Suffren (BB)

History: Suffren was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed in 1902, Suffren was assigned to the Escadre de la Méditerranée (Mediterranean Squadron) for most of her career and often served as a flagship. She had an eventful career as she twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break before the start of World War I in 1914. The ship was assigned to join the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a series of attacks on the Ottoman fortifications guarding the straits.

Suffren was moderately damaged during the fighting on 18 March 1915 and had to be sent to Toulon for repairs. Upon their completion she returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli Campaign. The ship provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. After repairs she was assigned to the French squadron tasked to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica Front. While en route to Lorient for a refit, Suffren was torpedoed off Lisbon by a German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sunk with all hands.

Type: Battleship

SubType: Pre-Dreadnought

Primary Country: France is one of Europe’s largest countries. It is bordered by six countries other nations: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the southeast and Spain to the southwest. The United Kingdom borders France via the English Channel. The country is considered to be the gateway to Europe as there are several large international airports (two of these can be found in Paris), ferry terminals and the French rail service.

In 486, Frankish tribes unified under Merovingian kingship. In 843, Western Francia was established from the division of the Carolingian Empire. In 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown, and in 1792, the First French Republic was founded. In 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established.