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Hello everyone and welcome to this new suggestion.
Today I’m presenting a new class of French Navy vessels, the L’Ajaccienne class. And to begin, here is the first ship of this class, L’Ajaccienne (P136).
At the beginning of World War II, the Royal Navy, with its numerous main battleships, lacked a light vessel capable of effectively engaging German submarines without excessive costs. To address this, 216 trawlers built around the previous decade were purchased, modified (adding an ASDIC), and armed to meet this need. France, interested in this low-cost solution, bought four from the United Kingdom; these ships became the L’Ajaccienne class. They were all assigned to the 14th Auxiliary Patrol Boat Squadron in Brest. This was not the only class of ship of this type; France also purchased several different types of armed British trawlers.
The Ajaccienne was the first ship of this class (the class also being called the “600-ton Armed Trawler”). Initially named HMS Mildenhall and built by the Smith Dock Company in 1936 at South Bank-on-Trees, the ship was purchased by France at the end of 1939. Based in Brest, the ship initially served to patrol the French Atlantic coast and the English Channel. During Operation Dynamo in 1940, the ship went to Dunkirk and participated in the evacuation of British forces fleeing the German advance.
Returning to France afterward, the ship was assigned to a new area and found itself in the Mediterranean with the other ships of the class (the crews of these ships remained loyal to Vichy France and therefore did not join the Free French Forces), tasked with protecting the French ports of North Africa (Casabianca, Bizerte, Oran, Tunis, Sfax, Gabès, etc., submarine raids, and escort missions, particularly between Oran and the Atlantic. Later, the Ajaccienne sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean and Lebanon, notably participating in the evacuation of Latakia. At the end of the war, the ship, still untouched by combat, was sent to Diego Suarez where it remained in reserve for nearly 10 years, being too old and not worth modernizing.
In 1954, the ship was brought back to France to be decommissioned and scrapped. It was broken up in 1956.
Characteristics
Length : 47.85 m
Width : 8.10 m
Draft : 3.73 m
Mass : 466 tons
The vessel is powered by a reciprocating engine fed by a single boiler, providing it with 800 hp. The vessel’s maximum speed is estimated at 10 knots. Its crew consists of 20 sailors (as the base is that of a trawler, a large crew is not necessary, the mechanics being rather simple).
Unfortunately, there are very few images of ships of this class; the two images used here are therefore of two other ships of the class. These ships have the same armament as the Ajaccienne, with their main turret at the front and machine gun at the back.
Weapons
The ship’s armament is particularly interesting; indeed, although it wasn’t originally designed to carry it, the choices made for its integration were quite remarkable. It includes:
Guns :
- 1 x 1 QF 4-inch gun on a forward turret
- 4 x 1 13.2mm Hotchkiss machine guns
Other :
- 1 x depth charge thrower (against submarines)
In-game, this ship would be a particularly interesting addition to the French coastal tree, providing a building that intelligently complements the ships already present with its significant firepower but critical vulnerability to small, fast ships, making it an interesting ship to balance.
Sources
- 101209_RND TTY
- SHDAA_REP_5I_NO_661_1773_1976
- untitled
- Liste des Bâtiments en service dans la Royale depuis 1945
- Classe L’Ajaccienne — Wikipédia
- L’AJACCIENNE
- Allied Warships of WWII - ASW Trawler HMS Mildenhall - uboat.net
- Patrouilleur L’Ajaccienne
- 100 épaves en Côte d’Azur de La Ciotat à Saint Tropez
- Liste des anciens navires de la marine nationale depuis 1945