French cruiser Émile Bertin
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 French Navy
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| Preceded by: | Jeanne d'Arc |
| Succeeded by: | La Galissonnière class |
| Built: | 1931-1935 |
| In commission: | 1935-1959 |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Retired: | 1 |
| History | |
 France
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| Name: | Émile Bertin |
| Namesake: | Louis-Émile Bertin |
| Builder: | Chantiers de Penhoët |
| Laid down: | 18 August 1931 |
| Launched: | 9 May 1933 |
| Commissioned: | 28 January 1935 |
| Decommissioned: | October 1951 |
| Struck: | 27 October 1959 |
| Fate: | scrapped in 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Light cruiser |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 177 m (581 ft) (overall) |
| Beam: | 15.84 m (52.0 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.44 m (17.8 ft) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) (40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph) during trials) |
| Range: |
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| Complement: | 711 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 seaplanes (removed in 1943) |
| Aviation facilities: | 1 catapult (removed in 1943) |
Émile Bertin was a French fast light cruiser named after Louis-Émile Bertin, a 19th-century naval architect. She was designed to operate both as a minelayer and as a destroyer flotilla leader. The design was the basis for later light and heavy French cruisers, particularly the slightly larger La Galissonnière class of cruisers. This was the first French warship to use triple mountings.
Before World War II, Émile Bertin served as flagship for a flotilla of twelve large destroyers of the Le Fantasque and Vauquelin classes in the Atlantic. At the start of 1939, she was transferred to Toulon.
In secrecy, she arrived in Lebanon on 23 September 1939, loaded with 57 tons of gold - the Polish state gold reserves - and returned to Toulon. At the start of 1940, after a refit at Toulon, she carried out surveillance around the Canary Islands to ensure that there were no German forces there.
After further dockyard work at Brest, in early April 1940, she became the flagship of Group Z, the French squadron supporting the Allied Norwegian campaign, with Admiral Derrien in command. As well as Émile Bertin, Group Z comprised the 2,400-tonne contre-torpilleurs (large destroyers) Tartu, Chevalier Paul, Maillé Brézé, Milan, Bison and Épervier, as well as the 1,500-tonne Brestois, Boulonnais and Foudroyant. Off Namsos, she was attacked by the Luftwaffe and damaged by bombs on 19 April. She returned to Brest for repair and remained there until 21 May, and was replaced off Norway, by the cruiser Montcalm.
She made two trips from Brest to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first with the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and aircraft carrier Béarn, carrying gold from the Bank of France. The French armistice was signed shortly after Émile Bertin had docked for the second time, and when Captain Battet signalled the French Admiralty for advice, the cruiser was ordered to Fort-de-France, Martinique with the gold. No effort by Royal Navy units present succeeded in preventing this, but the ocean liner Pasteur, which was to follow Émile Bertin, did not succeed in leaving Halifax fast enough. She was seized and used as troopship operated under British colours.
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Wikipedia