Une petite invasion
The West India Docks have played host to many naval vessels in the past few years but today offered the somewhat unusual sight of an entire class – and prompted more than one bystander to scratch their heads in bafflement at the prospect of this little French invasion!
Four Leopards in the lock
Four Leopard class school ships arrived this morning (A751 Lynx, A752 Guépard, A753 Chacal and A754 Tigre) followed by the remaining four members of the class (A748 Léopard, A749 Panthère, A750 Jaguar and A755 Lion) in the early evening. It was quite a sight to see four ships tucked into the lock.
The ménagerie in West India Docks
The flotilla, known as the Ménagerie on account of the wild cats that the ships are named after, left Brest on monday afternoon for training exercises before gathering for a stopover in London. After leaving London the ships will continue their exercises in small groups. A selection of photographs of the flotilla at sea can be found in the article Toute la Ménagerie à la mer on Mer et Marine.
Gallery
[…] The surprise of the past week has been the unexpected arrival of five warships from the German Navy’s fifth Minesweeping Squadron, fresh from an exercise in the North Sea. It is relatively rare to see so many warships from one nation descend upon the capital, although we did see an entire class of French warship turn up in May last year (see my post Une petite invasion). […]