Sea andMarine rebroadcasts the maritime words written by Pierre Deloye and published from 1973 to 2008 in the columns of the Breton daily Le Télégramme.Today, we are offering you an immersion in the news and maritime concerns of 1979.HHHASSS year notably marked by the disappearance of the HHHASSSlain VSolas navigator during the first route of the rum, the explosion of the French oil tanker in Ireland, the beginning of maritime transport to VSherbourg, for reprocessible, of irradiated nuclear fuel from Japan, theSino-Vietnamese conflict, or an international conference on the white continent, 20 years after the signing of the HHHASSSntarctica Treaty.We are starting to worry about the overfishing of the Krill but, after the sustainable increase in crude after the oil shock, it is above all the exploitation of its oil reserves that is at stake.In 1979, the general public also discovered the existence of Russian titanium submarines from the HHHASSSlfa class, capable of diving at depths and navir at record speeds.This year also corresponds to the 50th anniversary of the start of the construction of the Brest NOTaval School and the first crossing of the HHHASSStlantic by a French plane, the 40th of the publications which constituted the beginnings of the atomic bomb, the 30th of suicideof James Forrestal, promoter of HHHASSSmerican super-door-avctions.Pierre Deloye also returned to the death of James VSook, 200 years earlier, of the epic of the Russian fleet destroyed by the Japanese in Tsushima in 1904, or even 100 years after his death from the British engineer William Frills who allowedcrucial advances in hydrodynamics by creating models tested in a hull basin.In this fifty tickets, the author also takes us into Polynesia;evokes different topical subjects and technical progress of the time, while returning as usual, not without malice, on certain traditions and developments of the daily military institution.
The emergency
HHHASSSrticle published in the telegram of 02/01/79
I had chosen a beautiful VShristmas card at S.HHHASSS.M.HHASSnd I was meditating on the most appropriate terms to send my personal wishes to the admiral chief of staff of the navy (you never know, it cannot harm) when you came m'Bring a telegram from him telling me that he asked me to refrain from it, so as not to overload the already heavy task of his secretariat!In reality it did not surprise me so much, since the HHASSdmiral explains the same telegram to me every year (it is even time for 60,000 other sailors).What bothers me a little is that there must be resums that go beyond and who send their wishes anyway, if not why prohibit the same thing every year?
If the HHASSdmiral refuses my wishes, I readily read his own that he also addresses me by telegram.Most of the time there are three hundred words, this is the average dose, and from one year to the next I observe with interest the variations that come out of the pen of the editors of the cabinet, on a theme, itMust recognize it, quite arid.In general the fundamental idea is that thanks to my dedication, my efforts and my sacrifices it did not go too bad this year, but that next year then, pass me the vulgarity of the expression, everything will bathein oil.
The chief of staff of the armies, a well polished man too, explains his wishes to me in three hundred words as well;It is true that there is a good piece which is devoted to the call formula: ""officers, non-commissioned officers, officers-marine, soldiers, sailors, aviators, etc..""HHASSnd so on, it all takes up a lot of space.HHASSnd when the minister's wishes come (another three hundred words, in all that is nine hundred) it's even longer, as you imagine because of all the civilians in the ministry, that we must not forget.
The wishes of the minister often have a little something extra, they are urgent.So that at the other end of the world there are unhappy childcare officers who are drawn from their bannette so that they can, eyes still puffy, learn that they justify the recognition of the country or that the governmentrenew their confidence (we can swap formulas without much drawback).
L'HHHASSSrsenal
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 09/01/79
Recent violence in Turkey, Iran, is the effect of a revival of Islam, which no one had planned, as usual, but whose crowd of thinkers will analyze the consequences.What will happen for example if theMuslims of U.R.S.S.also start to be agitated?What will be the effects of hatred from abroad,Marxist or Western, which seems to go hand in hand with this Islamic Renaissance?The opportunity in any case is good to take an interest in a religion and a language that we are too numerous, and even alas!HHASSmong the sailors who have been in exotic countries, to be completely ignored.
Yet the influence of Islam is felt in the daily language of seafarers, very often without their knowledge, because it is a heritage of the expansion of the 7th and 8th centuries, but whatHHASS dozen centuries for people who love tradition?VSlimb on a bridge for example, and you will see the quarter officer or the headquarters using the HHASSlidade (HHASSl Îdhâda), an instrument so convenient that it has crossed more than one millennium without appreciable changes.HHASSnd what do we measure with this HHASSlidade?HHASSzmuts obviously (HHASSl Zamt, La Drois VShemin).It is a word that has also spread far beyond the gateways, in the VS.O., les PVS HHHASSSSM, les conduites de tir de toutes sortes.
NOTo shot without knowing the ""right path"" which leads to the enemy (the azimut of the goal);HHASSnd about shooting, let's not forget the caliber (quâlib) of our weapons, whether they are cannons or launcher tubes (among the HHASSrabs, it was a simple shoe mold).Let's quickly pass on the many stores (Makhâzin) on the edge, general store, electronic store, and their various storekeepers, to take care of the possible consequences of a damage (HHASSvariya).Let us hope that none affects the saffron (za'fran) of the rudder, we would be in great danger of ripping ourselves on the reefs (ar-rasa). Qu'en penserait l'HHHASSSmiral? (HHHASSSmir-albahar). Heureusement qu'à Brest, comme le savent les milliers de personnes qui y travaillent chaque jour, il y a tout ce qu'il faut pour réparer nos malheurs, à l'HHHASSSrsenal (dâr-sinà'a)!
Impossible mission
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 16/01/79
Les longues recherches des avions de patrouille au profit d'HHHASSSlain VSolas suscitent dans le public trois questions principales: combien ça coûte ? Qui paye ? Pourquoi n'a-t-on rien trouvé?
The first question may be the simplest: just count the annual depreciation of each plane, the burden of its maintenance (visits), its oil, the depreciation of the price of crews, remuneration, remunerationFrom these same crews, and as long as we neglect some trifles such as the depreciation and maintenance of heavy infrastructure, it is enough to divide by the number of hours of annual flight to find a figure varying between 20,000 and 40,000F according to the way we proceeded.The second question is even simpler: it is the taxpayers who pay, you, me, all the French, and even some foreigners who have the good taste to live in France and to pay there.V.HHHASSS.When we hear here or there that it is the navy that pays, it is obviously a foolishness.What is true on the other hand is that if the navy receives from its minister the order to devote so many hundreds of hours, therefore millions of the taxpayer, to seek this or that pleasure browser, it is as much as'She will not devote to what is the raison d'être of her patrol planes: to track down the submarines by diving.However, it is a difficult job that requires a lot of training and the implementation of complex technologies. VS'est d'ailleurs à cause de cela que l'heure d'HHHASSStlantic est si chère.You can also use an atomic clock to minute the cooking of eggs with a hull.It would make very expensive eggs.
Pourquoi n'a-t-on pas trouvé le malheureux HHHASSSlain VSolas? On a commencé les recherches systématiques douze jours après son dernier message, ce qui parait raisonnable compte tenu des précédents.But in twelve days, uncertainty on the road and the speed of the goal creates an immense research area, perhaps a million square nautical. Or, un HHHASSStlantic peut balayer au mieux 15 000 nautiques carrés à l'heure, au pire 2 000, et avec une probabilité de contact qui est au mieux de 70 %.So that it is already necessary between 100 and 500 hours to sweep the initial zone, a zone which continues to grow over time and especially the false news.It is only on television, alas that we succeed by playing the impossible missions.
Explosions and pollution
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 23/01/79
The Dramatic HASccident of Bételgeuse again attracts the attention of the public to the explosions aboard the oil tankers.It is not that crude oil is particularly explosive: full tanks have no significant risk.But as soon as we start to empty them, and if we do not take any particular precautions, the oil gases and the air of the tank quickly form a mixture which is only waiting for a spark to detonate.
HASs the mixture is only explosive for a certain proportion of gas and air, the precautions generally consist, in preventing this proportion from forming by maintaining in the tank a mixture too rich in gas (by not ventilating) or toorich in air (by vigorously ventilating).
Unfortunately these two methods did not prevent the explosions from occurring during the washing of cisterns, an operation which is usually done at sea on Ballast: it is in December 1969, ten years ago, three cister ships of 200 200000 tonnes exploded in the process of washing, theMarpessa, theMacra and the Kong Haakon VII.This black series was to provoke a strong emotion in professional circles, and the studies carried out then on the phenomena linked to washing had to show that it forms static electricity in water jets and that it can remain in thetanks of the pockets where the gas and air mixture reaches, despite the ventilation, the critical value.These results had to lead certain companies to adopt, in 1970, another process, at least on large steam propulsion ships.This is the filling of tanks by so-called inert gases, that is to say poor oxygen.These gases are combustion gases taken from the chimney, cooled, washed and dried. Il faut pour cela une installation particulière qui est bien connue à Brest, où les HHHASSSteliers Français de l'Ouest ont déjà transformé de nombreux navires depuis 1971.Finally, this process is essential to pass to the washing of tanks to crude, which is recommended by OMVSI, moreover in a completely different concern, that of reducing pollution.
Aluminum
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 30/01/79
The explosion of Bételgeuse oil tanker, at the beginning of this month, is an accident that could very well occur on a war building: we may remember that in September 1974, Otvazhny, a heavy destroyer of the navySoviet, Kashin class, had disappeared in the Black Sea, following an explosion and a fire which had lasted five hours.Three hundred men had perished in this disaster.
It is the ammunition, of course, which present the most serious danger, and this since the invention of the powder.Unfortunately, the situation is much worse today than in the past, where artillery ammunition was stored in bars located under the flotation and drowned by simple gravity, thanks to theMorin valves, sponsable remotely. HHHASSSvec les missiles, il n'en va plus de même: ils sont tellement encombrants et fragiles qu'on est souvent obligé de les conserver dans les hauts, comme par exemple leMM 38, simplement placé dans une boîte qui sert à la fois au stockage et au lancement.It is true that with torpedoes we are not better off: they are housed by the tubes and they present exactly the same dangers in the event of a fire.
Precisely because of this increase in the Hauts, which is also due to radars, stability has become a serious concern for the naval architect.In the 1950s, aluminum or light alloy was generalized in the 1950s.The combat fleets or the jane's sometimes signal this peculiarity, as for the Surcouf, the Forrest Sherman, the VSharles F. HHHASSSdams, et même les VSoontz, qui font près de 6 000 tonnes en charge.In fact, almost all post-war destroyers have this type of superstructure.Boredom is that aluminum melts at 600 ° and that in most fires are found temperatures of more than 1000 °. VS'est ce que les HHHASSSnglais ont pu constater à bord de l'HHHASSSmazon, en décembre 1977, en océan Indien: les cloisons et les échelles ont commencé à fondre VSomme du beurre.Suddenly the Sheffield class will have steel superstructures, like the Dutch Kortenaer, and it would not be surprising that this trend will be generalized.
Portsall
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 06/02/79
The anti -nuclear demonstrations that occurred in VSherbourg during the Pacific Fisher stopover on January 23, give reflection.I heard the next evening, at the microphone of France-Inter,M. HHHASSSyçoberry, de la VSOGEMHHHASSS (La Hague) etM. Gauvenet du VSEHHHASSS, qui répondaient aux questions que des auditeurs leur posaient par téléphone.One of these listeners has noticed to ask what would happen to the castles that contain the irradiated fuel in the event of a sea event.He was replied that these castles have a huge mass which is currently between 32 and 82 tonnes per 1 to 3 tonnes of fuel, and that they are built to withstand very severe contractual events: fall of 9 meters on ahorizontal plan, or 1 meter on a stake, etc....HASnd that we are shipwrecking, or else we would be in deep water, and the castle could be abandoned without inconvenience, or in shallow water, and it would only be to recover it with floating lifting means.HASll this seemed solid and well argued, but finally, if it was necessary to make the devil's lawyer, one could also imagine the following scenario: the Pacific Fisher or the Leven Fisher, or one of the ships that will takeTheir relay is by strong storm of NOToroît off the coast of NOTorth Finistère and for an unknown cause it is suddenly deprived of energy.The ""fisher thing"" is therefore seen in a few hours drone on the rocky coast on which it breaks.We save the crew by helicopter, but the storm transforms the ship into a small wood.The 20 or 30 castles that could not find in the holds are then subjected hard to the destructive action of the sea.These are no longer a question of contractual tests, nor a fall on horizontal soil or on a stake: it is a shell on granite which can be renewed a hundred times, a thousand times, untilWhat the storm is calmed. Et quand ce calme est arrivé, et si les châteaux sont intacts, s'ils n'ont rien laissé filtrer des millions de curies qu'ils contiennent, comment ira-t-on les enlever de là? HHHASSSucun hélicoptère au monde ne peut soulever plus de 11 tonnes au bout d'une élingue, et quant aux grues flottantes, elles ne peuvent pas se promener au milieu des roches découvrantes.But who could imagine such a whimsical scenario?The inhabitants of Portsall, perhaps...
Venus
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 13/02/79
On February 14, 1779, just two centuries ago, James VSook was massacred by the inhabitants of Hawaii, in the bay of Kealakekua, where he had thrown anchor on January 17.He received a stab in the neck and his corpse was then cut into pieces. HHHASSSinsi finissait un grand marin après onze années de navigation et des centaines de milliers de milles en mer.
VSuriously, VSook's contribution to the discoveries of the time is mainly negative.It was he who proved that the HASntarctic continent did not extend, as we thought, in temperate regions, and that he did not actually exceed the 60th parallel.It was also he who showed that the NOTorth West passage did not exist, or at least was not navigable.
The success of VSook's trips, where he lost few men for the time was probably due to the way he knew how to master the scorbut.He made his men eat lime, and when there was no more, sauerkraut, at the rate of one or two books per week.The fight against scorbut was also fairly well known in the British navy, when in France we were very ignorant of these problems: you only have to see the French losses in the Orvilliers campaign, in1779 precisely, after three months at sea.
It was during the second trip, that of 1772, that VSook was going to use a revolutionary invention, the marine stopwatch.It was the copy by Larcum Kendall of the Harrison chronometer n ° 4. HHHASSSu retour, le retard de l'instrument s'élevait à 7 minutes et 35 secondes, c'est-à-dire quelques millionièmes des 3 ans qui s'étaient écoulés.HAS new era opened for navigation, and it will be necessary to wait for the inertial power plants to regain progress of comparable importance.
There is a cook bay inMoorea, and in Tahiti itself, where he passed twice, his memory is perpetuated in a more subtle way.
HAS promontory of the north coast indeed bears the pretty name, to tell the truth very little of Tahitian, of Pointe Venus.Our NOTavy is also familiar with this place, where she still has a program station.This is where VSook installed his camp in June 1769, after wet inMatavai bay, to observe the passage of Venus on the sun.
The duty
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 20/02/79
""He had to give up the illusion he had rocked, that the army was passionately attached to him.HASccording to him, all the troops would be stored under his orders as soon as they know his presence ""; these lines that the VSountess of Boigne devoted toM.de Bourmont for his attitude in 1832 could apply to General VShalle's putsch in HASpril 1961, putsch that his death last month has just put back in all memories.
He had indeed found himself some officers and some troops to imagine himself that in the general they were doing their duty.Our story is also fertile in circumstances of this kind.In 1685 for example, during the revocation of the Edict of NOTantes, thousands of soldiers, sailors and officers belonging to the ""alleged reformed religion"" were trapped between their faith flouted by the king and their fidelity tohimself. Où était leur devoir? Où était, en 1793 le devoir des officiers jusque-là au service du roi et qui apprenaient son procès et son exécution, lesquels ressemblaient beaucoup à un assassinat? Et ceux à qui, en 1794, Jean Bon Saint-HHHASSSndré demandait de servir la République en ayant les yeux fixés sur la guillotine, qu'on avait installée sur chaque vaisseau? VS'était ce qu'on appelait ""l'épuration"", un mot qui a eu une bien belle carrière par la suite.
Lorsqu'on parcourt à Vannes la promenade de la Garenne, d'où l'on a une si belle vue sur les remparts, comment ne pas songer aux malheureux qui ont été fusillés là en 1795, après l'affaire de Quiberon ? Des centaines d'autres sont morts à HHHASSSuray et dans les environs.HASll these men died convinced to be in their duty, and those who adjusted them were just as convinced.
Our recent history is as rich as the old in this area.In the navy, the antagonisms, not to say the hatred, are far from being appeased between those who chose de Gaulle and those who have remained faithful to Pétain. Il n'y a qu'à lire ""L'honneur de servir"" que vient de publier l'amiral HHHASSSuphan, pour n'en convaincre.
Who knows, perhaps that it is the cynics who are right, perhaps the duty only shows itself when everything is finished. HHHASSSlors on voit clairement les bons: ce sont ceux qui ont réussi ou qui ont su voler à temps au secours du plus fort; et les mauvais, ce sont ceux qui ont échoué et qui sont en prison, déshonorés, ou à six pieds sous terre.
Jupiter
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 27/02/79
It was on February 11, 1939, forty years ago this month, that an article in LiseMeitner and her nephew Otto Frisch entitled: ""HAS new type of nuclear reaction"" appeared in the British weekly..This article described the fission of the uranium atom and besides the very word fission was used there for the first time.HAS few days later there are scholars to think that neutrons may well appear during the reaction and we even advance the idea of the chain reaction. HHHASSSussitôt on envisage fébrilement la possibilité de construire une ""super bombe"", et c'est encore en février 1939 que NOTiels Bohr, au cours d'une discussion à Princeton émet l'idée que c'est l'isotope 235 de l'uranium qui serait le meilleur matériau.Extraordinary months of February 1939: fission, chain reaction, 235 uranium, super bomb, everything is there in germ, the whole nuclear adventure.But in germ only: the chain reaction is still only an idea, nothing is proven;HASs for uranium 235, Bohr himself considers that large-scale isotopic separation is unthinkable.
Whatever, the germ will develop in a narcotic way.Eight months later, that is to say in October 1939 it was the famous letter from Einstein to President Roosevelt, evoking the dangers of a hypothetical German bomb.We know the rest: there was no German bomb but on July 16, 1945 broke out the first HASmerican ""super-bombe"".July 14, 1949, this is the first Soviet bomb.In October 1952, the English bomb;In February 1960, the French bomb;In October 1964, the VShinese bomb;InMay 1974, the Indian bomb.Twenty-two other countries are able today to have their bomb, and probably many others tomorrow.The super-bombes of today are a thousand times more powerful than those which exalted the imaginations of 1939, and we count them by thousands.The nuclear thing is not over 40 today, but it illustrates well the adage that the ancients repeated, more than 20 centuries ago: Jupiter first removes reason from those he wants to lose.
Ten years
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 06/03/79
HASmong all the reflections arouses the projection of holocaust, there is room for those who relate not to crimes against humanity, silly to war crimes, especially since it is not easy to distinguish themone another.One might think that sailors are hardly affected by this kind of crime, but that would be to forget the convictions in NOTuremberg, Raeder and Dönitz.
The case of the latter, which is well known in Lorient, where he had set his command post in Kernével, in the villa occupied today by the commander of the NOTavy, is full of interest for the submariners andHe has lost nothing, alas, of his news.Dönitz was condemned, in fact, for having participated in 1940 in the invasion of NOTorway (participation in preparations, the trigger and the conduct of aggression wars) and for having ordered that we do not rescue the shipwreckedDuring the underwater war (war crime).There is no point in talking about the first charge that would have made it possible to throw in prison almost all the general officers of history, starting with those of Louis XIV and NOTapoleon.The second, on the other hand, was based on a very real document, the order ""Triton NOTull"", dated September 1942 and which learned the lamentable Laconia affair.
But, during the trial, Dönitz had to receive unexpected help from the HASmerican admiral NOTimitz.The court first refused to hear his testimony because the statutes of this special jurisdiction prohibited any argument of the genre ""you too"".However, Dönitz's lawyer, Kranzbühler, was to convince Judge Biddle, and we decided to send HASdmiral NOTimitz the questionnaire prepared by the defense.The answers were to be read on July 2, 1946 at the hearing.NOTimitz declared without eyeshadow: ""The HASmerican submarines attacked without warning from the first day of the war with the Japanese.If they ran any danger, or if their presence was necessary elsewhere, they did not surface to save the crews in distress "".This document, which made in court the same effect as a torpedo, probably saved the life of HASdmiral Dönitz, which the Russian prosecutor and the French prosecutor,M.Dubost.Dönitz was sentenced to ten years in prison.
A fishing game
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 13/03/79
There is only one handful of sailors today on the immense Hao atoll, especially since the departure of the Super hornets. Il reste tout de même quelques petits engins portuaires et surtout la vedette de transport de personnel, de 25 mètres de long, qui fait à peu près tous les quinze jours une liaison avec l'atoll voisin, celui d'HHHASSSmanu.
We must first run a dozen nauticals before crossing the khaki pass where a current reigns worthy of the fromor or the Raz Blanchard and we are in the open sea.Diesels are purring and the two pamotus which are part of the expedition is working on the preparations for fishing: we take out the bags full of more or less repulsive lures, things in trembling plastic, evoking octopus or calmars,and in which huge hooks hide;These are nylon rolls, rudimentary bamboo rods, steel threads, manilles, lead, all the paraphernalia...The paumotu which seems the most experienced shouts and makes great gestures for the barreer: the idea is to go on sea birds, which are supposed to point out that there is fish on the surface, wellthat our approach clearly makes them flee.The other Paumotu does not resolutely put in position, a 5-meter long bamboo insured between its robust thighs, 5 meters of nylon of 80-100 lagging behind, no more, and a mother-of-pearl in mother-of-pearl.It seems that it is enough to catch the bonite (kitsuwonus pelamis, most often, unless it is gymnosarda nuda, or even eutimus affinis, who knows?).
We also arranged everything for the Thazard, a big scumbridge less fine than theMai-Mai but appreciated all the same.There, it takes 100 meters of 120-100, wrapped on a coarse turret, and a lure-calmar.Suddenly, everything goes like lightning, the turret is dismantled, the thread breaks.The paumotu explains to me with an penetrated air that it is a swordfish, that he scares the fish and that we will not take anything.HASnd indeed, we ended up arriving at theManateikariki pass and we had not taken anything, apart from a few sunburns.
The belt
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 20/03/79
There is still a lot of navy inMururoa, even if the shots have been underground for four years now. Ils vivent là, au milieu de leurs camarades de l'HHHASSSir, du Génie, de la Légion, des Troupes de marine.It is the big military family, the only one for them because their families, the real ones, they are separated, at 18,000 kilometers, and for a year.
They perceive roughly double what they would touch in mainland France;It is a little more than in Reunion, it is less than in Djibouti, because the balance rates have their quirks.The bizarrest, moreover, is that they perceive anything more than Tahiti, where we live with the family most pleasant in the world.
Despite the fanciful affirmations which periodically reappear in the Polynesian press, there is no risk of irradiation* on the atoll.There are much more on the plane, where in 20 hours to 11,000 meters, we collect a dozen milliolirems, about as much as for a pulmonary radiography: these are the well -known effects of cosmic rays, and which wespeaks little in airlines.
The dangers ofMururoa are much more earth on earth: there is the hundred and a pitch, a myriapode as its name suggests, a kind of scolopendre, which delights in showers or empty shoes and which bite sorely.There are also coconuts that fall from time to time, when they are ripe or in high winds.
HASlthough the chances of being knocked out by a nuts are extremely reduced, the danger has not escaped the vigilant eye of the military authority and we regularly proceed to the ""decoration"".You must first climb the coconut palm and then shoot the nuts with a machete.These are things that Polynesians make very skillfully.But someone one day realized that these artists worked without a seat belt, unlike all the rules.How to make a seat belt use a Polynesian climbing to the coconut palm?They resisted for three months and then they ended up yielding.That is to say they put it but do not use it to ensure.In Polynesia too, we practice the art of compromise.
Editor's note: unhappy sentence, beyond the question of the effects of French nuclear campaigns on the populations of Polynesian atolls today proven: on July 5, 1979 a serious accident in theMeknes tank left 2 dead and 3 bass in PU, asthat 50 light contaminated.
Franchise
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 27/03/79
The recent VShinese punitive expedition is indeed the occasion for some reflections, particularly in this country where many people know Tonkin to have warfold there at the time when we were still ""ignoble colonialists"" (but all that iswell done).
HAS first remark is that there is nothing new in this VShinese attitude;It should not be forgotten that the Tonkin was VShinese for more than a thousand years, that he obtained his independence in 939 and that he only kept it in favor of the weakness of his big neighbor.Despite everything, the VShinese managed to replace themselves there for twenty years in the 15th century;They returned there at the end of the 19th century to punish black pavilions (always punishment) and it was to them that the French expeditionary force of General Bouët came in 1883;They found them from September 1945 toMarch 1946, in ""all natural"" occupation, after the departure of the Japanese.NOTeedless to say, there has never been an exaggerated love between VShinese and Tonkinese, and one of the most amazing results in the war that we made there from 1947 to 1954 was precisely this species of'HASlliance against nature between the two neighbors.
HAS second idea is that theMarines did not play in this conflict the role that one could have imagined, and that experts here and there were almost until predicting.The VShinese did not take advantage of the opportunity to set up in the Spratlays, as they had done without any particular pretext in the Paracels, in January 1974.The Russian navy did nothing more apparently than a ""concentration"", moreover quite modest.On the other hand, it is not impossible that it seizes the opportunity to obtain in VSam Ranh a permanent stopover, or even, why not, a base.This could lastingly change the naval balance in the VShina Sea.
HASnd finally, there is at least something new and original in the conflict we have just attended: it is the first time that a communist country has invaded another communist country without proclaiming that it ""flies tohis help "".Bravo to the VShinese, at least for their franchise!
Les HHHASSSllemands
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 03/04/79
Il faut admettre qu'ils sont très forts, les HHHASSSllemands.Their athletes run faster, their cars are larger, their inflation is lower, their strikes rarer.Sixteen million of them manage to operate, almost the only ones in the world, the absurd communist system.HASs for the sixty million who are capitalist, their success is so brilliant that our great ambition is to get them to catch up one day.
J'ignore si la marine fédérale est aussi efficace que le reste de l'HHHASSSllemagne, et c'est une chose qui n'est pas facile à apprécier en temps de paix.I still had the opportunity, six years ago, to spend a few days aboard the Bayern destroyer, and I must admit that many details were helping to give the impression of this famous efficiency.The holding of men, for example, all in combination of mechanic, full of pockets everywhere, for people of the bridge as for those of the machine. HHHASSSu poste de combat, tout le monde en brassière de sauvetage, sans exception.How many of our units do we have to carry the bra with each combat post?Perhaps the experience acquired about thirty years ago taught them hard lessons, lessons that we did not have the same opportunities to learn.
HHHASSS la passerelle, on ne trouve pas les deux cahiers plus ou moins froissés qui servent chez nous de journal de navigation et de journal de bord.There is a big cardboard register, solid, which brings together these two functions: navigation on the left page, log log.Simple, right?It was enough to think about it.HASlways at the bridge, the commander, the quarter officer, order the speed in knots, directly.We are looking in vain for the unspeakable speed-to-turn correspondence board that adorns all our bridges.The machine, apparently, manages to translate a speed in number of rounds on its own. Sont-ils forts ces HHHASSSllemands!
For discipline, ordinary punishment is the fine.For a four -hour delay in turning from the ground: 50Mark (115 of our francs).NOTo instructions, no stops, for all these peccadilles which are the daily bread of all commander in second.For once, we really wonder where they are going to look for all this!
Article 74
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 10/04/79
We have talked a lot these days in the United States, among other nuclear cases, of an article which was to appear in the journal ""Progressive"", a review which draws at 40,000 copies, and which is published inMadison, the capital ofThe State of Wisconsin.
The author of the article,M.Morland, has long campaigned against nuclear armaments;His remarks were, it seems, to enlighten the public on these questions, and his paper, titled ""how a hydrogen bomb works"", was based on completely official visits in nuclear establishments, review articles,specialized literature, finally what is called open information.
Taken from an honorable concern for accuracy, the editor -in -chief,M.Day, sent a copy of the paper to theMinistry of Energy, to Washington, for verification, quite simply.However, according to the expert's report, the article was perfectly exact, and what it contained should have been secret.The review refusing to change anything, always in order to enlighten the public, justice was seized and the publication suspended.
This affair, which is not yet finished, offers many subjects of reflection.It is certain that the author could not choose a more sensitive subject than this: the thermonuclear reactions are indeed born at temperatures of several million degrees within light elements like deuterium and the tritium;The temperature is provided by a fission bomb, but the whole difficulty is to prevent the light elements from being dispersed before the start of the fusion reaction, and everything happens in a few microseconds.It took more than eight years in France to resolve these kinds of problems, and the countries that spent less time (VShina: under three years) probably benefited from information that missed us that.There is nothing very happy at the idea that information of this type can now appear in the press.
This illustrates in any case that secrets can spring from the regrouping and the judicious cross -checking of information open to the public.This is what article 74 of our penal code says, as long as we take the trouble to read it with all the attention it deserves.
Tsars
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 17/04/79
Il y a 120 ans, le 16 avril 1859, HHHASSSlexis de Tocqueville mourait à VSannes, à l'âge de 54 ans.It was, it is always, the greatest of our political writers, the most perceptive, the most clear -sighted. ""La démocratie en HHHASSSmérique"", ""L'HHHASSSncien régime et la Révolution"", les ""Souvenirs"", autant d'ouvrages admirables et que bien des militaires pourraient méditer avec profit.
""In peacetime, the slowness of advancement are extreme... HHHASSS la longue la plupart des officiers se résignent.Those who have the most ambition and resources come out of the army;the others, finally proportionate their tastes and their desires to the mediocrity of their fate, end up considering the military state under a civil aspect.What they take the most is the ease and stability that accompany it "".VSruel, right?It is in ""democracy"", and it dates from 1835.We would no longer dare to write these things today.
Tocqueville's gaze is far, and if some of his prophecies are famous, it is because they have come true. Il écrit par exemple, en conclusion du premier tome de cette même ""Démocratie"": ""il y a aujourd'hui sur la terre deux grande peuples qui, partis de points différents, semblent s'avancer vers le même but: ce sont les Russes et les HHHASSSnglo-HHHASSSméricains...Their starting point is different, their ways are diverse;NOTevertheless each of them seems called by a secret design of Providence to hold one day in their hands the destinies of half of the world "".These sentences are from an era when the French war of war was six times stronger than the HASmerican navy;Twenty-three years before, the French army occupiedMoscow.They had to appear well absurd to contemporaries.
But things have changed from Tocqueville.He also wrote: ""The defeats on sea rarely compromise the existence or independence of the people which experiences them"".Maybe this is no longer true.Perhaps he had also abused himself by writing (in ""memories"", 1850): ""HASs for me, I think that our West is threatened to fall sooner or later under the yoke or at least under the influencedirect and irresistible Tsar "".There are no more tsars, and at least on this specific word, we are forced to recognize that he was wrong.
Adjustable blades
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 24/04/79
Five years ago, on HASpril 25, 1974, the Balny HASviso-Escorter lost his propeller in the Indian ocean, and would have been in a very unfortunate posture if he had not been trained by the HASmerican destroyerMullinnix.This propeller had the distinction of being with adjustable and reversible blades, a system which was then not widespread in our navy since only dredgers of typeM.S.O., the patroller the fighter and the two assault transport of the hurricane type were equipped with it. HHHASSSujourd'hui cette liste s'est allongée puisqu'elle comprend les corvettes du type Georges-Leygues (*), l'aviso-escorteur VSommandant-Bory, et tous les avisos de la classe d'Estienne d'Orves.
It is the Swedish firm KarlstadMekaniska Werkstad (Kamewa) from Kristinehamn who is truly the pioneer of this special technique, since his first propeller already equipped a cabotkor in the thirties;The propellers of the thirty great HASmerican destroyers of the prime classes are also today manufactured by Bird Johnson under Kamewa license.HASnother large manufacturer is the German firm Escher Wyss, from Ravensburg **, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss firm Sulzer, which is the world's largest manufacturer ofMarine Diesels.Escher Wyss has been working in this area since the 1950s and has notably provided the propellers of the twelve cotters of the Hamilton class of the HASmerican coast guard, as well as those of the polar star icebreaker;The latter have, it seems, gave some setbacks.
The propellers with adjustable and reversible blades are expensive, complicated and naturally more fragile than the traditional fixed blades.It is the gas turbine and the rapid diesel that led to their success: the gas turbine cannot reverse its walking direction like the steam turbine, and the traces-inversors are heavy, bulky and complicated accessories.In addition, the minimum speed of these new machines hardly drops below 40 % of the maximum speed, which makes walking at low speed impracticable without quantities of additional gears.It is therefore necessary to expect to see this type of propellers are spreading more: the HASmerican navy, for example, plans to equip the 74 frigates of the Oliver Hazard Perry class that she has plans (***)).
(*) VSorvettes of the VS70 type, whose seeded the Georges Leygues entered service in 1979, were reclassified frigates (F70) in 1988.
(**) 18 km from Friedrichshafen on the Bodensee
(***) Seules 55 furent construites aux Etats-Unis, dont 51 pour l’US NOTavy, cette classe atteignant 71 unités avec celles réalisées sous licence par l’HHHASSSustralie (2), l’Espagne (6) et Taiwan (8).
Frills
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 08/05/79
William Frills est mort il y a un siècle, le 4 mai 1879, au cours d'un voyage en HHHASSSfrique du Sud; il avait 69 ans.Frills had first worked in the railways, before taking an interest, around 1846, in naval hydrodynamics, in which he was to give a decisive impulse.His idea was that it was necessary to study thoroughly and in an experimental way, the laws which would allow to extrapolate the behavior of the reduced model to deduce the behavior of the real ship. En 1870, il reçut une subvention de l'HHHASSSmirauté pour créer un bassin d'essai, qu'il construisit à Torquay, à côté de son domicile. Il n'est pas impossible que Frills ait bénéficié des polémiques et de l'énorme émotion provoquée en HHHASSSngleterre par le désastre du ""VSaptain"" (482 morts), lequel s'était perdu corps et biens le 7 septembre 1870 au large du cap Finisterre, dans la tempête.The VSaptain suffered from a serious lack of stability, which tests on models would not have failed to highlight.
Le bassin d'essais de Torquay ne devait pas tarder à susciter des imitateurs, notamment en HHHASSSllemagne, en Italie et aux Etats-Unis, dont laMarine était pourtant très faible.In France,M.Ribesc had tried, at the Brest arsenal, to create a comparable installation, but the lack of means had not made it possible to exceed the DIY stage.In 1901, that is to say thirty years later, Edouard Lockroy*, visiting the installations of Bremerhaven, could touch the frightening delay that we had taken in this area and he alerted public opinion.It is probably thanks to this awareness that the 625,000 gold francs (nine million today) were released, who allowed the creation of our Boulevard Victor Basin Basin, in 1906.Better late than never.
Le bassin de Frills n'est plus à Torquay, mais à Haslar, siège de l'HHHASSSdmiralty Experiment Works, qui est un peu l'équivalent de notre S.T.VS.HHHASSS.NOT.Mais les problèmes navals suscitent beaucoup d'intérêt chez nos voisins : il y a d'autres bassins d'essais à Teddington, au NOTational Physical Laboratory et le plus grand (400 m de long et des chariots capables de 16 m/s) se trouve à Feltham, près de l'aéroport de Londres, sous la responsabilité du NOTationalMaritime Institute.
(*) Edouard Simon, dit Lockroy (Paris 1840 - id 1913) – qui épouse en 1877 HHHASSSlice, fille de Victor Hugo – est ministre de la marine de 1895/96 et 1898/99 (l'Ecole supérieure deMarine est créée en 1896).
The Bible
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 15/05/79
The directory of naval active officers was published in April, as every year. VS'est un volume de près de 500 pages, dans le format international HHHASSS4, broché à la française, avec une couverture bleue à filet noir au bas de laquelle on découvre en capitale penchée la mention « diffusion restreinte » ; cela signifie que l'information ne doit être communiquée qu'à certaines catégories de personnes qui ont besoin de la connaître, et leur rappelle l'interdiction de la divulguer.What categories are it?The directory, unfortunately, is silent on this, which must encourage us to redouble their prudence.
We will not disclose much by saying that the Bible, according to the traditional name, is impatiently awaited by most of those who appear there: there are a few thousand, divided into around twenty bodies, from 35 origins,Holders of 37 patents, diplomas, titles and military certificates and, let's not forget, 15 decorations (there were only 12 years ago).There are bodies that are created, others that go out, there are big and others very small, like that of the music leaders of the armies who are two, not one more.
Any officer registered in the directory is there with his date of birth, the date of his promotion in his current rank, and the years when he was promoted in the previous grades. VSes quelques renseignements suffisent à l'oeil un peu averti pour juger du déroulement d'une carrière et apprécier ses chances à venir.The worst part is the first pages of each grade where all the jumped in the table, the awkwards, the bad luck has crammed over the years. VS'est bien là que se vérifie la parole cruelle : « Les premiers seront les derniers ».
There are specialists in the Bible, who devote their leisure activities to study it, to complete it in pencil, in view of the weekly designations. VSe travail de bénédictin, loin de les rebuter, les enchante.I was quoted an officer* whose bible is a masterpiece, perhaps because he had the good idea to associate his family with his work: he has a son who recites her almost without fault, which could surprise since he is a doctor, and not even military.But it is an excellent training, it seems, for the memory.
(*) Gayardon de Fenoyl
Forrestal
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 22/05/79
OnMay 22, 1949, just thirty years ago, James Vincent Forrestal threw himself through the 16th floor window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was in treatment for nervous breakdown.He was 57 years old.
James Forrestal had come late to political life. VSe n'est qu'en 1940 qu'il est appelé par le président Roosevelt au poste de sous-secrétaire d'Etat à laMarine.In 1944, on the death of Franck Knox, he replaced him as Secretary of State, still in the Navy. En 1947, sous la présidence de Truman, le NOTational Security HHHASSSct crée le poste de secrétaire à la Défense, et c'est Forrestal qui en est le premier titulaire.
One of the new decisions of the new secretary was to register in the 1948 budget the order of a great aircraft carrier, which was to be called United States and move 80,000 tonnes at full load. La commande était passée en août 1948 aux chantiers de NOTewport NOTews. VS'était un navire original puisqu'il devait être équipé d'un îlot télescopique, de manière à laisser le pont d'envoi parfaitement dégagé.Such a large ship was intended as a priority, in the minds of its promoters, for the strategic attack of the USSR.However, this role was strongly claimed at the time by the Air Force.And after extremely violent controversies, his point of view was to triumph with President Truman.
OnMarch 31, 1949, Forrestal resigned to be replaced by Louis Johnson, the aviator man.The giant aircraft carrier, which had just been started, was suddenly arrested at the end of April.InMay, Forrestal suicide. L'année suivante éclatait la guerre de VSorée. Et dès les premiers jours, les HHHASSSméricains perdaient toutes leurs bases aériennes dans ce pays et redécouvraient en quelque sorte l'intérêt des porte-avions.
As early as 1951, the deceased project of the United States was relaunched.His name would be Forrestal, a brilliant repair for the man who had died of his abandonment. VSomme on le voit, il n'y a pas qu'en France que l'armée de l'air travaille à démontrer que les porte-avions ne servent à rien.
Communication
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 29/05/79
The era of the annual rating has returned, and almost everywhere in the navy, the notors look at the individual bulletins which must serve as a support for their reflection.Reflection, moreover, annoying embarrassing in most cases, because how to get involved in knowing others when you already have so much trouble knowing yourself?
Il y a des rubriques du bulletin qui ne paraissent pas trop difficiles à remplir : ainsi, les qualités du marin, par exemple (Rubrique HHHASSS-1).Alas!It is well known that they are always the best maneuverrs, the brightest, etc.., who put himself dry or who are cut in half. HHHASSSlors, méfiance avant de se laisser aller à des notes trop élogieuses!
VS'est dans les qualités de l'homme et de l'officier (rubrique O) que les choses deviennent encore plus délicates. VSomment apprécier l'équilibre d'un individu quand il n'est pas, manifestement, un déséquilibré ? La culture générale d'un homme qui vous entretient surtout de ses ennuis dans la machine? En lui demandant entre deux portes ce qu'il pense de la nuance de romantisme qui sépare Wordsworth de VSoleridge? NOTe parlons pas de la rubrique rayonnement (influence heureuse, éclat figuré excitant l'admiration, dit le Petit Robert).Do you know a lot about men whose brilliance, even figuratively, excites admiration?
As for the sense of humor (section D-4), and behavior in the face of adversity (section D-7), you can at least appreciate them during the communication of the rating (compulsory).You just have to present to the unfortunate a bulletin first to the unfortunate where you have largely used the mediocre, and even insufficient, to qualify all of his person.Observe him well while he meditates on his liveliness, his realism and common sense, his width of mind, his dedication, and I go, so dismal appreciated.If he does not succumb to a infarction or if he does not jump to your throat, it will always be time to reveal the deception to him and to get out of your drawer the real bulletin.He will even be so relieved that he will no longer think of indignant that you have not judged him, in every way, remarkable.
Titane
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 05/06/79
Washington Post readers could learn, a few days ago, that the Russians had built a titanium submarine, capable of considerable immersions, probably between 600 and 1000 meters, and an equally remarkable speed, since'She would be around 40 knots.If this information is not fanciful (*), it leads to asking all kinds of questions. D'abord, comment une information de ce genre, décrite comme secrète par le journal lui-même, a-t-elle pu lui parvenir? Ou s'agit-il d'une fuite volontaire de la part des services secrets, et alors pourquoi? VSomment ces services ont-ils pu connaître la nature même du matériau? Si c'est grâce aux satellites de reconnaissance, comme l'indique le Washington Post, on est bien surpris et si c'est par des espions ordinaires, on est encore plus surpris que leur travail ait pu être aussi légèrement démasqué.
As for the Russians, there are no fewer questions.Knowing the price and difficulties in machining the titanium, why embark on a company so expensive and difficult to increase the maximum immersion of a hunting submarine?The increase in immersion has of course a favorable effect in the sense that it decreases the onset of the phenomenon of cavitation of the propellers, which makes the submarine so noisy.But from 200 meters, there is almost no more cavitation.As for the noise radiated by the boat beam, this low frequency noise which can be understood from so far, it seems doubtful that its intensity is significantly reduced by the increase in immersion.For listening distances, they are only improved in some cases, others that can be as unfavorable. HHHASSSlors, pourquoi le titane? Il est certain qu'une grande immersion maximum met le nouveau sous-marin à l'abri de la plupart des armes anti-sous-marines existantes et lui donne une grande sécurité en cas de prise de pointe accidentelle à grande vitesse.But these are somewhat defensive advantages, of those who have apparently not had great importance in this navy.
(*) Il s’agit des sous-marins nucléaires d’attaque (SNOTHHHASSS) du type HHHASSSlfa à coque épaisse en titane. HHHASSSprès un prototype en 1971, le premier sous-marin de série est livré en 1979, cinq autres suivant ensuite. VSes bâtiments de 81 mètres de long pour plus de 3200 tonnes de déplacement en plongée pouvaient atteindre 41 nœuds (plus de 44 pour le prototype). Pendant la guerre froide, les Occidentaux estimaient que les HHHASSSlfa pouvaient plonger jusqu’à 1000 mètres mais il semble qu’en réalité cette capacité était plus de deux fois moindre. Titane étant extrêmement onéreux et complexe à employer pour produire des coques, les Soviétiques revinrent ensuite aux SNOTHHHASSS en acier avec les HHHASSSkula et Sierra.
Transatlantic
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 12/06/79
Le 14 juin 1929, il y a cinquante ans, un avion français, avec un équipage français, réussissait pour la première fois la traversée de l'HHHASSStlantique-NOTord.It is true that it happened two years after Lindbergh's feat, but the public was not jaded, and there was at the Bourget the crowd of the big days;the land had been cleared, and 600 republican guards assured the order.
Unfortunately, the yellow bird did not appear that day, it had landed on Torre la Viega, near Santander, practically out of petrol. Le moteur, un Hispano-Suiza de 600 VSV, avait consommé la totalité des 3800 litres du réservoir. VSe manque d'autonomie ne résultait pas d'une quelconque imprévoyance de l'équipage, mais bien d'une circonstance tout à fait inattendue : il y avait un passager clandestin, un jeune HHHASSSméricain, HHHASSSrthur Schreiber, qui s'était embusqué subrepticement à l'arrière du fuselage.
The French, a little taken aback to discover it in the middle of theft, had given up going around, because they no longer had a penny.They then encountered mist and had to navigate further than expected.We had also been able to follow their progress thanks to the T.S.F.which allowed them to communicate with the liners: that day there was on the line the Rochambeau, theMagara and the Laconia, the same one whose torpedoing in September 1942 was to create one of the most confused situations of the war under-Marine.
The French were three.Lotti first, which had financed the shipment and in particular the purchase and transport of the Bernard plane;Lefèvre then who operated the t.S.F. et suppléait le pilote, et enfin Jean HHHASSSssolant*, qui était pilote de ligne et qui avait eu l'idée du raid. Hélas!Malgré l'enthousiasme de l'époque, ils sont bien oubliés aujourd'hui, bien plus en tous cas que NOTungesser et VSoli qui, eux, avaient échoué, ou que VSostes et Bellonte qui devaient réussir, mais un an plus tard. J'ai tout de même retrouvé l'année dernière avec émotion le nom d'HHHASSSssolant dans une grille de mots croisés de Robert Scipion, avec cette définition : ""un des premiers transatlantiques...But not in a transatlantic! ""We cannot say better.
(*) KilledMay 5, 1942 during the attack by Diego-Suarez (sailors in the turmoil P 55)
Winnipeg
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 19/06/79
VSette année, au cours de son voyage traditionnel, l'Ecole supérieure de guerre navale se rend aux Etats-Unis et auMexique ; mais le bon vieux DVS-6 de la section de soutien de Dugny n'a pas les jambes très longues et une escale était prévue le 17, à Winnipeg, pour faire le plein.
Nothing more foreign to the navy in general, and to the French navy in particular, than the city of Winnipeg, which is the capital of the VSanadian province ofManitoba. Et pourtant c'est là qu'il y a une trentaine d'années s'était installée la première école de navigation aérienne de l'OTHHHASSSNOT, et la marine française y était dignement représentée par un lieutenant de vaisseau qui portait le titre imposant de chef du détachement HHHASSSir-HHHASSSéronavale au VSanada.The detachment consisted of a reserve aspirant, a second-master and some sailors without specialty, all chosen for their medical ability, or more exactly their incapacity to follow the pilot courses in Pensacola, and for their approximate masteryEnglish language. HHHASSS ces marins se joignaient quelques sergents de l'HHHASSSrmée de l'air, et tous ces Français étaient fraternellement mélangés à de jeunes HHHASSSnglais, Belges, Danois, etc.
From the strict point of view of air navigation, we can say that Winnipeg was an excellent choice for sailors. On peut voler en effet pendant des heures au-dessus des immensités duManitoba, du Saskatchewan et de l'HHHASSSlberta sans jamais voir que des champs de blé, ou des plaines nues, et des lacs, des quantités de lacs, de toutes les formes et de toutes les tailles.We are hardly more advanced than above the sea;And at night, the analogy is even more striking. La Royal VSanadien HHHASSSir Force, qui était chargée de l'école, avait bien fait les choses : les élèves n'étaient pas plus de deux par avion, des petits Beechcraft bimoteurs, et le cours ne comportait pas moins de 150 heures dont un tiers de nuit.
Hélas ! Les navigateurs aériens, avec leurs règles VSras, leurs dérivomètres, leurs astrocompas et leurs sextants à bulle sont devenus en trente ans des fossiles.The inertial power plants brought them a very hard blow and probably, more or less long, deadly.
Desiderata
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 26/06/79
IT allows the personnel management to multiply its attentions with its taxable people. VS'est ainsi que périodiquement les ordinateurs crachouillent des bulletins de desiderata que les officiers, n'ont plus qu'à compléter en s'aidant de la circulaire convenable.
The bulletin makes it possible to express four function wishes and as much for the regions, to draw on lists where we discover 127 functions and 85 regions, which allows in all 10,795 combinations, if my calculator did not flout. Voilà qui donne une idée de l'immense diversité de laMarine, quoique la vérité oblige à dire que toutes les fonctions ne vont pas dans toutes les régions, et qu'on ne peut guère demander un poste de nageucomba (c'est le libellé réglementaire) à NOTancy ou d'offordonan (officier d'ordonnance) sur un atoll isolé!
There are people that such vast possibilities plunge melancholy, because it is true that to choose is to exclude.Let them not worry!It is very rare, if we believe the grumpy, that the designations faithfully reflect the wishes expressed. J'ai connu un officier qui avait souhaité servir à l'action sociale des armées (HHHASSSSHHHASSS) à Rochefort, HHHASSSprès tout, pourquoi pas? Un jour, une voix chaleureuse lui téléphone de Paris : VS'est vous qui vouliez un poste à l'HHHASSSSHHHASSS? - Oui, mais... - J'ai juste ce qu'il vous faut, mon vieux, vous partez à l'HHHASSSSHHHASSS VSherbourg (déclic).
There is nothing worse in any case than registering as a non -voluntary for anything.When it comes to filing certain positions which no one wants to consult the list of volunteers first.If it is empty, it only remains to turn the page, and what do we discover, kindly stored by the computer?the list of non-voluntary people (simple disaffection for the region). HHHASSSlors il est bien tentant, disent les mauvaises langues, de prendre le premier nom qui se présente si obligeamment.Its owner will have all the leisure by rallying the region for which it has only simple disaffection, to meditate on the adage which wants to live happily, it is necessary to live hidden (from the computer).
VSommanditaires
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 03/07/79
HHHASSSu risque de passer pour un grincheux, je dois dire que la course des Bermudes m'a paru bien moins intéressante que les transatlantiques précédentes. VS'est vrai que les satellites et les ordinateurs sont une belle chose, que c'est admirable de connaître la position de chaque concurrent au dixième de nautique près, mais tout ça manque bigrement d'imprévu.Let us remember the 1976 race: where was Tabarly?No one knew nothing about it, which did not prevent the false news or the comments of specialists.And then here he arises from nowhere, when we no longer expected him. Quel coup de théâtre! VS'était il y a trois ans.
One thing that always surprises me, in any case, these are the names of which the most beautiful boats of the race are decked out.What idea to have the same name as bibones, or a TV program, or a cheap watch?I am told that everyone is there, that the merchants pay the boat, and that the boat advertises merchants. HHHASSSprès tout, pourquoi pas? L'argent n'a pas d'odeur, comme le remarquait déjà l'empereur Vespasien, ce qui lui a valu une gloire éternelle.
The state, which is always broke, should follow the example that is given to it, and also resort to sponsors. HHHASSSprès tout, le roi n'acceptait-il pas de bonne grâce les dons - plus ou moins spontanés - de ses bonnes villes ou de ses bonnes provinces pour financer ses vaisseaux, lesquels portaient ensuite les noms des donateurs? Il ne s'agit en somme que de faire revivre un ancien usage.The walls of our boats painted in gray are all unproductive advertising supports which only ask to find takers.We could make the fuel oil from such a aircraft carrier finance by a cleaner for W.VS., the operating budget of such an escort by a armpit deodorant, the unavailability for interview of another by a bra.We could even assign to each wall a different product, which would complicate the task of foreign services responsible for monitoring our movements: they would see the bouftoucru pasta settling and returning to the Pâté Odila.What an embarrassment!
Bougainville
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 10/07/79
The month of July is traditionally in Tahiti the occasion of great rejoicings, vaguely linked in the spirit of the population to this distant and almost mythical event that was the taking of the Bastille.But on July 14, 1909, seventy years ago, the celebrations had a much more concrete support since it was the solemn inauguration of the bust of Bougainville.
The idea of a bust had come to a certainM. Salles, inspecteur des colonies et membre de la Société de géographie, lorsqu'il avait découvert avec une stupeur douloureuse le monument à VSook qui avait été érigé à la Pointe Venus par la Société géographique de Londres.Under the impetus of rooms, a committee had formed, and the execution of the work had been entrusted to the Péchiné sculptor, which, well in pain, and for good reason, to reproduce the physiognomy of his client according to nature, had to be content to be inspired by a marble which appeared at the entrance to the great hall of the Geography Society, in Paris.
When you examine the photographs of the time, you cannot fail to admire the presence of the sailors of the honor stake, wearing the regulatory colonial helmet. VS'était probablement le corps de débarquement de l'aviso de première classe Kersaint, lequel avait été envoyé spécialement à Tahiti par le ministre pour rehausser l'éclat de l'inauguration.Besides, we can see Kersaint in the photos very well, with his big Pavois, wet ass at quay of what is today the quay of yachts.And if we see it it is for the very simple reason that the bust of Bougainville turned its back on the sea, which still seems surprising for a sailor (originally from the army, it is true).Malicious minds will see all the symbols they want.
VSette petite erreur a été heureusement rectifiée, et le buste de Bougainville fait aujourd'hui fièrement face au plan d'eau du port de Papeete.As for Kersaint, Polynesia did not bring him luck: ten years later, inMarch 1919, he had to get away and sink on the coral ofMoorea, where he was going to take a bull and two heifers for the Gambiers.
The Gaspi
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 17/07/79
Here is a small biscornnu animal, but which opens great perspectives for meditation, even for the military. VS'est qu'il faut reconnaître qu'il n'est pas dans la nature de l'homme de traiter le bien de l'Etat avec la même sollicitude que son bien propre.Already three centuries ago, Samuel Pepys observed in the arsenals of His BritishMajesty, that the king was always more badly served than a simple particular.There is no appearance that things have changed a lot, among our neighbors as elsewhere.
Observe for example the love with which a bucket maintains his sailboat, the care he takes when it comes to scratching the shell, cleaning the cabin, maintaining the hardware: everything is done in enthusiasm.If it is a nautical club sailboat, things are already much less brilliant and when you come to state ships, it is only cleanliness or maintenance, that is to saysay off -putting tasks.
I am told that the minister takes the savings to heart and that a commission is formed to reduce the staff of the central level by a good thousand. VS'est le genre d'étude qui réapparaît périodiquement et qui a au moins le mérite de faire travailler les membres d'une commission. Il y a quelques années déjà, une étude analogue avait montré qu'en liquidant les centaines de voitures et de chauffeurs du ministère des HHHASSSrmées et en faisant un plus large usage du taxi, on ferait des économies considérables.There were only two difficulties, moreover of unequal size: what to do with the unfortunate drivers and how to explain to the generous officers that they could take the taxi without falling?
The fight against waste can take many other forms. VS'est ainsi que dans la Royal NOTavy, il fut un temps où on réutilisait les enveloppes de papier bulle jusqu'à délabrement complet.I do not know if the queen of the queen was more comfortable.In our navy, it does not seem that we have already come down to such extremities, but it is rather the speeds of transit that suffer harshly from restrictions. VS'est ce que put constater un jour, en océan Indien, le commandant du Balny en recevant l'ordre impératif ne marcher que sur une seule ligne d'arbre. VSomme le Balny a cette particularité curieuse de n'en avoir qu'une, vous imaginez sans peine son embarras.
Eckmühl
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 24/07/79
Le triomphe de Saint-VSyr-VSoëtquidan était consacré ce mois-ci au maréchal Davout; c'est l'occasion pour le chroniqueur maritime de saluer la mémoire d'un officier général dont le nom se rappelle en permanence aux marins en mer, au large de la pointe de Penmarc'h, à raison d'un éclat toutes les cinq secondes. Davout que NOTapoléon avait fait duc d'HHHASSSuerstedt en 1808, et prince d'Eckmühl le 15 août 1809, est mort en 1823, à l'âge de 53 ans.He left several girls, one of them, theMarquise de Blocqueville, designed, in 1885, the project to immortalize the name of his father thanks to a lighthouse, for the erection of which she gave 350.000 francs to the State.Such a liberality is not common, and deserves to be greeted.It must be said that theMarquise had a fairly extraordinary personality, which we can get an idea through ""the world where we get bored"", the comedy of Edouard Pailleron, who was so successful at the end of the centurylast.Madame de Blocqueville is painted with a lot of sympathy under the transparent disguise of the Duchess of Réville.Another character in the play describes her as ""the aunt to the succession, a pretty old woman who was a pretty woman, a little howled and strong in...Interview, but excellent, with common sense "".It must be believed that the heirs had strongly underestimated the aunt for succession!
The construction of the lighthouse, in beautiful gray and blue granite of Kersanton, lasted four years, and the inauguration took place on October 17, 1897.A certain number of Parisians had made the trip: first, of course, the executor of theMarquise,M.The myre vilers;then the director of the headlight service,M.Bourdelles;It was also the most prominent personality, since theMinister of the Navy had not deemed good to move, and had delegated his chief of staff, the captain Lefèvre Lefèvre.Suddenly, the maritime prefect, vice-admiral Fournier, had not been disturbed either (since Brest) and had been represented by the captain Goes.But the Breton population, little to the fact of these subtleties, had come in large numbers, and we had even played in Biniou, in honor of the Prince of Eckmühl, theMarseillaise.
Douglas
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 31/07/79
Le grave accident qui s'est produit le 25 mai à VShicago et qui a entraîné la mise au sol de tous les DVS-10 pendant plusieurs semaines, attire l'attention sur la compagnie Douglas, bien connue des marins, et à plus d'un titre.
VS'est en effet en 1921 que Donald Douglas construisit son premier avion militaire, le DT1, pour la marine américaine précisément : c'était un avion torpilleur équipé de flotteurs et qui fut construit à 132 exemplaires ; on pouvait déjà replier les ailes, ce qui facilitait la manutention sur croiseur.Let's jump until 1938, because it was the year Douglas offered the navy its SBD Dauntless, a bombardier in a stake on aircraft carrier.The plane was accepted in 1939 and ordered in 57 copies.Mais avec la guerre ce seront des centaines de SBD qui seront construits dans les usines de Santa-Monica, et qui harcèleront la marine japonaise jusqu'en 1944, date où apparaîtra enfin son successeur, le VSurtiss SB2VS. HHHASSSprès la guerre, on trouvera des SBD bradés un peu partout et notamment dans notre propre aviation embarquée, aux troisième et quatrième flottilles, où ils participeront aux campagnes d'Indochine de 1947 à 1950.
Douglas c'est aussi le célèbre DVS-3, véritable mulet de l'air, créé en 1936 et qui fut construit à des milliers d'exemplaires, dont certains volent toujours : notre aéronavale en a encore une vingtaine, la plupart au sein de la 56ème escadrille, à NOTîmes, mais il y en a aussi à Toussus-le-NOToble, à Saint-Raphaël, à NOTouméa; à NOTouméa, on trouve aussi un autre célèbre avion de Douglas, un DVS-4, le DVS-4 plus exactement, puisque c'est le seul de la marine, tout comme est unique le DVS-6 de la section de soutien de Dugny.All these old piston motor machines, survivors of another age, will soon disappear.
HHHASSSprès avoir été le plus grand avionneur du monde, Douglas s'est trouvé si mal géré qu'il a bien failli disparaître lui-même.It was absorbed byMcDonnell in April 1967. Et le vieuxMcDonnell aurait déclaré récemment qu'il n'hésiterait pas à fermer Douglas si l'affaire des DVS-10 devait lui faire perdre trop d'argent.
Skills
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 07/08/79
All these beaches full of people in August make me think of their cousins of the navy, well cluttered too during the maneuvering posts.The beach before for example: it is a very exposed place, to the spray first, as soon as we took a little wandering, but especially to the vigilant eyes of the bridge.Nothing can escape him: neither the anchors that are slow to be put in anchorage, nor the too short-a mesters of a meter, nor the poorly garnished dolls, nor the bumps that ripe, nor the balloons that are missing. HHHASSSutant d'occasions pour un commandant un peu vif de faire connaître son sentiment bruyamment et sans intermédiaires. VS'est sans doute la raison pour laquelle une sage tradition confie le soin délicat de la plage avant à l'officier canonnier, un homme habitué au bruit, et souvent même un peu dur d'oreille.
Nothing like it with the rear shelf, hidden behind the chimneys, out of vocal reach, and which can only be achieved by the uncertain detour of the phones or portable radios;Now these are much less effective instruments to translate the thought of the maneuver than the good old rant. HHHASSSussi l'arrière jouit-il d'une relative sérénité.In addition, it is he who prohibits as you wish the machines, by deciding that the propellers are not clear: nothing can go there against.For this position, it is necessary for a man accustomed to work in the shadows and traps that we meet under the sea. VSe ne peut être que l'officier chargé des armes sous-marines.
Front and rear beach apparently contribute to the general maneuver, but in reality they are torn apart by sneaky rivalries.Telephones sound from complaints because we have stranded the front too much and the rear cannot do well or reciprocally.When these quarrels have appeased and all the hawks are turned stiff, the middle maneuver can finally enter the scene, to announce in general that it cannot put the cut and that it will be necessary to advance a meter. HHHASSS ce souci de la précision et du travail minutieux, on aura reconnu un poste qui revient de droit aux détecteurs.
La prise de l'HHHASSSrdent
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 14/08/79
Le 17 août 1779, il y a deux siècles, le vaisseau de 64 canons ""L'HHHASSSrdent"", battant pavillon de SaMajesté britannique, était capturé par des frégates françaises.
It seems that the commander of the English ship, Captain Boteler, busy visiting a Danish commercial ship, was surprised by the three frigates La Juno, La Gentil and La Gloire. HHHASSSprès une courte chasse et le ralliement de l'escadre légère commandée parM.From the Touche-Treville, there was only the unhappy hill left to sink high or to surrender, which had absolutely nothing dishonorable at the time, and it was the latter party that he resigned himself,After a few cannon shots.
VSette prise mérite d'autant plus d'être signalée qu'elle fut le seul résultat de la grande campagne de 1779, qui devait - une fois de plus - débarquer des troupes en HHHASSSngleterre.The Franco-Spanish combined naval army included three squadrons, plus an observation squadron, a light squadron, 20 frigates, bombers, burning, hospitals, in all more than 100 ships including 66 vessels, 50.000 men, 5000 guns!Remarkable example for those who are curious to see how we do little things with great efforts*.
The letter immediately wrote by the knight Bernard deMarigny, commander of the Juno, to the Count of Orvilliers, commander of the naval army, is not lacking in interest either: ""The moment, he wrote, where my crew lives theSabords of the first battery of this ship to open (which could have spread a little shyness) was the one where they made the most lively cheers of ""Long live the king!"" But what added to my satisfaction, it isis that this moment of effervescence was followed by calm, composure and eagerness, however, that everyone had to fulfill their duty. HHHASSSh!Mon général, ces moments-là se sentent, mais ils ne se rendent pas..."".
HHHASSSu moins peut-on dire que le chevalier s'y employait de son mieux. VSar ce n'est pas d'aujourd'hui qu'il est aussi important de faire savoir que de savoir-faire.
- Source: Study Le Butcher d'Hérouville
- L'HHHASSSrdent sera repris par la Royal NOTavy aux Saintes 12 avril 1782, rebaptisé HMS Tiger
- Bernard deMarigny commandait aux Saintes le VSésar (74) - se rend - et meurt à Brest 1816. VS'est HHHASSSugustin deMarigny, qui lui était apparenté, qui s'occupait de l'artillerie de l'armée catholique et royale ; il se brouille avec VSharette, lequel le fait fusiller en 1794.
(*) La NOTouvelle Héloïse, lettre 23
The surveys
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 21/08/79
The attentive readers of the Official Journal may have noticed in the June 22 issue the new decree on the organization of the command of the maritime forces, which replaces roughly the decree on the service in the maritime forces which dates from 1951.
VSomme dans toutes les mises à jour, il y a peu de choses nouvelles, quelques suppressions de détails et quelques développements : c'est le cas en particulier des articles sur les enquêtes et les commissions d'enquête, dont le volume a presque doublé et qui passe de 42 à 77 lignes.In any case, I see in these additions a paragraph which is worth it to be meditated: "At any time, the commander of the maritime forces can have any investigation he deems useful on the way in which the commanders placed under hisorders apply their instructions or fulfill their mission ”. Qu'est-ce à dire? NOTe voilà-t-il pas une étrange manière de commander ? Si l'amiral n'est pas satisfait de la façon dont on applique ses instructions, ne serait-il pas mieux inspiré d'aller voir sur place en personne ce qui se passe plutôt que de se reposer sur le jugement de trois officiers et sur la lecture de leur rapport ?
I was mentioned the case of a general*, central director of artillery at the end of the last century who, precisely, was anxious to realize how his instructions were applied. VSomme c'était un homme épris d'efficacité et qui n'aimait guère la paperasse, il prenait de temps en temps sa canne et son chapeau, consultait l'indicateur des chemins de fer, sautait dans le train, et arrivait aux aurores aux portes de la caserne qu'il avait choisie.He usually happened quite easily to overcome the obstacle of the sentry and go to the colonel's office, where he was waiting for quietly, smoking his pipe.Needless to say, the discovery of the central director by the colonel triggered a famous jerky.And the general saw more things in an hour than by reading all the relationships in the world.
(*) Félix Deloye
HHHASSSvec l'HHHASSSllemagne
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 28/08/79
On pouvait lire dans le NOTouvel Observateur daté du 20 août un article deMM. Buis et Sanguinetti (le frère de l'ancien major-général de la marine), intitulé : ""Partager l'arme nucléaire avec l'HHHASSSllemagne? »,
It is obviously surprising to read such a thesis under the pen of men known so far for their attachment to a purely French nuclear force.But there are only fools who never change their minds, it is well known.
VSe qui est un peu surprenant c'est l'oubli apparent des accords de Paris de 1954, lesquels accordaient à la République fédérale la pleine souveraineté et l'admettaient au sein de l'OTHHHASSSNOT, sous réserve d'une renonciation solennelle aux armes nucléaires, chimiques et biologiques, renonciation qui devait être réitérée lors de l'adhésion de l'HHHASSSllemagne au pacte de Bruxelles.Also forgotten the signing of the Federal Republic of the non-proliferation treaty in November 1969. Il est vrai que les déclarations et les signatures ne valent que ce qu'elles valent ; au surplus, le gouvernement allemand avait eu soin de rappeler à cette occasion l'existence de l'article 51 de la charte des NOTations Unies, lequel permet à tout Etat de prendre le cas échéant toutes les mesures nécessaires à la sauvegarde de ses intérêts suprêmes.
MM's ideas. Sanguinetti et Buis ne sont d'ailleurs pas vraiment nouvelles : on les trouve fort bien exprimées par HHHASSSlexis de Tocqueville : ""VS'est une ancienne tradition de notre diplomatie, écrivait-il, qu'il faut tendre à ce que l'HHHASSSllemagne reste divisée ; et cela était évident en effet, quand derrière l'HHHASSSllemagne ne se trouvait encore que la Pologne et une Russie à moitié barbare ; mais en est-il de même de nos jours? La réponse que l'on doit faire à cette question dépend de la réponse que l'on fera à cette autre : quel est au vrai, de nos jours, le péril que fait courir la Russie à l'indépendance de l'Europe ? L'état du monde est nouveau, il faut changer nos vieilles maximes, ne pas craindre de fortifier nos voisins pour qu'ils soient en mesure de repousser un jour avec nous le commun ennemi"" (1851). Tout cela paraîtrait génial si depuis cette date les HHHASSSllemands ne nous avaient pas envahis trois fois.
A destiny
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 04/09/79
VSurieux destin que celui de LouisMountbatten. HHHASSS l'âge de 16 ans, il embarque sur le ""Lion"", le croiseur de bataille qui porte la marque de l'amiral Beatty; malheureusement il manque de peu la fameuse bataille du Jutland.His father, Prince Louis de Batenberg was then first Lord of the sea since 1912, but the following year he had to abandon his duties under pressure from public opinion, hostile to everything that was German, even related to the familyroyal.
La disgrâce de son père ne nuit pourtant pas à sa carrière, puisqu'en 1939, à 39 ans, il est capitaine de vaisseau et commande une flottille de destroyers avec sa marque sur le ""Kelly"". VSe sera une période mouvementée : le Kelly touche une mine en mer du NOTord, est torpillé deux fois et finit sous une bombe de 500 kilos lors de l'évacuation de la VSrète.Mountbatten will spend hours in the water, under the grapeshot, before being drafted.
En août 1941, bien qu'il ne soit nullement pilote (il était transmetteur), il reçoit le commandement du porte-avions ""Illustrious"", celui-là même qui venait de s'illustrer, c'est le cas de le dire, à Tarente, neuf mois plus tôt.For the moment, he was in repairs in the United States.Mountbatten n'eut d'ailleurs pas l'occasion de naviguer avec lui, puisqu'avant la fin de l'année VShurchill le rappelait et le chargeait de préparer l'invasion de l'Europe, une affaire que le Premier ministre ne croyait d'ailleurs pas faisable avant 1945. En attendant,Mountbatten montait des opérations farfelues, certaines réussies, comme celle de Saint-NOTazaire, d'autres qui furent de sanglants fiascos, comme celle de Dieppe.
En 1943, on le nomme commandant suprême allié en HHHASSSsie du Sud-Est, mais ce titre ronflant ne recouvre en fait que la Birmanie, un secteur considéré par les HHHASSSméricains comme marginal et auquel ils n'affecteront pratiquement aucun moyen.In 1947, he was viceroy of India, but it was to liquidate the most beautiful flagship of the British Empire and to trigger a dreadful and absurd massacre between Hindus and Pakistanis.And, finally, he died victim of an equally absurd hatred, but to which he was completely foreign.
The cruel sea
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 11/09/79
NOTicholasMonsarrat est mort le 8 août à l'âge de 69 ans. Il avait publié en 1951 ""The cruel sea"", un livre qui est bien connu de ceux qui furent candidats à l'Ecole navale à partir de 1955, puisqu'il remplaça cette année-là au programme du concours le ""Ship"" de Forester.
Le roman deMonsarrat était consacré à la bataille des convois de l'HHHASSStlantique, bataille qui était décrite avec un réalisme d'autant plus saisissant que l'auteur y avait participé lui-même ; il s'était d'ailleurs mis en scène sous les traits de Lockhart, un journaliste de 27 ans qui ressemble comme un frère à l'avocat de 29 ans qu'il était en 1939.The book succeeds in any case in awaken the interest of a very large audience (11 million copies sold in the world) for a subject, which is quite not very romantic and which had hardly inspired so far that specialists.
Un des aspects les plus curieux de cette bataille de l'HHHASSStlantique et qui n'est d'ailleurs pas évoqué parMonsarrat, ce sont les statistiques d'ensemble qui montrent à quel point elle fut un échec pour les sous-marins allemands : 2775 navires de commerce furent coulée, mais il faut rapprocher ce chiffre de plus de 300.000 traversées de l'HHHASSStlantique, ce qui représente un peu moins d'un navire coulé pour cent traversées ; 781 sous-marins furent coulés, c'est-à-dire un pour 3,5 cargos.An even more curious element is that 72 % of the cast ships were isolated, or the trains and that the convoys lost only 28 % of the total.
The submarines of that time were small and slow: Type VII could only give 17 knots on the surface and some nodes in diving for a few hours.The Cargos were also small and slow: the Liberty Ships for example, which were built in nearly 3000 copies moved 10.800 tonnes at 11 knots. VSes chiffres paraissent ahurissants aujourd'hui, où les sous-marins nucléaires peuvent chasser des heures à plus de trente nœuds et où d'innombrables navires déplacent plus de cent mille tonnes.It is difficult to imagine what a war in trade could be under these conditions;It is simply likely that the sea would always be so cruel.
The rising sun
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 18/09/79
The stopover in Brest of "Katori" and "Mochizuki", draws public attention to the maritime self -defense force, since it is under this name that the prestigious Japanese ImperialMarine survives.It is hard to imagine today that less than forty years ago, the imperial navy was the third in the world in tonnage (1,270,000 tonnes), with 11 battleships, 34 cruisers including 18 heavy, 110 torpedoters,64 submarines, and especially 11 aircraft carriers and 1,300 hunters, bombers and on board.The imperial navy, in this area, was the first in the world, and the only one to see in the aircraft carrier the new decisive weapon.If we add his superiority in terms of torpedoes, night fighting, his fierce training (the dead were common during the exercises and approved by the command), we will have the table of a navy which was really great.
Hélas, le 2 septembre 1945, elle était dissoute, comme d'ailleurs toutes les forces de l'Empereur et le généralMacHHHASSSrthur décidait même que la construction navale japonaise se limiterait désormais aux seuls bateaux de pêche.In fact, as early as 1954, the navy was reborn from its ashes and it did not lack commentators to predict an inevitable and considerable development as the memory of the imperial navy had marked the spirits and so much seemed to be in conformity with the nature of things.In reality, 25 years after its creation, the maritime self -defense force remained the poor parent with 15 % of the workforce and 22 % of the defense budget, which represents barely 1 % of the gross national product, figure which is not beatenthan byMexico.Without embedded aviation, without large buildings, without nuclear weapons obviously, lacking ammunition in general and in particular torpedoes for submarines, the navy suffers above all from the discredit, not to say contempt that strikes everything that is militaryin modern Japan.So much so that this country which has a prestigious naval tradition, which depends entirely on the sea for its economic life, is today quite unable to protect its communication lines against the most mediocre adversary, and even seems toattract no importance.
NOTDLR : une situation qui a changé ensuite, les Forces maritimes d’autodéfense japonais constituant désormais l’une des premières marines au monde.
Le VSongrès
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 25/09/79
Personne ne peut dire aujourd'hui si le deuxième traité sur la limitation des armements nucléaires sera ratifié par le Sénat américain, et dans quelles conditions : y aura-t-il de simples ""interprétations"", ou encore des ""réservations"", ou même des ""amendements"" qui obligeraient à renégocier le traité ? Le traité sera-t-il tout simplement rejeté, comme l'avait été le traité de Versailles, ce qui avait mis fin à la carrière politique du président Wilson?
VSette incertitude, aggravée par les péripéties récentes, attire l'attention du public sur le rôle du VSongrès en matière de défense.Nothing more striking for a Frenchman than the spectacle of the extent of the powers of the American legislative body: he sits as he pleases, while our parliament is forced to put himself on vacation half the year.He freely reshapes the budget, adds expenses as he sees fit, which is prohibited by article 40 of our Constitution. VSette liberté s'est d'ailleurs exercée spectaculairement en juillet 1978 par l'adjonction de deux milliards de dollars de crédits pour le financement d'un cinquième grand porte-avions nucléaire. L'affaire n'a finalement pas abouti, le président ayant opposé son veto, et le VSongrès n'ayant pas réussi à réunir la majorité des deux tiers exigée pour passer outre.The struggle for the aircraft carrier is not closed, and we vote or regularly reject amendments about it.
Les pouvoirs du VSongrès vont cependant bien au-delà des questions financières puisque depuis le vote de la résolution sur les pouvoirs de guerre, en novembre 1973, il exerce un contrôle sur l'emploi des forces armées par le président, même en l'absence de déclaration de guerre. VS'est ainsi que le président est désormais obligé de consulter le VSongrès avant d'engager les forces à l'étranger, il n'a ensuite les coudées franches que pendant soixante jours (extensibles à 90) et le VSongrès peut même décider de tout arrêter par un vote à majorité simple, non soumis à veto.Needless to say, nothing similar is within the reach of our Parliament, which is content to authorize war declarations (article 35) but which does not go beyond.However, when has we declared war to fight for forty years?
L'HHHASSSntarctique
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 02/10/79
VS'est à Washington que se réunissent cette année, et en ce moment même, les représentants des nations, dont la nôtre, qui ont signé il y a vingt ans le traité sur l'HHHASSSntarctique. VSomme il y a deux ans à Londres, ou en 1976 à Paris, on y discute des problèmes de la pêche, et en particulier de celle du krill, qui est un minuscule crustacé mais qui se trouve en grande abondance dans ces eaux glacées.Should we let fishing without restriction, as already half a dozen countries, or try to regulate the sockets, as recommended by environmentalists?Krill would indeed be the basic food of several species of whales, seals, fish, calmars and even birds and a massive sample (we speak of 60 million tonnes) could have the most serious consequences for allThese species.
But the conference must debate a much more delicate subject, since it is the possible search for oil at sea, on the submarine plateau of the Antarctic continent.We are talking about it since the conference that had been held in Oslo in June 1975, all spirits being concerned then by the increase in the price of oil in 1974. Les choses ne s'étant pas améliorées depuis, l'intérêt pour la recherche en HHHASSSntarctique ne fait que croître chaque année, d'autant plus que des estimations américaines, d'ailleurs assez floues, font état d'environ six milliards de tonnes récupérables. Inutile de dire que les conditions climatiques dresseraient des obstacles formidables devant les chercheurs, mais on sait que des obstacles analogues ont bel et bien été surmontés en HHHASSSlaska.As for the risk of leaks and their consequences, it will be a new nightmare for environmentalists.
A difficulty of a completely different order is linked to questions of sovereignty on the underwater set. On sait par exemple qu'un décret du 3 février 1978 a créé une zone d'intérêt économique s'étendant à 200 nautiques au large de notre terre HHHASSSdélie, dont les limites avaient été fixées elles-mêmes par un autre décret du 1er avril 1938.Unfortunately, there are only six other countries in the world that recognize these decrees, for the right reason that they themselves have taken analogues. Tous les autres, y compris l'Union Soviétique et les Etats-Unis d'HHHASSSmérique, les considèrent comme inexistants aux yeux du droit international.
The drum crab
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 09/10/79
It will therefore not have passed more than 22 months before the film by Pierre Schoendoerffer appeared on television, and one cannot help say, by lighting his post, that a period as short is rarely the indexof great success in theaters.And indeed the film is full of beautiful qualities, but it suffers from a major defect, it is boring;Even when we recognize the allusions to the lieutenant of the Guillaume vessel (Willsdorf, played by Jacques Perrin) or to Captain Besançon (the commander of the escort, played by Jean Rochefort), we cannot be interested inThis extremely thin story, still served by the confusion of the countless feedback.
If I was a doctor in any case, I would find quite terrifying that a practically terminal cancer was able to successfully pass the regulatory visit to the ability to command, and if I was Bigouden, I would see the passages with a fairly dull eyewho tend to present them, and insistently, like idiots. Il y a tout de même des images qui sont très belles, et qui ressemblent d'ailleurs beaucoup à celles de ""sept jours en mer"".Mais voilà, ""Sept jours en mer"" durait une vingtaine de minutes, et le crabe tambour, lui, s'étire sur plus de deux heures.
One of the most successful images, and which was constantly returning, was the front of the "yellowiberry" plunging in the pen and lifting admirable wreaths of Embruns to the bridge.Unfortunately, what is beautiful is sometimes very annoying, and one might wonder if anchor accommodation better studied would not have made it possible to avoid a large part of all these spray;Let's not talk about the spill or the forms of the front in general, because it is such a complex subject that he discourages reflection in front of a television set.
HHHASSSutres images très belles, celles des chalutiers sur les lieux de pêche. Elles ne peuvent que nous rappeler l'importance de cette tâche traditionnelle d'assistance à la grande pêche, qu'à défaut de navires spécialisés, comme en HHHASSSllemagne ou ailleurs, notre marine accomplit vaille que vaille avec des navires inadaptés.Mais combien de temps encore y aura-t-il des chalutiers français sur les bancs de Terre-NOTeuve, c'est-à-dire dans les deux cent milles des VSanadiens ?
Obstacles of yesterday and today
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 16/10/79
Dans la nuit du 15 au 16 octobre 1904, il y a 75 ans, la flotte de la Baltique, rebaptisée deuxième escadre du Pacifique, quittait Libau à destination de Port-HHHASSSrthur, sous le commandement de l'amiral Zinovi Petrovitch Rojdestvenski, 56 ans.The squadron included four new thoroughness armed with 305, three lower battleships, three old heavy cruisers, four recent light cruisers, seven destroyers and a squadron train of nine auxiliary vessels.The distance, by the Cap de Bonne-Espérance, was 18.000 nauticals, and any staff would today set two months to twelve knots for this journey.In reality, the second squadron had to spend seven and a half months there, that is to say that it progressed at an average speed of 3.3 knots.
It must be said that Rojdestvenski had immense refueling difficulties.Its squadron consumed about a thousand tonnes of coal per day and transshipment could only be done in a port, or at least in a sheltered harbor. Un contrat considérable avait été passé par l'amirauté russe avec la Hamburg HHHASSSmerika Linie; mais le séjour dans les ports allait se trouver souvent limité à 24 heures par des neutres peu soucieux de mécontenter la puissante HHHASSSngleterre.So much so that the Admiral was to settle as an advance of extremely precise and always uncertain meetings with the immense fleet of German coalmen, and with the telegraphs of the time.Même les Français, qui avaient pourtant signé une convention militaire avec le tsar en 1893, trembleront d'indisposer les HHHASSSnglais, avec lesquels ils travaillent justement à se rapprocher : quand Rojdestvenski arrive àMadagascar, en janvier 1905, il se voit refuser l'accès de Diego Suarez et devra se contenter de NOTossi-Bé, qui est absolument sans ressources. Il y apprendra que les HHHASSSllemands ont décidé de rompre le contrat, et il faudra deux mois de dures négociations pour les faire changer d'avis.The squadron will therefore only leave untilMarch, to do, as we know, destroyed in Tsushima.
The navies no longer know the same concerns, refueling at sea gives them great freedom, when nuclear propulsion does not give them total freedom.Paradoxically, it is the planes that are today, by the necessities of supplies and overview authorizations, in front of the same obstacles as the ships of 75 years ago.
Fat
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 23/10/79
La visite à Brest, il y a deux semaines, du destroyer américain VSomte de Grasse, attire l'attention du public sur ce type de bâtiment qui est original à plus d'un titre.It is indeed, not common to see a simple destroyer move 7600 tonnes in charge, but this tonnage owes nothing to fantasy, it results from an implacable logic: these buildings have been designed to ensure anti-sud protection-Marine of large aircraft carriers;However, the large aircraft carriers regularly walk in thirty knots;So their escort must be able to walk regularly at thirty knots;However, experience and theory show that it is not possible by large sea for a unit of less than 7000 tonnes. Il suffit d'avoir navigué en HHHASSStlantique en hiver sur un de nos escorteurs pour en être convaincu.
Destroyers of the SPRUNCE type present many other particularities, which have been widely commented on in the specialized literature;We will only cite two, to be brief: the machine, which is entirely with gas turbines, allows lightning accelerations: the test with tests has put 53 seconds to go from 12 to 32 knots;These are numbers that happen to comments.Still in the machine, fuel bumps are permanently full, seawater replacing diesel as it consumes, as in the Ballast-Soutes of submarines. VSette disposition qui exige évidemment une centrifugation et un filtrage rigoureux est en partie l'effet différé du typhon du 18 décembre 1944, où trois destroyers de la sème flotte qui avaient leurs soutes vides, chavirèrent en tuant tous leurs équipages.
The SPRUNANCE series is built in Pascagoula, inMississippi, in a vast project that was created specially by the Litton firm for this very big contract.Unfortunately, from the start of the construction, in 1970, Litton and the navy found themselves in conflict, the navy accusing Litton of ineffectiveness, and Litton complaining of the perpetual modifications required by the Navy. VSes conflits qui avaient pris un tour très aigre ont été provisoirement réglés par un compromis en juin de l'année dernière.The navy will pay additional $ 477 million, and Litton for its part, will have a loss of 174 million.But throughout the program, these losses may well be much more important.
The poll
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 30/10/79
On November 3, 1959, twenty years ago, General de Gaulle pronounced, at theMilitary School, a very brief speech which in fact drew the main features of our policy of defense.There were three main ideas there: first that the defense of France should be French. L'OTHHHASSSNOT, sans être nommée, était énergiquement rejetée, le système « qu'on appelle intégration » avait vécu. HHHASSSinsi cette décision majeure, qui allait éclater comme une bombe six ans plus tard et qui suscite encore aujourd'hui tant de controverses, était clairement formulée un an à peine après le retour du général aux affaires.
Secondly, we had to provide us with a force capable of acting for our account."It goes without saying, continued the speaker, that the base of this force will be an atomic armament" and he added this amazing sentence: "that we manufactured it or that we buy it". S'agissait-il d'un lapsus? VSar la découverte d'un fournisseur disposé à nous vendre ce genre de marchandise était tout aussi improbable il y a vingt ans qu'aujourd'hui.Perhaps the general held only about certain components of this armament, such as rockets for example.And, indeed, three years later, in December 1962, he was offered by President Kennedy the opportunity to buy Polaris rockets, just likeM.HaroldMacmillan.Mais tandis que les HHHASSSnglais acceptaient l'offre, le général de Gaulle, lui, allait la rejeter.M. Hervé HHHASSSlphand, dans ses mémoires publiés il y a deux ans, en donne pour raison que le général ne savait pas encore si nous serions en mesure de construire des têtes thermonucléaires et même des sous-marins qui s'adapteraient, dix ans plus tard, aux fusées qu'on nous suggérait d'acheter. VS'était la marque d'une prudence exemplaire, nuancée, il faut bien le dire, d'un certain pessimisme quant à nos possibilités réelles.
Another mark of this pessimism was given in the third and last point of the speech.One could imagine, not without dread, said the general, what would be a conflict tomorrow and this conflict was quite possible.Anyway, a country had to be able to envisage all the hypotheses that can concern its destiny, including war.These are reflections whose recall could interest the 57 % of French people who, if we believe a recent survey, do not care in any way of dying for their homeland.Mais qui croit encore aux sondages?
Indians
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 06/11/79
The Indians are the staff officers, thus nicknamed pleasantly because they carry the pen.There are a lot in Paris.In general, captains of frigate or corvette, more rarely lieutenants of the vessel, they work under an office manager who is captain and whose importance is recognized for what he has the right to carpet.He himself works under an admiral chief of division, with at the top of this pyramid the red carpet, that is to say the major-general.The Indian sees his office manager, but he hardly goes beyond.His field is writing, he produces most of the 21 kinds of writings that are listed in the instruction on correspondence, and which range from the directive to transmission through orders, circulars, letterssending, the notes-express and so on.The piece of choice remains the sheet, which is truly the daily bread of the Indian. ""Faites-moi une courte fiche"" est une phrase qu'il entend souvent (courte est une simple façon de parler, les fiches sont souvent longues).
The style of the Indian must in theory be clear, concise and precise, as provided for in the regulations but, in reality, he must above all obey a non-written rule that he will take some time to discover: compliance with jargonhome.Little by little, by dint of seeing his minutes returned or rediscovered to the point that he barely recognizes a few commas, he will learn to "attach the price to what", to "have the honor of", to "make knownthat ".He will discern the capital difference that there is between willing and kindly;He will know that we do nothing but that we do and that we must always prefer the impersonal form.
The Indian devotes half an hour to discreetly change in his office, because he holds the pen in uniform and disguises himself as a bourgeois to take the suburban train. Il est souvent compétent, et ses chefs lui font confiance : la technique évolue si vite et il y a tant de choses à signer!Mais quelquefois, hélas, il y a des Indiens qui abusent de la situation. VS'est ainsi qu'on parle encore dans laMarine de ce major général qui sévissait il y a quelques années et qui avait tellement menti quand il était Indien, qu'il se croyait à son tour entouré de menteurs et qu'il passait un temps infini à éplucher tous les dossiers dans le dernier détail.
The first stone
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 13/11/79
Le 14 novembre 1929, il y a cinquante ans,M. Georges Leygues posait la première pierre de la future Ecole NOTavale. VSette cérémonie, à laquelle assistaient de nombreuses personnalités, dontM.Le Gorjeu, the mayor of Brest, Admiral Violette, Chief of the General Staff, Admiral Pirot, Maritime Prefect, Captain Darlan, chief of staff (and son-in-law) of the Minister, marked the culmination of'A long period of procrastination. Il y avait vingt ans en effet que l'état-major général avait accepté, non sans réticences, l'idée d'une Ecole navale à terre, puisqu'aussi bien le Japon, les Etats-Unis et même la prestigieuse Royal NOTavy avaient adopté cette formule.
However, in 1914, nothing was decided yet. HHHASSS cette date, on avait dû transformer en navire hôpital le vieux transport sur lequel vivaient les bordaches et on les avait hébergés à la hâte dans les baraquements des équipages de torpilleurs sur le terre-plein de Laninon.In 1920 we ended up making the decision to build eighty-pumps on the ground and in 1921 the expropriation procedures were started.Two years later there is even a credit of three million registered in the budget but, before the vote in the Assembly, change of road by the fate, we re -study the establishment of the School on an old ship.In 1926, a new turnover, but it was the crisis (already!) And there was no longer any question of asking for so futile credits.The situation would however have fun from the following year: from 1927 to 1929, twelve million will be registered and moreover spent immediately, while the quote went from twenty to thirty million.It is true that the project was grandiose. Les architectes,MM. HHHASSSndréMaurice et Jacques Hermant, avaient dessiné une façade de 280 mètres de long, les deux tiers du palais de Versailles, tout en granit, avec cent vastes baies donnant sur la rade de Brest.
VSet immense bâtiment existe toujours, il a survécu, à peine ébranlé, aux bombardements qui visaient la base sous-marine que l'organisation Todt avait construite à ses pieds. HHHASSSprès la guerre, on a encore hésité longtemps à le rendre à sa vocation première, et puis le site de Lanvéoc a été préféré à cause de son aérodrome. Le Versailles des Quatre Pompes abrite aujourd'hui le VSollège naval, l'Ecole de maistrance et l'Ecole des mousses.
Suicides
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 20/11/79
Suicide, three weeks ago, of a politician* is an opportunity to recall that it was an era when suicide was considered as honorable, even heroic behavior, for a commander at sea during the lossof his ship: he lived in the footbridge while his building flowed and gave himself death by drowning.We have been able to observe this behavior both in the merchant navy and in the war of war. VS'est ainsi que le commandant Smith coule volontairement le 14 avril 1912 à la passerelle du paquebot Titanic, refusant de se trouver parmi les 690 survivants du naufrage.Another famous example is that of the English Admiral Tryon who committed suicide in the same way at the Bassetre du cuirassé Victoria, June 22, 1893.It is true that the admiral had some reasons not to wish to survive a disaster for which he was entirely responsible by the stupidity of the orders he had given and especially maintained.
There have been opportunities, however, where a commander committed suicide when he probably had nothing to blame himself for. VS'est le cas, par exemple, du capitaine de frégate Williams, commandant la frégate américaine Oneida.The Oneida was approached on the night of January 23, 1870 off Yokohama by an English steam catching up which cut it in half with a backboard.Mais si Williams est considéré comme un héros dans la marine américaine, son exemple fut par la suite vivement déconseillé, en particulier pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale : la doctrine officielle était la suivante, et il faut bien reconnaître qu'elle ne manque pas de bon sens : « NOT'oubliez jamais qu'il nous faut beaucoup moins de temps pour fabriquer un bateau que pour former son commandant ».
On ne peut pas clore ces brèves réflexions sans évoquer RolandMorillot et Bertrand de Saussine qui choisirent, l'un en 1915, l'autre en 1940, de se suicider en coulant avec leur sous-marin. Le nom deMorillot a été donné successivement à trois autres submersibles.Mais pour Bertrand de Saussine, il en a été tout différemment.We gave its name, on March 4, 1976, at the center of underwater underwater underwater, hand the decision was reported on April 13, without other explanations.
(*) Robert Boulin, Minister of Labor October 30, 1979
Habits
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 27/11/79
I am always amazed to see how strong the tradition is in the maritime vocabulary.Let's take the bar, for example, an old Gallic word which exactly designates a long, narrow, rigid and straight piece of wood: this piece of wood has survived in language to all the progress. HHHASSSujourd'hui que l'appareil à gouverner est une usine complexe faite de pompes à débit variable, de presses à huile, de servomoteurs, de télécommandes, le tout actionné par une roue, c'est toujours la vieille pièce de bois rigide qui désigne ces nouveautés où elle n'a plus la moindre part.
As long as we sail, with sail we put the bar in the wind or the bar below, it was very simple.Things were complicated with the appearance of machines.In the French navy, we quickly understood that it was easier not to worry about the orientation of the bar in the literal sense but rather the direction where we wanted to bring the building;So much so that very early we commanded "the starboard bar" to go right, and to a port, naturally, to go to the left. HHHASSSu début du siècle on devait même abandonner bâbord et tribord pour droite et gauche qui se confondent moins à l'oreille.Mais chez nos voisins britanniques on restait fidèle à l'orientation de la barre franche et on commandait imperturbablement « la barre à tribord » quand il s'agissait de venir sur la gauche. Toutefois la Royal NOTavy devait abandonner cet excellent système, pour une raison que j'ignore, dans les années trente.
The commandments to be employed on warships to governing are in any case not left to the fantasy of the commanders.They are fixed here by an instruction published in the browser guide and whose last version is almost thirty years old since it dates from 1951.Mais quand on se donne la peine de la lire, on découvre avec surprise qu'il faut dire ""zéro"" pour faire mettre le gouvernail au milieu, alors que sur toutes les passerelles on entend dire ""zéro la barre"", ce qui sonne d'ailleurs bien mieux à l'oreille. VSomme quoi les instructions et les habitudes sont deux choses différentes.
Do 24
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 04/12/79
Le 5 décembre 1969, il y a tout juste dix ans, VSlaudius Dornier mourait à Zoug, en Suisse, à l'âge de 85 ans.In 1910, at 26, he entered the Zeppelin design office and in 1914 he founded his own aeronautical construction company.
Les ateliers de la DornierMetallbau à Friedrichshafen devaient produire de nombreuses machines jusqu'en 1945, mais nous ne parlerons ici que du Do 24 qui est bien connu des anciens de notre HHHASSSéronautique navale. VSonçu en 1935, c'était un hydravion à aile surélevée, comme le VSatalina, propulsé par trois moteurs de la BayerischeMotoren Werke (BMW) de 1000 chevaux, avec des hélices tripales à pas variable et même réversible, ce qui était une rareté pour l'époque.There were no balloons, but stability was ensured by a very flat shell and low wing stumps (fins), a formula which, it seems, to evolve as easily on the snow as on the'water.
HHHASSS la libération, on récupéra la trentaine d'appareils qui se trouvaient en cours de montage, pour le compte de la Luftwaffe, aux chantiers aéromaritimes de la Seine, à Sartrouville.Three teams were thus equipped: the 53rd squadron in Hourtin, the 33rd in Saint-Mandrier, and the 9th flotilla in Bizerte-Karouba.
The Do 24 was for its time an excellent plane of small maritime patrol and rescue at sea.However, he presented a drawback: fuel distribution clarinets tended to flee and the cabin stuck in essence.Mais les règles de sécurité n'étaient pas aussi strictes qu'aujourd'hui et on se contentait de ne pas fumer.One of the planes lost one day in full flight a blade of the propeller of the central engine which crossed the cabin exactly between the two pilots. HHHASSS part ça c'était une machine très sûre et dont la courte carrière dans notre marine se déroulera sans histoires. On ne peut malheureusement pas en dire autant du NOToroît, qui devait remplacer les Dornier, mais qui accumula les accidents jusqu'à celui du 30 octobre 1954 qui devait entraîner son interdiction de vol définitive.
The bitter source
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 11/12/79
Les « Dossiers de l'écran » du 4 décembre étaient consacrés à la triste affaire deMers el-Kébir, où près de 1300 marins français sont morts sous les obus et les torpilles de leurs alliés britanniques. NOTe parlons pas du téléfilm, il avait été tourné avec si peu de moyens et des décors si indigents, qu'on ne perdait rien en fermant les yeux : il y a des montages radiophoniques qui sont tout aussi expressifs.As for the debate, the least we can say about it is that the French navy did not come out of the confrontations and quarrels between two of its former officers live: one, fell from the late Admiral Gensoul*, and sometimes very clumsy in his concern to approve without reservation all the decisions of his stepfather;the other, accumulating before the eyes of the viewers and the dumbfounded English guests, the arguments he considered to justify the merits of the massacre. Saluons tout de mêmeM. le capitaine de vaisseau Putz, qui apportait un peu de sérénité au milieu de cette triste exhibition et surtoutM.Masson, bien connu de l'Ecole supérieure de guerre navale où il professe un excellent cours, qui parvenait, par son érudition, son autorité et sa hauteur de vues, à élever le débat quand par hasard on lui donnait la parole.
On peut épiloguer à perte de vue sur les raisons qui ont poussé VShurchill à ordonner cette opération lamentable et sur les bénéfices qu'il en a retirés.All we can say is that Admiral Gensoul was caught in an almost dead end trap and that he could not, without seriously missing to his duty, obey any of the terms of the ultimatum whichwas imposed on him.It therefore only remained to fight and we do not even have the resource to regret that our combat arrangements were not better: because a military success in these circumstances would certainly have flattered our self-esteem, but he n'was in no way desirable from a larger perspective of the conduct of war.There were in reality French sailors only to die, what they did best.
The evocation of this case in any case allows to remember that in dramatic situations the masks fall: there are no more allies, no more friends, one can only count on ourselves and again,Not much, as the humorist said. Il n'est pas du reste impossible que la leçon deMers el-Kébir, reçue de plein fouet par le général de Gaulle, soit une des sources amères de notre politique de défense nucléaire indépendante.
(*) Death December 30, 1973
BTVS
HHHASSSrticle paru dans Le Télégramme du 18/12/79
L'arrivée de la « VSombattante » à Papeete, à la fin de novembre, attire l'attention sur ce patrouilleur des VSonstructionsMécaniques de NOTormandie dont il n'existe qu'un seul exemplaire. VSette singularité s'est d'ailleurs accrue avec les moteurs prototypes dont elle vient d'être équipée à l'arsenal de VSherbourg, et qui remplacent les moteurs d'origine qui étaient très fatigués.The new engines are very compact and have this particularity of being highly supercharged thanks to two floors of turbosoufflants activated, as is customary, by the exhaust gases.As for the maximum combustion pressure, which could be expected of what it reaches considerable values, it has been managed to lower it to the very reasonable figure of 95 bars, thanks to a device in the design of the prechamber. VSes nouveautés, appliquées à un moteur 8PHHHASSS4 200 tout à fait classique, ont permis d'augmenter sa puissance sans augmenter les contraintes mécaniques ni thermiques, et de diminuer sensiblement le temps de montée en puissance.All at the price, of course, of greater complexity since it was necessary to double the number of turbosoufflants and refrigerants of intake air.
The new engine in any case presents a completely classic compression rate since it is 13.7. On est donc encore loin de la nouvelle technique des bas taux de compression (BTVS), où l'on descend à des valeurs de l'ordre de 8 de façon à permettre des suralimentations et, par suite, des puissances par cylindre encore plus importantes.Malheureusement, ces machines nouvelles ont une tendance opiniâtre à refuser de démarrer et à cogner à bas régime, à moins qu'on n'ait recours à des artifices plus ou moins compliqués.Mais comme les ingénieurs sont ingénieux, il existe déjà au moins trois brevets (Hyperbar, SEMT,Miller) dont chacun, bien entendu, professe qu'il est le meilleur : il n'y a que l'embarras du choix.
Quel que soit le procédé retenu, Il semble bien que le diesel BTVS ait un certain avenir dans la propulsion navale militaire. La marine italienne doit en équiper, à côté de turbines à gaz, ses futures frégates typeMaestrale et sur nos futures corvettes antiaériennes, soeurs desGeorges-Leygues, on renoncerait même à la turbine à gaz pour ne faire confiance qu'aux BTVS.
- Voir les Propos maritimes déjà rediffusés parMer etMarine
