French aviso D'Entrecasteaux (1931)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship D'Entrecasteaux.

D'Entrecasteaux was an Bougainville-class aviso of the French Navy launched in 1931. The ship was designed to operate from French colonies in Asia and Africa. She was posted at Madagascar, under Vichy French control during World War II.

D'Entrecasteaux

Model of D'Entrecasteaux at Musée de la Marine de Paris
History
France
Name	D'Entrecasteaux
Namesake	Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Ordered	1927 Naval Estimates
Builder	FC de la Gironde, Lormont
Laid down	25 November 1929
Launched	22 June 1931
In service	15 February 1933
Fate	Beached 6 May 1942
General characteristics
Type	Bougainville-class aviso
Displacement	1,969 t (1,938 long tons) (standard) 2,600 t (2,600 long tons) (full load)
Length	103.7 m (340 ft 3 in) (o/a)
Beam	12.7 m (41 ft 8 in)
Draught	4.15 m (13 ft 7 in)
Installed power	2,191 PS (1,611 kW; 2,161 bhp)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 diesel engines
Speed	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)
Range	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	14 officers and 121 crewmen in peacetime; 166 or 183 men in wartime
Armament	3 × single 138.6 mm (5.5 in) guns 4 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 3 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns 50 × mines
Armour	Hull: 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) Deck: 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) Gun shields: 3 mm (0.1 in)
Aircraft carried	1 × Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY floatplane

During Operation Ironclad D'Entrecasteaux fought against the entire British Fleet involved in the landing operations for 36 hours, before finally being damaged and beached. While the other French surface ship, the armed merchant cruiser MS Bougainville, was destroyed along with three submarines during the initial attacks, D'Entrecasteaux managed to dodge torpedoes and escape from the harbour at Diego Suarez.

The sloop managed to avoid damage from various bomb and torpedo attacks and continued to fight throughout the day. She escaped destruction because her shallow draft allowed her to see the torpedoes pass by underneath.

The British battleship HMS Ramillies fired a few salvoes at her with no effect. However, on 6 May 1942, she was finally damaged during another Swordfish attack. The ship started to slowly take on water and was beached before she could sink. An officer and 15 sailors were killed during the attacks.

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Jordan, John (2016). "The Colonial Sloops of the Bougainville Class". Warship 2016. London: Conway. pp. 8–29. ISBN 978-1-84486-326-6.
• Le Masson, Henri (1969). The French Navy. Navies of the Second World War. Vol. 2. London: MacDonald & Co. ISBN 0-356-02385-0.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.