 and August 1936 when her 100 mm guns were given

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...

s. From September 1937, she was based at

Oran Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

to protect neutral shipping from commerce raiders during the Spanish Civil War. In February 1938, she was refitted in Toulon to upgrade her catapults and then served as an aviation transport between France and her colonies in North Africa.Jordan, p. 36 In August 1939, she embarked six Loire 130s and eight Latécoère 298s and sailed for Oran, where she was when World War II began the next month. ''Commandant Teste'' remained in North African waters until December 1939, when she returned to Toulon and landed her aircraft. She served as an aircraft transport between French North Africa and Metropolitan France for the first half of 1940. In late June 1940, she was transferred from the over-crowded anchorage at Oran to

Mers El Kébir Mers El Kébir ( ar, المرسى الكبير, translit=al-Marsā al-Kabīr, lit=The Great Harbor ) is a port on the Mediterranean Sea, near Oran in Oran Province, northwest Algeria. It is famous for the attack on the French fleet in 1940, in t ...

. She was lightly damaged by shell splinters during the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940, but suffered no casualties. She arrived at Toulon on 18 October where she was subsequently disarmed. In June 1941, ''Commandant Teste'' was reactivated as a gunnery training ship. She was at Toulon when the Germans invaded Vichy France and was scuttled there on 27 November 1942 to avoid capture by the Germans. Refloated by the Italians on 1 May 1943, ''Commandant Teste'' was captured by the Germans in September 1943 and sunk again the following year by Allied bombs on 18–19 August 1944. Raised again in February 1945, she was still thought to be repairable and was considered for conversion as an escort or training carrier. The proposals were eventually dropped and the ship was used as a store ship for U.S.-built equipment until sold for

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

on 15 May 1950.Chesneau, p. 262

Notes

References

* * * * * *Green, William. "War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Six Floatplanes". London: Macdonald, 1962.