List of battleships of France

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For ships of the 1399-1858 period, see List of ships of the line of France.

This is a list of French battleships of the period 1859–1970. Note that the dates given are the ships' launch date.

The French Navy pursued three main lines of development with these ships:

  • Large sea-going battleships. The first generation were broadside ironclads; the next generation were central battery ships with some guns in barbettes to give all round fire. The French then abandoned the central battery in favour of a narrow armoured belt and a main armament in barbettes. Two French battleships Brennus and Charles Martel were abandoned in the 1880s, in part because it was believed that more money should be spent on high-technology weapons such as torpedo boats.[1] The French adopted the lozenge layout in the 1880s and 1890s, and only adopted the 'pre-dreadnought' layout in the late 1890s. Like other powers the French laid down 'dreadnoughts' before the First World War, but their dreadnought programmes were cut short by the war. During the 1930s, the French laid down new fast battleships; the Dunkerque-class battleships were designed to counter the Deutschland-class cruisers and were rivals of the German Scharnhorst class, the Richelieu-class battleships were designed to counter the Italian Littorio class and were rivals of the German Bismarck class. The last French battleship was scrapped in 1970.
  • Stationnaire battleships. These were smaller versions of the large battleships, and were often used on foreign stations where they did the job of a battleship. Development of this type was abandoned in the 1880s in favour of armoured cruisers.[1]
  • Coastal service ships. The first of these was the steam-powered ironclad 'floating batteries' used to attack Russian fortifications in the Crimean War. More were built in the early 1860s; then they built a series of low freeboard turret and barbette ships, some of which were arguably sea-going battleships.[1]

Sea-going battleships

Broadside ironclads

Stationnaire broadside ironclads

Central battery ships with barbettes

Stationnaire central battery ships with barbettes

Barbette ships

Stationnaire barbette ships

A painting of a Vauban class battleship

Turret ships

File:Liberte French Battleship LOC 04282u.jpg
Liberté

Experimental turret ships

Dreadnoughts

Jean Bart in 1918
  • Courbet class 22,189 tons normal, 25,000–26,000 tons full load.[7]
    • Jean Bart (1911) – renamed Océan 1936, disarmed for use as a training ship 1938, used for explosives trials by the Germans and sank 1944,[8] sold for BU 1945,[7] broken up (BU) 1946–47[citation needed].
    • Courbet (1911) – training ship 1939, taken over by Royal Navy 3 July 1940, transferred to Free French and used as AA guardship, scuttled on 9 June 1944 as part of a Mulberry harbour during the Normandy landings.[7][8]
    • Paris (1912) – training ship 1939, taken over by Royal Navy 3 July 1940, transferred to Free French and used as accommodation ship, towed to Brest August 1944, used as a pontoon from 1950, sold for BU December 1955,[7][8] BU 1956[citation needed]
    • France (1912) – wrecked 1922.[7]
  • Bretagne class 25,000 full load.[7]
    • Provence (1913) – sunk at Mers-el-Kébir 3 July 1940, refloated, and repaired at Toulon, scuttled November 1942, refloated 1943, scuttled 1944, refloated and BU 1949.[7][8]
    • Bretagne (1913) – sunk at Mers-el-Kébir 3 July 1940, salvaged 1952 and BU.[7][8]
    • Lorraine (1913) – interned by the British at Alexandria June 1940 – May 1943, then used by Free French, used as training ship 1945–1953, stricken February 1953, BU 1954.[7][8]
  • Normandie class 25,230 full load (all except Béarn were cancelled and scrapped after launching).[7]
    • Gascogne (1914) – BU 1923–24.[7]
    • Normandie (1914) – BU 1924–25.[7]
    • Flandre (1914) – BU 1924.[7]
    • Languedoc (1916) – BU 1929.[7]
    • Béarn (1920) converted to aircraft carrier 1923–27 – BU 1967.[7]
  • Lyon class 29,000 tons full load, planned under 1912 programme, it was intended to place orders with builders in January–April 1915.[7]
    • Duquesne (-) not started.[7]
    • Lille (-) not started.[7]
    • Lyon (-) not started.[7]
    • Tourville (-) not started.[7]

Fast battleships

  • Dunkerque class 26,500 tons standard, 30,750–31,400 tons normal, 35,500 tons deep load.[8]
    • Dunkerque (1935) – damaged at Mers-el-Kébir 1940, underwent temporary repairs enabling her to returned to Toulon in February 1942, scuttled November 1942, refloated 1945, sold for BU 1958.[8]
    • Strasbourg (1936) – scuttled November 1942, refloated 1943, sunk 1944, refloated 1945, used as experimental hulk, sold for BU 1955.[8]
  • Richelieu class 35,000 tons standard, 43,293–46,500 tons standard, 47,548–49,850 tons deep load.[8]
    • Richelieu (1939) – BU 1964.[8]
    • Jean Bart (1940) – last battleship commissioned in the world BU 1970.[8]
    • Clemenceau (1943) – launched incomplete 1943, hull sunk by bombing 27 August 1944.[8]
    • Gascogne never laid down – cancelled.[8]
  • Alsace class (two planned but not ordered) [9]

Coastal defence ships

Broadside ironclad floating batteries for coastal service

Armoured Rams

File:Cerbère and Bélier-Neurdein img 3119.jpg
Cerbère and Bélier

Breastwork Monitors

Barbette Ships

  • Tonnant (1880) barbette ship 5,010 tons. Originally intended to be similar to Tempête, but redesigned as a small battleship with increased freeboard and a gun at each end in barbettes.[1] – stricken 1903.[2]
  • Furieux (1883) barbette ship 5,925 tons. Similar to Tonnant for the same reasons.[1] – stricken 1913.[2]
  • Terrible class 7,530 tons.[2] Small battleships based on the Amiral Baudin, and intended for operating in the Baltic in case of war with Germany.[1] The British sometimes considered these to be sea-going battleships,[10] and sometimes coastal service warships.[3]

Later Coast Defence Ships

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Ropp, Theodore, The Development of a Modern Navy, French Naval Policy 1871–1904, pub US Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-141-2
  2. ↑ 2.000 2.001 2.002 2.003 2.004 2.005 2.006 2.007 2.008 2.009 2.010 2.011 2.012 2.013 2.014 2.015 2.016 2.017 2.018 2.019 2.020 2.021 2.022 2.023 2.024 2.025 2.026 2.027 2.028 2.029 2.030 2.031 2.032 2.033 2.034 2.035 2.036 2.037 2.038 2.039 2.040 2.041 2.042 2.043 2.044 2.045 2.046 2.047 2.048 2.049 2.050 2.051 2.052 2.053 2.054 2.055 2.056 2.057 2.058 2.059 2.060 2.061 2.062 2.063 2.064 2.065 2.066 2.067 2.068 2.069 2.070 2.071 2.072 2.073 2.074 2.075 2.076 2.077 2.078 2.079 2.080 2.081 2.082 2.083 2.084 2.085 2.086 2.087 2.088 2.089 2.090 2.091 2.092 2.093 2.094 2.095 2.096 2.097 2.098 2.099 2.100 2.101 2.102 2.103 2.104 2.105 2.106 2.107 2.108 2.109 2.110 2.111 2.112 2.113 2.114 2.115 2.116 2.117 2.118 2.119 2.120 2.121 2.122 2.123 2.124 2.125 2.126 Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Brassey, Lord, The Naval Annual 1890, pub Griffin, 1890.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hovgaard, William, Modern History of Warships, originally published 1920, pub Conway, 1978, ISBN 0-85177-040-1
  5. ↑ Brassey, Lord, The Naval Annual 1886, pub Griffin, 1886.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Page 86, Brassey, Lord, The Naval Annual 1886,
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 7.19 7.20 7.21 7.22 7.23 7.24 7.25 7.26 Gardiner, Robert (ed), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921, pub Conways, 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 Gardiner, Robert (ed), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, pub Conways, 1980, ISBN 978-0-85177-146-5
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Brassey, Lord, The Naval Annual 1887, pub Griffin, 1887.

External links

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