Toulon, France port Air Craft Carrier Clemenceau 1978

Postcard

 

• Picture / Image:  General view of St. Mandrier - le porte-avions Clemenceau (Air Craft Carrier Clenenceau)
• Publisher:  Combier Imprimeur Macon
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  80c + 20c French definitives
• Postmark(s):  29/6/1979 advertising slogan postmark (bit faint)
• Sent to:  Valence, France
• Notes & Key words: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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Clemenceau (R 98), often affectionately called "le Clem'", was the lead ship of her class, and the 8th aircraft carrier of the French Navy, serving from 1961 to 1997. She was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first one being a battleship of the Richelieu class, laid down in 1939 but never finished. The Clemenceau, under the name Q-790, is to be dismantled and recycled by Able UK at Graythorpe on Teesside, England.^[1]

Development of Clemenceau represented France's successful effort to produce its own class of multi-role carriers to replace American and British ships which were provided at the end of World War II. The ship was a small but effective design, using elements of United States carrier design, but to a smaller scale. The vessels were given relatively heavy gun armament for their size, and some stability problems were encountered which required bulging the hull.

Clemenceau went through a major refit from September 1977 to November 1978. She was again refitted with new defensive systems from 1 September 1985 to 31 August 1987, including replacement of four of the 100 mm guns with a pair of Crotale surface-to-air missile launchers.

Clemenceau and her sister ship Foch served as the mainstays of the French fleet. During her career Clemenceau sailed more than 1,000,000 nautical miles (2,000,000 km) in 3,125 days at sea, all over the world.

1974 Independence of Djibouti, in the Indian Ocean.

1982-1984 Lebanon civil war. She rotated with the Foch, providing constant on-station air support to French peacekeepers.^[2]

1987-1988 Operation Prométhée. The ship receives orders to position in Oman sea, to protect French merchant traffic in Persian gulf from Iranian speedboats during war between Iran and Iraq. She arrives on area on 15 August. Iranian P-3 Orion intercepted by F-8 Crusader on CAP. The Promethee battle force, Task Force 623, réalise l'opération Prométhée, included the support ship Loire, Clémenceau, le PR Meuse , les BCR Var et Marne.

1990, the ship escorted by the Colbert and the Var, transported 40 helicopters (SA-341F/ -342 Gazelles, SA-330 Pumas), three Br-1050 Alizés and trucks to Iraq during 'Desert storm & Desert shield'.^[3]

1993-1996 several tours including combat operations and air patrol over former Yugoslavia ^[4] during operation 'Balbuzard' to support the UN's troops.