Alsace class battleship

The Alsace class battleships were planned to succeed and enlarge the Richelieu class. The design planned for an improved Richelieu design with three triple or quadruple 380 mm turrets (two fore, one aft). Six names were proposed, and two had to be chosen from this list: Alsace, Normandie, Flandre, Bourgogne; two more units were not given names. The laying down of the lead ship of the class, Alsace, was planned for 1941; with the Fall of France in 1940, none of the ships were built.

Background

In 1936, the second London naval disarmament conference failure is marking the end of the international naval armament limitation policy. Japan had withdrawn from the conference on January 15. Italy also declined to sign the treaty. A so-called "escalator clause" was included at the urging of American negotiators, allowing the signatory countries of the Second London Treaty—France, the United Kingdom and the United States—to raise the battleship main artillery caliber limit from 14 inches (356 mm) to 16 inches (406mm), and the battleship Washington tonnage limit from 35,000 tons to 45,000 tons, if Japan or Italy still refused to sign after 1 April 1937.^[1] So, the U.S.A. adopted the 16-inches guns for their new fast battleship classes,^[2] the United Kingdom choose to respect the Second London Naval Treaty limitations for the King George V class battleships, Germany was not concerned as she had not been invited to the second London naval disarmament conference, but officially, the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz did have 380 mm guns and 35,000 tons. So France decided to respect the limitation of 35,000 tons and 380 mm, as long as no continental European power has overtaken them.^[1][3] It was with these considerations in mind that the new Chef d'Etat-major Général de la Marine, admiral Darlan, ordered, in late 1937, to study new designs for two more battleships, as Dunkerque trials were allowing to confirm some critical regards on her design, especially her all forward quadruple turret main artillery, and her dual purpose (anti-aircraft and anti-ship) secondary artillery of relatively light caliber ^[4]

Three projects have been studied, the first (project A) with the same quadruple arrangement forward than Richelieu, but different secondary artillery dispositions, the second (project B) with one quadruple turret forward and one quadruple turret aft, the third (project C) with two fore triple turrets and one triple turret aft, in every case with a 380 mm caliber. The project C was leading to an excess of nearly 2500 tons in regard of the limit of 35,000 tons, so it was not proposed to the Chef d'Etat-major Général de la Marine.

In June 1938, Admiral Darlan choose the project A variant 2, for the first battleship to be laid down of the second pair of Richelieu class battleships. She received the name of "Clemenceau", and he choose the project B variant 3ter, for the second ship in which design he has got very much involved, and gave her the name of "Gascogne", the French province where he was born.^[5]

The French Admiralty choice was tightly linked with the necessity of a maximum use of shipyards where big ships might be built. The Salou graving dock, in Brest Navy Yards, was planned to be ready for a new battleship building in late 1938 - early 1939, after the Richelieu will have been launched, more exactly will have been floated up. It was not possible to let the dock empty during at least six months, waiting for building a Project B design battleship , as it would have necessitated at least one year to put up definitive drawings, after it had been ordered. So, the Project A design had to be chosen necessarily for the first battleship to be laid down in the Salou graving dock, as the "Caquot dock" in Saint-Nazaire, where was being built Jean Bart expected to leave it for October 1940,^[3] could be used for the second battleship to be laid down. Richelieu was floated up on January 17, 1939, and Clemenceau was laid down. Eighteen months later, Jean Bart left her berth nearly in sight of German vanguards, on June 19, 1940, so Gascogne was never laid down.

During the summer 1939, the French intelligence services have warned the French Admiralty that the keels of two German battleships, supposed to have 40,000 tons and 406 mm guns, actually Plan Z H-39 class battleships,^[6][7] had been laid down. It was considered then that it was time to outpass the limits of 35,000 tons and 380 mm. On basis of the 1938 studies on Project C, new battleship designs emerged, which led to the so-called "Province " or Alsace class battleships.^[8]

Design

Three types of battleships were studied, all with the same main artillery arrangement, two turrets forward, one turret aft, and the same secondary artillery arrangement (152 mm caliber), all on center line, one triple turret forward, two triple turrets in superfiring position aft, between the funnel and the aft main artillery turret, as on the C3 version of projects for 1938 bis program.^[9]

They differed on two points :

First, the main artillery consists in triple 380 mm turrets, for type n°1, in 406 mm triple turrets, for type n°2, in 380 mm quadruple turrets, for type n°3.

Second, the anti aircraft artillery, consisting in every case of dual mountings of 100 mm caliber (so-called pseudo turrets), had eight mountings, on types n° 1 and 2, twelve mountings on type n° 3, nearly like Jean Bart as completed post war .

The armour is nearly the same (belt : 330 mm on type n°1 and n°2, 350 mm on type n°3; upper armoured deck :170–180 mm; lower armoured deck : 40 mm) and the propulsion assuring the same speed (31.5 knots) as Richelieu,^[10][11] so the length of the hull, the power of propulsion machinery, and the Washington tonnage are varying from 252 m, 170,000 hp (130,000 kW) and 40,000 tons for the type n°1, 256 m, 190,000 hp (140,000 kW) and 42,500 tons for the type n°2, to 265 m, 220,000 hp (160,000 kW) and 45,000 tons for the type n°3.^[12] · ^[13]

As seen above, the type n°1 would have been similar to Vittorio Veneto class battleships,^[14] for the main artillery, in arrangement and in caliber, and an anti-ship secondary artillery which would have counted one triple turret less, but with a disposition on an axial line, the broadside would have been 50% more powerful, and the anti-aircraft artillery, with a slightly bigger caliber (100 mm instead of 90 mm) would have counted the same number of barrels. It also may be described as something between HMS Vanguard ,^[15] with one more 381 mm gun , and the HMS Lion battleship class,^[15] with a main artillery of only 380  mm caliber.

The type n°2 would have been similar to HMS Lion class, or USS North Carolina class and USS South Dakota class battleships,^[16] regarding the main armament, in caliber and in arrangement. The top speed would have been 2 knots (3.7 km/h) higher, 30 kn instead of 28 kn for the U.S. Navy battleships concerned, with consequently a longer hull, more horsepower and an enlarged displacement. The choice of a dual-caliber secondary artillery instead of a dual-purpose one is characteristic of the Continental European navies at the beginning of the Second World War; the lack of a robust light anti-aircraft battery is also consistent with contemporary practice that was soon outstripped by events.

The type n°3 would have retained a distinguishing feature of French capital ships: the quadruple turret. The French Navy advocated such a battery arrangmenet consistently, incorporating it into the designs of the proposed Normandie and Lyon classes of battleship in the First World War, and then bringing it into practice on the Dunkerque-, Richelieu-, and Gascogne-classes. The secondary artillery would have been near of which will have been fitted on Jean Bart as completed post war (9 x 152 mm and 24 x 100 mm), except the lack of fourteen AA 57 mm dual mountings and twenty 20 mm single mountings.

The French Admiralty is reported to have chosen the type n°1,^[12] the nearest of Richelieu design, and discarded the type n°2, because of the delays to perfect the 406 mm guns, a new device for the French Navy, and considered the type n°3 dimensions excessive, being nearly those of Iowa class battleships (270 m, 212,000 hp (158,000 kW), 45,000 tons).

The first unit was intended to be laid down on 1941, in the Penhoët shipyards, where had been built the Normandie transatlantic liner, and later the Strasbourg battleship, and where was being built the Joffre aircraft carrier, the second unit to be laid down on 1942 in a new dock which was intended to be built in the Brest Navy Yards. No work was ever begun on these ships, and even no material stored.^[17]

The name of French Provinces, which has been used for Bretagne class battleships and Normandie class battleships, had also been considered a moment for Rubis class nuclear attack submarines, and is currently in use for Aquitaine class second generation stealth frigates.

References

Bibliography

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