French battleship Courbet (1911)

History
France
Builder	Arsenal of Brest
Laid down	1 September 1910
Launched	3 March 1911
Commissioned	November 1913
Fate	Scuttled during Operation Neptune
General characteristics
Displacement	22,189 tonnes
Length	166.0 m (544 ft 7 in)
Beam	27.9 m (88 ft 7 in)
Draught	8.80 m (29 ft)
Propulsion	24 Niclausse boilers, four Parsons steam turbines
Speed	20 knots
Range	1140 Nautical Miles at full speed. 4,200 nmi (7,800 km) at 10 knots (20 km/h)
Complement	1085 to 1100
Armament	12 × 305mm/45 Modèle 1910 guns 22 × 138.6 mm 55-cal guns 4 × 47 mm guns 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 270 mm Deck: 30 to 50 mm Bridge: 300 mm

The Courbet was a first generation Dreadnought of the French navy, lead ship of her class. She was named in honour of Admiral Amédée Courbet.

During the First World War, she took part in the Otranto blockade, and later cruised the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

In 1921, she became a school ship for artillery training in Toulon. She suffered a series of accidental engine fires, before being refitted between 1927 and 1929. From 1930 to 1937, she was used as a school ship for navigation. In 1939 she was again used as an artillery school.

In 1940, she was recommissioned for active duty, with extra anti-air artillery (seven new 75 mm AA twin mounts). She took part in the fights at Cherbourg and helped evacuate 30,630 Allied soldiers to Portsmouth. On 18 and 19 June, she shelled a German motorised infantry unit near Carentan, before retreating to Portsmouth.

In the wake of the Armistice, she was docked at Portsmouth; on 3 July 1940, as part of "Operation Catapult", she was forcibly boarded by British forces, along with the destroyers Le Triomphant and the Léopard, her sister-ship Paris, eight torpedo boats, five submarines and a number of other ships of lesser importance. She was surrendered to the Free French Forces seven days later. She was used as hulk barracks and fixed anti-air artillery spot. She was credited to have shot down five German planes.

In the night of the 5 and 6 June 1944, she was towed to Normandy by the British Rescue tugs HMRT Growler and HMRT Samsonia to be scuttled as a "Gooseberry" breakwater at Sword Beach. Flying the French colours and the cross of Lorraine, she attracted fire from the German shore batteries before being scuttled, according to plan, around 13h30. The Germans claimed to have sunk her.

The wreck lies 2 nautical miles (4 km) North-West from Ouistreham, in a dozen metres of water.

See also

• French ship Courbet for eponymous ships