French Cruiser Montcalm - World War II

World War II

At the start of the war, now assigned to the 2nd Squadron of the Force de Raid, she performed Atlantic patrols and convoy escort duties and swept for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau after they had sunk the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Rawalpindi. In early September, 1939, there was a major French fleet deployment to Casablanca to forestall an enemy naval attack, which was soon abandoned.

After a major refit in April 1940, Montcalm served as flagship of the French Scandinavian Force supporting the Franco-British defence of Norway (replacing the damaged French cruiser Emile Bertin) and the evacuation of troops from Namsos, Norway, with HMS Devonshire, at the end of April 1940.

Recalled to the Force de Raid in May, Montcalm was then moved to Algiers in North Africa where she stayed, performing at least one convoy escort, until the Destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, when she was ordered to Toulon. On 9 September 1940, she left Toulon with her sisterships Gloire and George Leygues, and passed Gibraltar without being challenged (for which the local British commander, Admiral Sir Dudley North, was relieved of his command). The flotilla refuelled at Casablanca and continued to Dakar, arriving on 14 September.

The three cruisers left Dakar on 18 September, intending to go south to Libreville, but they were intercepted by British forces, including HMAS Australia. Montcalm and George Leygues outran the British ships and returned to Dakar, where they helped to defend the port against the unsuccessful British and Free French attack (Operation Menace) on the 23 to 25 September 1940. Gloire, slowed by mechanical troubles and unable to escape, was ordered back to Casablanca.

Apart from a deployment in April 1941 to recapture a French steamer, Fort de France, the next two years were relatively uneventful until the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) and the German occupation of Vichy France, when she joined the Allies, as did other French warships. Montcalm was refitted at Philadelphia, from February until August 1943, the engines were overhauled, aircraft installations removed and the French light anti-aircraft weapons were replaced and augmented.

Montcalm's next duty was anti-blockade-runner patrols, based from Dakar. She was allocated to the Western Task Force and supported Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 and southern France in August. Her war ended with coastal bombardments along the Riviera coastline until March 1945.