May I suggest making three ships on the super battleship hull when you get around it? Two 457mm+ armed ships named after the cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and one much larger, 508mm+ gunned one named after The Sun King himself?
One of the most annoying things I've found with the division system's "Torpedo Avoidance" command is that the lead ship of the division doesn’t follow it. You have to manually turn them to even try to avoid.
7:11: Do people give you friendly advice about having a mixed fleet composition? How could they ever imagine a social website with a comment section might give them the right to do that?
18:54: Ouch! Colossus, piqued that you were ignoring her, decided to sink the only vessel she could, the venerable Frégate Davout, named for the famous Napoleonic Wars marshal.
33:49: I credit it one kill each for La Galissonnière, Marseillaise, and Forfait. And I scoff at the détracteurs who think older ships have no place in the Marine Nationale.
The Corps Afrique has taken the province of Côte d'or with its ports of Accra and Cape Coast. Losses for the Corps Afrique were 60,693 officers and men. The British Army lost 89,593 officers and men. This marks a watershed moment where the British are taking higher losses in defense campaigns than the French.
The Corps d'Indochine has liberated British occupied Laos, attack the land-locked province from their bases in Tonkin.
French losses are over 87 thousand. Losses for the British Army were over 71 thousand.
The Premier amiral de France and the Maréchal de France are still resisting a close blockade of the British Isles, insisting that a slow and methodical dismantling of the British Empire as the forces become available is better than a precipitous collapse of the Great Republic of the British Isles and Dominions.
It should be noted that the Corps d'armée d'Arabie is now beginning a French offensive from Yemen to take the British occupied territory of Hejaz.
Our Arab allies have again failed to liberate the Red Sea coastal province of Hejaz from British Control. Complaints in the Chamber of Deputies point out that the Marine Nationale could have provided some ships to aid in the Arab’s efforts. This nine month conflict is believed to have inflicted 19 thousand Arab casualties and 41 thousand British.
The British occupied province of Ethiopia has been liberated by the Corps Afrique. Losses were high with the British Army losing 126 thousand men and the Corps Afrique 112 thousand.
The Armée de Terre has begun the liberation of the East Indies province of North Borneo from their bases in Sarawak.
The Alsace class Grands éclaireur d’escadre Navire-du-Roi from the Port Arthur Station navale in Liaodong and her sister ship Victoire from the Shanghai Station navale in Eastern China were joined by the Arrogante class Croiseur Cuirassés Thionville from the Xiamen Base navale principale in Southern China and the Tonnere class Croiseur Cuirassés Chanzy from the Tainan Base navale principale in Formosa to conduct a raid along the coast of Shikoku, the smallest of the four Japanese Home Islands. This, as expected, netted two Kaikoma class heavy cruisers, the Nikko-Shirano and the 1939 refitted class lead Kaikoma, the Jōnen class 1945 refitted heavy cruiser Yumiori, the Abukuma class light cruiser Noshiro, and the Makinami class destroyer Kuri escorting a convoy of four Tenryū class 12 thousand ton 102 manned two single 122.3mm and four single 78.5mm armed Navires de transport.
Dawn was about to break when the Japanese ships appeared from the north-east. Chanzy was ordered to close on the convoy while Thionville tucked herself in behind Navire-du-Roi and Victoire to engage the escorts. Thionville targeted Noshiro as he tried to close on Chanzy and Navire-du-Roi and Victoire targeted Kuri as he covered the heavy cruisers. Noshiro managed to close on Chanzy and got a torpedo hit on her, but it did little damage. Noshiro broke away but couldn’t get clear. He sank with 454 of his 516 man crew. Chanzy turned back to running down the convoy.
Yumiori was firing on Chanzy but not detaching from the heavy cruiser division. Kaikoma and Nikko-Shirano were firing on Navire-du-Roi as their division closed on her. Navire-du-Roi and Victoire targeted Kaikoma and damaged him until he started to fall back, but he sank with 1544 of his 1833 man crew.
Chanzy was up to the convoy and targeting Navires de transport with her 155mm guns. Minami Maru sank with 91 of his 102 man crew.
Nikko-Shirano was targeted next. He took a massive 320mm hit on his main belt. Nikko-Shirano was trying to turn away when his magazines blew and he launched his forward turret into the air. Nikko-Shirano sank with 1481 of his 1664 man crew. Yumiori was left.
Though he managed to break up the French formation with a torpedo launch Yumiori did not last long. The heavy cruiser sank with 1576 of his 1922 man crew.
Chanzy sank Kuwa Maru with 95 of his 102 man crew. Hashidate Maru sank with 87 of his crew. The convoy leader Tenryū Maru sank with all hands. In total the Japanese Merchant Marine had lost 50 thousand tons of shipping capacity, 374 officers and seamen killed, and 34 captured by Chanzy.
Victoire had taken 74 casualties. Navire-du-Roi took 23. Chanzy had taken 18. Thionville picked up the 945 Imperial Japanese Navy survivors.
The La Galissonnière, lead of her Croiseur Léger class, from the Dalian Base navale régionale in Liaodong, joined two The Cosmao class Croiseurs Léger Marseillaise and Forfait from the Tsingtau Station navale in Kiautschou Bay on a patrol into the Sea of Japan. They were challenged by three Abukuma class light cruisers, the Nagara. Natori, and Takachiho.
The Japanese were coming out of the north-east. La Galissonnière proceeded alone at speed to meet them as Marseillaise and Forfait closed at their 25 knot top speed.
Closing at 33 knots, La Galissonnière opened fire first with her 155mm guns. The Japanese were waiting until they could reply with their 130mm guns. By going forward La Galissonnière also drew the Japanese torpedoes on her rather than on the less nimble Marseillaise and Forfait. Unable to hit La Galissonnière with their torpedoes the Naraga turned to starboard to close on Marseillaise and Forfait. La Galissonnière launched her torpedoes at Nagara and even though the Japanese light cruiser must have seen the spread, he still took one on her fore belt. His damage control teams worked to keep the flooding of two compartments contained but it overwhelmed them, breaching two bulkheads and spreading aft. Nagara sank with 449 of his 516 man crew.
Takachiho used the attention on Nagara to close on Marseillaise and Forfait. This put him in the combined salvo of twenty-four 155mm guns at short range. Takachiho was soon flooding forward with her secondary tower destroyed and 130 casualties reported. Takachiho finally got to the only safe position, relatively, ahead of Marseillaise were only three guns could target him. Listing badly, Takachiho kept taking 155mm shells from Marseillaise while being unable to reply anymore with his 130mm guns. Takachiho now had flooding aft and sank with only 6 survivors from his crew of 516.
Natori was also bearing down on Marseillaise and Forfait with La Galissonnière out of position. With Natori aiming himself at Marseillaise, it was Forfait’s turn to shine, putting 155mm shells into the port side of Natori, flooding him fore and aft, and sinking Natori with 478 of her 516 man crew.
La Galissonnière took 134 casualties. Marseillaise took 34. Forfait took no hits or casualties and got to pick up the 111 Japanese survivors.
The Corps d'armée de Chine is attacking the British Army in Burma while the Corps d'Indochine is attacking Laos from Tonkin and Thailand from Cambodia.
Lower Egypt has fallen to the Marine Nationale and the Fusiliers Marins after a long campaign. Exact casualty figures have not been reported (because BrotherMunro would have to ‘bore’ us by showing the opening dialogue boxes of every turn) but it appears the Fusiliers Marins took 110 thousand casualties and the Egyptian military took 71 thousand before surrendering Alexandria and Port Said and of course control of the Suez Canal.
Egypt then craftily forged an alliance with our ally the Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie, agreed to stop supporting terrorist and insurgent movements in the area, and settle down.
The Flotte de La Rochelle has been sent to the Atlantic coast of Morocco to support the attacks by the Corps Afrique from Algeria.
Argyll was now flooded fore and aft, with water breaching bulkheads and heading for her citadel and reserve buoyancy. She steering was damaged, her main tower gone along with her fire control. She had fires and 250 reported casualties. She was also alone in front of the French, and though she had driven the battle line off position it was still in formation and coming around to deal with her. Finally two more compartments flooded and Argyll sank with 884 of her 1078 man crew.
With Argyll gone Vérité targeted Hindustan, and the battle line began to get long range hits. St Vincent was now leading the British battle division with Hindustan following, Colossus zooming around aimlessly, and the destroyers and Dragon tucked in safe. Then Portia lead the destroyer division out ahead of the battle division, and caught a 400mm shell by accident and a 210mm shell from Amiral Tréhouart. The Croiseur Cuirassés was in range with an appropriate target and happy for it as she watched Portia sink with 184 of her 190 man crew.
Bulldog was up next and taking fire from Masséna and battleship secondary 155mm guns. Colossus, in another of her wild moves, crossed in front of Bulldog and exchanged hits with the French battle line. However French ships are well armored and Colossus apparently not, as she took a hit through her forward turret that flashed her 423.8mm super heavy Dunnite powder magazine. In one moment she went from being a Colossus to being a milestone. So badly damaged, the British battlecruiser actually rammed the Hindustan.
With that the battle line targeted the Hindustan as Amiral Tréhouart sunk the destroyer Derwent with 156 of her 190 man crew. Vérité punched a 400mm shell through Hindustan’s main belt and suddenly her flooding got much worse. Hindustan was listing to starboard and showing her unarmored hull to her enemies. The flooding aft was filling a third compartment and her damage control teams were fighting the flooding in compartments #3 to #5.
As if in a rage at being ignored the British battlecruiser had switched fire from the Croiseur Cuirassés Amiral Tréhouart and targeted the venerable Frégate Davout, sinking her with two 218.2mm shells with 304 of her 323 man crew.
Hindustan sank a moment later, taking all but 11 of her 1633 man crew down with her. The French battle line targeted St. Vincent with their 400mm and 350mm main batteries while putting their 155mm guns on Bulldog. St. Vincent was kiting away, targeting Vérité and leaving the rest of her fleet behind. The British battlecruiser tried to charge between the battle line and St. Vincent, but the battle line only put secondary guns on her as Bulldog sank with 179 of her 190 man crew.
The British battlecruiser and the Dragon closed up on St. Vincent and moved to screen the battle ships from the French battle line. When the battle line turned their secondaries on Dragon she burned smoke. The British battlecruiser kept trying to draw fire but nobody was distracted by her. Dragon was riding off St. Vincent’s port bow, a torpedo threat keeping the French from closing on St. Vincent, but she was taking 155mm fire from the Cuirassés and 210mm fire from Amiral Tréhouart. Dragon sank with 841 of her 1065 man crew.
Amiral Tréhouart replied to a hit she took from the British battlecruiser. The battle line continued to pound on St. Vincent and Vérité got a main belt penetration that sank the battleship with 1517 of her 1633 man crew.
Now the British battlecruiser got all the attention she could want. Still going 35 knots, she was hard to hit, but she was trying to damage Cuirassés with her 218.2mm guns rather than targeting Amiral Tréhouart. Moving past Vérité starboard bow, instead of crossing the T of the French battle line she turned hard to starboard to come around. She lost speed in the turn and became an easier target. She took two 400mm shells through her main belt and was flooding aft, forward, and amidships. She began to list and could no longer fire. Less than nine minutes after Hindustan the British battlecruiser sank with 1200 of her 1319 man crew.
Vérité had taken 90 casualties, Amiral Tréhouart 78, Bombarde 43, Masséna 41, Orage 32, Danton 16, and Dague 13. Davout left 19 survivors and Voltigeur 47. The Serbian Royal Navy ship Janissaire had 18 survivors. A total of 715 British Republic Navy personnel were picked up.
Two Croiseurs Cuirassés, the Saïgon class Bélier from the Cam Ranh Bay Station navale in Annam and the Bruix, lead of her class, from the Fort Bayard Base navale régionale in Kwang-Chou-Wan, and three Destroyers torpilleur, the Le Flibustier class Tartu from the Keelung Station navale in Formosa, the Hova class Le Mars from the Haiphong Station navale in Tonkin, and the Aspirant Herber class Commandant Lucas from the Tsingtau Base navale principale in Kiautschou Bay, were the first French ships to engaged the Imperial Japanese Navy. Two Abukuma class light cruisers, the Akashi and Kuma, and the Makinami class destroyer, the Hishi, attacked the French force in the East China Sea south-east of Hangzhou during a storm.
Bélier sighted the enemy coming in from the north-west and opened fire. The destroyer Hishi charged in to get into torpedo rang and the Croiseurs Cuirassés took him under fire, getting many 210mm and 180mm hits after Hishi turned to face the Commandant Lucas leading the Destroyers torpilleur. Hishi sank with 198 of his 219 man crew.
Both sides’ cruisers tried sending torpedo spreads into the storm, but apparently each sides’ detection crews were better than their launch crews, and all easily dodged the incoming torpedoes. The Japanese were kiting away to the south, with their sterns towards the Destroyers torpilleur. Bélier and Bruix, a venerable ship, were getting hits. The Japanese were not. They tried to break up their formation and launched torpedoes at Commandant Lucas to drive her off, but as Commandant Lucas turned to avoid their torpedoes she launched her own. Akashi finally found a target in his range and hit Commandant Lucas through her main belt, flooding her forward and taking out her B turret. Commandant Lucas sank with 98 of her 108 man crew.
Seconds later Akashi took one of Commandant Lucas’ torpedoes on her main belt and sank with 499 of her 516 men. Commandant Lucas had avenged herself.
Le Mars was leading Tartu forward while Bélier and Bruix began shelling Kuma, taking out her #1 engine. Kuma was soon flooded forward with water breaching #5 bulkhead and burning. He had over 100 casualties. But as Le Mars crossed his stern Kuma finally got some hits, ripping into the Destroyer torpilleur. Le mars had not yet reloaded her torpedo launcher. Kuma’s damage was too great, and when he took a flooding hit aft he sank with 514 of his 516 man crew.
Le Mars had taken 12 casualties and Bélier 1. 10 survivors from Commandant Lucas were found in the storm and the seas the day after. There were 40 Japanese survivors.
Davout sinks:
Everybody: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
this campaign is more and more looking like a game of paint the map french, and i love it
Explosive moment in Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts:
1) BB Colossus (17:08)
2) CA Nikko Shitane (41:06)
Alternative title: Avenging Trafalgar
"Navire-du-Roi" means "King Ship". "Roi" means "King" . English word "royal " come from it🙂 "Roi" pronounced like "Roo-Are"🙂
32:50 "I think you'll find this battle hotel fully operational."
32:50 The French battle Hotels are here to take you to your dirt nap.
34:49: An Arrogante in action? Sully in the Caribbean in January. Yes, yes I will. I credit her with taking out the destroyers Mounsey and Nepean,
I rather miss the lounge jazz transport cullings.
French Deutschland please?
Pretty soon we'll have to change Africa to Afranca
I think to represent France's massive empire, a massive ship should be built. Like, max out the slider, massive. "What were they thinking!?"-massive.
May I suggest making three ships on the super battleship hull when you get around it? Two 457mm+ armed ships named after the cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and one much larger, 508mm+ gunned one named after The Sun King himself?
Those jap light cruisers( kuma, etc.) Looked pretty close to how they looked in real life if I may add
Speaking of the Bruix, I still think you should see if triple 180mm guns will fit on your other old CAs that had to go down to 155mm guns.
One of the most annoying things I've found with the division system's "Torpedo Avoidance" command is that the lead ship of the division doesn’t follow it. You have to manually turn them to even try to avoid.
Could anyone tell me if on a destroyer or light cruiser do centerline torpedo tubes extend the citadel? an answer from anyone is welcome.
7:11: Do people give you friendly advice about having a mixed fleet composition? How could they ever imagine a social website with a comment section might give them the right to do that?
16:09: 5mm is a 1/5 of an inch. That's almost deliberately pathetic.
18:15: Derwent went "Der!" and sank.
18:54: Ouch! Colossus, piqued that you were ignoring her, decided to sink the only vessel she could, the venerable Frégate Davout, named for the famous Napoleonic Wars marshal.
29:47: The Cosmao class has four TRIPLE 155mm gun TURRETS in their broadside. UADers constantly mix 'gun' with 'turret'. I blame the developers.
33:49: I credit it one kill each for La Galissonnière, Marseillaise, and Forfait. And I scoff at the détracteurs who think older ships have no place in the Marine Nationale.
39:33: Nope, it's the other way around. The lead ship is the refit, the second ship is the original plan.
45:56: And this is why the Arabs don't trust us.
Gold Coast Taken!
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLVI, 8 April 1946
The Corps Afrique has taken the province of Côte d'or with its ports of Accra and Cape Coast. Losses for the Corps Afrique were 60,693 officers and men. The British Army lost 89,593 officers and men. This marks a watershed moment where the British are taking higher losses in defense campaigns than the French.
Major Fleet Movement
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLVI, 12 February 1946
The Flotte de Marseille has been ordered to transit the Suez Canal. Further orders will await it once it is through the Red Sea.
With the British still in control of Hejaz hiding this movement before the Gulf of Aden would be pointless.
Laos Liberated!
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLVI, 8 February 1946
The Corps d'Indochine has liberated British occupied Laos, attack the land-locked province from their bases in Tonkin.
French losses are over 87 thousand. Losses for the British Army were over 71 thousand.
The Premier amiral de France and the Maréchal de France are still resisting a close blockade of the British Isles, insisting that a slow and methodical dismantling of the British Empire as the forces become available is better than a precipitous collapse of the Great Republic of the British Isles and Dominions.
It should be noted that the Corps d'armée d'Arabie is now beginning a French offensive from Yemen to take the British occupied territory of Hejaz.
Hejaz Not Liberated
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLVI, 7 January 1946
Our Arab allies have again failed to liberate the Red Sea coastal province of Hejaz from British Control. Complaints in the Chamber of Deputies point out that the Marine Nationale could have provided some ships to aid in the Arab’s efforts. This nine month conflict is believed to have inflicted 19 thousand Arab casualties and 41 thousand British.
Fall of Ethiopia
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLVI, 4 January 1946
The British occupied province of Ethiopia has been liberated by the Corps Afrique. Losses were high with the British Army losing 126 thousand men and the Corps Afrique 112 thousand.
The Armée de Terre has begun the liberation of the East Indies province of North Borneo from their bases in Sarawak.
Battle of Shikoku
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 28 September 1945
The Alsace class Grands éclaireur d’escadre Navire-du-Roi from the Port Arthur Station navale in Liaodong and her sister ship Victoire from the Shanghai Station navale in Eastern China were joined by the Arrogante class Croiseur Cuirassés Thionville from the Xiamen Base navale principale in Southern China and the Tonnere class Croiseur Cuirassés Chanzy from the Tainan Base navale principale in Formosa to conduct a raid along the coast of Shikoku, the smallest of the four Japanese Home Islands. This, as expected, netted two Kaikoma class heavy cruisers, the Nikko-Shirano and the 1939 refitted class lead Kaikoma, the Jōnen class 1945 refitted heavy cruiser Yumiori, the Abukuma class light cruiser Noshiro, and the Makinami class destroyer Kuri escorting a convoy of four Tenryū class 12 thousand ton 102 manned two single 122.3mm and four single 78.5mm armed Navires de transport.
Dawn was about to break when the Japanese ships appeared from the north-east. Chanzy was ordered to close on the convoy while Thionville tucked herself in behind Navire-du-Roi and Victoire to engage the escorts. Thionville targeted Noshiro as he tried to close on Chanzy and Navire-du-Roi and Victoire targeted Kuri as he covered the heavy cruisers. Noshiro managed to close on Chanzy and got a torpedo hit on her, but it did little damage. Noshiro broke away but couldn’t get clear. He sank with 454 of his 516 man crew. Chanzy turned back to running down the convoy.
Yumiori was firing on Chanzy but not detaching from the heavy cruiser division. Kaikoma and Nikko-Shirano were firing on Navire-du-Roi as their division closed on her. Navire-du-Roi and Victoire targeted Kaikoma and damaged him until he started to fall back, but he sank with 1544 of his 1833 man crew.
Chanzy was up to the convoy and targeting Navires de transport with her 155mm guns. Minami Maru sank with 91 of his 102 man crew.
Nikko-Shirano was targeted next. He took a massive 320mm hit on his main belt. Nikko-Shirano was trying to turn away when his magazines blew and he launched his forward turret into the air. Nikko-Shirano sank with 1481 of his 1664 man crew. Yumiori was left.
Though he managed to break up the French formation with a torpedo launch Yumiori did not last long. The heavy cruiser sank with 1576 of his 1922 man crew.
Chanzy sank Kuwa Maru with 95 of his 102 man crew. Hashidate Maru sank with 87 of his crew. The convoy leader Tenryū Maru sank with all hands. In total the Japanese Merchant Marine had lost 50 thousand tons of shipping capacity, 374 officers and seamen killed, and 34 captured by Chanzy.
Victoire had taken 74 casualties. Navire-du-Roi took 23. Chanzy had taken 18. Thionville picked up the 945 Imperial Japanese Navy survivors.
Battle of Noto
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 23 September 1945
The La Galissonnière, lead of her Croiseur Léger class, from the Dalian Base navale régionale in Liaodong, joined two The Cosmao class Croiseurs Léger Marseillaise and Forfait from the Tsingtau Station navale in Kiautschou Bay on a patrol into the Sea of Japan. They were challenged by three Abukuma class light cruisers, the Nagara. Natori, and Takachiho.
The Japanese were coming out of the north-east. La Galissonnière proceeded alone at speed to meet them as Marseillaise and Forfait closed at their 25 knot top speed.
Closing at 33 knots, La Galissonnière opened fire first with her 155mm guns. The Japanese were waiting until they could reply with their 130mm guns. By going forward La Galissonnière also drew the Japanese torpedoes on her rather than on the less nimble Marseillaise and Forfait. Unable to hit La Galissonnière with their torpedoes the Naraga turned to starboard to close on Marseillaise and Forfait. La Galissonnière launched her torpedoes at Nagara and even though the Japanese light cruiser must have seen the spread, he still took one on her fore belt. His damage control teams worked to keep the flooding of two compartments contained but it overwhelmed them, breaching two bulkheads and spreading aft. Nagara sank with 449 of his 516 man crew.
Takachiho used the attention on Nagara to close on Marseillaise and Forfait. This put him in the combined salvo of twenty-four 155mm guns at short range. Takachiho was soon flooding forward with her secondary tower destroyed and 130 casualties reported. Takachiho finally got to the only safe position, relatively, ahead of Marseillaise were only three guns could target him. Listing badly, Takachiho kept taking 155mm shells from Marseillaise while being unable to reply anymore with his 130mm guns. Takachiho now had flooding aft and sank with only 6 survivors from his crew of 516.
Natori was also bearing down on Marseillaise and Forfait with La Galissonnière out of position. With Natori aiming himself at Marseillaise, it was Forfait’s turn to shine, putting 155mm shells into the port side of Natori, flooding him fore and aft, and sinking Natori with 478 of her 516 man crew.
La Galissonnière took 134 casualties. Marseillaise took 34. Forfait took no hits or casualties and got to pick up the 111 Japanese survivors.
Action in Asia
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 18 September 1945
The Corps d'armée de Chine is attacking the British Army in Burma while the Corps d'Indochine is attacking Laos from Tonkin and Thailand from Cambodia.
Lower Egypt Taken!
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 12 September 1945
Lower Egypt has fallen to the Marine Nationale and the Fusiliers Marins after a long campaign. Exact casualty figures have not been reported (because BrotherMunro would have to ‘bore’ us by showing the opening dialogue boxes of every turn) but it appears the Fusiliers Marins took 110 thousand casualties and the Egyptian military took 71 thousand before surrendering Alexandria and Port Said and of course control of the Suez Canal.
Egypt then craftily forged an alliance with our ally the Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie, agreed to stop supporting terrorist and insurgent movements in the area, and settle down.
The Flotte de La Rochelle has been sent to the Atlantic coast of Morocco to support the attacks by the Corps Afrique from Algeria.
Battle off Lisbonne, Part 2
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 10 September 1945
Argyll was now flooded fore and aft, with water breaching bulkheads and heading for her citadel and reserve buoyancy. She steering was damaged, her main tower gone along with her fire control. She had fires and 250 reported casualties. She was also alone in front of the French, and though she had driven the battle line off position it was still in formation and coming around to deal with her. Finally two more compartments flooded and Argyll sank with 884 of her 1078 man crew.
With Argyll gone Vérité targeted Hindustan, and the battle line began to get long range hits. St Vincent was now leading the British battle division with Hindustan following, Colossus zooming around aimlessly, and the destroyers and Dragon tucked in safe. Then Portia lead the destroyer division out ahead of the battle division, and caught a 400mm shell by accident and a 210mm shell from Amiral Tréhouart. The Croiseur Cuirassés was in range with an appropriate target and happy for it as she watched Portia sink with 184 of her 190 man crew.
Bulldog was up next and taking fire from Masséna and battleship secondary 155mm guns. Colossus, in another of her wild moves, crossed in front of Bulldog and exchanged hits with the French battle line. However French ships are well armored and Colossus apparently not, as she took a hit through her forward turret that flashed her 423.8mm super heavy Dunnite powder magazine. In one moment she went from being a Colossus to being a milestone. So badly damaged, the British battlecruiser actually rammed the Hindustan.
With that the battle line targeted the Hindustan as Amiral Tréhouart sunk the destroyer Derwent with 156 of her 190 man crew. Vérité punched a 400mm shell through Hindustan’s main belt and suddenly her flooding got much worse. Hindustan was listing to starboard and showing her unarmored hull to her enemies. The flooding aft was filling a third compartment and her damage control teams were fighting the flooding in compartments #3 to #5.
As if in a rage at being ignored the British battlecruiser had switched fire from the Croiseur Cuirassés Amiral Tréhouart and targeted the venerable Frégate Davout, sinking her with two 218.2mm shells with 304 of her 323 man crew.
Hindustan sank a moment later, taking all but 11 of her 1633 man crew down with her. The French battle line targeted St. Vincent with their 400mm and 350mm main batteries while putting their 155mm guns on Bulldog. St. Vincent was kiting away, targeting Vérité and leaving the rest of her fleet behind. The British battlecruiser tried to charge between the battle line and St. Vincent, but the battle line only put secondary guns on her as Bulldog sank with 179 of her 190 man crew.
The British battlecruiser and the Dragon closed up on St. Vincent and moved to screen the battle ships from the French battle line. When the battle line turned their secondaries on Dragon she burned smoke. The British battlecruiser kept trying to draw fire but nobody was distracted by her. Dragon was riding off St. Vincent’s port bow, a torpedo threat keeping the French from closing on St. Vincent, but she was taking 155mm fire from the Cuirassés and 210mm fire from Amiral Tréhouart. Dragon sank with 841 of her 1065 man crew.
Amiral Tréhouart replied to a hit she took from the British battlecruiser. The battle line continued to pound on St. Vincent and Vérité got a main belt penetration that sank the battleship with 1517 of her 1633 man crew.
Now the British battlecruiser got all the attention she could want. Still going 35 knots, she was hard to hit, but she was trying to damage Cuirassés with her 218.2mm guns rather than targeting Amiral Tréhouart. Moving past Vérité starboard bow, instead of crossing the T of the French battle line she turned hard to starboard to come around. She lost speed in the turn and became an easier target. She took two 400mm shells through her main belt and was flooding aft, forward, and amidships. She began to list and could no longer fire. Less than nine minutes after Hindustan the British battlecruiser sank with 1200 of her 1319 man crew.
Vérité had taken 90 casualties, Amiral Tréhouart 78, Bombarde 43, Masséna 41, Orage 32, Danton 16, and Dague 13. Davout left 19 survivors and Voltigeur 47. The Serbian Royal Navy ship Janissaire had 18 survivors. A total of 715 British Republic Navy personnel were picked up.
First Clash
Le Républicain Provence, Marseille
MCMXLV, 3 September 1945
Two Croiseurs Cuirassés, the Saïgon class Bélier from the Cam Ranh Bay Station navale in Annam and the Bruix, lead of her class, from the Fort Bayard Base navale régionale in Kwang-Chou-Wan, and three Destroyers torpilleur, the Le Flibustier class Tartu from the Keelung Station navale in Formosa, the Hova class Le Mars from the Haiphong Station navale in Tonkin, and the Aspirant Herber class Commandant Lucas from the Tsingtau Base navale principale in Kiautschou Bay, were the first French ships to engaged the Imperial Japanese Navy. Two Abukuma class light cruisers, the Akashi and Kuma, and the Makinami class destroyer, the Hishi, attacked the French force in the East China Sea south-east of Hangzhou during a storm.
Bélier sighted the enemy coming in from the north-west and opened fire. The destroyer Hishi charged in to get into torpedo rang and the Croiseurs Cuirassés took him under fire, getting many 210mm and 180mm hits after Hishi turned to face the Commandant Lucas leading the Destroyers torpilleur. Hishi sank with 198 of his 219 man crew.
Both sides’ cruisers tried sending torpedo spreads into the storm, but apparently each sides’ detection crews were better than their launch crews, and all easily dodged the incoming torpedoes. The Japanese were kiting away to the south, with their sterns towards the Destroyers torpilleur. Bélier and Bruix, a venerable ship, were getting hits. The Japanese were not. They tried to break up their formation and launched torpedoes at Commandant Lucas to drive her off, but as Commandant Lucas turned to avoid their torpedoes she launched her own. Akashi finally found a target in his range and hit Commandant Lucas through her main belt, flooding her forward and taking out her B turret. Commandant Lucas sank with 98 of her 108 man crew.
Seconds later Akashi took one of Commandant Lucas’ torpedoes on her main belt and sank with 499 of her 516 men. Commandant Lucas had avenged herself.
Le Mars was leading Tartu forward while Bélier and Bruix began shelling Kuma, taking out her #1 engine. Kuma was soon flooded forward with water breaching #5 bulkhead and burning. He had over 100 casualties. But as Le Mars crossed his stern Kuma finally got some hits, ripping into the Destroyer torpilleur. Le mars had not yet reloaded her torpedo launcher. Kuma’s damage was too great, and when he took a flooding hit aft he sank with 514 of his 516 man crew.
Le Mars had taken 12 casualties and Bélier 1. 10 survivors from Commandant Lucas were found in the storm and the seas the day after. There were 40 Japanese survivors.