French battleship Lorraine

The Provence, sister-ship of the Lorraine
Career (France)
Namesake:	Region of Lorraine
Builder:	Ateliers & Chantiers de la Loire
Laid down:	1 August 1912
Launched:	30 September 1913
Commissioned:	27 July 1916
Decommissioned:	17 February 1953
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type:	Bretagne class battleship
Displacement:	23 230 tons standard, 26 180 tons full load
Length:	166 m
Beam:	26.9 m
Draught:	9.8 m
Propulsion:	4 shaft Parsons turbines, 18-24 boilers, 29,000 hp
Speed:	20 knots
Range:	4700 nmi at 10 knots, 2680 tons coal and 300 tons oil
Complement:	1133
Armament:	10 × 340mm/45 Modèle 1912 guns in twin mounts 22 x 1 - 138.6 mm Mle 1910 guns 4 × 1 47 mm guns 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes After 1935 8 × 340mm/45 Modèle 1912 guns 14 x 1 - 138.6 mm Mle 1910 guns 8 × 75mm/50 Modèle 1922 guns
Armour:	Belt 270 mm three decks 40 mm each Casemates 170 mm 340 mm turrets 314 mm conning tower

The Lorraine was a French Navy battleship of the Bretagne class named in honour of the region of Lorraine in France.

Contents 1 Construction 2 Service 3 References 4 External links

Construction

The Lorraine was built by Ateliers & Chantiers de la Loire at St. Nazaire, and her keel was laid down on 1 August 1912. Launched on 30 September 1913, she was completed and commissioned on 27 July 1916. Like her sister ships, the battleships Bretagne and Provence, the Lorraine was armed with a main armament of ten of the new 340 mm main guns from the cancelled Normandie-class battleships. The main guns were mounted two per turret; two centreline superfiring forwards, two centreline superfiring aft and one amidships centreline turret that could fire to both sides.

In refits from 1921 to 1922, 1926 to 1927, and from 1934 to 1936 the Lorraine was modernised between the wars, with an aircraft catapult put in place of her midships gun-turret and modern anti-aircraft armament, as well being converted to new oil-firing boilers. Despite putting out 43,000 horsepower, the new boilers only pushed her speed up to 21 knots and here again her lack of speed as well as her relatively thin 270 mm armour made her a liability in battle.

Service

She served with her two sister ships in the Mediterranean during both World Wars. Save for sailing around in potentially hostile waters, the ship saw no action during the First World War.

During the outbreak of Second World War the Lorraine carried France's gold reserves to the United States in November 1939. She was then ordered to the Eastern Mediterranean, where she participated in the bombardment of Bardia.

When in the earliest days of July 1940, the Royal Navy carried out the Operation Catapult, in Alexandria, Admiral Andrew Cunningham who commanded the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, and Admiral Godfroy, in command of the French Force X, struck a deal which avoided a dreadful affrontment and led to the disarmament and internment of the Lorraine and the other ships of the French squadron by the British, on July 7, 1940.

Six months after the French Africa forces joined the Allies, the French warships in Alexandria joined them on 31 May 1943. In 1944, the Lorraine carried out shore bombardments of Southern France, during the Allies' Operation Dragoon: her big guns supported the landings in August and September 1944 and she bombarded a number of hold-out German fortresses in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic for the rest of the war.

Following the end of the war in Europe, the Lorraine was converted into a training hulk.

Decommissioned on 17 February 1953, she was finally scrapped in 1954.

References

• Dumas, Robert (1986). "The French Dreadnoughts: The 23,500 ton Bretagne Class". In Lambert, Andrew D. Warship. X. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 74–85. ISBN 0-85177-449-0. 
• Dumas, Robert; Guiglini, Jean (1980). Les cuirassés français de 23,500 tonnes. Grenoble, France: Editions de 4 Seigneurs. OCLC 7836734. 
• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger, eds (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-913-8. 
• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1922. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. 
• Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1. 
• Jordan, John; Dumas, Robert (2009). French Battleships 1922–1956. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-416-8. 
• O'Hara, Vincent P.; Dickson, W. David; Worth, Richard (2010). On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of the Second World War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-646-9. 
• Whitley, M. J. (1998). Battleships of World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-184-X. 

External links

• Blueprints of the battleship Lorraine (HTML)

Bretagne-class battleship Bretagne · Provence · Lorraine Preceded by: Courbet class - Followed by: Normandie class List of battleships of France