Emile Bertin

Description

The Emile Bertin was designed in the late interwar period as a minelaying cruiser and a destroyer flotilla leader, the only vessel of the class. She could carry up to 200 mines and move at a speed of up to 40 knots, extremely fast for a cruiser. Her first big assignment was a covert mission to move 57 tonnes of Polish state gold reserves from Beirut to Toulon in September 1939. Following that she became a part of Group Z, and operated off the Norwegian Coast where she was hit by the Luftwaffe on 19 April 1940. After repairs, in May 1940, she was delegated to carry French state gold reserves from Brest to the city of Halifax in Canada. However, the signing of the Armistice on 22 June 1940 caught her with the gold still onboard, and she was ordered to Martinique. Following that, she joined Allied forces and underwent a refit in Philadelphia. She participated in Operation Dragoon, conducting naval bombardments against Axis troops along the Italian coast. Following the end of the war she was deployed as a flagship to Indochina, as a training ship, gunnery target and was finally retired in October 1959.

Introduced in Update "La Royale" along with the first release of the researchable French tech tree, Emile Bertin is a very versatile cruiser with excellent guns and high speed, but lacks any notable armour protection, and with a large exposed bridge she often loses control. She's best used as a glass cannon-style of warship, able to outgun nearly any enemy in her BR or lower.

General info

Survivability and armour

Lacking any significant armour protection, Emile Bertin has to rely on her speed, manoeuvrability, low profile, and crew distribution to survive incoming fire. Just looking at the lowest crew count and poorest armour in her BR, one would expect her to be the most fragile ship in the BR. However, realistically, she's still able to take a decent amount of punishment thanks to the well-distributed internal components.

Mobility

Able to reach an astounding 87 km/h in Arcade Battles, Emile Bertin features the highest top speed among cruisers in its BR, which is over 10 km/h higher than that of the majority of other cruisers. She's able to outspeed even a typical destroyer.

Due to her size, which is much larger than that of a typical destroyer, she's not able to manoeuvre nearly as well as destroyers can. Therefore, her speed should be used for positioning rather than racing against destroyers to the capture points.

Modifications and economy

Due to her already excellent mobility and turret rotation speeds, one can prioritize Unsinkability and the rest of the Firepower upgrades. Prioritizing SAPBC and APCBC rounds can also be beneficial, as they have a lot of use in the BR range (to simplify: HE rounds for destroyers, SAPBC rounds for light cruisers, and APCBC rounds for armoured targets).

Armament

Primary armament

The 152 mm/55 model 1930 guns are grouped in two triple turrets forward and one triple turret aft. This configuration makes Emile Bertin excellent for offensive action, allowing her to outgun most destroyers while still dealing a decent amount of damage against enemy cruisers. Taking a closer look at each shell type:

• OEA Mle 1937 HE - very good broadside damage per minute, large explosive filler and excellent muzzle velocity make it best used against destroyers and coastal vessels, but it can also be used to ignite fires on enemy warships and take down exposed crew.
• OPF Mle 1937 SAPBC - compared to other cruisers at this BR, when firing broadsides with SAP shells, it also boasts one of the best damage outputs per minute, while featuring sufficient penetration to counter light cruisers or even some of the heavy cruisers.
• OPF Mk.35 APCBC - the APCBC broadside has an average damage characteristic and, with 157mm penetration at 30° at 7,500 meters, it's capable of penetrating the magazines of nearly every cruiser she encounters.

Secondary armament

The secondary weapons can be considered primarily as long-range anti-air guns. Once the HE-TF shells are researched, they should be the preferred ammunition type for the 90 mm gun. However, its rate of fire, which amounts to 1 salvo every 4 seconds, and its inability to fire in frontal arcs, render it somewhat ineffective against coastal vessels. Additionally, the low calibre of these weapons results in inefficiency when attempting to engage enemy destroyers.

Anti-aircraft armament

The medium-range 37 mm guns have an acceptable rate of fire and excellent coverage, as the four guns located to the sides of the superstructure can fire directly forward, to the rear, and 90° vertically. This configuration ensures that there is almost always at least one barrel on target.

For short-range defense, the ship is equipped with low-calibre 13.2 mm guns. While each gun individually may not deliver as much firepower as the 20 mm guns commonly found on foreign cruisers, their placement in multiple locations across the hull increases the likelihood of hitting the target.

Additional armament

Starboard triple torpedo tube

Divided between two triple-launchers on each side, there are six torpedoes boasting an impressively wide firing angle (over 110°). This excellent firing angle, combined with the torpedoes being stealthily painted black, significantly enhances their role as a surprise weapon. The dark colour of the torpedoes can make them even more difficult to spot when paired with any of the alternative ship camouflages (such as the Tricolor wavy camouflage).

The torpedoes themselves offer a great combination of speed and range, complemented by a substantial warhead. As a result, they prove effective for both short-range engagements and long-range area denial.

Scout plane

The single floatplane lacks any offensive armament, bombs or smokescreen generator making it suitable almost only for passively capturing points and spotting.

Usage in battles

Emile Bertin stands as a premier light cruiser within its BR, featuring remarkable effectiveness across all ranges and encompassing nearly everything one could desire in a light cruiser.

When confronting enemy warships, it is best to focus the initial salvos on disabling at least a portion of their primary armament. But even if that's impossible, Emile Bertin can outgun most adversaries in a one-on-one engagement.

Key enemies:

• USS Atlanta is one of the most challenging opponents and it's best engaged with opening of a High Explosive rounds to disable its turrets, followed by AP rounds going for the rear ammo racks. When the range of engagement is below 5 km, hitting frontal ammo racks becomes exceptionally difficult due to their position deep below the waterline. In such a case, keeping turrets offline while manoeuvring for a more advantageous angle is the best option.
• Colbert broadside-to-broadside can easily counter Emile Bertin, having both: higher damage output and armour able to stop the SAP shells. It's best to make use of the superior speed and an advantage in a number of guns firing forward to choose the location and angle of engagement, denying Colbert a broadside engagement.
• Leipzig has exposed ammo racks aft of the turrets. While HE rounds will fail to do damage, SAP shells can reach them broadside. When engaging a heavily angled Leipzig beyond a 5 km range, it is best to employ AP ammunition instead.
• Japanese cruisers can typically be destroyed using SAP munitions targeting their ammo racks. However, extra caution is warranted, as their widely used SAP rounds have the potential to deal a surprising amount of damage to the poorly armoured Emile Bertin.
• US heavy cruisers (USS Portland, USS Pensacola, USS Northampton) prove to be exceedingly challenging for HE and SAP rounds. Their two-layered armour easily counters SAP shells, making AP the best choice for effective engagement at any range.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent turret rotation speed
• Above-average damage output of the HE and SAPBC shells
• A good choice of shells
• Good anti-air
• Great torpedoes
• Great mobility with outstanding top speed
• Good survivability

Cons:

• Lacklustre floatplane
• Worst armour protection in her BR
• Large fire director on the main mast and poorly armoured bridge gets destroyed often, making it challenging to return fire

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Emile Bertin from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Émile Bertin light cruiser: hit and run
• [Wikipedia] French cruiser Émile Bertin
• [uboat.net] FR Emile Bertin
• [NAVYPEDIA] ÉMILE BERTIN light cruiser (1935)