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voor de liefhebbers van naval history :)

Ian Allan - French Warships of World War II
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Like other Navies, the French had greatly underestimated the threat of the aeroplane and it became necessary during the war to increase the anti-aircraft armament on most vessels. To this end all available equipment was used to improve the fire power of the Vichy-controlled Navy and this resulted in most heterogeneous armaments. Later on, ships which were rc-assigned to duty received modern equipment from the Allies. Insofar as electromagnetic and underwater detection equipment were concerned, the French lagged behind the Royal Navy. Interest in radar had begun in 1935 and tests had been undertaken, which revealed the usefulness of metric waves in aircraft approach warning. A radar construction programme-was initiated for the protection of the harbours at Brest, Cherbourg, Toulon and Bizerte. In April 1939 several exchanges of information took place with the British, but they had to be suspended due to the prevailing circumstances of war. However, during the German occupation of France, research on prototype equipment (both shore- and ship-based) was carried on clandestinely, in spite of difficulties, until the Fleet was scuttled in November 1942.

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