The Canon de 37 mm Modèle 1925 was a widely used family of French anti-aircraft guns used by 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 th ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Design & Construction
The Modèle 1925 was a single gun mount while the later Modèle 1933 was a twin mount. Both were hand-loaded, semi-automatic guns with a low rate of fire compared to their clip-fed contemporaries. A combination of low rate of fire, low projectile weight and small numbers of guns per ship led to a reputation of it being a poor anti-aircraft weapon.
Ship classes that carried Modèle 1925 & Modèle 1933 include:
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Aigle-class destroyers
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Bougainville-class avisos
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Bourrasque-class destroyers
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Chacal-class destroyers
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Dunkerque-class battleships
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Duquesne-class cruisers
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Guépard-class destroyers
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L'Adroit-class destroyer
The ''L'Adroit''-class destroyer was a group of fourteen French Navy destroyers (''torpilleur'') laid down in 1925–26 and commissioned from 1928 to 1931. They were the successors to the , with the same armament, but being slightly heavier overa ...
s
*
La Melpomène-class torpedo boats
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Le Fantasque-class destroyers
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Le Fier-class torpedo boats
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Mogador-class destroyer
The ''Mogador''-class large destroyers (''contre-torpilleurs'') of the French Navy were laid down in 1935 and commissioned in 1939. They were extremely fast, very large destroyers intended to act as scouts for the two fast s. The design evolved ...
s
*
Richelieu-class battleships
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Suffren-class cruiser
The ''Suffren'' class was an interwar treaty cruiser built by France for the French Navy. The design was based on the preceding and traded speed for protection while retaining the same armament. The first ship, ''Suffren'', was completed to t ...
s
*
Vauquelin-class destroyers
Comparison of anti-aircraft guns
Career
Ships of the
Free French Navy refitted in the United States during World War II had these guns replaced by
40 mm Bofors Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors:
*Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s
...
and
20 mm Oerlikon guns.
Ships of the
Vichy 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 ...
continued to carry the Canon de 37 mm Modèle 1925 until the remnants of that force were captured or
scuttled during 1942. Ships salvaged by the Germans and Italians also replaced this gun with their equivalents.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:
World War II naval weapons
Naval guns of France
37 mm artillery