Vive la France! Death at sea, the French navy and the Great War

Abstract

Abstract—An Austrian submarine torpedoed the cruiser-battleship Léon Gambetta on 27 April 1915. With 681 deaths, this constituted the French navy’s greatest loss of life during the Great War. This article examines this event and asks what it might add to historical analyses of death, trauma and war. First, the cultural realm of the significance of the events is scrutinized. The press treated this as a moment of heroic sacrifice; press and naval accounts converged. Second, the official manipulation of the traumatic event and its implications are discussed. Finally, the survivor testimony, experience and the psychological aspects of the death at sea are considered. This part of the discussion is based upon the depositions of 132 survivors noted down by naval investigators a few weeks after the event. It considers the traumatic nature of the sinking and how this was represented in the testimonies of the survivors.