SUPER RARE WW2 French Navy D-Day Omaha Beach Cruiser Paperwork & Photographs

  
SUPER RARE WW2 French Navy D-Day Omaha Beach Cruiser Paperwork & Photographs. This is a fantastic group. It came to us through a local contact who specialises in paperwork. He got word of these documents a few years back and only got his hands on them earlier this year.

As you can see from the paperwork, he spent time in Algeria and Philadelphia before coming over to Normandy for D-Day. During D-Day the cruiser supported US troops landing on Omaha beach from the Eastern end of Omaha beach (See printout included in photos).

Our personal favourite of the photos has to be the torpedo being fired from the deck, a really interesting photo! Everything you will receive fits nicely into a plastic folder it will come with so the documents are well protected, however long term, I believe framed up this would look fantastic! The La Galissonnière class was designed as an enlarged and improved version of the preceding Emile Bertin. They displaced 7,722 metric tons (7,600 long tons) at standard load and 9,460 t (9,310 long tons) at deep load.

Their crew consisted of 557 men in peacetime and 612 in wartime. At the start of World War II, she was assigned to the Force de Raid, patrolling the Atlantic in response to German commerce raids.

The only incident, however, was when the French submarine Casabianca was shelled in error. To pre-empt the potential Italian threat, Georges Leygues and other French warships were moved to Mers-el-Kebir (now Oran) on 24 April 1940. The 3rd and 4th Cruiser Divisions, including Georges Leygues avoided the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and eventually put into Toulon.

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 Allied forces, including the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia.

Georges Leygues hit Australia twice and avoided Fleet Air Arm torpedo attacks. Gloire, slowed by mechanical troubles and, unable to escape, had been ordered back to Casablanca. Apart from a transport of bullion to Casablanca in August 1941, the next two years were 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.

Early in 1943, she began Atlantic patrols from Dakar, and on 13 April, she intercepted the German blockade runner Portland, which was scuttled by her crew. Georges Leygues was refitted at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, from July until October 1943, removing the aircraft installations and adding light anti-aircraft weapons.

She then supported Allied landings in Normandy at Omaha Beach in June 1944 and southern France in August. She then bombarded the Italian Riviera coastline around Genoa until March 1945. This was her last action of the war. She had a major refit at Casablanca from May to the end of January 1946.

In 1954, along with Montcalm, she was used for fire support in Indochina. In 1956, she took part in the Suez Crisis, during which she led a group of French warships providing fire support for Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip. This item is in the category "Collectables\Militaria\World War II (1939-1945)\Documents/ Maps".

The seller is "daniellewis35" and is located in this country: GB. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Country/Region of Manufacture: France
• Conflict: World War II (1939-1945)
• Service: Navy
• Country/ Organization: France
• Era: 1914-1945
• Type: Documents & Maps