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Le Paquebot El Djezair

Image by photolibrarian Google translation from the French… translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http…

The ships go to war Here is a long saga. The episodes that follow are cited by Mr. Henry HOUARD honorary lieutenant, who was, from 1 November 1939 to October 10, 1940, Officer "trans" on the ship "El Djezair", became the auxiliary cruiser "X 17 "at the beginning of the war. The illustrations that accompany these memories come from the photo albums of M. Michel Paquet, whose uncle, Francis Ollive was purser of the same "El Djezair".

Before World War II, traffic, intense, between North Africa and the city was assured, for almost all, with regard to passengers, by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and the Compagnie de Navigation Mixte. Under the flag of the latter three small sailing ships bearing the names of Djezair El, El Mansour and El Kentara. The first two, the most recent, were absolutely identical ("sister ships"), the third oldest in a little different. They were small vessels (3 to 4 000 t) but fast (20 knots) and scored a comfortable enough, given the brevity of the crossings. Certainly they did not look imposing large Transat, the City of Algiers and Oran City, but that rather, the large yachts smooth silhouette.

So they pursue their civilian careers, silent and forth between Marseille and Port-Vendres, Algiers and Tunis. Then, in September 1939, everything changed. Pipes to the acronym "NM" disappeared from the Mediterranean.

These three ships, under their stylish look, were not so innocent as that! In their construction, and probably in return for state support (already), they were designed to become, if applicable, auxiliary cruisers. Bridges, in the space provided for artillery platforms were strengthened, the location of the central station fire control remained free electrical cables needed were gone; bunkers and ammunition had elevations location in the hold, and finally seemed powerful radio equipment, for the time and for vessels that remain in the Mediterranean.

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"El" to X From September 1939 the three "EL" were found in sites of Seyne to become the three "X": X-17, respectively, and X-06 X 16. A swarm of workmen made the necessary changes: changes of the silhouette in the sense of discretion and to this end the chimney back, to present a simple matter of aesthetics, was withdrawn and all superstructures painted gray.

Then they installed a powerful artillery. September carriages 130, 75 A two carriages and two double machine gun 13.2. over all facilities essential accessories: rangefinders, fire control systems, tankers, etc.. The optical transmission means were also increased: signal lamps and double morocco for pavillonnerie.

In the month of October, while the work drew to a close, the manning was completed. The entire staff which armed ships in time of peace was maintained and the staff are supplemented by reserve or active duty, especially in the specialties of arms and transmission. The commanders of the three vessels have remained in office and reserve officers or not, have been given the rank of Commander Auxiliary and temporary. The same procedure was adopted for second officers with the rank of auxiliary lieutenant.

The "El Djezair" with a single stack, just before the Second World War. In operation, they were to form a division under the command of Admiral Cadart cons, of the 2nd Division, who hoisted his mark on the X-17. It was therefore with a staff including chief of staff, transport officer (all three active), Commissioner, doctor, dentist and chaplain. Those who, like Henry Houard, lived near him every day, not soon forget this great figure.

With ended his active career as a captain commanding one of the three Lorraine in the Atlantic Fleet under the command of Admiral de Laborde – hard school he symbolized for all the true sailor’s beard "squared ", an enormous pipe in his mouth constantly. It was the officer of the bridge type, whose career had not made in the backrooms of the Rue Royale. For all, despite some rigidity in the service, he was the "Father Cadart," a term which we must see more of affection and familiarity.

In this crew, a beautiful day of November 39, three El doubled the tip of St. Mandrier to indulge in a few days of intensive training before going into operation.

The "police" of the Atlantic After a little rest in Toulon and the additional supplies, it was off to Casablanca. Based in that port, Cadart division was given the job of establishing a kind of dam in the Atlantic. In this ocean that these three ships were attending for the first time, the mission was clear: capture German cargo ships or sailing under another flag, but the benefit of Germany.

By accident or on information, several freighters were boarded and headed for Casablanca.

Others were left free after reviewing the documents on board and the nature of cargo, by a team of one of the three cruisers. Few shots across the bow to bring to reason those who were late to

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stop military actions were the only of this period which lasted until February 1940.

That’s when the division was in Casablanca rally around Brest unspecified. It was war. Soon arrived at Brest, the three "X" were supported by the arsenal .. New transformations permitted to advance assumptions about the fate of the Division.

Draft Far North Designed for navigation in the gentle waters under the Mediterranean sun they could, in the state, the rigors of the North. Heating systems were strengthened, all exterior ducts insulated and equipped with Canadian men and woolen hats. Also air defense was increased two carriages 130 to the front carriages were replaced by two double 37-AA. Everything was planned for the Far North Mission Division Cadart reserved by the Admiralty in agreement with the English who appreciated highly the qualities and capabilities of these three boats. "Fast And The Three small ships" they said. It was necessary to rescue Finland, attacked by the USSR and Germany.

Failing to reach the White Sea, too unhealthy, the only port possible was Petsamo on the Arctic Ocean, beyond the North Cape. Everything was ready for the equipment but no orders came.

The expedition was canceled Petsamo. Why? Perhaps the information they have collected on the precariousness of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Or more simply, this expedition may have been considered too adventurous? Other projects have then been scaffolded in which the division Cadart found its place?

Click to enlarge El Mansour "saw the bridge of" El Djezair ".

On the bridge of "El Djezair" against the Admiral Cadart (right) and the second class midshipman H. Houard narrator of the story We will interrupt one-\ time the story of Henri Houard to publish excerpts from a book out of print, dating from 1957, written by Father P. Parquin, who was chaplain on board the auxiliary cruiser " X-17 "(pre-war" El Djezair. "With two other ships, the" El Mansour "and" El Kantara " the " X 17 "should participate in combat operations since 1939. These passages give us the opportunity to present additional pictures.

Since the campaign began, three El have been used for the navy, they were used in a convoy of troops to Beirut. A tragic accident at sea marked the beginning. In the night two trains collided. In the outburst of sirens, car horns hoarse screams, stamps chadburn, cries "Away all!"

Buildings collide, sheets wrinkle and human bodies are crushed. The ship landed in Malta Chenonceaux fifteen dead and cons destroyer Vulture, whose rabota bridge, port side, the front of "El Djezair", had six serious injuries. Since then, our hull door, in the sheet metal building, a long scratch on the port bow, evocation of a night terror.

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Linguistic sea The father Parquin evokes the origin of names given to three ships. Recall that the word which the boat is adorned with bow and stern (El Djezair) is the Arabic term designating the city of Algiers. Linguists free to decline the different phases of the African word to reach the French noun. In our maritime style, the name of the boat, just about to be transformed into a diminutive, remained intact. At sea, its function taking precedence over the word Algerian, did appoint the Head of division: the "Admiral", an abbreviation of the generic term flagship ..

El Mansour means the great and beautiful. During the North African history, this term has been attributed to many sultans of Morocco. Besides Tlemcen are the ruins of the city of El Mansour.

It had been built by a sultan of Morocco came to lay siege to Tlemcen. But he left his name. In the parlance of the division, the boat does change lives that Article Algerian "El" for the French translation of these two letters. C. Therefore, preventing the meeting of the two labial "L" and "M", ease of pronunciation unanimously decided the choice of the term The Mansour.

"X-16" El Kantara was named a Parade located in southern Algeria in the Sahara. near Biskra.

The term Arab means the door of the desert.

A word of mouth capital Come changes to the workings of Seyne previously described by Mr. Henry Houard. For Father Parquin he did not rule on board monastic silence …

The El Mansour is not to be outdone by the flagship. And, on the other side, the two destroyers on hold, and Sword Corsair, who displayed their bare fishbone not yet expanded, vibrate in their frames pointing skyward like organ pipes. Amidst all this din, and in all these vibrations, the one who can work at his office is privileged. All the boat comes to shake the fever so if you happen, by weariness to close their eyes, you can believe transported the dentist’s chair when you twist drill bits and the brain.

A Sunday, October 22, a pneumatic hammer, surely demonic, did not stop running around us, throughout the mass. For the songs, it was only the lesser evil. For the sermon, it was a disaster at least for my voice.

We talk all the same in this boat, but wide open mouth and into the whorl of the ear of your listener. The bottom of the corridor serving the cabins of the Majority (Staff), hear through two or three closed doors, someone who talks like a bridge in a storm: - You see Commander, if we put that gun there on the bridge as shown in the plan, the room tear the floor from the first shell. We’ll have épontiller that bridge until the hold!

- That’s right, Admiral, Commander Carpenter screams confidence.

Shy maintenance which is a crucial challenge.

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Click to enlarge The three "El" in a row. " El Mansour "at the bottom," El Kantara "between the two, and" El Djezair "in the foreground.

Click to enlarge An anti-aircraft machine gun on " El Djezair ".

Cadart division, made up of various vessels with auxiliary cruisers "El Djezair", "El Mansour" and "El Kantara," must, in April 1940, sailing from Brest to join the north of Norway and landed troops there. But the mission is canceled. On board, we wonder: other projects do they expect the division? This is the question answered here, officer " Trans " of "El Djezair" Mr. Henry Houard.

This question soon found an answer: what was the operation of Norway. He had cut off the German troops landed in the south who were heading north to protect the iron road. An ore mined in northern Sweden, indispensable to the German war industry. Of French and British troops were then landed at Narvik, including old acquaintances, "Cities of Algiers" and "City of Oran", the Transat.

The division Cadart, she was entrusted with a diversion on the German rear: landing of troops (Alpine troops) in the fjord Namsons, 100 nautical note of Trondheim. The embarkation of these troops and their equipment is made in Brest. The division sailed for Norway escorted by the destroyer against "Bison" and the light cruiser "Emile Bertin." "The poor guy" M Houard adds, referring to the Alpini had never seen the sea They did not embark. They had to carry on the ladder! " Stuck in a fjord Uneventful crossing. On arrival at nightfall, April 27, 1940, a Norwegian driver took over the convoy at the entrance of the fjord. The escorts were left on the outside to keep their freedom of maneuver. For the sailor accustomed to the vast horizons of the open sea, the entry and journey into the fjord gave the impression of being trapped Basically, a small town flirt grouped around its church, the people friendly and welcoming, Finally, a sense of calm and sweetness of life, far removed from war.

The landing took place in the nu t on a small wooden jetty where boats docked all three in turn.

Then head out with a big "Whew!" Of relief.

The secrecy of the operation Namsos was well kept. Had they known, the Germans could attack by air, inside the fjord, away from DCA. It would have been a massacre. Taking back the convoy training, empty of troops, and zigzag road to Scapa Flow in Orkney away nets and the DCA of the English fleet.

The Germans attacked the fjord until the next day and subsequent days. The troops having been landed

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unfold, the losses were insignificant. The village of Namsos, there remained a heap of ashes.

But the rest of our group to Scapa Flow was short lived. Indeed, the situation deteriorated rapidly in Norway. Division Cadart, always available, was shipped to Namsos to embark on May 3, not the French Alpine troops but British troops turned back by the Germans and completely demoralized.

The Namsos that we found in ruins a week later, Namsos dapper and welcoming that we had remembered. After a rembarquernent crash during the night, leaving the fjord took place at dawn. Training under convoy of British destroyers and road in Great Britain. That’s when things soured s.

The escort ships were there, faithful to the post. They devoted themselves to sudden changes because of enemy submarines had been reported. The attack came from heaven. The convoy was the target of Messerschmitt 109 fighter-bomber crashing in waves all day May 3. Either they had been lucky or they are very handy, they were able to maneuver to avoid the bombs, the three "El" fared intact. It was not the same for the escort: the "Bison" was sunk, the "Emile Bertlin" damaged by a bomb that had crossed from top to bottom without exploding. Several enemy planes were shot down.

At the front of "El Djezair", you can see the artillery platforms.

The old ships carrying British troops that they are repatriated. Under the protection of British destroyers, they are on Greenock Road.

Soon reached the 8 May 40: the rush of German mechanized divisions across Belgium, the breakthrough at Sedan, the siege of the Franco-British forces and Dunkirk. French troops are in England. In the hope, vain, to counteract the surging German forces in France, it was decided to bring them back to Brest. The three "El" was still available to provide transportation in part.

Thus the "small and fast ships" found themselves in Brest at the beginning of June.

With current events, one could believe their military careers ended. It did not happen. In the general debacle, he had to save everything he could to save, and among other things, the gold of the Banque de France stored in forts around Brest. Again, the Division Cadart was put to use for transportation to Africa.

Gold in Dakar For 48 hours, while everything that could float left Brest, sometimes jumping on magnetic mines by aircraft launched by the Germans, an endless stream of trucks requisitioned civilians, realized the clock moving boxes of bullion, since the strong up Wharf Lannion. At first, the trucks were escorted by riot police then, there remained the driver when the troops had evacuated the town.

Controller of the Bank of France was on hand to point out the crates. He boarded the El Djezair with them. The most extraordinary in all this is that with the exception of one case probably

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escaped from a net and fell into the water, there was no shortage!

Equipment on June 18, hours before the Germans arrived, with orders to reach Casablanca without escort protection. Uneventful crossing.

The Armistice was signed. Before the lusts that could cause the loading of the three "El", both by the Germans than English, it was decided to put the gold away in Dakar. And three "El" to sail again, still without protection and with orders to avoid English cruisers might be interested a little too close to the loading … It’s along the coast and closer to the shelter of a sand storm providential that limited visibility to a few miles (speed cameras did not exist at that time) that the Division reached its destination. She found the Richelieu left Brest a few days before it.

Gold could be landed and buried at Fort Thies, lost in the sands. where he remained until 1945.

Thus ended the campaign of the Division Cadart. The ships were disarmed, the crews returned to their homes, except the necessary personnel to guard and security. Present in Dakar during the attack of 23, 24 and 25 September 1940, they have taken no part.

The three auxiliary cruisers were cited twice in the order of the Nation, during operations in Norway.

The finder of "El Djezair" discrete beacon signaling, was built on board, according to the plans of Henry Houard.

What happened to "El Djezair", "El Mansour" and "El Kantara" after traveling to Norway and then in Dakar in 1940, you indicated to finish.

The steamer "El Mansour" crossing the Mediterranean after the war (return to service date of August 15, 1948). He no longer has a fireplace as a result of its transformation in 1938.

Déréquisitionné November 16, 1940, after the events in Dakar, El Djezair wins Marseille with the two other El shipyards in the Mediterranean Seyne take charge of its restoration. With his brother El Mansour and El Kantara their eldest, he assures, in 1941 some connections with North Africa, then laid up at Marseilles, he took the sea in 1942.

Seized by the Germans in 1943, they yield to the Italians as the Casino. Retaken by the Germans at the end of that year, he is disarmed in the Thau lagoon. In June 144, during an Allied air bombardment, El Djezair receives bombs, burned and capsized.

The life of this brave nvire’re not completely finished because, in 1950, the wreck will be bailed out and sold in Italy. Recovered its machines will be transplanted to a new El Rescue "Littoria" The existence of her sister ship El Mansour will be much longer and happier. Built to sites from the Mediterranean to the Seine, commissioned in 1933, it will be for more than thirty years, one of the fastest ships in the Mediterranean and comfortable. El Mansour, weighing 5835 tx for a

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length of 122 m, will carry 383 passengers and its speed will be over 20 knots. He will know the Italian government praise for rescuing the crew of the seaplane Littoria and shells of Spanish Republicans in 1938.

During the war, he shared the fate of his younger El Djezair of the 1st division of auxiliary cruisers (DCX) and then was seized by the Germans in 1943. Italian as a moment then back Amagni German scuttled by them in August 1944 in the port of Marseille, salvaged in 1946, he underwent an overhaul in two years at La Ciotat.

From 1948 to 1963, when it was sold to the Navy, it will honor its flag, its owners and its shipyards. Navy turns it into basic building under the name of Maine, and he will therefore still in Tahiti, for the atomic bomb tests in the Pacific.

Two Chimneys low In 1974, it will be delisted from the fleet and sunk by a cannon advised on April 3. The end of the boat as El Mansour goal sadden all lovers of ships, particularly those who are known.

The existence of the eldest of El will, too, very animated. El Kantara, built in 1932 at Swan Hunter shipyards in Britain, was in some ways the prototype of the series. Since its commissioning on-line Port-Vendres Algiers, its elegant silhouette, with its two low stacks and rear cruiser rallies all votes. Characteristics: 5080 tx, length 121 m, speed: over 20 knots, passengers: 360.

He released a grounding in 1936 with the help of his cousin El Mansour. In January 1943 he will also, before leaving the German authorities then shipped to Italy, April 23 following, Aquino (his new name) carrying troops from Livorno to Tunis, will be bombarded and burned by the Royal Air Force .

Rarely will a trio of ships had as much success with clients on both sides of the Mediterranean.

The commissioning of these three El has symbolized the height of the mixed company of Navigation.

Readers wishing more details may refer to the book by Bernard Bernadac on the history of the Compagnie de Navigation Mixte.

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