The Gueydon was an armoured cruiser of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, lead ship of her class. She was named in honour of Louis Henri de Gueydon

Louis Henri de Gueydon

Louis Henri, comte de Gueydon was a vice admiral in the French Navy, and the first governor of Algeria under the Third Republic.-Family :De Gueydon was born in Granville, Manche. His family were nobles of Italian extraction...

, first governor of Algeria under the 3rd Republic.

Gueydon was commissioned in Toulon harbour in 1903, and undertook a first campaign to East Asia. She took part in the First World War, supervising patrols in Southern America and in the Caribbean.

In 1923, she was refitted in Brest harbour. In 1926, she was again modified to serve as a gunnery school; she entered this role the following year, replacing the armoured cruiser Pothuau

French armoured cruiser Pothuau

Pothuau was an armoured cruiser of the French Navy, named after French admiral and politician Louis Pierre Alexis Pothuau .-Service history:...

 in Brest.

In 1943, she was cosmetically modified by the Germans to serve as a decoy for the Prinz Eugen

German cruiser Prinz Eugen

Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940...

.

Gueydon was destroyed during the Liberation of Brest.