138.6 mm/40 model 1927 (138.6 mm)

Description

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Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• Aigle

General info

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Available ammunition

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Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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History

The French in World War I grew concerned about the cannons being mounted on foreign destroyers and decided they needed a more effective weapon than the guns on those destroyers for their cruisers and battleships. The new 130 mm/40 M1919 that entered service in 1926 didn’t meet their expectations and a new design was needed to meet their requirements for an anti-destroyer armament. Fortunately for the Marine Nationale (French National Navy) they had the destroyer Amiral Sénès (ex-SMS S113) from Germany as war reparations and studied the 15 cm L/45 to develop the 138.6 mm/40 model 1927. The gun copied the horizontal breech block and semi-automatic action from the German design but was scaled to the 138.6mm (5.45 in) caliber used by French destroyers. The model 1927 was used on the Aigle-class and Vauquelin-class destroyers built to serve in the main fleet along with the Bougainville-class aviso built for colonial service.

These ships would go on to see some action during World War II. Three Aigle-class destroyers Agile, Vautour and Albatros took part in Operation Vado, the bombardment of northwestern Italy during the Battle of France in June 1940. The entire class of destroyers would become part of the Vichy French Navy after the French Armistice. Three destroyers, Albatros, Épervier, and Milan participated in the Battle of Casablanca during Operation Torch in November 1942 with the latter too destroyed while the Albatros was captured by the Allies and served in the French Navy after the war until it was scrapped in 1959. Three Vauquelin-class destroyers, Tartu, Cassard, and Le Chevalier Paul, also participated in Operation Valo, expending 1,600 rounds attempting to bombard targets Vado Ligure with little damage performed. The entire class also served under the Vichy French except for the Maillé Brézé which was lost in April 1940 to a magazine detonation while docked at Scotland. However, they would not use their guns in combat again.

The Bougainville-class avisoes would notably serve in both the Free French Naval Forces (Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL) and Vichy French Navy. This led to the rare case of a ship class fighting itself when the two navies faced off. The lead ship Bougainville was destroyed in this manner by her sister ship Savorgnan de Brazza during the Battle of Gabon in November 1940. At the time of her sinking, Bougainville was landing troops on the Ogooué River near the capital of Libreville leaving her unable to match her sister’s rate of fire. Even before the lines between Free France and Vichy were clearly defined, the Rigault de Genouilly engaged Force H of the Royal Navy after it sunk most of the French Fleet at Mers El Kébir, Algeria, on July 3^rd, 1940, but did not have success in sinking the British ships. Rigault de Genouilly was sunk the next day by HMS Pandora off the coast of French Algeria. The D'Entrecasteaux was stationed in Madagascar and saw action during Operation Ironclad (the British naval landings on the island) before being beached after an attack by Swordfish bombers on May 6^th, 1942. The Dumont d’Urville and Amiral Charner were in the Vichy French Navy and participated in the 1940 Franco-Thai War most notably during the Battle of Ko Chang. The Savorgnan de Brazza survived the war and joined her sister ship Dumont d’Urville in the bombardment of the Indochina city of Haiphong in what became known as the Haiphong Massacre on November 23^rd, 1946. The final Bougainville-class to see combat was the La Grandière which supported the UN Task Force’s naval landings at Inchon during the Korean War.

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See also

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External links

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France naval cannons
37 mm	37 mm/50 model 1925 · 37 mm/50 model 1933
47 mm	3 pdr QF Hotchkiss
57 mm	57 mm/60 ACAD Mle 1951
75 mm	75 mm/50 Canet model 1891 · 75 mm/50 model 1922
90 mm	90 mm/50 model 1926
130 mm	130 mm/40 model 1919
138.6 mm	138.6 mm/55 model 1910 · 138.6 mm/40 model 1927 · 138.6 mm/50 model 1929 · 138.6 mm/50 model 1934 R1938
152 mm	152 mm/55 model 1930
155 mm	155 mm/50 model 1920
203 mm	203 mm/50 model 1924
305 mm	305 mm/45 model 1906-10
340 mm	340 mm/45 model 1912
	Foreign:
20 mm	2 cm/65 C/38 (Germany) · 2 cm/65 Flakvierling 38 (Germany) · 20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II (USA/Britain)
40 mm	2pdr QF Mk.IIc (Britain) · 2pdr QF Mk.VIII (Britain) · Bofors L/60 Mark 2 (USA) · Bofors L/60 Mark 3 (USA)
87.6 mm	Ordnance QF 25pdr (87.6 mm) (Britain)
102 mm	4 in QF Mark V (Britain) · 4 inch/45 Mark XVI (Britain)
105 mm	SK C/33 AA (Germany)
128 mm	12.8 cm/45 SK C/34 (Germany)
150 mm	15 cm/48 KC/36 (Germany)