Vauquelin class destroyer, a step toward modernity

[Arghail 1,220]

Vauquelin
The first modern contre-torpilleur

 

About the Vauquelin class and its interest in War Thunder

 

 The Vauquelin class is not as known as the Fantasque class, yet it had a significant impact on the development of the unique French take on destroyers. Being a transition of technology between the old 4 funnel destroyers of the 1920's and the fast destroyers of the 1930's, it shares a lot of similarities with both, without the bigger advantages of the most recent machines, such as speed. It's a jack of all trade destroyer that would go well as a mid-tier destroyer.

 

Vauquelin class, a step toward modern technology

 

During the 1920's the French navy was trying to find a way to rebuild a fleet with more modern equipment and tactics. Although the Washington treaty had limited the size of its fleet and the scope of its modernisation, anti-sub warfare combined with a radical change of doctrine drive the navy to focus on the construction of brand new versatile ship that would act as much as destroyers as they would light cruisers. From this idea came the contre-torpilleur, or super destroyers. After the construction of a few classes of contre-torpilleurs, Bourrasque, Jaguar, Guépard and Aigle, two more prototypes based on the Aigle class, the Épervier and the Milan are used as test bench for the construction of a brand new class of destroyers : the Vauquelin class, which would embody a transition between the first generation of contre-torpilleurs and the new ones.

 

About the Vauquelin class :

 

The main difference between the Vauquelin class and its predecessors are much more powerful engines and boilers, and extended space to allow a bit more armament, especially torpedoes and mines, which were privileged at that time. The Vauquelin would then be the first step toward these "supercharged" destroyers with more fragile but more powerful engines allowing better speed and autonomy. Aside from those modification, it retains the characteristics of its predecessors, such as 4 funnels, 5 x 138mm guns, and a mediocre defensive AA armament.

6 Vauquelin destroyers were built during the 1930's : Vauquelin, Kersaint, Cassard, Tartu, Maillé Brézé and Chevalier Paul. Of those 6, one (the Maillé Brézé) was lost in an accidental torpedo explosion in 1939 near Scotland. After the battle of France, the Chevalier Paul was sunk by a couple British Swordfishes during a voyage between Syria and Lebanon (It was hit by torpedoes and managed to shoot down one Swordfish before being hit by the other). The last 4 ships were all scuttled in Toulon during operation Anton in november 1942.

 

General Characteristics :

Tonnage:	2480 tons (standard) 2980 tons (max overload)
Length:	129.30 m
Beam:	11.69 m
Draught:	4.34 m
Propulsion:	Tranche G steam turbines  Tranche F boilers  64 000 HP
Max Speed:	38.5 knts (71.3 km/h)
Range:	2750 nautical miles at 15 knots  1210 nautical miles at 35 knots

Crew :                      203 men

 

 

Armament (Vauquelin, summer 1940) :

 

- 5 x 138mm mle 1927 canons (5 x 1)

- 4 x 37mm mle 1933 AA canons ( 2 x 2 )

- 4 x 13.2 mm Hotchkiss mle 1929 MGs (2 x 2)

- 7 x 550mm mle 1924 TLT (1 x 3 + 2 x 2)
- 2 x grenade racks (100kg and 200kg mines) + 2 x 240mm Thornycroft modèle 1918 mortars (100kg mines)

 

Armament (Chevalier Paul, after refit in 1941) :

 

- 5 x 138mm mle 1927 canons (5 x 1)

- 6 x 37mm mle 1933 AA canons ( 3 x 2 ) + 2 x 37mm mle 1925 AA canons (2 x 1)

- 4 x 13.2 mm Hotchkiss mle 1929 MGs (2 x 2) + 2 x 13.2mm Browning MGs (2 x 1)

- 7 x 550mm mle 1924 TLT (1 x 3 + 2 x 2)
- 2 x grenade racks (100kg and 200kg mines) + 2 x 240mm Thornycroft modèle 1918 mortars (100kg mines)

About the 138mm mle 1927 canon :

 

Spoiler

 

Designation	138.6 mm/40 (5.46") Model 1927
Ship Class Used On	Aigle (2400 tonnes), Cassard (2400 tonnes) and Le Malin (2610 tonnes) classes
Date Of Design	1927
Date In Service	1930
Gun Weight	N/A
Gun Length oa	N/A
Bore Length	about 218.3 in (5.544 m)
Rifling Length	N/A
Grooves	N/A
Lands	N/A
Twist	N/A
Chamber Volume	N/A
Rate Of Fire	12 - 15 rounds per minute 1

More infos : http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_55-40_m1927.php

About the 37mm mle 1933 canons :
 

Spoiler

37MM MLE 1933
SPECS :

depression : -15°, +80°

rotation : 360°

SHELLS :

Max range : 7 000m

Rate of fire : 15-21 rpm

 

More infos : http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_37-50_cail_m1933.php

About the 13.2mm Hotchkiss guns :
 

Spoiler

13.2MM MLE 1929
SPECS :

depression : -10°, +90°

rotation : 360°

SHELLS :

Max range : 7 200m

Rate of fire : 200-250 rpm

About the mle 1924 TLT :
 

Spoiler

Torpedoes mle.1923

 

Length : 8.60m

Weight : 2100 kg

range : 15 000-20 000m

Speed 25-35 knots

About the Mines :
 

Spoiler

Bréguet B4 mines (80kg tolite charge)


Thornycroft mortars : 50° angle, 60m range for 100kg mines

More infos : http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMFR_Mines.php

PLANS
 

Spoiler

 

Normal version


Chevalier Paul refit with addition roof and AA armament

PHOTOS
 

Spoiler

Vauquelin








Chevalier Paul (with close up of the additional roof with AA guns)

Before modification

After modification

SOURCES :

LASSAQUE Jean, Les Contre-Torpilleurs De 2700 Tonnes De Type Vauquelin (1931-1942), Marines édition, 2000 (144p)
https://forummarine.forumactif.com/t9328-contre-torpilleurs-classe-vauquelin-france-termine?highlight=vauquelin
http://le.fantasque.free.fr/php3/ship.php3?page_code=vauquelin
http://marine1939.blogspot.com/2011/12/contre-torpilleur-vauquelin.html
https://www.worldnavalships.com/vauquelin.htm
 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Arghail

[kurururocks 210]

Open for discussion

[Arghail 1,220]

Thank you.

[Milocat 4,856]

+1 from me, would be great in a future French naval tree.

[Kasukaru 2,164]

+1 for France.

[sam_dom 87]

The Vauquelin was the last contre-torpilleur to carry a  traditional  du  "temple boiller"  , later design usued  the " super-heated " steem boiller .

You have here a bad ( from me )  translation


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-drum_boiler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheater
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheated_steam

Edited July 17, 2022 by sam_dom

[Fireraid233 4,274]

+1

[ZackZooter 55]

I want both of these ship added as tech tree & premium/event.. On the other hand... It's both armament would make it almost similar to Z12 Erich Giese which is weaker anti-ship role while Z22 Anton Schmitt are more BR 4.3 level than Z12 in mix bag part... 

 

In short... 1940 Vauquelin makes a decent BR 4.3 mix while 1941 seems better role on AA part so far... I don't know much about French Navy so this is all i can say for now

 

 

[Abaddon75 460]

1 hour ago, ZackZooter said:

I want both of these ship added as tech tree & premium/event.. On the other hand... It's both armament would make it almost similar to Z12 Erich Giese which is weaker anti-ship role while Z22 Anton Schmitt are more BR 4.3 level than Z12 in mix bag part... 

 

In short... 1940 Vauquelin makes a decent BR 4.3 mix while 1941 seems better role on AA part so far... I don't know much about French Navy so this is all i can say for now

 

 

Most of French DDs are armed with 138 and 130mm guns that have not the best rate of fire sadly. The 138mm were supposed to give them enough power to be a threat to Cruisers. Early ones (both 130 and 38) have 4-5 r/min while the more moderns are getting up to 10-15 rounds/min if we stay into inter-war / WW2 era. But post war we can find a 127mm gun with 15 rounds/min and a 100mm gun with 60-78 r/min of rof (the latter is alredy in game on german frigates and was used on destroyers in the 50's before that type of ships disappeared transmitting their roles to frigates and other smaller/lighter ships)

So we won't break any record with those but they should still be serviceable.

[Arghail 1,220]

1 hour ago, Abaddon75 said:

Most of French DDs are armed with 138 and 130mm guns that have not the best rate of fire sadly. The 138mm were supposed to give them enough power to be a threat to Cruisers. Early ones (both 130 and 38) have 4-5 r/min while the more moderns are getting up to 10-15 rounds/min if we stay into inter-war / WW2 era. But post war we can find a 127mm gun with 15 rounds/min and a 100mm gun with 60-78 r/min of rof (the latter is alredy in game on german frigates and was used on destroyers in the 50's before that type of ships disappeared transmitting their roles to frigates and other smaller/lighter ships)

So we won't break any record with those but they should still be serviceable.

A bit too pessimistic here IMO... This 138mm here is the mle 1927 and it can reach 15 RPM, which is more than honourable. The Bourrasque old 130mm and the old 138mm mle 1923 of the Guepard class are not that good, true, but they can still reach 8-9 rpm instead of 5 at peak performance, without taking into account the inhibitor. Not like it really matters since I'm fairly certain these ships will be reserve tier or early tier blue water, and will be left behind quite fast. A player will quickly have access to an eventual Vauquelin or Hardi class which has excellent guns. Even the Fantasque 12 RPM is more than enough I think. We'll see what Gaijin decides but we're far from being saturated with poorly performing guns.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Arghail

[Abaddon75 460]

2 hours ago, Arghail said:

A bit too pessimistic here IMO... This 138mm here is the mle 1927 and it can reach 15 RPM, which is more than honourable. The Bourrasque old 130mm and the old 138mm mle 1923 of the Guepard class are not that good, true, but they can still reach 8-9 rpm instead of 5 at peak performance, without taking into account the inhibitor. Not like it really matters since I'm fairly certain these ships will be reserve tier or early tier blue water, and will be left behind quite fast. A player will quickly have access to an eventual Vauquelin or Hardi class which has excellent guns. Even the Fantasque 12 RPM is more than enough I think. We'll see what Gaijin decides but we're far from being saturated with poorly performing guns.

Sorry I was not talking about this ship in particular, more of the general picture of french navy

[Arghail 1,220]

34 minutes ago, Abaddon75 said:

Sorry I was not talking about this ship in particular, more of the general picture of french navy

No worries. I was just saying I expect a fun experience for Destroyer gameplay ; as long as Gaijin doesn't make odd choices...

[Kingtiez@live 606]

+1