La Galissonnière-class cruiser

Class overview
Name:	La Galissonnière
Preceded by:	Emile Bertin (one unit)
Succeeded by:	De Grasse (planned)
Completed:	6
Lost:	3
Retired:	3
General characteristics
Type:	light 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 geared turbines (Parsons or ) 4 boilers 84,000 shp (63 MW)
Speed:	31 kn (57 km/h)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h) 6,800 nmi (12,600 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h) 5,500 nmi (10,200 km) at 18 kn (33 km/h) 1,650 nmi (3,060 km) at 34 kn (63 km/h)
Complement:	540
Armament:	9 × 152 mm / 54.3 calibre (3x3) 8 × 90 mm anti-aircraft (4x2) 24 × 40 mm (6x4) 4 × 550 mm torpedo tubes (2x2)
Armour:	main belt: 105 mm end bulkheads: 30 mm sides: 120 mm deck: 38 mm turrets: 100 mm tower: 95 mm
Aircraft carried:	up to 4 GL-832, later 2 Loire 130 flying boats 1 catapult
Notes:	Ships in class include: La Galissonnière, Montcalm, Georges Leygues, Jean de Vienne, Marseillaise, Gloire

The La Galissonnière cruiser class was commissioned by the French Navy in the 1930s. They were the last French cruisers completed after 1935, until the completion of De Grasse in 1956. They are considered as fast, reliable and successful ships. Two cruisers of this class, Georges Leygues and Montcalm, took part, in late September, 1940, in the defence of Dakar. With the cruiser Gloire, they joined the Allied forces, after the successful Allied landings in North Africa, on November 1942.

The three other cruisers of the La Galissoniere class, held under Vichy control in Toulon, were scuttled on November 27, 1942.

After refitting, Georges Leygues, Montcalm and Gloire took part in various Allied operations, including the Normandy landings in 1944. Postwar, several of the class acted as Flagship of the French Mediterranean Squadron, and carried out operations off Indo-China, till 1954, and afterwards were deployed during the Suez crisis and operations off Algeria

They were scrapped between 1958 and 1970.

The French Navy emerged from World War I with light cruisers, in very small numbers, aged and exhausted by war service. One Austrian (SMS Novara) and four German light cruisers (SMS Kolberg, , SMS Regensburg, SMS Königsberg), were received as reparations for war losses. They were renamed from Alsace-Lorraine towns, respectively Thionville, Colmar, Mulhouse, Strasbourg and Metz, armed with nine 100 mm guns for Thionville, and six to eight 150 mm guns for the other ones, 4,000 tons for Thionville, from 5,000 to 7,000 tons for the other ones, with a speed of 26-27 knots. They were retired from active service by the early 1930s.

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