French cruiser Gloire (1935)

Gloire

History
France
Name:	Gloire
Namesake:	Glory
Builder:	Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde
Laid down:	13 November 1933
Launched:	28 September 1935
Commissioned:	15 November 1937
Fate:	Scrapped 1958
General characteristics
Class and type:	La Galissonnière-class cruiser
Displacement:	7,600 tons (standard) 9120 tons (full load)
Length:	179 m (587 ft)
Beam:	17.5 m (57 ft)
Draught:	5.35 m (17.6 ft)
Propulsion:	2-shaft Parsons single reduction geared turbines 4 Indret boilers 84,000 shp (63,000 kW)
Speed:	31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	540
Armament:	9 × 152 mm (6 inch)/ 54.3 calibre (3 × 3) 8 × 90 mm (3.5 inch) anti-aircraft (4 × 2) 24 × 40 millimetre (6 × 4) 4 × 550mm (21.7 inch) torpedo tubes (2 × 2)
Armour:	Main belt: 105 mm (4 in) end bulkheads: 30 mm (1.2 in) Sides: 120 mm Deck: 38 mm (1.5 in) Turrets: 100 mm (4 in) Conning tower:95 mm (3.7 in)
Aircraft carried:	up to 4 GL-832, later 2 Loire 130 flying boats 1 catapult

Gloire was a French light cruiser of the La Galissonnière class.

After completing trials, Gloire arrived in Brest on 18 November 1937, then left for French Indochina on 1 December, returning to Brest on 16 April 1938. Gloire joined the 4th Cruiser Division in January 1939, with which she visited Britain and the United States. She was refitted between October and December 1939. She then sailed for Canada with the battleship Dunkerque, carrying gold, and subsequently escorted a Canadian troop convoy on her return. Atlantic patrols as part of Vice Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul's Force de Raid followed. At the time of the French surrender in June 1940, Gloire was at Algiers, but returned to Toulon on 4 July, where the 4th Cruiser Division formed part of the French Independent Naval Force.

Gloire initially stayed loyal to the Vichy French government. Free French Forces’ successes in Chad and Cameroon became politically embarrassing, and so the Axis Naval Commission permitted the despatch of the cruisers Montcalm and Georges Leygues to Dakar as Force Y. After an unchallenged passage past Gibraltar, for which the local British commander was removed, they arrived on 14 September. On 18 September the 4th Cruiser Division sailed for Libreville, French Equatorial Africa. They were intercepted by British forces. Gloire suffered machinery problems and was unable to outrun the British flotilla, so she turned back and she was 'escorted' into Casablanca by the Allied cruisers HMAS Australia and HMS Cumberland and was therefore not present during the subsequent British attack on Dakar (Operation Menace).

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