An American soldier stands on the deck of the destroyed French battleship Strasbourg in Toulon.
The battleship Strasbourg entered service on April 6, 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, the ship from October 1939 as part of Unit X, together with the British fleet, took part in the hunt for the German “pocket” battleship Admiral Graf Spee. Then, until the very capitulation of France, the Strasbourg battleship was accompanied the French convoys. After the surrender of France during Operation Catapult, the ship was not injured and broke through from Mers-el-Kebir to Toulon. On the morning of December 27, 1942, the Strasbourg battleship was blown up by her crew and flooded near the quay wall with the threat of the capture of Toulon by German troops. Later, it was raised on July 17, 1943 by the Italians, who removed the catapult from it, dismantled the superstructure for scrap and removed the armor from one of the turrets of the main caliber. In order to avoid bombing, the raised battleship Strasbourg was transferred to Lazar Bay. On August 18, 1944, before the Allied landings in Toulon, 36 American B-25 aircraft dropped the battleship and the light cruiser La Galissoniere, 44 of 454-kg general-purpose bombs and 108 of 454-kg armor-piercing bombs, on the Strasbourg battleship. The battleship was hit by 7 bombs in and it landed on the ground. In 1946, the ship was raised, but due to great destruction it was not restored. The Strasbourg battleship hull was used for experiments with underwater explosions, and on May 27, 1955, its remains were sold for scrap.
Location: Toulon, France
Photo time: August 1944