Personal log - my first day in office
I have just say good bye Admiral Yemo after briefing of several issues of French navy. He certainly start good trend however my personal feeling is that he could be more fierce with changes. But I do not want to be premature with valuation of his steps. Firstly I need to look how I will be able to do my job. Priorities are quite clear. The short time goal is to prepare Navy for war against Germany, the second task, quite difficult to do it in 5 years. is to modernized French Navy. For such task every savings coudl be justified but I need to find balance between this and preparation for war against Germany as these to objectives are in contradiction.
Last think Yemo mentioned he would like to preserve first small carrier Amiral Cecille as museum ship after her time arose. This is not for today as being are only carrier. Neverthless I shold not be sentimental about her, if public rise money for that Navy will support it otherwise ...
First task to be done
Analysis of German Navy and comparison to French Navy
Capital ships
- German capital ships has using mainly 13" guns, and have no ships with guns heavier than 13"
- German Navy has 5 battleships and another one under construction against our 4 battleships
- Mecklenburg - with just 6x11" guns she is completely obsolote
- Hannover - with 8x12" broadside and no forward superfiring turrets she is obsolote too
- Schleisen - with 6x13" guns and heavy belt armour 15.5" she could be dangerous in medium and short ranges however still lacks of punch
- Wittelsbach - 8x13" guns but too small to absord reasonable punisment
- Braunschweig class (1 commissioned, 1 under construction) - 8x13" similar design to Wittelsbach
- German Navy has 6 battlecruisers as we have
- Von der Tann - 6x11" guns, very weak armour, 22 knots - she is more absolote capital ship
- Moltke class (2 ships) - 8x13", 10" belt armour, 26 knots - probably better than any German battleship due to speed however still lack punch and protection
- Derfflinger class (2 ships) - 8x13", 12" belt armour, 29 knots - quite good battlecruiser but only 13" guns
- Prinz Eitel Friedrich - 6x13", 11.5" belt armor, 31 knots - she is really fast but with 6x13" they are more threat to our ligh cruiser force than capital ships
Conclusion:
Our 2 battlecruisers of Dunkerque class and battlecruiser Tourville can easily manage whole German battlecruiser force. Both Austerlitz battlecruisers are too slow to be useful, same is true for Vosges because of her combination of weak guns. Vosges should be studied if conversion to carrier is viable. Both Austerlitz battlecruisers should be scrapped.
Our 2 battleships of Napoleon class should easily fight German battleships with their 15" guns and better speed. But Oceans are just too old, weakly armoured to be usefull and should be scrapped.
Cruiser force
German has 8 light cruisers and 1 under construction, all of them quite fast and modern. Our cruiser are no match for them but operating 2 together can defend against any German cruiser.
Personal note: I am quite suprised that cruiser force is so bad shape as it is our largest weakness. Meantime they could serve on foreign stations.
Destroyer and ASW force
Germany has 16 destroyers with 3x5" or 4x5" guns, so quite powerful. For fleet duty we have 9 Javeline class destroyers (4x5", 7 TT), 2 Pertusiane class destroyers (3x5", 8 TT), 12 Framee class destroyers (4x5", 4 TT) and 12 Espingole class destroyers (3x5", 18 TT) under construction. So we have 23 destroyers for fleet duty and another 12 under construction. 35 destroyers are more than needed so another 12 under construction is questionable.
We have another 23 corvettes with minesweeper equipment and 48 destroyers plus 12 under construction for ASW duty.
Conslusion
Study if it is not better to stop construction of Espingole class destroyers before we spent so much on them. Similar considaration should be done for 12 Yatagan destroyer escort.
Personal note: It seems to me that Admiral Yemo was obssesed with ASW forces and worried about enemy submarines. If he believed in such threat from submarines I do not understand he did not create French submarine force. It seems that he was so worried about submarine forces that politics request to build 21 new submarines. This is really strange and need to be stopped before doing more harm.
Task to be done:
1. scrapping both Ocean class battleships
2. scrapping both Austerlitz class battlecruisers
3. study conversion of Vosges, otherwise scrap
4. study cancelling of construction of Yatagan and Espingole class destroyers
5. analyse reactivation of Framee class destroyers instead
6. reactivated Chasseloup Laubat class cruisers for foreign duty and recall destroyers and corvettes to Northern France
7. prepare reactivation of both Napoleon class battleships
8. ignore request to build another submarines - prepare reasonble arguments and new construction plans especially if construction of destroyers is cancelled. It is need to be presented with long time strategy plan
Next task should be long time analysis against all main powers and definition of long time strategy