Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Léon Gambetta-class cruiser
Summary
The Léon Gambetta class consisted of three armored cruisers built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) during the first decade of the 20th century. Armed with four guns, the ships were much larger and more powerfully armed than their predecessors. , the first of the sister ships to be completed, was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord) where she served as a flagship. Her sisters and were assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée) where Jules Ferry also served as a flagship. Léon Gambetta joined them there in 1910 and the sisters remained there for most of their careers.
During World War I, the cruisers escorted convoys as well as the capital ships of the French fleet. The ships participated in the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea until 1917. Léon Gambetta was sunk by an Austro-Hungarian submarine in April 1915 with heavy loss of life. In mid-1917, Jules Ferry became a transport and Victor Hugo was reduced to reserve. She was joined by her sister in mid-1918.
They were reactivated in 1921 to serve with the Atlantic Flying Division (Division volante de l'Atlantique). In 1922–1925, the sisters alternated service in the Far East, but were again placed in reserve upon their return. Jules Ferry was sold for scrap in 1928 and Victor Hugo followed two years later.
The French humiliation during the Fashoda Incident of 1898, where the British forced them to withdraw from the Sudan, coupled with the earlier war scare with the British over the navigable portion of the Niger River, forced the French to realize that they were grossly unprepared for war with Britain as they could neither defend their colonies nor break through any British blockade of Metropolitan France. To their credit, the factions in the government and the navy were mostly able stop squabbling amongst themselves to reconsider their naval strategy and the types of ships that they would build.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.