La Suprise
Contents
Description
La Surprise was a River-class frigate originally ordered by the Royal Navy as HMS Torridge (K292) in 1942 and built by Blyth Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Ltd., launched in August 1943. Transferred to the Free French Naval Forces in March 1944 and renamed La Surprise, she served under pennant numbers K292, later F08, and finally F708. After training at Tobermory, she escorted convoys in the English Channel and participated in the Normandy invasion at Gold Beach in June 1944. Damaged by an acoustic mine on 20 June and involved in a collision with USS Ramsden on 16 October, she continued service, engaging German forces near Royan and Île de Ré in 1945. On 17 July 1950, during exercises near Port Lyautey in Morocco, La Surprise collided with the submarine Laubie, formerly German U-766, causing damage but no casualties. In 1964, she was transferred to the Royal Moroccan Navy, converted into the royal yacht Al Maouna, and served until being scrapped in 1975.
The Croix de Lorraine-class, La Suprise (F10) is a French gunboat introduced with the initial release of the French coastal tech tree in Update "Dance of Dragons". She was the second River-class vessel introduced to the game after the HMS Spey. Her main guns shine primarily due to their high rate of fire, while maintaining enough explosive filler and penetration to threaten all reserve destroyers. Her secondary armament is also very effective and well-distributed, making her a difficult target for any approaching aircraft. Finally, she can equip an unusually large number of depth charges, though this essentially turns the entire aft-most deck into a high explosive payload waiting to be ignited. The bow-mounted hedgehog launcher similarly suffers from being an attractive target for enemy guns while remaining highly situational. When engaging coastal vessels, she can handle multiple opponents at once, making her an extremely dangerous vessel; however, she often spawns alongside destroyers on most maps, making it challenging and time-consuming for her to escape the kill zone of enemy destroyers.
General info
Survivability and armour
Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.
Mobility
Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 53 | 20 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 38 | 14 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
Provide information about the characteristics of the primary armament. Evaluate their efficacy in battle based on their reload speed, ballistics and the capacity of their shells. Add a link to the main article about the weapon: {{main|Weapon name (calibre)}}. Broadly describe the ammunition available for the primary armament, and provide recommendations on how to use it and which ammunition to choose.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| 4 inch HE | HE | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| 4 inch SAP | SAP | 102 | 85 | 64 | 48 | 38 | 30 |
| 4 inch HE-TF | HE-TF | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| 4 inch HE-VT | HE-VT | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4 inch HE | HE | 811 | 15.88 | 0 | 0.1 | 1,550 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 4 inch SAP | SAP | 811 | 17.35 | 0.015 | 5 | 600 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| 4 inch HE-TF | HE-TF | 811 | 15.88 | 0 | 0.1 | 1,550 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Proximity-fused shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Arming distance (m) |
Trigger radius (m) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4 inch HE-VT | HE-VT | 811 | 15.88 | 0 | 0.1 | 274 | 18 | 1,550 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |
Secondary armament
Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.
- Universal: HEF-T · HEF-I · AP-T
- 20 mm HE: HEF-T · HEF-I · AP-T · HEF-I
- 20 mm AP: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEF-I
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEF-T | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| HEF-I | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| AP-T | 34 | 32 | 24 | 17 | 12 | 8 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEF-T | 830 | 0.12 | 0 | 0.1 | 6.57 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| HEF-I | 830 | 0.12 | 0 | 0.1 | 11.17 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 830 | 0.12 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Additional armament
Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.
Usage in battles
Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good primary armament
- Very good armament of the 20 mm Oerlikons
- Fairly manoeuvrable, considering its size
- Can withstand a reasonable amount of damage
- The rear turret can point quite far forward, allowing you to engage most targets with both main guns
- All turrets can rotate a full 360°, so switching to a target on the opposite side of the ship is less challenging than on some other ships
Cons:
- Fairly slow and gets destroyer spawn
- Very large target
- No armour protection over essential components
- Turrets are susceptible to damage, leaving you in precarious situations
- Large engine and transmission assembly prone to frequent damage and fires
- Large number of depth charges makes it a tempting target, which, when detonated, can destroy the vessel
History
La Surprise was a River-class frigate that served in the Free French Navy near the end of, and after the Second World War. Originally ordered by the Royal Navy as HMS Torridge (K292) on 14 April 1942, she was built by Blyth Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Ltd. in United Kingdom, launched on 16 August 1943 and commissioned in 1944.
In March 1944, before her completion, HMS Torridge was transferred to the Free French Naval Forces and renamed La Surprise. She was initially assigned the pennant number K292. Under the command of Capitaine de Corvette Levasseur, she underwent a period of training at Tobermory from 9 to 27 April 1944. Following her training, La Surprise participated in convoy escort missions in the English Channel.
In June 1944, La Surprise took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy, operating in the Gold Beach sector. On 20 June 1944, she was damaged by the explosion of an acoustic mine and had to be towed to Portsmouth for repairs. Later that year, on 16 October 1944, she was involved in a collision with the USS Ramsden, sustaining additional damage.
From 15 to 17 April 1945, La Surprise was engaged in operations aimed at reducing the German-held Royan pocket on the French Atlantic coast. During this period, she came under heavy fire from German batteries on the Île de Ré but avoided serious damage. On 6 June 1945, she encountered German minesweepers west of the Île d'Yeu and exchanged fire with them. After the war ended, she continued her service in the French navy under a new pennant number: F08 (which was changed to F708 in 1950s)
On 17 July 1950 at 15:29, during exercises near Port Lyautey (now Kenitra) in Morocco, La Surprise was involved in a collision with the submarine Laubie (S610), formerly the German U-boat U-766. Laubie had just fired a practice torpedo and was surfacing when La Surprise struck her. The frigate's port-side propeller damaged Laubie's conning tower. Despite the collision, there were no casualties, and Laubie was able to surface and proceed under her own power back to Casablanca for repairs.
In 1964, La Surprise was transferred to the Royal Moroccan Navy and converted into a royal yacht. Renamed Al Maouna, she underwent modifications at the Chantiers Dubigeon shipyard in Brest. The conversion included the addition of a helicopter landing deck, extra accommodation aft, and the installation of an SPS-6 search radar. Her armament at this point consisted of two 105 mm guns, three 40 mm guns, two 20 mm guns, and two 37 mm saluting guns. Accepted into service on 5 March 1965, she served as the Moroccan flagship and royal yacht until she was scrapped in 1975.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
- [Devblog] French Coastal Fleet Closed Testing Begins Soon!
- [AUX MARINS] La Surprise
- [Wikipedia] List of River-class frigates
| Blyth Shipbuilding & Dry Docks Company Ltd. | |
|---|---|
| Frigates | |
| Croix de Lorraine-class | La Suprise* |
| *HMS Torridge in French service | |
| France boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | VTB-8 · VTB-9 · VTB-11 · VTB-14 |
| VLT-1 · VLT-2 · VTB-19 | |
| MTB-96 | |
| Motor gun boats | L9059 · La Combattante · VTB-13 |
| Gunboats | La Suprise |
