Suffren took a little over four years from her November 1925 order to commissioning in March 1930. She initially replaced the old armoured cruiser Edgar Quinet in worldwide presence and training work, visiting Rio de Janeiro, the French West Indies, and Casablanca. At the outbreak of war she was flagship on the Indochina station, hunted German surface raiders and merchant shipping, and escorted an Australian troop convoy before reaching Alexandria. She also made an unsuccessful sortie after reports of Italian cruisers at Beirut just before the armistice closed the squadron's freedom of action. There she joined Admiral René-Émile Godfroy's Force X, whose ships were immobilized after the June 1940 armistice and did not return to the Allied cause until 1943. The career sequence shows how a first-class cruiser moved between prestige, colonial-presence, commerce-protection, convoy, and fleet-diplomacy missions.
Chapter · 29:04-33:19
Suffren from global cruiser duties to Force X
The lead ship moved from prestige cruises and colonial presence to raider hunting, convoy escort, and the diplomatically isolated French force at Alexandria.