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Paul Émile Amable Guépratte, born August 30, 1856 in Granville (Manche) and died November 21, 1939 in Brest, was a French naval officer. He ended his career with the rank of vice-admiral.
Origins and youth
Grandson of Rear-Admiral Jéhenne and the mathematician Charles Guépratte, son of naval captain Charles Émile Guépratte and Eugénie Constance Jéhenne, he married Thérèse Marie Virginie Gourdan (January 16, 1856 – February 7, 1890) in 1883 and they had three children.
He attended the Imperial Lyceum of Brest in 1868, entered the Naval Academy on October 1, 1871 and followed the courses of the Submarine Defense School, obtaining a torpedo boat certificate in 1884.
Military career
In 1875 he embarked on the armored corvette La Reine Blanche in the evolution squadron, moved in 1876 to the propeller-driven Aviso d'Estaing, then onto the training corvette La Favorite (a vessel commanded by his father) and made the campaign of Tunisia in 1881 aboard the battleship Marengo (bombardment of Sfax, capture of Gabès).
After school, he was assigned to the battleship Amiral Duperré. He took his first command in 1889 with the destroyer 23. Then he became second mate on the cruiser Forfait in 1891 and became commander of the Caronade in the Indochina naval division which participated in operations against Siam between May and October 1893. He returned to Brest where he became deputy director of submarine defenses in 1900, then returned to the Bosphorus to command the destroyer Vautour between 1901 and 1902 to return to Brest and be head of the second section of the general staff. to the maritime district (May 1902). With the Foudre, he transported two submarines and four small torpedo boats leaving from Cherbourg and going to Saigon in 1904. In 1905, back in the Mediterranean, he participated in the squadron's maneuvers as commander of the Jeanne d'Arc, passing on the Marseillaise; becoming flag captain, he returned to the Jeanne d'Arc at the end of 1906. Back on land, he commanded the 2nd crew depot (1908) and the following year the construction of the Edgar Quinet.
Rear admiral, in 1915 he commanded the complementary division of the naval army operating in the Dardanelles. On Mars 18, 1915, his flag on the Suffren, he was the first to enter the Dardanelles Strait during the attempted passage by Franco-English force. His courage was not rewarded because his ship was seriously damaged and he lost one of his four battleships in the fields of