Suffren (CA)

History: The Suffren class was a class of four heavy cruisers built for the French Navy in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They were the second class of Washington Treaty cruisers built by france. They replaced the Duquesne class which were considered too lightly armored. The Suffren class kept the seaworthiness of the Duquesne class while at the same time carrying greatly enhanced protection. Armor on the Suffren class was hence doubled (compared to the Duquesne class) at the expense of speed, but was still not adequate when compared to the Trento who had up to 100mm of armor on their turrets.

In early June 1940, at the outset of World War II, the cruisers Suffren, Duquesne, Tourville and Duguay-Trouin, along with three destroyers, operated against the Italian-occupied Dodecanese Islands. Later in that same month, Suffren participated in a joint operation with the Royal Navy - the last such operation before the French surrender to Nazi Germany on 22 June 1940.

Type: Cruiser

SubType: Heavy Cruiser

Primary Country: France is one of Europe’s largest countries. It is bordered by six countries other nations: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the southeast and Spain to the southwest. The United Kingdom borders France via the English Channel. The country is considered to be the gateway to Europe as there are several large international airports (two of these can be found in Paris), ferry terminals and the French rail service.

In 486, Frankish tribes unified under Merovingian kingship. In 843, Western Francia was established from the division of the Carolingian Empire. In 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown, and in 1792, the First French Republic was founded. In 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established.