Service history
Completed in 1927, Lamotte-Picquet was based at Brest until 1933, serving with the 3rd Light Division, of which she was flagship. In 1935, she was sent to the Far East, where at the outbreak of war in 1939, she patrolled around French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies.
After the French surrender in Europe, tension developed along the border with Siam (now Thailand). These flared into hostilities between Siam and Vichy France in December 1940. In January 1941, Lamotte-Picquet became the flagship of a small squadron, the Groupe Occasionnel. It was formed on 9 December at Cam Ranh Bay, near Saigon, under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Bérenger. The squadron also consisted of the colonial sloops Dumont d'Urville and Amiral Charner , and the older sloops Tahure and Marne. The Groupe Occasionnel with Lamotte-Picquet at its head, met a Thai squadron of two torpedo boats and a coastal defence ship in the Battle of Koh Chang on 14 January 1941. The Thai squadron was defeated, with both torpedo boats sunk and the coastal defence ship run aground. The victory was for naught, however, as the Japanese forced a settlement in the Franco-Thai War in favour of the Thai. Apart from a visit to Osaka, Japan in September 1941, Lamotte-Picquet was thereafter restricted in her activities.
From the next month, Lamotte-Picquet was used as a training hulk. She was sunk in Đồng Nai River, on 12 January 1945, by U.S carrier based aircraft from Task Force 38 during the South China Sea raid. The remains of the hull were scrapped after the war. [2]
Four ships of the French Navy have been named in honour of the 18th century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte.
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La Motte-Picquet, LaMotte-Picquet, laMotte-Picquet, la Motte-Picquet, Lamotte-Picquet, or variation, may refer to:
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The La Motte-Picquet class were a planned series of light cruisers for the French Navy and named after French admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte. Although designed in 1912, the scheduled construction of La Motte-Picquet was suspended due to the outbreak of World War I before the ships could be laid down. The design would be revived and used as the basis for the Duguay-Trouin classs after the war. The name of the planned 1912 lead ship, would be reused by the French cruiser Lamotte-Picquet.
France
