Although the 'History of the French Navy' goes back to the Middle Ages, when it was defeated by the English at the
Battle of Sluys and, with
Castilian help, managed to beat the English at
La Rochelle, its history can be said to effectively begin with
Richelieu under
Louis XIII.
Since the establishment of her present territory, France had to face three major challenges on the naval level: two sea sides, which force to keep two naval forces and divide resources between the
Mediterranean and the
Atlantic Ocean; Political and strategic interests on the East border and the continent, which creates a tendency to emphasise land forces; A tendency to neglectful administrations, unable to withstand the sustained efforts necessary to keep an effective navy. This created a series of brilliant eras followed by disasters.
Four main eras and be distinguished in the History of the French Navy
# The creating of the first actual State Navy, under
Louis XIII, thanks to the politics of
Richelieu. This navy was largely ruined by the troubles of the
Fronde.
# A rebuilt and brilliant era under
Louis XIV, largely thanks to
Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The effort was not pursued under the
Régence of
Philippe d'Orléans and the beginning of the reign of
Louis XV; consequently, the
Seven Years' War and the
French and Indian War ended in disaster.
# A period of rebirth under the impulsion of
Choiseul, which culminated under
Louis XVI with
de Grasse's victory over the English during the
American Revolutionary War. In the same period, explorers like
Bougainville expanded French geography, naval maps, and founded outposts. The downfall occurred during the
French Revolution and the
First Empire, leaving the English with a century of undisputed domination of the seas.
# Under
Napoléon III, a modern Navy was built, taking advantage of new technologies like steam and ship armour, which made elder fleets effectively obsolete. These force was an important instrument in the constitution and keeping of the French Empire. The fleet maintained a high standard, and between the two world wars (1925-1939), a significant effort was made counter the threat of the German and Italian navies. With the
Fall of France, however, most of the Navy never got a chance to fight, and what survived
Mers-el-Kebir was eventually annihilated in the
scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon.
The French navy is affectionately known as ''La Royale'' ("the Royal"). The reason is not well known: it might be for its traditional attachment to the
French monarchy; because, before being named "nationale", the Navy had be named "royale" (the navy did not sport the royal titles common with other
European navies like the
British Royal Navy); or simply because of the location of its headquarters, "
rue Royale" in
Paris.
Louis XIII and Richelieu
During the reign of
Henri IV, France was in an unstable state, and striving to guarantee her independence from Spanish and papal influences. This prompted both an emphasis on land forces, which drained resources, and an alliance with England, which would have unfavourably seen France challenging her naval supremacy.
When Richelieu became Minister of the Navy, he decided on a plan to rebuild a powerful navy, divided into two distinct forces.
The Mediterranean force was to be completely composed of
galleys, to take advantage of the relatively calm sea. Initially, the plan called for 40 galleys, but was downsized to 24 of them, notably because of a lack of
galley slaves — each galley was 400 or 500 slave strong.
The Oceanic force was to be composed of
men of war. The designs were moderately large ships, for a lack of harbours fit for very large units, but very heavily armed with large calibre guns; these ships displaced between 300 and 2000 tonnes and bore up to 50 24-pound
cannons, firing 150mm-
round shots. The first ships were ordered from the Dutch, and French production started with the famous ''
Couronne'', a prestige ship typical of this era.
In 1627, the Navy was not ready to challenge the English fleet
Siege of La Rochelle, which led to the construction of a
seawall to establish a
blockade.
When later completed, the Navy built a French empire, conquering the "Nouvelle-Guyenne" (now
Acadia), "Nouvelle France" (now
Canada),
Tortuga,
Martinique,
Guadeloupe,
The Bahamas and several other islands in the
Carrabean, and
Madagascar.
The
Thirty Years' War saw several victories, notably the
Battle of Cádiz (1640) won by
Armand de Maillé-Brézé.
Louis XIV and Colbert
French Royal Navy flag
Under the tutelage of the "Sun King," the French Navy was well financed and equipped, managing to score several early victories in the
Nine Years War against the
Royal Navy and the
Dutch Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English and the Dutch to regain the initiative.
Under the impulsion of
Jean-Baptiste Colbert's ambitious policy of ship building, the French navy began to gain a magnificence matching the symbolism of the Louis XIV era, as well as an actual military significance. The
''Soleil-Royal'' is illustrative of the trend of the time. Colbert is credited with forging a good part of the naval tradition of France.
Before the Nine Years War, in the
Franco-Dutch War, the French navy managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the
Battle of Palermo (1676).
During the
War of the Grand Alliance, Admiral
Tourville won a decisive victory in the
Battle of Beachy Head (1690, ''Bataille de Bévezier''); the event is regarded as one of the most glorious deed of the French Navy, and Tourville earned a fame which lasts to present times (a number of ships were named ''Bévezier'' or ''Tourville'' to commemorate the battle).
The
Battle of Barfleur saw a largely under-numbered French fleet attack and defeat the combined English and Dutch fleets, obtaining a noticeable tactical victory. However, the event ended in a strategic disaster, as some of the damaged French ships were forced to beach themselves at
Cherbourg, where they were annihilated by English long boats and with
fire ships. The loss effectively put French ambitions to challenge the English navy to a halt for decades.
Louis XVI
Etat de la Marine royale de France, 1785
King
Louis XVI was keen on technical subjects and geography, and encouraged explorations. In 1766,
Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. French engineer
Jacques-Noël Sané finalised the sailing ship around that time, with standard frigates of 18 guns, and standard ships of the line of 64, 74, 80 and 118 guns ; his
74-gun ship of the line became the backbone of the French and English navies. The largest units, the 118-guns, were said to be "as manoeuverable as a frigate" (the
''Océan'' type is a typical example).
French Navy ships of the line in the Battle of Chesapeake.
During the
American War of Independence the French Navy played a decisive role in supporting the American side. The French Navy was the only standing navy to fight the British, alongside the modest Continental and American state navies and American privateers.
[1] In a very impressive effort, the French under
de Grasse managed to defeat an English fleet at the
Battle of the Chesapeake in
1781, thus ensuring that the Franco-American ground forces would win the ongoing
Battle of Yorktown.
In India,
Suffren managed impressive campaigns against the British (1770-1780), successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir
Edward Hughes.
In 1789, the French navy counted 71
ships of the line, 64
frigates, 45
corvettes and 32 smaller units; 12 ships of the line and 10 frigates were under construction and expected to be launched within the year. The crews counted 75 000 sailors, 5 000 gunners, 2 000 officers and
14 000 ''
Fusiliers de Marine''. The ships were based mostly in
Brest,
Toulon and
Rochefort, as well as in
Lorient, le Havre de Grâce, Dunkerque, Bordeaux, Bayonne and Marseille.
French Revolution and the First Empire
The French Revolution, in eliminating numerous officers of noble lineage (among them,
Charles d'Estaing), all but crippled the French Navy.
The
National Convention dissolved the Fleet Gunners Corps, which effectively put a halt to the training in gunnery, abysmally degrading the rate of fire of batteries; in addition, the French doctrine was to fire at the rigging of enemy ships as to render them hapless; this doctrine could prove effective with highly trained crews, but was impractical with poorly trained gunners, and resulted in a number of instances where French ships did not manage to score a single hit on dangerously exposed English ships (as happened with the fight of the ''
Ça Ira'', or at the beginning of the
Battle of Trafalgar). By contrast, the
Royal Navy doctrine was to fire at the ship's hull in order to kill and maim the crew, and gradually degrade the firepower of their opponents — also much easier target for much better trained gunners.
Efforts to make it into a powerful force under Napoleon were dashed by the death of
Latouche Tréville in 1804, and the
Battle of Trafalgar in
1805, where the British all but annihilated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet. The disaster guaranteed British naval domination until the steam era.
From then on, the French navy was limited to frigate actions and privateers like
Robert Surcouf. This started the French tendency to prefer large numbers of smaller but powerful and swift units, rather than large capital ships.
The only French Naval victory against the British during the Napoleonic Wars was the 1810
Battle of Grand Port, a frigate action in the
Indian Ocean won by Admiral
Duperré.
Restoration and Second Empire
In the nineteenth century, the navy recovered to become the second finest in the world after the Royal Navy. It conducted a successful blockade of Mexico in the
Pastry War of
1838 and obliterated the Chinese navy at the
Battle of Foochow in
1884. It also served as an effective link between the growing parts of the French empire. Ever eager to challenge British naval supremacy, the French Navy took a leadership role in many areas of warship development, pioneering the introduction of several new technologies: steam propulsion, adoption of the screw propeller, adoption of armour plate protection, steel construction, and protected gun mounts.
★ France led in the development of shell guns for the Navy, invented by
Henri-Joseph Paixhans
★ In
1850, ''
Le Napoléon'' became the first steam-powered battleship in history.
★ ''
La Gloire'' became the first seagoing
ironclad in history when she was launched in
1853.
★ In 1863, the French Navy launched ''
Plongeur'', the world's first mechanically propelled submarine.
★ In 1876, the ''
Redoutable'' became the first steel-hulled warship ever.
Global interventions
In a speech in 1852, Napoleon III famously proclaimed that "The Empire means peace" ("''L'Empire, c'est la paix''"), but actually he was thoroughly determined to follow a strong foreign policy to extend France's power and glory. The French Navy was involved in a multitude of actions around the world.
The Crimean War
Napoleon's challenge to
Russia's claims to influence in the
Ottoman Empire led to France's successful participation in the
Crimean War (March
1854–March
1856). During this war Napoleon successfully established a French alliance with
Britain, which continued after the war's close.
East Asia
Napoleon took the first steps to establishing a French colonial influence in Indochina. He approved the launching of a naval expedition in
1858 to punish the
Vietnamese for their mistreatment of French Catholic missionaries and force the court to accept a French presence in the country. An important factor in his decision was the belief that France risked becoming a second-rate power by not expanding its influence in East Asia. Also, the idea that France had a civilising mission was spreading. This eventually led to a full-out invasion in 1861. By 1862 the war was over and Vietnam conceded three provinces in the south, called by the French
Cochin-China, opened three ports to French trade, allowed free passage of French warships to Cambodia (which led to a French protectorate over Cambodia in 1867), allowed freedom of action for French missionaries and gave France a large indemity for the cost of the war.
In China, France took part in the
Second Opium War along with
Great Britain, and in
1860 French troops entered
Beijing. China was forced to concede more trading rights, allow freedom of navigation of the Yangzi river, give full civil rights and freedom of religion to Christians, and give France and Britain a huge indemnity. This combined with the intervention in Vietnam set the stage for further French influence in China leading up to a sphere of influence over parts of Southern China.
In 1866, French Navy troops made an attempt to colonize
Korea, during the
French Campaign against Korea. The French Navy also had a mild presence in Japan in 1867-1868, around the actions of
French Military Mission to Japan, and the subsequent
Boshin war.
Mexico
The French Navy was heavily involved in
French intervention in Mexico (January
1862–March
1867). Napoleon, using as a pretext the Mexican Republic's refusal to pay its foreign debts, planned to establish a French sphere of influence in North America by creating a French-backed monarchy in Mexico, a project which was supported by Mexican conservatives tired of the anti-clerical Mexican republic.
In the 1880s, the "
Jeune École" doctrine had a more powerful influence within the French Navy than elsewhere. Derived from the traditions of privateer warfare, the
Jeune École emphasised small, maneuverable craft such as torpedo boats and cruisers carrying shell guns, and prematurely deemed the battleship obsolete. However, in the early 1890s the pre-dreadnought battleship revived with surprising vigor and new protections against torpedoes and mines. France built a considerable fleet of these vessels, though seldom with such uniform class characteristics as seen in Britain and Germany. French capital ships of this time were instantly identifiable by their small size (10,000 tons), huge spur rams, great height and pronounced tumble-home (turning inwards of the hull's sides as they climb upwards). Often carrying only half the main armament of their British contemporaries, French battleships had armoured masts with electric elevators inside, outsized funnels, and elaborate davit systems to swing out boats from the narrow upper decks. Good examples of the type include the ''
Bouvet'', ''
Masséna'', and ''
Jauréguiberry''.
France's conceptual and technological edge proved attractive to the newly industrialising
Japan, when the French engineer
Émile Bertin was invited for four years to design a new fleet for the
Imperial Japanese Navy, which led to her success in the
First Sino-Japanese War in
1894. French yards busily turned out warships for foreign customers, especially Imperial Russia, which copied French stylings in designing many of its cruisers and battleships. Despite her leads in some areas of technology (boilers, metallurgy), France did not have the productive capacity of her rival across the Channel, or her new nemesis, Germany.
Right at the turn of the century, French design absorbed influences from foreign practice. Her newer battleships featured twin 300mm gun turrets, less exaggerated tumble-home of the hull, and abandonment of the ram bow. This led to improved seakeeping characteristics, though the ships remained small. In the Liberte class (completed 1907) French pre-dreadnought design finally caught up with U.S. and British standards; but 1907 also saw the debut of
HMS Dreadnought, which made all the world's capital ships obsolete overnight. The first French dreadnoughts did not appear until 1914, and two classes totalling 8 ships were completed during the First World War. With the alliance with Britain just before the war, France's naval assets were concentrated in the Mediterranean, largely to face off the Italian fleet. Meanwhile a large cruiser fleet was also built, seeing service in the Mediterranean, the Channel, and in France's imperial dominions in Vietnam, Africa, and the Caribbean.
World Wars
The development of the French Navy slowed down in the beginning of 20th century, and as a result, it was outnumbered by the German and US Navies. It was late to introduce new battleships -
dreadnoughts and
light cruisers and it entered World War I with relatively few modern vessels. During the war, the main French effort was on land, so not many new warships were built. Despite it, it performed well in World War I. The main operation of the French Navy was
Dardanelles Campaign. Most significant losses during the war were four pre-dreadnought battleships.
A number of major ships of the French Navy at the outbreak / end of World War I
[2]
★
dreadnought battleships: 4/7
★
pre-dreadnought battleships: 17/13
★
armoured cruisers: 22/18
★
protected cruisers: 13/12
★
destroyers: 35/42 (capacity over 500 tons)
★
torpedo boats: 180/164
★
submarines: 50/61
The first proto-aircraft carrier
The invention of the
seaplane in 1910 with the French ''
Le Canard'' led to the earliest development of ships designed to carry airplanes, albeit equipped with floats. In
1911 appears the French Navy ''
La Foudre'', the first
seaplane carrier. She was commissioned as a seaplane tender, and carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane. ''La Foudre'' was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 metre flat deck to launch her seaplanes.
[3]
Genesis of the flat-deck carrier
| "An airplane-carrying vessel is indispensable. These vessels will be constructed on a plan very different from what is currently used. First of all the deck will be cleared of all obstacles. It will be flat, as wide as possible without jeopardizing the nautical lines of the hull, and it will look like a landing field." |
| Clément Ader, "L'Aviation Militaire", 1909 |
As heavier-than-air aircraft developed in the early 20th century various navies began to take an interest in their potential use as scouts for their big gun warships. In
1909 the French inventor
Clément Ader published in his book "
L'Aviation Militaire" the description of a ship to operate airplanes at sea, with a flat flight deck, an island superstructure, deck elevators and a hangar bay.
[4] That year the US Naval Attaché in Paris sent a report on his observations
[5] and the first experiments to test the concept were made in the United States from 1910.
Fleet Construction Between the World Wars
Every naval fleet consists of a variety of ships of different sizes, and no fleet has enough resources to make every vessel supreme in its class. Nonetheless, different countries strive to excel in particular classes. Between the world wars, the French fleet was remarkable in its building of small numbers of ships that were "over the top" with relation to their equivalents of other powers.
For example, the French chose to build "super-destroyers" which were deemed during the Second World War by the Allies as the equivalent of light cruisers. This was a way of bypassing the
Treaty of Washington, which imposed restrictions on cruisers and battleships, but not on destroyers and smaller units. The ''
Fantasque'' class of
destroyer is still the world's fastest class of destroyer. The ''
Surcouf'' submarine was the largest and most powerful of its day.
In 1933, the French Navy was considering building a super-battleship, the
''Lyon'' class battleship, but the plans were canceled when the Germans came out with the so-called "pocket battleships" ; the French responded with a class of two ships of the ''
Dunkerque'' type, a "fast battleship" class falling somewhere in between battlecruisers and battleships. The large battleship niche was filled with the
''Richelieu''.
Second World War
At the outset of the war, the French Navy participated in a number of operations against the
Axis Powers, patrolling the Atlantic and bombarding
Genoa. The French surrender and its armistice terms, however, completely changed the situation: the French fleet immediately withdrew from the fight.
Vichy France and the destruction of the French Fleet
The British perceived the French fleet as a potentially lethal threat, should the French become formal enemies or, more likely, should the German Navy (''
Kriegsmarine'') gain control. It was essential that they should be put out of action. Some vessels were in British-controlled ports in Britain or Egypt and these were either persuaded to re-join the Allies as
Free French ships or were boarded and disarmed.
The bulk of the fleet, however, was in
Dakar or
Mers-el-Kebir. The Royal Navy delivered an ultimatum but, when agreement proved impossible, they opened fire and sunk or damaged much of the French fleet (
Operation Catapult) on 3 July 1940. The action soured Anglo-French relations and inhibited further defections to the Allies. From this point on, the ships remaining in
Vichyst hands spent the war trying to observe neutrality towards the Axis powers, while avoiding destructions or capture by the Allies and the Free French. They obtained anecdotical tactical successes which weighted for nought against the overall strategic disaster, like the
Battle of Dakar or the
Battle of Koh Chang.
In November, 1942, the Allies invaded
French North Africa. In response, the Germans occupied (
Case Anton)
Vichy France, including the French naval port of
Toulon, where the main part of the surviving French fleet lay. This was a major German objective and forces under SS command had been detailed to capture them (Operation ''Lila''). French naval authorities were divided on their response: Admiral
Jean de Laborde, the commander of the Forces de Haute Mer (the High Seas Fleet) advocated sailing to attack the Allied invasion fleet while others, such as the Vichy Secretary of the Navy,
Contre-Amiral Auphan favoured joining the Allies. On several warships, there were spontaneous demonstrations in favour of sailing with the Allies, chanting "''Vive de Gaulle! Appareillage!''".
The orders to French commanders to scuttle their ships in case of an attempted take-over had been reinforced, however, and, often despite the presence of German troops, this was done, in the
Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. No capital ships and few others were taken in reparable condition
[1]. A few ships fled Toulon and joined the Allies, notably the submarine ''
Casabianca''.
The Free Naval French Forces
Main articles: Forces navales françaises libres ''See also
List of ships of the Forces navales françaises libres''
FNFL ensign
In the wake of the
Armistice and the
Appeal of 18 June,
De Gaulle founded the
Free French Forces, including a naval arm, the ''Forces navales françaises libres'' (FNFL, "Free Naval French Forces"). To distinguish the FNFL from the
Vichist forces, vice-admiral
Émile Muselier created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red
cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde also featuring the cross of Lorraine for aircraft.
The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or
Alexandria in
Egypt. At the first stage of
Operation Catapult, the ships in the British ports of
Plymouth and
Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of
3 July 1940. The then largest
submarine in the world, the
''Surcouf'', which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were the two obsolete battleships ''
Paris'' and ''
Courbet'', the destroyers ''Le Triomphant'' and the ''Léopard'', 8 torpedo boads, 5 submarines and a number of other ships of lesser importance.
Most of these ships were surrendered to the FNFL (notably the
submarine ''Surcouf'') , and other were leased by the British (like the
corvette ''Aconit''), constituting the embryo of a naval force.
When French Africa joined the Allies, important ships based in
Dakar were obtained (notably the cruisers
''Suffren'',
''Gloire'',
''Montcalm'',
''Georges Leygues'', and the battleship
''Richelieu'').
Beside warships, the FNFL developed special forces: Captain
Philippe Kieffer took inspiration from the British commandos to train new units of "'' Commandos Fusiliers-Marins''", which later would become the ''
Commandos Marine''. These commandos distinguished themselves during the
Battle of Normandy, climbing cliffs under fire to destroy German shore batteries. Captain
d'Estienne d'Orves attempted to unite the
French Resistance, became an inspiring symbol when he was arrested, tortured by the
Gestapo and executed.
The FNFL also harboured technical innovators, like Captain
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who invented the modern
aqua-lung, and
Yves Rocard, who perfected the
radar. The aqua-lung became a major improvement for commando operations.
French warships of the FNFL supported the landings in southern France (
Operation Dragoon) and Normandy (
Operation Neptune). These units also played their parts in the war in the Pacific. The ''Richelieu'' was present in
Tokyo Bay during the signing of the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender.
Modern navy
Currently, French naval doctrine calls for two
aircraft carriers, but the French only have one, the
''Charles de Gaulle'', due to restructuring.
The navy is in the midst of major technological and procurement changes: a
second aircraft carrier has been ordered on top of the Rafales (the naval version) replacing older aircraft.
Newer strategic submarines of the
SNLE-NG type have mostly replaced the
elder SNLE, and a
new nuclear ballistic missile is under test, due for 2008. The experience acquired with the building of the SNLE-NG will also lead to a
newer type of nuclear attack submarines, which are expected for 2010.
Surface forces are upgrading in numbers and modernity, with
four large destroyers and
17 frigates planned. More modern missiles are being issued, notably adding cruise missile capabilities.
See also
★
Military history of France
People
Politicians
★
Richelieu
★
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Heroes of the Ancien Régime
★ Admiral
d'Estaing, admiral of the French fleet which help the USA secure independence
★
Duguay-Trouin, famous privateer
★
Anne Hilarion de Tourville
Heroes of the First Republic
★
Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca
★
Robert Surcouf
★
Latouche-Tréville
Explorers
★ Captain
La Pérouse
★ Captain
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
★
Dumont d'Urville
★
Bougainville
★ Captain
Cousteau
Other important French naval officers
★
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve - commander of the French and
Spanish fleets at the
Battle of Trafalgar
★ Admiral
Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse
★
Pierre Loti, mostly known for his literary works
Lists of ships
★
List of French early battleships (1410-1639)
★
List of French sail battleships (1640-1861)
★
List of French steam battleships (1855-1910)
★
List of French dreadnought battleships (1911-44)
External links
★
French naval leaders and the French navy in the American War for independence
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