E-50 "Le Corse" class, the first Cold War escort vessels of the French navy

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Escorteur Rapide E-50

Classe Le Corse

ER-corse.png

About this class and its interest in War Thunder

The E50 class is a dedicated early escort warship made in France after WW2. As such it brings into the French navy much needed modernity in the form of dual purpose canons and rocket launchers, as well as modern torpedos. I believe it won’t crush its competition with too much of a powerful post-war armament. It is after all only an escort ship.

History :

The 1950’s in France saw the modernisation of their entire fleet, and the renewal of the French naval industry. The idea was to slowly bring back French made equipment into the Marine Nationale, which was mostly relying on American or British made equipment since the end of the war. The E-50 class were among the first homemade designs born from that initiative. They were called “Escorteurs Rapides”, or “Rapid escort”. Imagined in 1948, construction started in 1950. Three batches were commissioned between 1956 and 1960, with small differences in their loadout and superstructure : The E-50, E-52 and E-52b.

Four ships of the E-50 class were built : Le Corse, Le Brestois, Le Boulonnais and Le Bordelais. The idea was to create an escort vessel capable of hunting submarines, but which could serve as an AA support ship as well, and as an oversea patrol vessel. As its name suggests, it also needed to be fast and have a greater range than a coastal patrol ship. Therefore, it was built with powerful turbine engines offering more than 20k HP, and could accompany fleets as well as operate alone. They were used in a variety of missions between 1956 and 1980, the first of which was the Suez Crisis, where Le Corse accompanied the fleet lead by the battleship Jean Bart. In the end they had a relatively short career compared to their bigger successors, and were all decommissionned between 1975 and 1986. The remaining hulls were demolished or used as targets until 1995.

Specifications :

DIMENSIONS

Total length : 99.8m

Total width : 10.30m

draught : 4.30m

weight : 1528t (1702t max)

ENGINE :

type : 2 x diesel Indret boilers, 20,000 HP in total (2500 full speed)

propellers : 2

max speed : 27 knots (trial speed 29 knots)

autonomy : 4500 miles at 15 knts

ARMAMENT :

Original :

6 x 57mm Dual purpose canons modèle 51 (3 x 2)

2 x Oerlikon 20mm canons

12 x 550mm Torpedo tubes (4 x 3)

1 x 375mm rocket launcher Modèle 1954

Depth charges

CREW : 13 officers, 186 sailors

Le Brestois refit, 1972

4 x 57mm Dual purpose canons modèle 51 (2 x 2)

1 x 100mm Dual purpose canon modèle 53

2 x Oerlikon 20mm canons

12 x 550mm Torpedo tubes (4 x 3)

Depth charges

CREW : 9 officers, 161 sailors

About the 57mm AA canons :

Spoiler

57jb.JPG 330px-Musee-de-Port-Louis-Canon-a.jpg 57modele1947.jpgRate of Fire : 120 rpm (240rpm for the turret)

Specifications

Mass 17.3 tonnes
Barrel length : 60 calibres
Crew : 8
calibre : 57 mm
Elevation : -8° to 93°
Muzzle velocity : 956 m/s
Effective firing range 3000 metres (practical)

About the 375mm rocket launcher :

Spoiler

photo04.jpg photo01.jpg photo03.jpg

photo02.jpg

Caracteristics
Diameter : 375 mm
Length : 2.15 m
Mass : 302 kg
Elevation : +8°30 TO 90°
Max range : 3100 m
Rocket speed : 180 m/s
Rate of fire : 1 R/s

PHOTOS

PLANS

Spoiler

caract01.jpg
Original loadout

Le-Brestois-72.png
Modification of Le Brestois in 1972, the 100mm canon replaces the back turret.

Le Corse

Spoiler

photo01.jpg

3936855.jpg

cpsmescorteurlecorse-(1).jpg

Le Brestois

Spoiler

https://2img.net/h/www.casimages.com/img/jpg/0705301046002093628675.jpg
https://www.alabordache.fr/marine/espacemarine/photo/image/lebrestois13123.jpg

SOURCES :

Spoiler

Caractéristiques

Escorteur rapide Le Corse

[Art.] L'histoire du canon double-usage dans la MN

http://www.escorteursrapides.net/souvenirs_brestois.html

Toutes les versions en dessins, dans tous les types avec leurs modifications et leurs refontes de 1950 à PDF Téléchargement Gratuit

Lance-Roquette de 375mm

JOURDAN John, Moulin Jean, French destroyers : Torpilleur d’escadre and Contre-torpilleur, Seaforth Publishing, 2015

Link to google’s E-book :

https://books.google.fr/books?id=v2hhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286&dq=Rapid+escort+E-50&source=bl&ots=8Zm_CbXa5n&sig=ACfU3U0CYywgeAiQ1C59w8Do15dJSYET3Q&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0rcCDvuLnAhVsmuAKHSSQDkwQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Rapid escort E-50&f=false

http://users.skynet.be/mer/caract.html

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_57-60_m1951.php

3 Likes

I support both the original and the refit! Maybe one TT and one premium? +1

2 Likes

a defenetive +1 , still wonder why ships like those are not in yet for the french tree

1 Like

If I remember correctly french 57 mm doesn’t have AP or SAP. This will make things really frustrating

1 Like

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_57-60_m1951.php

Yup the Fr just have HE…

Looking at this again, and I find it odd that they come to replace the third turret with the 100mm rather than the forward one.

Sweden use prox fused, so of course “it was available if the French wanted it” and they’ll get it - maybe the AP too.

But it has 6…even without some sort of SAP it will be a tough cookie - killing DD turrets at short range for example

Wiki page for hte rocket launcher: Bofors 375mm anti submarine rockets - Wikipedia

Probably to avoid blast damage to the bridge and ASW rockets.

ETA: photo showing 100mm gun
image

1 Like

That makes sense. It’ll make gameplay interesting, having to show the back to use the biggest gun.