.jpg) Courbet before 1922 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  France | |
| Name | Courbet |
| Namesake | AdmiralAmédée Courbet |
| Operator | |
| Ordered | 11 August 1910 |
| Builder | Arsenal de Lorient |
| Cost | F57,700,000 |
| Laid down | 1 September 1910 |
| Launched | 23 September 1911 |
| Completed | 8 October 1913 |
| Commissioned | 19 November 1913 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 9 June 1944, duringOperation Neptune |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class & type | Courbet-classbattleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 166 m (544 ft 7 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 9.04 m (29 ft 8 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 4 × shafts; 2 ×steam turbine sets |
| Speed | 21knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Endurance | 4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 1,115 (1,187 asflagship) |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
Courbet was thelead ship ofher class of fourdreadnought battleships, the first ones built for theFrench Navy. She was completed shortly before the start ofWorld War I in August 1914. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, where she helped to sink an Austro-Hungariancruiser, covered theOtranto Barrage that blockaded theAustro-Hungarian Navy in theAdriatic Sea, and often served as aflagship. Although upgraded several times beforeWorld War II, she was not considered to be a first-line battleship by the 1930s and spent much of that decade as a gunnerytraining ship.
A few weeks after theGerman invasion of France on 10 May 1940,Courbet was hastily reactivated. She supportedAllied troops in the defence ofCherbourg in mid-June, taking refuge in England shortly afterwards. As part ofOperation Catapult, the ship was seized inPortsmouth by British forces on 3 July and was turned over to theFree French a week later. She was used as a stationaryanti-aircraft battery and as anaccommodation ship there.Courbet was disarmed in early 1941 and was used as atarget ship during 1943. Her engines andboilers were removed in 1944 to prepare her for use as abreakwater during theNormandy landings (Operation Neptune) in June 1944. She wasscrappedin situ after the war.
By 1909, the French Navy was convinced of the superiority of theall-big-gun battleship likeHMS Dreadnought over mixed-calibre designs such as theDanton class, which preceded theCourbets. The following year, the newMinister of the Navy,Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, selected a design that was comparable to the foreign dreadnoughts then under construction to be built as part of the 1906 Naval Programme.[1] The ships were 166 metres (544 ft 7 in)long overall[2] and had abeam of 27 metres (88 ft 7 in) and a meandraught of 9.04 metres (29 ft 8 in). Theydisplaced 23,475tonnes (23,104long tons) at normal load and 25,579 tonnes (25,175 long tons) atdeep load. Their crew numbered 1,115 men as aprivate ship and 1,187 when serving as a flagship. The ships were powered by two licence-builtParsons steam turbine sets, each driving twopropeller shafts. Unlike hersister ships,Courbet had 24Niclausse boilers to provide steam for her turbines.[3] These boilers were coal-burning with auxiliary oil sprayers and were designed to produce 28,000metric horsepower (20,594 kW; 27,617 shp).[4] The ships had a designed speed of 21knots (39 km/h; 24 mph), althoughCourbet only reached 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) during hersea trials.[5] TheCourbet-class ships carried enough coal andfuel oil to give them a range of 4,200nautical miles (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[6]
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Themain battery of theCourbet class consisted of twelveCanon de 305-millimetre (12 in) mle 1906–1910 guns mounted in six twin-gun turrets, with two pairs ofsuperfiring turrets fore and aft of thesuperstructure, and a pair ofwing turretsamidships. Theirsecondary armament was twenty-twoCanon de 138.6-millimetre (5.5 in) mle 1910, which were mounted singly incasemates in the hull. FourCanon de 47-millimetre (1.9 in) mle 1902Hotchkiss guns were fitted, two on eachbroadside in the superstructure. They were also armed with four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) submergedtorpedo tubes, a pair on each broadside,[4] and could stow 10mines below decks. The ships'waterlinebelt ranged in thickness from 140 to 250 mm (5.5 to 9.8 in) and was thickest amidships. The gun turrets were protected by 250–360 millimetres (9.8–14.2 in) of armour and 160-millimetre (6.3 in) plates protected the casemates. The curved armoureddeck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick on the flat and 70 mm (2.8 in) on the outer slopes. Theconning tower had 266 mm (10.5 in) thick face and sides.[7]
Courbet was ordered on 11 August 1910[8] and named afterAdmiralAmédée Courbet.[9] She waslaid down on 1 September 1910 at theArsenal de Lorient andlaunched on 23 September 1911. Shortly after finishing her machinery trials, she ferried thePresident of France,Raymond Poincaré, to Britain for a short visit on 24–26 June 1913.Courbet was completed on 8 October at a cost ofF57,700,000 and wascommissioned into the fleet on 19 November.Courbet and her sisterJean Bart were assigned to the 1st BattleDivision (1ère Division de ligne) of the 1st Battle Squadron (1ère Escadre de ligne) of the1st Naval Army (1ère Armée Navale), atToulon in mid-November andCourbet became the flagship ofVice-Admiral (Vice-amiral) Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, commander of the 1st Battle Squadron, on 5 January 1914.[10]
By the time that France declared war on Germany on 2 August,Courbet had been relieved of her assignment to the 1st Division because Boué de Lapeyrère had become commander of the 1st Naval Army and the ship was now the fleet flagship. Since the whereabouts of the GermanbattlecruiserSMS Goeben was unknown, he split his forces into three groups to cover the movements of troop convoys betweenFrench North Africa andmetropolitan France. He accompanied the 2nd Battle Squadron (Group B) toBougie,French Algeria, inCourbet before rendezvousing with her sistersJean Bart andFrance offValencia, Spain, to escort them to Toulon because the guns of the former were malfunctioning and the latter was so new that she did not have any ammunition aboard. On 7 August,Courbet and the battleshipCondorcet took over the escort of a convoy fromAlgiers and then re-coaled in Toulon.[11]
When France declared war on Austria-Hungary on 12 August, Boué de Lapeyrère decided on asortie into the Adriatic intended to force the Austro-Hungarian fleet to give battle. After rendezvousing with a small British force on the 15th, he ordered his forces to split with the battleships headed forOtranto, Italy, while thearmoured cruisers patrolled off the Albanian coast. Before the two groups got very far apart, several Austro-Hungarian ships were spotted on 16 August, and theAllied fleet was successful in cutting off and sinking theprotected cruiserSMS Zenta offAntivari; thedestroyerSMSUlan managed to escape. The following day, Boué de Lapeyrère transferred his flag toJean Bart. On 1 September, the 1st Naval Army briefly bombarded Austro-Hungarian coastal fortifications defending theBay of Cattaro to discharge the unfired shells remaining in the guns after sinkingZenta. Aside from several uneventful sorties into the Adriatic, the Frenchcapital ships spent most of their time cruising between the Greek and Italian coasts[12] to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from attempting to break out of the Adriatic.[13] The torpedoing ofJean Bart on 21 December by the Austro-Hungarian submarineU-12 showed that the battleships were vulnerable to this threat, and they were withdrawn to spend the rest of the month further south at an anchorage inNavarino Bay.[14]
On 11 January 1915, the French were alerted that the Austro-Hungarian fleet was going to sortie from its base atPola, soCourbet,Paris andFrance led the Naval Army north to the Albanian coast. It proved to be a false alarm, and they were back at theirmoorings three days later. In the meantime, the ships patrolled theIonian Sea. The Italian declaration of war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May, and the Italian decision to assume responsibility for naval operations in the Adriatic, allowed the French Navy to withdraw to eitherMalta orBizerte,French Tunisia, to cover the Otranto Barrage. At some point during the year,Courbet's 47 mm guns were put on high-angle mountings to allow them to be used asanti-aircraft (AA) guns. They were later supplemented by a pair of75 mm (3 in) Mle 1891 G guns on anti-aircraft mounts. On 27 April 1916, the French began using the port ofArgostoli on the Greek island ofCephalonia as a base. Around this time, many men from the battleships' crews were transferred to anti-submarine ships. At the beginning of 1917, the French began to use the Greek island ofCorfu as well, but shortages of coal severely limited the battleships' ability to go to sea. In 1918, they were almost immobile, leaving Corfu only for maintenance and repairs. On 1 July, the Naval Army was reorganised withCourbet,Paris andJean Bart assigned to the 2nd Battle Division of the 1st Battle Squadron. At some point during the year,Courbet's mainmast was shortened and a motorisedwinch was installed to allow her to operate akite balloon, but this was not a success.[15]
After the war ended on 11 November,Courbet returned to Toulon for a refit; the ship was briefly placed in reserve before she became Vice-Admiral Charlier's flagship between 6 June 1919 and 20 October 1920. On 10 February 1920, the 1st Naval Army was disbanded and replaced by the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée orientale) and its Western counterpart (Escadre de la Méditerranée occidentale); all of theCourbets assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the latter unit, withCourbet,Jean Bart andParis in the 1st Battle Division andFrance in the 2nd Battle Division. Charlier commanded both the 1st Division and the Western Mediterranean Squadron at this time. The two squadrons were combined into the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée) on 20 July 1921.[16]
The following year, she became a gunnery training ship at Toulon,[4] but she suffered a serious boiler fire on 6 June 1923 that required repairs, so she was given the first of her modernisations between 9 July 1923 and 16 April 1924, atLa Seyne-sur-Mer. This included replacing four boilers with oil-fireddu Temple boilers and trunking together her two forwardfunnels. The maximum elevation of the main armament was increased from 12° to 23° which increased their maximum range to 26,000 metres (28,000 yd). Her existing AA guns were replaced with four75 mm Modèle 1918 AA guns, and her bow armour was removed to make her more seaworthy. A newtripod foremast with a fire-control position at its top was fitted. ABarr & Stroud 4.57-metre (15 ft)rangefinder was positioned on the roof of the fire-control position and an experimental Barr & Stroud FX2 7.6-metre (24 ft 11 in)coincidence rangefinder was installed on the roof of the aft superfiring turret, replacing the 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) instrument inside the turret. She had another boiler fire on 1 August 1924, burning 13 men, of whom 3 later died of their wounds, and remained under repair for the rest of the year.[17]
Courbet and the battleshipProvence visited Naples, Italy, on 15–19 June 1925 then rendezvoused withJean Bart andParis atMers-el-Kebir, French Algeria, for manoeuvres in theBay of Biscay with the Atlantic-based ships that began on the 26th. Afterwards, the assembled ships were reviewed by the President of France,Gaston Doumergue atCherbourg, and the Mediterranean-based ships returned to Toulon on 12 August. On 1 January 1927, the Mediterranean Squadron was renamed the 1st Squadron. Two weeks later,Courbet began a lengthy modernisation that lasted until 12 January 1931.[18]
This was much more extensive than her earlier refit as all of her boilers were replaced oroverhauled: she received six oil-fired du Temple boilers that had been built for the scrapped battleshipNormandie and sixteen coal-fired boilers fromNormandie's sisterFlandre. The ship was only able to reach 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h; 20.9 mph) at a displacement of 24,748 tonnes (24,357 long tons) during her sea trials afterwards.Courbet'sfire-control systems were comprehensively upgraded with the installation of a Saint-Chamond-Granat system in adirector-control tower (DCT) on the top of the tripod mast, and all of her original rangefinders were replaced with the exception of the 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) rangefinders in each turret. The DCT was fitted with a 4.57-metre coincidence rangefinder, and a 3-metre (9 ft 10 in) stereo rangefinder was added to the DCT to measure the distance between the target and shell splashes. Additional 4.57-metre rangefinders were added in a duplex mounting atop the conning tower and another at the base of the mainmast. The Barr & Stroud 7.6-metre instrument was removed, and a traversable 8.2-metre (26 ft 11 in) rangefinder was fitted to the roof of the forward superfiring turret. Directors with 2-metre rangefinders were also added to control the secondary guns. The ship's Mle 1918 AA guns were exchanged for sevenCanon de 75 mm modèle 1922 guns, and they were provided with a pair of high-angle 1.5-metre (4 ft 11 in) rangefinders, one on top of the duplex unit on the conning tower and one in the aft superstructure.[19]
On 25 March 1931,Courbet had a breakdown in one of her turbines and had to return to the shipyard for repairs. After running her sea trials on 9–12 June, she was assigned to the Training Division as part of the gunnery school. The ship conducted several gunnery exercises from 4 February to 27 May 1932 before she returned to the shipyard to have hercondensers retubed and her two inner propellers replaced. In 1933 and 1934,Courbet and her sisterParis, both assigned to the Training Division, rarely left port.Courbet had her propulsion machinery overhauled in 1937–1938, and the navy took the opportunity to remove her torpedo tubes and reinforce her anti-aircraft armament with the addition of a fewHotchkiss 13.2-millimetre (0.5 in)anti-aircraft machineguns. The Training Squadron was disbanded on 10 June 1939, and the sisters were assigned to the 3rd Battle Division of the 5th Squadron. The ships began a cruise on 14 June during which they visited Mers-el-Kebir andCasablanca,French Morocco, before arriving inBrest on 11 July where the division was assigned to the 2nd Maritime Region which was headquartered there, retaining their role as gunnery training ships.[20]
From the beginning of World War II in September 1939,Courbet andParis continued training until after the German invasion of France on 10 May 1940. They were mobilised on 21 May with augmented crews and assigned to the command of Vice-AdmiralJean-Marie Abrial for the defence of the French ports on theEnglish Channel.[21]Courbet provided gunfire support to the defenders of Cherbourg on 19 June against the advancing7th Panzer Division and then covered the evacuation of the town by the Allies duringOperation Aerial. The ship sailed forPortsmouth, England, the following day.[22][23]
Courbet was seized there, as part ofOperation Catapult, by British forces on 3 July to prevent French ships from falling into German hands afterthe French surrender in late June. The ship was given to the Free French a week later, who used her as ananti-aircraft battery in Portsmouth, until she was disarmed on 31 March 1941, and used as an accommodation ship.[21] AtLoch Striven, Scotland, she was used as a target for the"Highball" bouncing bomb trials between 9 May and December 1943.[24] "Highball" was a smaller version of "Upkeep" used inOperation Chastise, also known as the Dambuster Raid.[25]Courbet remained in use as a depot and target ship until she was earmarked for use as a"Gooseberry" breakwater atSword Beach during the Normandy landings.[22] The ship had to be towed fromWeymouth on 7 June by a pair of British tugboats as her engines and boilers had been removed earlier and replaced with concrete.[26] She wasscuttled on 9 June off Sword Beach and was hit byNegermanned torpedoes during the nights of 15–16 and 16–17 August.[22] As such, she was probably the only ship ever attacked by secret weapons of both sides during the conflict.[27] She was slowly scrapped in place after the war; the demolition was completed in 1970.[28]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in July 1940 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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