De Grasse (C 610)

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The De Grasse was an anti-aircraft cruiser of the French Navy. She was the first French vessel named in honour of François Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasetilly, comte de Grasse. She was notoriously implicated in the nuclear test campaigns in Mururoa.

The De Grasse was designed in the late 30s, as the lead ship of a series of three cruisers a little heavier than the preceding Gloire class, notably with an improved anti-aircraft equipment.

The unfinished ship was captured by the invading Germans during the Second World War. In August 1942 the Germans began converting De Grasse to an auxiliary aircraft carrier but the work was stopped in February 1943 because of the high cost, Allied bombing raids and sabotage. [1]

After the war the hull was eventually launched in 1946. The construction was halted again between 1946 and 1951, when she was towed to Brest to be completed. The trials began on 17 August, 1954 and she was commissioned on 10 September, 1956.

She was used as an anti-aircraft cruiser within the Atlantic squadron, until she joined the Pacific Experimentation Centre to participate in the first nuclear tests in French Polynesia. She undertook some modification then, with the bridge being doubled and a quadripod mast mounted on the aft roof. The equipment was modernised and the crew was downsized to 560 men, as to make accommodations available for 160 engineers and technicians.

She was scrapped on 25 January, 1974.

[edit] External links

• NetMarine.net