World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe French battleship Lorraine was commissioned during WW1, during which she was stationed at Corfu, Greece to counter the presence of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and saw no action. During the inter-war years, she went through four rounds of modernization work, converting from coal to oil, adding anti-aircraft weapons, adding seaplane facilities, among others. In 1936, she joined the French Navy Atlantic Squadron, where she would remain until the start of the European War in Sep 1939. On 4 Dec 1939, she sortied out of Casablanca, French Morocco against German naval units. Shortly after, she participated in the mission to ferry French treasury gold to Bermuda. In early 1940, she was drydocked for refitting. Upon completion of the refitting, she was transferred to Alexandria, Egypt to join the British fleet. She bombarded Italian positions at Bardia, Libya over the night of 20 to 21 Jun 1940. After the French surrender, Lorraine remained in Alexandria, disarmed. In Dec 1942, her crew decided to join the Free French, and the process to rearm her began shortly after. She departed Suez, Egypt on 3 Jul 1943 for Dakar, French West Africa, stopping at Cape Town, South Africa along the way. She served at Dakar as a training ship for less than two months, and then set sail for Oran, French Algeria for refitting. In Aug 1944, she supported the Allied invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon), bombarding German positions near Toulon, Sospel, Castillon, Carqueiranne, and Saint-Tropez. She departed the battle zone off southern France on 17 Sep 1944, and underwent a refitting in Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom. She arrived at Cherbourg in Dec 1944. In Apr 1945, she bombarded German positions in the Gironde estuary in western France between La Rochelle and Bordeaux, particularly the Girond-Nord fortress in Royan. After the war, starting in Feb 1947, she was first used as a stationary gunnery training ship and then a barracks ship at Toulon. She was struck from the French Navy list in Feb 1953 in preparation for her scrapping. She was towed to Brégaillon on the other side of Toulon harbor in Jan 1954 where scrapping would commence shortly after.

Photographs

Lorraine Operational Timeline