Some French Cold War ships

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T47/T53/T56-class destroyers

After the war, when the French Fleet was a shambles, it needed to be rebuilt quickly. As the pre-war Le Hardi type was generally rated an excellent design for European waters, it was adopted as the basis for the reconstruction programme. At 2.750 ts standard, they were about the size of a British Daring-class vessel (longer, but with less draught), thus considerably bigger than Le Hardi, surpassing even the big pre-war Le Fantasque-class destroyers. Armament emphasized air defence, with six 127mm DP guns and six rapid-firing 57mm cannon. There were two triple banks of torpedo tubes for anti-surface work and two triple banks for shorter ASW torpedoes, all 550mm caliber; in practice, usually all twelve tubes were loaded with short L3 ASW torpedoes. In addition, six spares in rapid-reload racks were carried for the ASW tubes. There were no DCs and no ASW mortars. Twelve units were laid down in 1951 through 1953 at five different shipyards. The first group of six – Surcouf, Kersaint, Cassard, Bouvet, Dupétit Thouars and Chevalier Paul – looked like this upon completion (between November 1955 and December 1956):
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The second group – Maillé-Brézé, Vauquelin, D’Estrées, Du Chayla, Casabianca and Guépratte – were nearly identical, but featured slightly different bridge structures, had turret Y placed further aft and had a modified life raft stowage pattern. They were all completed within half a year between November 1956 and June 1957.
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Embodying a distinctly WW-II-era design philosophy, these pure gunnery ships were quickly considered obsolescent; fortunately, they proved to have quite some margin for modernization. All of them were extensively rebuilt, to three different designs with different specializations: Command vessels (Surcouf, Cassard, Chevalier Paul); SAM destroyers with Tartar (Kersaint, Bouvet, Dupétit Thouars, Du Chayla) and ASW destroyers with Malafon standoff ASW missiles (Maillé-Brézé, Vauquelin, D’Estrées, Casabianca, Guépratte).

The three command vessels were all reconstructed by 1963. They landed their forward 57mm turret and had their bridge structure extended forward; the antisurface torpedo tubes were also landed and replaced by additional accommodation superstructure.
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By 1970, all three had their bridge structure widened to create more space; Surcouf also received a newer radar set on the main mast.
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Surcouf was cut in half in a collision with a civilian ship in 1971 and soon scrapped; Chevalier Paul was struck from the list the same year, and Cassard as the last unit decommissioned in 1974. They had the shortest lives of their class, none of them reaching 20 years of service.

The four SAM destroyers were reconstructed between 1962 and 1965. They landed all 127mm guns and the antisurface torpedo tubes; a single-arm Tartar launcher with 40 missiles stowage was installed aft, and a sextuple 375mm ASW mortar was added on position A. The bridge structure was completely replaced and considerably increased in size, and the funnels were heightened. As rebuilt, Bouvet and Kersaint differed from the other two by the shape of their forward mast. Bouvet also had a differently designed bridge.
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Kersaint was quickly modified to the mast design of the other two; at the same time, Bouvet’s Bridge was rebuilt, so all four had the same bridge. She however retained her old mast.
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In the late 1960s, all four received an improved model 3D-radar, new ESM, TACAN, and new life rafts.
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Only Dupetit Thouars and Du Chayla were further modernized during the late 1970s with newer 2D search and navigation radars and new commo sets.
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Bouvet and Kersaint were decommissioned in the early 1980s; the other two remained in service till replaced by the new Cassard and Jean Bart. Dupetit Thouars lasted till 1988 and Du Chayla till 1991. She was paid off at age 34, making her the longest living unit of her class.

Prior to her total ASW reconstruction, D’Estrées served as a testbed for a new generation of bow sonar and VDS. To avoid the sonar dome being smashed by the anchor, the stem was rebuilt into a clipper bow, and the stern also slightly lengthened to accommodate the VDS set. This modification was made in 1963.
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D’Estrées and her sisters Maillé-Brézé, Vauquelin, Casabianca and Guépratte were then extensively rebuilt between 1968 and 1970. They all received a completely new bow sonar and VDS (of an improved model than the one tested on D’Estrées) They landed their entire gun armament, replacing it with two single 100mm rapid firing guns capable of discharging one projectile per second. They also received a new, voluminous bridge structure, and had only one mast as rebuilt. The ASW torpedoes were retained; a sextuple 375mm ASW mortar was added on position B, and a Malafon ASW missile launcher with a large magazine structure was placed aft. All five were completely identical.
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They had their commo equipment modernized in the late 1970s.
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Only Maillé-Brézé and Casabianca received TACAN.
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All of them served till the mid-eighties, when they were replaced by Georges Leygues-class vessels. Maillé-Brézé lasted longest and was turned into a museum ship after decommissioning in 1988, making her the only unit of her class to remain in existence till this day.

When the twelve units of the T47-type were under construction, a second batch of six war authorized to a revised design. To act as fighter directors, they were fitted with height finder radars on the main mast; the air search set was also of a newer type. To gain some standoff ASW capacity, a sextuple 375mm ASW mortar was fitted aft between the antisurface torpedo tubes; the ASW tubes were omitted (although the remaining tubes were usually loaded with guided ASW torpedoes). They also had different bridge blocks than the T47-type. This design applied to the first five units of the class – Duperré, La Bourdonnais, Forbin, Tartu and Jaureguiberry – which all commissioned within a year between November 1957 and July 1958; the sixth ship was deferred till 1958 and completed to a wholly revised design.
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In the late 1960s, all except Duperré received a larger bridge to house the SENIT action information system.
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Forbin landed 127mm turret Y and 54mm turret B in 1973; she was fitted with a helicopter deck aft and served as a TS till 1982, when she was decommissioned.
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La Bourdonnais, Tartu and Jauréguiberry served till the late 1970s without further modernization; together with the command version of T47, they had the shortest lives of their class.
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Duperré however was extensively rebuilt between 1972 and 1974, resembling the T47 ASW conversion afterwards. Her armament appeared austere from the outside, consisting of a single 100mm cannon and two catapults for guided ASW torpedoes; she did however carry hangar and flight deck for a Lynx helicopter, providing her with better standoff ASW capability than the Malafon ships, and she was one of the first western ships fitted with SSMs, four Exocet missile canisters in her case, making her the only unit of her class with standoff antisurcace capability. With her enlargened bridge structure, she was also fitted as a command ship. She served till decommissioned in 1992 as the last of her type, receiving very little externally visible modifications.
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The final destroyer of the series, La Galissonière, was completed in 1962 to a revised design named T56, which was supposed to serve as a prototype for later ASW conversions. Armament resembled the T47 ASW conversion, but with a French designed 305mm quad ASW mortar with secondary land attack capability replacing the Bofors 375mm, and with a collapsible hangar for a single Alouette III helicopter (an Alouette II was initially carried for tests, but only the Alouette III was operationally used) on top of the Malafon magazine. Initially, she served as a trials platform for various types of sonar.
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For most of her career, she carried the same sonars as the T47 ASW conversions. The 305mm ASW mortar was removed in the late 1970s; she also received a modified bridge and mast with improved comms. The collapsible hangar arrangement (which looked way too tight for proper maintenance, was too small for anything bigger than an Alouette, and obviously got into the way of both Malafon and the 305mm quad ASW mortar) did not satisfy the French navy, and was not repeated on later ships.
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La Galissonière decommissioned in 1990.

Cheers!
GD

Shipbucket

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