Strasbourg with Colbert in the background at Toulon on 27 November 1942.
The scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon was orchestrated by
Vichy France on 27 November 1942 to prevent Nazi German forces from
taking it over. The Allied invasion of North Africa had provoked the
Germans into invading the zone libre, neutral according to the Armistice
of 1940.
Bretagnes underway in the 1930s as seen from the hangar deck of Bearn.
Formidable was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy between her keel laying in late 1879 and her completion in early 1889. The ships of the class was designed in response to Italian naval expansion, and carried a main battery of three 370 mm (14.6 in) guns all mounted in open barbettes on the centerline.
Armored Cruiser Kleber-1904.
Protected cruiser Surcouf off Cameroon, 1916.
French sailors mount the guard.
Battleship Requin crew.
Contre-torpilleur Verdun
The Guépard-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) were six ships of the French Navy, laid down in 1927 and commissioned in 1930.
French destroyer Touareg was one of a dozen Arabe-class destroyers built for the French Navy in Japan during the First World War.
Battleship Bretagne