French battleship Dunkerque

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History
French Navy EnsignFrance
NamesakeCity of Dunkirk
Laid down24 December 1932
Launched2 October 1935
Commissioned1 May 1937
HomeportToulon
FateScuttled 27 November 1942
General characteristics
Class and typeDunkerque class battleship
Displacement26,500 tonnes
Length215.1 m
Beam31.1 m
Draught8.7 m
Propulsionlist error: <br /> list (help)
6 Indret boilers
4 Rateau geared turbines
135,585hp
Speed31 knots
Range13,900 km
Complement1381
Armamentlist error: <br /> list (help)
8 330mm/50 Modèle 1931 guns in quadruple turrets
3x quadruple and 2x double 130mm AA turrets
5x double 37mm AA turrets
4x double mm AA turrets
Armourlist error: <br /> list (help)
225 mm (side belt)
30mm (anti-torpedo bulkheads)
125-115mm (deck)
330-310mm (turrets)
Aircraft carriedlist error: <br /> list (help)
4 hydroplanes
1 catapult

The Dunkerque was the first of a new class of warship of the French Navy labeled as a "fast battleship".

Not as well-armed and considerably less armoured than contemporary battleships, they are nonetheless considered scaled-down battleships and they are considerably more balanced (in the ship's performance tradeoffs between armour and armament) than battlecruisers. The Dunkerques were superior in all respects to and designed to counter the threat of the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland class, which were in effect scaled-up cruisers.

Computer rendering of Dunkerque

The design was innovative, having the entire main armament mounted forward in two quadruple turrets which gave unrestricted forward fire. The Royal Navy's Nelson class battleships also had the entire armament mounted forward, but in three turrets carrying nine guns, with the angles of fire for the rearmost turret limited by the turrets in front. The mounting of the main armament in fore quadruple turrets was a feature unique, in the French Navy, to late-design battleships such as Dunkerque, Richelieu and Jean Bart.

Background

In 1922, the Washington Naval Conference, concluded by the Washington Naval Treaty, decided to stop, for ten years, any new battleship building, as a new naval armaments race was developing, between the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Japan, building or projecting respectively the USS Colorado[1] and South Dakota[2] class battleships, the British G3 battlecruisers,[3] the Mutsu [4] class and Tosa[5] class battleships and Amagi[5] class battlecruisers. The Washington Treaty stipulations concerning battleships allowed the United States to achieve three Colorado class battleships, the United Kingdom to build two battleships respecting the Washington Treaty limitations, 35,000 tons tonnage and 16-inches main artillery caliber,and Japan to achieve the Mutsu class battleships. France and Italy were also allowed to replace, after 1927, two of their old battleships each, respecting the Washington Treaty limitations.[6]

Germany was not subject to the Washington Treaty limitations, but to specific stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was forbidden to build any warship with a tonnage superior to 10,000 tons.[7] This limit was inferior to the tonnage of the Minotaur[8] armoured cruiser class, or of the SMS Schleswig-Holstein[9] pre-dreadnought, all built before 1910.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan had used their rights resulting from the Washington Treaty, but neither France not Italy, due mainly to financial difficulties, but also because, even in naval circles, the interest of building battleships seemed very questionable,[10] as no decisive victory had resulted from a cataclysmic clash between battleships, since the American victories of Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba, during the Spanish-American war and the Japanese victory of Tsushima, more than 24 and 17 years earlier.

The W W I experience had clearly shown the problem of ensuring the safety of maritime commercial roads, for which cruisers appeared better suited than battleships, so the first years after the Washington Treaty saw the building of new heavy cruiser classes, by all the countries which had signed it.[11]

In the late 1920s, the most powerful battleships were armed with four double turrets of 15-inches (381 mm)(Queen Elizabeth,[12] and Revenge[13] classes, and HMS Hood,[14] ), or 16-inches caliber (406 mm) (Colorado, and Nagato classes), except the Nelson[15] class battleships, with three triple 16-inches turrets forward. The top speed was, for most of them, of 21–24 knots (Revenge, Colorado, Nelson, Queen Elizabeth battleship classes), for a few ones of 27 knots (Nagato class battleships), with the notable exception of the HMS Hood fast battleship, and the two Renown[16] class battlecruisers, whose speed exceeded 30 knots.

The French Admiralty, under Vice Admiral Salaün and Vice Admiral Violette, had discussed during the 1920s of various ship designs, conceived to "kill" cruisers, more heavily armed and able to outrun heavy cruisers. A displacement of 17,500 tons or 23,333 tons would have allowed to build four or three units, respecting the maximum limit of 70,000 tons, which the Washington Treaty had fixed for the two replacements authorized for France. An artillery arrangement of two 305 mm (12-inches) quadruple turrets forward was examined, combining the choice of quadruple turrets made by the French designers of the Normandie[17] and Lyon battleship classes and the all forward arrangement of the British Nelson battleship class. But designs for ships with these displacements never produced a balanced ship, with such an artillery arrangement, a speed of 34–35 knots, and adequate armour, so no such project resulted in the ordering of a battleship with one of these displacements.[18]

Everything changed when, in February 1929, the German Reichsmarine laid down the keel of Deutschland, an "armoured ship" (in German Panzerschiff), of 10,000 tons tonnage, respecting formally the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles, actually at least 25 % heavier but this was not known at this moment. With two 280 mm (11-inches) caliber triple turrets, and a speed of 28.5 knots, this ship outgunned every so-called heavy cruiser with their 203 mm (8 inches) guns intended to respect the Washington Treaty limitations concerning the caliber of cruiser main artillery, and outran every battleship, except the three fastest British units, HMS Hood, HMS Renown and HMS Repulse.[19]

The type of Deutschland was commonly designated as a "pocket battleship", being actually as her German denomination indicated well, an "armoured cruiser".[20]

After Deutschland, were laid down Admiral Scheer, on June 1931, and Admiral Graf Spee, on October 1932.[21]

The reaction of the French Admiralty was to prepare draft drawings for a ship which would outclass the German "pocket battleship", in armament, armor and speed. It appeared, quickly that it was not possible with a displacement of less than 26,000 tons, to incorporate two fore quadruple turrets with a caliber bigger than 305 mm, a speed of nearly 30 knots, and an armour able to resist to 280 mm caliber shells.[22] So emerged the Dunkerque class.[23] The lead ship of this class, bearing the name of towns emblematic of the 1914–1918 Grande Guerre against Germany, was included in the 1932 Naval Program, and laid down on December 24, 1932.

On February 14, 1934, two German battleships (or battlecruisers) were ordered whose design was influenced by the Ersatz Yorck battlecruiser, planned in 1915.[24] Gneisenau was laid down on May 6, 1935, and Scharnhorst, on June 15, 1935 They were heavier than the Dunkerque class battleships, better armoured, but armed with nine 280 mm guns, the same caliber as the Deutschland class. A heavier caliber had been considered for the main artillery, and was preferred by Adolf Hitler, as the Dunkerque class battleships were armed with 330 mm guns. But when the final design of these ships was about to be settled, Germany was negotiating the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement, and the British Government was pressing very strongly for a limitation on the battleship main artillery caliber. So reluctantly, an improved gun, with longer barrel, higher muzzle velocity, but the same 280 mm caliber was chosen.[25]

As the French Navy ship designers believed that Dunkerque class battleships' armour was able to resist to 280 mm caliber shells, there would not have been any necessity to conceive an heavier battleship class. But Duce Benito Mussolini had announced, on May 26, 1934, the decision to built 35,000 tons battleships, the first ones since the Washington Naval Treaty.[22][26] The time had occurred to build the first French 35 000 tons battleship. But time was missing to achieve a design for a new heavier battleships class. The Navy Higher Council, on June 25, 1934, recommended, unanimously, to not modify the 1934 Naval Program, and to order the building of a new Dunkerque class battleship, improving the armored protection: Strasbourg laying down was ordered on July 16, 1934.[27] It will be the last French battleship with a displacement of less than 35,000 tons.

Design

The design was very innovative, notably the whole of the main armament mounted forwards. This had been the case for the Royal Navy's Nelson class battleships but they had three turrets carrying nine guns and the angles of fire for the rearmost were limited by the turret in front. The Dunkerques used two quadruple 330 mm turrets which gave unrestricted forwards fire. In the context of the Washington Naval Treaty which limited the upper displacement of ships, the quadruple arrangement had the advantage of saving weight on turret armouring, compared to four double turrets, while retaining the same firepower. The drawback was that a single lucky shot immobilising one of the turrets would effectively put half the main artillery out of action. So the French quadruple turrets of both Dunkerque and Richelieu class battleships, were divided internally to localise damage,[28] and in order to avoid that one unlucky hit damages both turrets together, they were positioned 27 m apart from one another.[23] On the other hand, the entirety of the main artillery was able to fire forwards, as the ship closed in to her enemy, in an angle where she made the smallest possible target.

The mounting of all the main armament in quadruple turrets was a feature unique to the last French battleships design. The quadruple arrangement had been foreseen for the Normandie and Lyon class battleships, just before W W I. Combined with an all forward disposition, it was found also on the subsequent Richelieu and Jean Bart. But in the French quadruple turrets, the four barrels were not mounted independently in individual mounts because this would have meant an unduly large barbette diameter. For that reason the right and left hand pair of barrels where placed in a common mount each.[23] It was not the case on the fore and aft 14-inches quadruple turrets of the British HMS King George V class battleships.

The guns of the half turrets were so close, that a wake effect between shells fired simultaneously by a half turret was leading to an excessive dispersal,[29] which has not been corrected before 1948 on the Richelieu class battleships.[30]

The secondary artillery was, for the first time on French battleships, a dual purpose one, anti-ship and long-range anti-aircraft, with five turrets of 130 mm caliber, three quadruple armoured turrets aft, with the same two dual mountings as the 330 mm turrets, and two double lightly armoured turrets,[31] beside the central superstructure. But these guns had a too weak caliber for their anti-ship mission, and a poor efficiency as anti-aircraft artillery against close rapid aircraft, as dive bombers, due to a too slow rate of fire (10 shots per min).[32] With five 37mm AA double mountings and eight 13.7 mm machine-guns quadruple mountings, these ships lacked the numerous quick-firing light artillery as was mounted on the Richelieu, during her refit.

A massive fore control tower was, for the first time, fitted with a internal lift, and topped by three range finders mounted on the same axis. The accumulation of heavy weights high up in the top (85 tons) was noteworthy. A secondary control tower, topped by two range finders, was positioned between the funnel and the aircraft installations (hangar, catapult and crane), fitted to launch three or four seaplanes.

The proportion of the armour relative to the design displacement reached 35.9% which was the highest value recorded until then. The armour protection of the class was also very modern, as it used the "all or nothing" armour scheme, unlike contemporary German warships. The citadel about 126 m long corresponded to about 60% of the ship's length, but left unprotected a long forward part of the ship.[33] The belt armour was designed to withstand the 280 mm German naval guns. It was 225 mm thick, the fore bulkhead : 210 mm, the aft bulkhead : 180 mm, the main deck : 115/125 mm, the lower deck : 40 mm, the conning tower : 270 mm (face and sides), 220 mm, (back) 150/160 mm (hood), the main turrets - barbette : 310 mm, face inclined to 30° : 330 mm, rear : 345 mm on turret 1, 335 mm on turret 2, roof : 150 mm, the quad 130 mmturrets : barbette : 120 mm, face : 135 mm, rear : 80 mm, roof : 90 mm, the double 130 mm turrets : 20 mm.[34]

The propulsion was assured by six Indret boilers, and four Parsons turbines , with four shafts, for a speed of 29.5 knots, with 112,500 hp. During the speed trials, by May 1936, the top speed of 31 knots has been reached during two hours, with a developed power of 132,000 hp. The radius was 7,850 nmi at 15 knots, and 2,150 nmi at 28 knots.

During the sea trials, it appeared that the funnel smoke interfered with the use of the aft control tower range finders, so the Dunkerque was fitted, between March and May 1938, with a more important funnel cap, nicknamed as a "bowler hat". War service showed that the ship's bow suffered damage in the rough seas of the North Atlantic winter, one of her Flag Officers speaking dedaignously of "hull from trying carene pool".[29] The German Scharnhorst class battleships had the same problem, particularly during the winter 1939-40, even after they had been fitted with a reinforced "Atlantic bow" in 1938-39.

The Dunkerque class battleships seemed to have been relatively lightly built, so she suffered damage from the blast, the noise, the smoke and the recoil of her own 330 mm guns firing,[23] and as noted above, the excessive closeness of the barrels of the two pairs of one quadruple turret caused an excessive dispersal of the shells of the same salvo.[29]

Service

During the Phoney War, Dunkerque participated to the safety of commercial maritime roads, from October to December 1939, trying unsuccessfully to give chase with HMS Hood to Scharnhost and Gneisenau which had sunk the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi.[35] By December 1939, she took part in the shipping to Canada of a part of the Banque de France's gold reserve.[35]

From 1939, Dunkerque and Strasbourg, with some cruisers and large destroyers formed a fast warships naval force, called Force de Raid. Based in Brest, Dunkerque was its flagship. In light of the dubious Italian attitude during the spring 1940, the Force de Raid was permanently transferred to the Mediterranean Sea in late April 1940.[36]

The only test in battle for the Dunkerque came in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir on July 3, 1940, from the Force H battleships, HMS Hood, HMS Revenge, and HMS Valiant, sent to coerce the French battleship squadron to join the British cause. By then, she had not been designed to fight with such powerful battleships. As the old super-dreadnought Bretagne capsized and sank, killing nearly 1,000 sailors, the Dunkerque was painfully breaking her mooring ropes. She quickly suffered four 15 inch shell hits, the first rebounced on the upper 330 mm turret roof, killing all the men in the right half turret as the left half turret remained operational, the second damaged the aircraft installations, the last ones damaged boilers and destroyed the electric power plant, so the ship had to be moored on the other side of Mers-el-Kebir roadstead.[27]

The damage was not as deadly as it might have been feared, because the British fire ceased after less than fifteen minutes, the French admiral having signaled that he had ordered his ships to cease firing. Then Admiral Esteva, C. in C., French Navy in North Africa, told in a later radio message to the French Admiralty, of "moderate" damages.[37] Knowing this, the British Admiralty ordered Admiral Sommerville, Force H Flag Officer, to attack again, to put Dunkerque permanently out of action.

Dunkerque being beached just in front of a village, Admiral Sommerville, fearing that gun fire might cause serious collateral damages to civilians, preferred to attack with torpedo bombers on July 6. Unluckily, one of the torpedoes hit a small patrol ship carrying depth charges aboard Dunkerque. The explosion of the depth charges ripped an enormous hole in the battleship's hull, killing a further 200 sailors, and Dunkerque sank in shallow water.[38]

After being refloated and temporary repairs completed, Dunkerque returned to Toulon in February 1942. She was in armistice custody, disarmed and in drydock,[39] when the Germans invaded the so-called "Free Zone" on 27 November 1942. She was scuttled, along with Strasbourg. Her commanding officer, Captain (Capitaine de vaisseau) Amiel, initially refused to sink his ship without written orders, but was finally convinced to do so by the Commanding Officer of the nearby light cruiser La Galissonnière. Demolition charges were ignited, destroying the ship inside the drydock. Found a total loss, she was partially scrapped by the German and the Italian and struck several times by the Allied bombers. The remains of the ship (not more than some 15,000 tonnes only...) were refloated in 1945 and sold for final demolition in 1958 only.[40]

See also

Media related to Dunkerque class battleships at Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. ^ Lenton 1968, pp. 26–29
  2. ^ Lenton 1968, pp. 30–32
  3. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 43–45
  4. ^ Watts 1971, pp. 18–21
  5. ^ a b Watts 1971, p. 25
  6. ^ Breyer 1973, pp. 71–72
  7. ^ Breyer 1973, pp. 76–77
  8. ^ Archibald 1971, pp. 110–111
  9. ^ Lenton 1966, pp. 32–33
  10. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 74
  11. ^ Lenton 1973, pp. 3–18
  12. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 10–22
  13. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 23–28
  14. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 37–41
  15. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 46–50
  16. ^ Lenton 1972, pp. 29–36
  17. ^ Labayle Couhat 1974, pp. 37–38
  18. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, pp. 13–15
  19. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 286
  20. ^ Lenton 1966, p. 8
  21. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 287
  22. ^ a b Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, pp. 16–17
  23. ^ a b c d Breyer 1973, p. 433
  24. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 294
  25. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 79
  26. ^ Giorgerini, Nani 1973, pp. 37–38
  27. ^ a b Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 69
  28. ^ Le Masson 1969, p. 69
  29. ^ a b c Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, pp. 89–90
  30. ^ Dumas, Richelieu 2001, p. 73
  31. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 22
  32. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 90
  33. ^ Breyer 1973, p. 435
  34. ^ Dumas 2001, p. 22 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDumas2001 (help)
  35. ^ a b Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 68
  36. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, pp. 68–69
  37. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 70
  38. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, pp. 70–72
  39. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 74
  40. ^ Dumas, Dunkerque 2001, p. 75

Bibliography

  • Lenton, H. T. (1966). German surface vessels 1. London: Macdonald&Co Publishers Ltd.
  • Amiral Lepotier (1967). Les derniers cuirassés. Paris: Editions France-Empire.
  • Lenton, H.T. (1968). American battleships, carriers and cruisers. London: Macdonald&Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-356-01511-8.
  • Le Masson, Henri (1969). The French Navy Volume 1. London: Macdonald&Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0356-02834-2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  • Watts, Anthony (1971). Japanese Warships of World War II. London: Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0-7110-2015-0. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  • Archibald, E.H.H. (1971). The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860-1970. London: Blandford Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7137-0551-5.
  • Lenton, H. T. (1972). British battleships and aircraft carriers. London: Macdonald&Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-356-03869-8.
  • Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 978-0-356-04191-9.
  • Giorgio Giorgerini, (1973). Le Navi di Linea Italiane 1861–1969 (in Italian). Roma: Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • Lenton, H. T. (1973). British cruisers. London: Macdonald&Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-356-03869-8.
  • Labayle Couhat, Jean (1974). French Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7110-0445-0.
  • Dumas, Robert (2001). Les cuirassés Dunkerque et Strasbourg (in French). Paris: Marine Éditions. ISBN 978-2-909675-75-6. Dunkerque.
  • Dumas, Robert (2001). Le cuirassé Richelieu 1935–1968 (in French). Paris: Marine Éditions. ISBN 978-2-909675-75-6. Richelieu.
  • A 330mm shell of the type used by the main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg.
    A 330mm shell of the type used by the main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg.
  • 3-D plan of the ship
    3-D plan of the ship

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to French battleship Dunkerque.

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