The ''Dupleix'' class consisted of three
armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast en ...
s built 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 th ...
() at the beginning of the 20th century. Designed for overseas service and armed with eight guns, the three ships of the
class were smaller and less powerfully armed than their predecessors.
was initially assigned to the Atlantic Division () as its
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...
. Her
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
s were initially assigned to the
Mediterranean Squadron (), although relieved ''Dupleix'' as flagship of the Atlantic Division in 1905. ''Dupleix'' was reduced to
reserve from 1906 to 1909 before she was sent to the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The te ...
in 1910 as the flagship of the ships there. ''Desaix'' and exchanged assignments in 1907, although the former ship returned to the Atlantic in 1908 before being placed in reserve from 1909 to 1914. ''Kléber'' was also placed in reserve in 1909, but she was reactivated two years later to join ''Dupleix'' in the Far East before returning home in 1913 to be placed in reserve again.
As tensions rose shortly before the beginning of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
in August 1914, both ''Desaix'' and ''Kléber'' were reactivated. When the war began they were assigned to defend
Allied shipping in the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kan ...
and intercept German ships attempting to pass through. At that time, ''Dupleix'' was still in the Far East. Before she was transferred to the
Eastern Mediterranean
Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea.
It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to comm ...
in May 1915, the ship spent most of her time on escort duty in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
and
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
. Joined by ''Kléber'' that same month, they were two of the ships tasked to blockade the
Aegean coast of
Ottoman Turkey
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. ''Desaix'' was the first of the sisters to be transferred to the Mediterranean in February 1915 and spent the next year patrolling off the coast of the Ottoman
Levant
The Levant () is an approximation, approximate historical geography, historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology an ...
and in the central Mediterranean.
To help protect Allied shipping from German
commerce raider
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than eng ...
s, the sisters were transferred to
French West Africa for convoy escort duties in mid-1916 and remained there for the next year. Personnel shortages caused ''Kléber'' to be ordered home in mid-1917, but she struck a
naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ve ...
laid by a German submarine in June and sank; most of her crew was rescued by ships in the area. ''Dupleix'' followed her home in October and was placed in reserve. ''Desaix'' remained in West Africa for the rest of the war.
''Dupleix'' was
decommissioned in 1919 and ''Desaix'' was transferred to the Far East that same year. After the latter's return in 1921, she was also decommissioned. ''Dupleix'' was sold for
scrap
Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered m ...
in 1922 and ''Desaix'' followed five years later.
Background
French cruiser policy during the decade from the mid-1880s was incoherent as three different factions of the navy fought amongst themselves in four forums, the
Navy Ministry (), the Budgetary Committee of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon ...
(), the Supreme Naval Council () that proposed shipbuilding programs and ship characteristics to the Navy Minister, and the Board of Construction () that was responsible for evaluating ship designs. The partisans of the (Young School) wanted fast, lightly armed ships for
commerce raiding
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than eng ...
, the traditionalists who wanted cruisers to defend the colonies and the modernists that desired armored cruisers and small
scout cruiser
A scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th century, which were smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers. Intended for fleet scouting duties ...
s to operate with the battle fleet.
A traditionalist Navy Minister,
Vice Admiral ()
Armand Besnard
Gustave Besnard (11 October 1833, Rambouillet – 15 July 1903, Château du Rohu near Lorient) was a French admiral and ''Ministre de la Marine''.
Biography
From the time he joined the French Navy as a cadet at the ''École Navale'' in 1849, u ...
, succeeded the liberal politician
Édouard Lockroy in April 1896, after the latter had authorized construction of the very large armored cruiser in the 1896 budget proposal, despite opposition from the . After rejecting a repeat
protected cruiser
Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers r ...
like in the 1896 budget, Lockroy and his allies in the Budget Committee were willing to accept smaller cruisers in the following year's budget. The rejected Besnard's proposal for a protected cruiser in late 1896,
[ saying that the navy "needed ships that can deal out and withstand punishment", but Besnard authorized construction of a few weeks later in the 1897 budget proposal anyway.][Ropp, p. 286]
In the meantime, the Superior Naval Council had produced a new naval program that included an additional three each armored and protected cruisers for overseas service and five armored cruisers for service with the battle fleet. For the 1898 budget, Besnard proposed one battleship, two armored cruisers and two protected cruisers, but Lockroy and his allies, probably influenced by the ideas of Vice Admiral François Ernest Fournier
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, Kin ...
, who believed that most cruiser tasks, including commerce raiding, would be better performed by armored cruisers smaller than ''Jeanne d'Arc'', deleted the battleship and offered him 120 million francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th cent ...
for armored cruisers. Besnard initially proposed adding an enlarged version of ''Jeanne d'Arc'', but this was rejected by the in early 1897. He countered with a revised program of three armored cruisers for overseas duties, which became the ''Dupleix'' class, and three armored cruisers for the fleet. This satisfied the Superior Naval Council's objectives and all three factions as Fourier's ideas showed that armored cruisers could accomplish the 's preferred strategy of commerce raiding. It also neatly consumed the Budget Committee's 120 million francs as each of the ''Dupleix''s cost about 19 million francs and the ''Gueydon''s 21 million francs.
Preliminary design work in December 1896 was for a ship armed with ten guns, two in single-gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s fore and aft of the superstructure and the remaining eight in casemates
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mean ...
, protected by a waterline
The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...
armor 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 ...
. The thought that the belt protection was too weak and that the ships needed more endurance. The naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners.
{{Commons category, Architecture occupations
Design occupations
Occupations ...
Louis-Émile Bertin
Louis-Émile Bertin (23 March 1840 – 22 October 1924) was a French naval engineer, one of the foremost of his time, and a proponent of the " Jeune École" philosophy of using light, but powerfully armed warships instead of large battleships.
...
, recently appointed as the Director of Naval Construction (), agreed and revised the design, sacrificing one pair of guns for more armor and additional coal, which increased its displacement. The accepted his revised design on 4 May 1897, although complaining about the deleted guns.
''Dupleix'' was ordered from one of the naval dockyards on 18 December and orders for the other two followed on 28 December. Six months later, the proposed revising the armament, exchanging the single-gun turrets and the casemated guns for four twin-gun turrets, two replacing the turrets on the centerline and two wing turrets, one on each broadside, and adding four guns in casemates. By this time, preliminary work had already begun on ''Dupleix'' and Lockroy, recently returned to office, suggested suspending work on the ships while studies were done. Bertin opposed the changes, but produced drawings by early March 1899, despite the work load on his designers who were focused on other projects, and they were approved by the Minister on 6 April. The changes greatly retarded the progress on the two ships ordered from private dockyards, which had already been laid down in early 1899.
Design and description
The ''Dupleix''-class ships were much smaller and more lightly armed than ''Jeanne d'Arc''. They measured long overall[Silverstone, p. 79] with a beam of and had a maximum draft of . The cruisers displaced as designed. To reduce biofouling
Biofouling or biological fouling is the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animals where it is not wanted on surfaces such as ship and submarine hulls, devices such as water inlets, pipework, grates, ponds, and rivers that ...
, their hulls were sheathed in teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
. The ships normally had a crew of 19 officers and 550 enlisted men, but accommodated 24 officers and 583 enlisted men when serving as flagships.
The ships' propulsion machinery consisted of three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...
, using steam provided by water-tube boiler
A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...
s, but the types of machinery differed between them. The first two ships, and , had four-cylinder engines fed by 24 Belleville boilers with a working pressure of while the last ship, , had three-cylinder engines that used 20 Niclausse boilers at . The engines of all three ships were designed to produce a total of that was intended to give them a maximum speed of . Despite exceeding their horsepower rating, only ''Kléber'' met or exceeded her designed speed during their sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s, the ships attaining from . The sisters carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of .
Armament
The ships of the ''Dupleix'' class had a main armament that consisted of eight quick-firing (QF) 45- caliber Canon de 164 mm Modèle 1893–96 guns. They were mounted in four twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
and a pair of wing turrets amidships
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th ...
.[Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 305] The guns fired shells at muzzle velocities
Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to ...
ranging from . This gave them a range of about at the turrets' maximum elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
of +15 degrees. Each gun was provided with 200 rounds
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the numbe ...
, of which 44 shells were stowed in the turrets, which it could fire at a rate of three rounds per minute.
The cruisers' secondary armament
Secondary armament is a term used to refer to smaller, faster-firing weapons that were typically effective at a shorter range than the main (heavy) weapons on military systems, including battleship- and cruiser-type warships, tanks/armored ...
consisted of four 45-caliber QF Canon de 100 mm Modèle de 1893 guns on single mounts in unprotected casemates in the hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
. Their shells were fired at muzzle velocities of at a rate of six rounds per minute. At their maximum elevation of +20 degrees, the guns had a range of . The sisters carried 250 rounds for each gun. For defense against torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of s ...
s, they carried ten and four Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun; there were also a navy (47 mm) and a 3-inch (76&nbs ...
s, all of which were on single mounts. The ship were also equipped with two above-water torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...
s, one on each broadside.[
]
Protection
The nickel steel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
armor belt of the ''Dupleix''-class cruisers extended from below the waterline to above it and covered the entire length of the ship except for [ of the stern where it ended in a transverse bulkhead thick. The armor was thick, although it reduced to 84 mm in front of the forward turret and thinned to at its lower edge.
The curved protective deck had a total thickness of on the flat and on the upper part of the curved portion where it met the bottom edge of the belt armor. Behind the belt armor was a highly-subdivided watertight internal ]cofferdam
A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for construction or re ...
. The face and sides of the gun turrets were protected by Harvey face-hardened armor plates, although their roofs were only thick. The armor plates of the gun barbette
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships.
In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...
s was thick. The sides of the elliptical conning tower were 100 to 120 millimeters thick.
Ships
Service history
The first ship completed, ''Dupleix'', was initially assigned to the Atlantic Division as its flagship. Her sisters were initially assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron's Light Squadron (), although ''Desaix'' relieved ''Dupleix'' as flagship of the Atlantic Division in 1905. In her turn ''Kléber'' relieved ''Desaix'' as flagship of the Atlantic Division in 1907. ''Desaix'' took ''Kléber''s place in the Light Squadron. While visiting the United States later that year, the cruiser accidentally collided with and sank an American cargo ship and participated in the Jamestown Exposition
The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it w ...
, celebrating the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was ...
. At the beginning of 1908, ''Kléber'' became flagship of the Moroccan Division ().
The sisters all spent significant amounts of time before 1914 in reserve. ''Dupleix'' from 1906 to 1909, ''Desaix'' from 1909 to 1914 and ''Kléber'' in 1909–1910 and 1913–1914. ''Dupleix'' was reactivated in 1910 to serve as the flagship of the Far Eastern Division () and was joined by ''Kléber'' in 1911–1912. ''Dupleix'' was replaced as flagship in 1913 by the larger and more spacious, albeit older, armored cruiser .
World War I
After the French declaration of war on Imperial Germany
The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
in early August 1914, ''Dupleix'' was assigned to the British China Squadron and participated in the early stages of the blockade of the German-leased port of Tsingtao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means "azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Bel ...
. By late September, the ship was assigned to escort duties in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. She was transferred to the newly formed Dardanelles Squadron () in May 1915, which was tasked to blockade the Aegean coast of Turkey. On the 26th, the cruiser was attacked by Ottoman coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...
at Bodrum
Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient ...
while inspecting shipping, losing 27 men killed and 11 wounded.
''Desaix'' and ''Kléber'' were reactivated in July 1914 and were assigned to the 3rd Light Division ( (DL)) of the 2nd Light Squadron which was tasked to defend the English Channel in conjunction with the British. The division was on station in the western end of the Channel by 4 August, where their mission was to intercept German shipping and provide distant cover for the smaller ships escorting convoys in the Channel. Improved defenses in the Channel and the stabilization of the front in early 1915 allowed the cruisers to be released from their tasks, so ''Desaix'' was assigned to the 3rd Squadron upon her arrival in the Eastern Mediterranean
Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea.
It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to comm ...
on 16 February. The squadron was tasked to patrol the area between Port Said
Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of ...
, Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
, and Alexandretta, Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria ( ar, سوريا العثمانية) refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and so ...
. The cruiser was detached in May to assist the 1st Naval Army () in the Central Mediterranean with searching for German shipping near Italian ports. She rejoined the 3rd Squadron and was tasked to help blockade the Ottoman coast near the Turkish and Syrian border. In contrast to her sister, ''Kléber'' was transferred to the Dardanelles to support Allied forces in the Gallipoli Campaign in May where she joined the Dardanelles Squadron together with ''Dupleix'' and were assigned to blockade the coast of Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
. ''Kléber'' collided with the Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
HMT ''Boorara'' in the Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans an ...
on 17 July, damaging her bow. After the Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Tsardom of Bulgaria ( bg, Царство България, translit=Tsarstvo Balgariya), also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom ( bg, Трето Българско Царство, translit=Treto Balgarsko Tsarstvo, links=no), someti ...
joined the Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
in mid-October, ''Kléber'' was one of the ship tasked to raid the Aegean coast of Bulgaria on 21 October.
The successes of German merchant raiders like in 1916 caused the Allies to transfer cruisers to the Atlantic to protect their shipping. The sisters were assigned to a newly-raised 6th Light Division in July 1916 that was 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 ...
, French West Africa, with ''Kléber'' as the division's flagship. To release manpower for higher-priority patrol boat
A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and th ...
s in 1917, the 6th DL was reduced to ''Dupleix'' and ''Desaix'' and renamed the Coast of Africa Division () on 18 May; (Rear Admiral) Louis Jaurès
Louis Jaurès (18 August 1860 – 30 October 1937) was a French naval officer who rose to the rank of rear admiral during World War I.
He was the brother of the statesman Jean Jaurès.
After retirement he was elected a deputy in the National Assem ...
transferred his flag to ''Dupleix''. En route to Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French ...
, ''Kléber'' struck a mine and sank on 27 June that the German U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
had laid off the Iroise entrance to Brest. Nearby ships were able to rescue all but 38 of her crew.
The division was disbanded on 14 September and ''Dupleix'' sailed to Brest where she was placed in reserve on 15 October. ''Desaix'' remained at Dakar for the rest of the war, tasked to escort convoys in the South Atlantic. ''Dupleix'' was decommissioned on 1 May 1919 and stricken on 27 September from the Navy List
A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...
. In 1920 ''Dupleix'' was towed to Landévennec
Landévennec (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. Population
Geography
Landévennec is located on the Crozon peninsula, southeast of Brest.The river Aulne forms a natural boundary to the east. M ...
and she was sold for scrap in 1922. ''Desaix'' returned to France after the war, but was assigned to the Far Eastern Division in 1919. Her service there was uneventful and the ship arrived back in France on 31 March 1921 after which she was decommissioned. ''Desaix'' was stricken from the Navy List on 27 July, but was not sold for scrap until 1927.[Jordan & Caresse, pp. 245, 247, 252, 254, 256]
References
Bibliography
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Cruisers of the French Navy
World War I cruisers of France
Ship classes of the French Navy