French cruiser Lamotte-Piquet

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Career (France)

Namesake:	Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
Builder:	Arsenal de Lorient
Laid down:	17 January 1923
Launched:	21 March 1924
Commissioned:	5 March 1927
Out of service:	December 1941
Fate:	Disarmed December 1941; sunk in harbour January 1945
General characteristics
Class and type:	Duguay-Trouin class cruiser
Displacement:	7,249 tons (standard) 9350 tons (full load)
Length:	181.30 m (595 ft) overall
Beam:	17.50 m (56.5 ft)
Draught:	6.14 m, 6.30 full load (17 ft)
Propulsion:	4-shaft Parsons single-reduction geared turbines; 8 Guyot boilers; 102,000 shp
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	3,000 nautical miles (6,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	27 officers, 551 sailors
Armament:	8 × 155 mm (6.1in) (4 × 2) 4 × 75 mm anti-aircraft (4 × 1) 12 × 550 mm torpedo tubes (4 × 3)
Armour:	deck: 20 millimetres magazine box 30 millimetres turrets and tower: 30 millimetres.
Aircraft carried:	2 Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812, later GL-832 1 catapult

The Lamotte-Piquet was a French Duguay-Trouin class light cruiser, launched in 1924, and named in honour of the XVIIIth Century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte.

Completed in 1927, Lamotte-Piquet was based at Brest until 1933, serving with the 3rd Light Division, of which she was flagship. In 1935, she was sent to the Far East, where at the outbreak of war in 1939, she patrolled around Indochina, then a French colony, and the Dutch East Indies.

After the French surrender in Europe, tension developed along the border with Siam (now Thailand). These flared into hostilities between Siam and Vichy France in December 1940. In January 1941, the Lamotte-Picquet became flagship of a small squadron, the Groupe Occasionnel. It was formed on 9th December at Cam Ranh Bay, near Saigon, under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Bérenger. The squadron also consisted of the colonial sloops Dumont d'Urville and Amiral Charner, and the older sloops Tahure and Marne. The Battle of Koh Chang took place on 14 January 1941 during which the Thai squadron was destroyed.

Apart from a visit to Osaka, Japan in September 1941, the Lamotte-Picquet was restricted in her activities.

The Lamotte-Picquet was disarmed at Saigon in French Indo-China in December 1941 and used as a training hulk. Subsequently she was sunk in harbour, on 12 January 1945, by US carrier based aircraft from Task Force 38.