And the perfect Bastille Day vehicle would be the French battleship Dunkerque. [37], Following Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa on 8 November, Germany launched Case Anton in retaliation, moving to seize all of the so-called "Zone libre", the part of Vichy France that had up to that point remained unoccupied. Both ships were badly damaged and were handed over to Italian control, where they were partially broken up. In November, Dunkerque joined the battlecruiser HMS Hood to hunt for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but they were unable to locate the German vessels. To prevent the French from repairing them in the future, the Italians inflicted further damage on the wrecks, including cutting their main-battery guns. dual-purpose guns; these were mounted in three quadruple and two twin turrets. [27][28], With the outbreak of war in early September, the Force de Raid, under the command of Vice-amiral d'Escadre (Squadron Vice Admiral) Marcel-Bruno Gensoul, went to sea when reports indicated that the German Deutschland-class cruisers had sortied to attack Allied shipping. Steam was provided by six oil-fired Indret water-tube boilers, ducted into a single large funnel. BRETAGNE BATTLESHIP 1913-1940 - WRECK WRAK EPAVE WRACK PECIO ... Several of the French Navy's main warships, including battleships Richelieu and Dunkerque, were built at … - Unknown IJN Musashi was a Japanese battleship of the Yamato-class featured in the game. After Germany defeated France in the Battle of France in June 1940, the French were forced to neutralise their fleet, and the two Dunkerques were to remain inactive at Mers-el-Kébir. Her wreck remained in Toulon until she was stricken in 1. [4], The German Deutschland-class cruisers, which were armed with a battery of six 283 mm guns, coupled with hesitance on the French Navy's part to commit to small capital ships while Italy still kept its allotted tonnage uncommitted led the French to abandon the 17,500-ton project. [34][35], In the meantime, Strasbourg became the flagship of the Forces de haute mer, which was created from the remains of the French fleet still available in Toulon, under the command of Amiral Jean de Laborde. Dunkerque was the lead ship of the Dunkerque class of battleships … Germans, and subsequently seized and partially scrapped by the Italians and later the Germans. Both ships' secondary turrets had 135 mm (5.3 in) faces, 90 mm (3.5 in) sides and roofs, and 80 mm (3.1 in) rears, atop 120 mm (4.7 in) barbettes. The resulting Washington Naval Treaty limited the French Navy to 175,000 long tons (178,000 t) of total battleship tonnage; French resistance to a halt on battleship construction, in light of the obsolescent Courbet and Bretagne-class battleships that formed the core of its fleet, led to an exception for France (and Italy) to replace 70,000 long tons (71,000 t) worth of battleships during the moratorium, to be laid down in 1927 and 1929. Both the Germans and Italians attempted scrapping operations and the wreck was further damaged by Allied bomber attacks. French Battleship Dunkerque. Two of the 37 mm mounts were placed abreast of the superfiring turret, with the remaining three on the aft superstructure one of which was on the centreline; Strasbourg omitted the centreline mount, receiving instead another quadruple 13.2 mm gun in its place. The 1:350 Model Kit of a French Navy Dunkerque Battleship. The 15 in (381 mm) guns of the British ships quickly inflicting serious damage on Dunkerque and the old battleships Bretagne and Provence. A degaussing cable was fitted to Strasbourg to reduce the risk of detonating German magnetic mines during a refit from November 1939 to January 1940, and during another refit in August–September, a steel screen was erected to protect the light anti-aircraft guns from strafing attacks. Het schip had een lengte van 215 meter, een breedte van 31 meter en een diepgang van 9,6 meter. [8], The two ships differed slightly in their dimensions; both were 209 m (686 ft) long between perpendiculars, while Dunkerque was 215.14 m (705.8 ft) long overall while Strasbourg was 215.5 m (707 ft) overall. The arrangement offered improved damage resistance, since one system could be disabled due battle damage and the other could remain in operation. The Dunkerques were designed to counter the German Deutschland class pocket battleships. The two ships had relatively short careers; completed just before the outbreak of World War II, they served briefly with the Atlantic Squadron in the late 1930s, and Dunkerque made several visits abroad, including to French West Africa in 1938 and visits to Britain in 1937 and 1939. The guns were remotely controlled via electric motors, but the system proved to be problematic in service, as the training and elevation gears were unreliable, the system that communicated commands from the directors to the guns frequently did not work, and the gunners needed to revert to manual control to make small adjustments. Watch Queue Queue After Gensoul rejected their demands, the British opened fire. Nevertheless, repair work quickly resumed, and her holed hull was plated over and pumped dry. For the main guns, one director with a 12 m (39 ft 4 in) rangefinder was mounted on the tower and a second with an 8 m (26 ft 3 in) rangefinder on the aft superstructure. Both the Germans and Italians attempted scrapping operations and the wreck was further damaged by Allied bomber attacks. The wreck of a German warship torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine in 1940 has been discovered in deep water off the North Sea coast of southern Norway. [11] They were the first dual-purpose guns of the French Navy. The French ships were moored with their sterns toward the sea, which initially prevented Dunkerque and Strasbourg from returning fire until they could get underway. The hull was completed except for the forward-most 17 m (56 ft) section, since the dock was only 200 m (660 ft) long. Dunkerque carried a shipment of part of the Banque de France's gold reserve to Canada and then escorted a troop ship convoy to Britain in December. The system included three bulkheads, the first of which was 16 mm (0.63 in) thick, followed by a 10 mm bulkhead, and backed by the main torpedo bulkhead, which was 30 mm (1.2 in) thick. Shortages of funding, both for the ships themselves and the necessary improvements to shipyards and harbour facilities to build and operate the vessels ended the proposals. Dunkerque … Character Dunkerque Object battleship Dunkerque class began as an answer to the increasing gap in performance and ability of capital ships available to the French navy in the 1930s. You can click on an individual photograph to view it alone against a dark background. Laid down:24 December 1932 Launched:2 October 1935 Commissioned:1 May 1937 Fate:Scuttled, 27 November 1942; scrapped, 1958 The guns fired a 570 kg (1,260 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 870 m/s (2,900 ft/s); the shells featured a relatively large bursting charge for their size, reflective of the fact that the Dunkerques were intended to fight the relatively lightly-armoured Deutschlands. [38], Italy received control over most of the wrecks, as Germany had little interest; the Italian fleet sought as many vessels as possible, but Dunkerque and Strasbourg were too badly damaged to be repaired quickly, and so they wrote them off as a total loss. Strasbourg then joined the squadron and the two ships were designated the 1st Battle Division. [17], The ships were the first French battleships designed with fire-control directors. 55 km/h). In September 1940, the ship and several cruisers sortied to cover Provence, which had been repaired and refloated after the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, as she returned to Toulon. The two ships were the first capital ships to be built by the French Navy after World War I; the planned Normandie and Lyon classes had been cancelled at the outbreak of war, and budgetary problems prevented the French from building new battleships … But she was refloated and and returned to Toulon for extensive repairs. The Dunkerque is rendering assistnace, and sights the Scheer. Strasbourg had her command tower modified in November and December 1940 to refit her for use as a flagship, as Dunkerque had been disabled by that point. Ook dat hielp het gewicht te beperken, het nadeel daarvan was echter dat bij de uitschakeling van één geschutskoepel in het gevecht, het schip direct beroofd was van de helft van zijn slagkracht. The class also included Strasbourg. Dit hielp om de lengte van de hoofdpantsergordel beperkt te houden. After that was completed, she was towed out to the Quai d'Armement to have her armament installed and begin fitting-out. However, the discovery of the wreck and Musashi ' s scattered remains in 2015 would prove that this feat could never be realized. The directors were used to gather range, bearing, and inclination data, which was then sent to a central control station below the armour decks; there, plotting tables and analog computers were used to calculate firing solutions for the guns. Maximum displacement of any new battleship was restricted to 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) at standard displacement. During the more than 70 years since its sinking, various attempts have been made by shipwreck hunters to locate the wreck of the Japanese battleship but none of them succeeded. As a show of support for the British position, the French naval command requested designs with a maximum displacement of 25,000 long tons (25,000 t)—the ceiling sought by the British—and a minimum 23,333 long tons (23,707 t)—the maximum displacement that would allow three new ships to be built using the allotted 70,000 tons that France still had available. But the advent of the powerful German Deutschland-class cruisers proved to be more threatening to French interests, prompting the need for larger and more heavily armed and armoured vessels. The final design, completed by 1932, produced a small battleship armed with eight 330 mm (13 in) guns that were concentrated in two quadruple gun turrets forward, with armour sufficient to defeat the Deutschlands' 283 mm (11.1 in) guns. When the Germans arrived in Toulon on 27 November, the work had been completed and de Laborde issued the order. Gneisenau was ordered as Ersatz Hessen as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Hessen, under the contract name "E." The Deutsche Werke in Kiel was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 6 May 1935. The British Force H, which included Hood and the battleships Resolution and Valiant, was sent to either compel the French vessels at Mers-el-Kébir to join the Free French Forces or to sink them. Nov 9, 2017 - Website with searchable ship database about warships, passenger liners, merchant ships, photo galleries, technical details, stories, news and much more. If you do too, please consider becoming a supporter. Battleship Bismarck Forums ↳ Bismarck General Discussion ↳ Bismarck Crewmember Research ↳ The Wreck of the Bismarck; Naval History Forums ↳ Naval History in General ↳ The Age of Sail (1571-1860) ↳ The Ironclad & Pre-dreadnought Era (1860-1905) ↳ The Dreadnought Era (1906-1921) ↳ Naval History (1922-1945) France was allowed to replace two Sea trials were carried out, starting on 18 April 1936, before the superstructure was complete. The 17 meter long bow section of the Dunkerque was built separately and joined to the hull after the launch. They lit fires in the boilers and shut off the water supply so that the boilers would overheat and explode, and they packed gun barrels with explosives. The Hulk of the Dunkerque in1944. The Dunkerque class was a pair of fast battleships built for the French Navy in the 1930s; the two ships were Dunkerque and Strasbourg.They were the first French battleships built since the Bretagne class of pre-World War I vintage, and they were heavily influenced by the Washington Treaty system that limited naval construction in the 1920s and 1930s. The lower deck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick, with sloping sides that connected to the lower edge of the belt; for Strasbourg, the sloped sides were increased to 50 mm (2 in). 24 mars 2018 - Cette épingle a été découverte par Nick Everard. These original to scale drawings of French warships were released into the public domain by the French Ministère de la Défense in 2009! The trials revealed a danger… Dunkerque was the lead ship of the Dunkerque class of battleships built for the French Navy in the 1930s. She and her sister ship Dunkerque were designed to defeat the German Deutschland class of heavy cruisers that had been laid down beginning in the late 1920s, and as such were equipped with a battery of eight 330 mm (13 in) guns to counter the six 280 … The Dunkerque class was a pair of fast battleships built for the French Navy in the 1930s; the two ships were Dunkerque and Strasbourg. Most read. Escorted by five destroyers and some 65 aircraft, she arrived in Toulon on 20 February and was later drydocked there in June to begin repairs. Guns of the mighty Bismarck wreck USS Yorktown wreck discovered by Robert Ballard in 1998 USS Kittiwake Two grounded WWI German submarines Two wrecked. https://nl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dunkerque_(schip,_1937)&oldid=55963049, Frans marineschip in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Wikipedia:Lokale afbeelding gelijk aan Wikidata, Creative Commons Naamsvermelding/Gelijk delen, Mediabestanden die bij dit onderwerp horen, zijn te vinden op de pagina. Get the latest news and developments here and play for free! A classic gunbattle takes place, and is photograhed by a journalist on the merchant ship, who goes over the to Dunkerque before it begins. Dunkerque Fc. [25][26], During the Sudetenland Crisis with Germany in early April 1939, Dunkerque was sent to cover the return of the training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc as it returned from a cruise in the Caribbean, as a nearby German squadron would have threatened the vessel if war had broken out. Ditto for a type of warship, country, year, etc..., e.g. In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed a ten-year moratorium on the construction of new battlecruisers. Upon learning that the ship had not been permanently disabled, the British returned and launched an air strike from the carrier HMS Ark Royal, for which Gensoul and Dunkerque's commanders had failed to erect defences, either in the form of torpedo nets or manned anti-aircraft guns. 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