French battleship Bretagne

The Bretagne was a battleship of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. She was named in honour of the French region of Brittany, and was built by Arsenal de Brest. Launched in 1913, she served in the Mediterranean in both World Wars and was sunk in Mers-el-Kébir harbour by British Forces in July 1940.

Construction

Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1912, and she was launched on 21 April 1913. She was completed in September 1915 and carried a main armament of ten of the new 340 mm main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward, two centerline superfiring aft and one amidships centerline turret that could fire to both sides. These 340 mm main guns had come from the cancelled Normandie-class battleships.

The Bretagne was converted to partial oil firing over the years in 1921 to 1925, and further reconstructed from 1932 to 1934. While her new boilers gave 43,000 hp (32,000 kW), this came with only a meager increase in speed to 21 knots (39 km/h).

Service

Serving in the Mediterranean during both World Wars, the Bretagne sailed to Mers-el-Kebir after the Fall of France in 1940. The British had feared that the powerful French fleet would fall into Nazi hands, and were resolved to prevent this dispatching a force including the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution and the battlecruiser HMS Hood to Mers-el-Kebir. After an ultimatum from the British to join the Allies, surrender their ships in British ports, or to a neutral country was refused, the British opened fire on 3 July 1940. The Bretagne was blown up and sunk by the first British salvo to hit, with the loss of 977 French sailors.

Salvaged in 1952, she was scrapped thereafter.

See also

• List of shipwrecks in 1940

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. 
• French battleship Bretagne: Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel (HTML) Accessed 11 August 2007.

External links

• Profile drawing of the battleship Bretagne (HTML)