Hosta

Bougainville was a Bougainville-class aviso of the French Navy launched on 25 April 1931 and commissioned on 15 February 1933.^[1][2] The ship was designed to operate from French colonies in Asia and Africa and initially stationed in the Indian Ocean.^[2] In 1935 it was transferred for service in the eastern and southern Mediterranean, and in early 1939 to Djibouti, returning to Toulon escorting a group of submarines after the outbreak of World War II.^[2]

It sided with Vichy France and was sunk by off Libreville by its sister ship Savorgnan de Brazza on 9 November 1940 in the Battle of Gabon. Although refloated in March 1941, Bougainville sank again and was finally broken up in 1952.^[2]

References

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Jordan, John (2016). "The Colonial Sloops of the Bougainville Class". Warship 2016. London: Conway. pp. 8–29. ISBN 978-1-84486-326-6.
• Le Masson, Henri (1969). The French Navy. Navies of the Second World War. Vol. 2. London: MacDonald & Co. ISBN 0-356-02385-0.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.

Further reading

• Landais, Henri (2012). Les Avisos Coloniaux [The Colonial Avisos] (in French). Lela Presse. ISBN 978-2-914017-64-0.