Dunkerque class battleship
Class Overview
Type:	battleship
Name:	Dunkerque
Number of ships:	2
Preceded by:	Planned: Lyon class battleship Built: Bretagne class battleship
Succeeded by:	Richelieu class battleship
General characteristics
Displacement:	36 380 tonnes
Length:	215.1 m
Beam:	31.1 m
Draught:	8.7 m
Propulsion:	6 Indret boilers 4 Rateau geared turbines For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 502 pixel Image in higher resolution (1058 × 664 pixel, file size: 131 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Source : [1] File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Battlecruiser... For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... The Lyon class was planned from 1914, but was cancelled in favour of the Dunkerque design, less costly and better adapted to counter the German pocket battleships. ... The Bretagne class were Dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy during the First World war. ... The Jean Bart was a French battleship of World War II named for the seventeenth century seaman and corsair Jean Bart. ... 135,585 hp
Speed:	31 knots
Protection:	225 mm (side belt) 30 mm (anti-torpedo bulkheads) 125-115 mm (deck) 330/310 mm (turrets)
Complement:	1381
Armament:	2 quadruple 330 mm turrets 3 quadruple and 2 double 130 mm AA turrets 5 double 37 mm AA turrets 4 double mm AA turrets
Aircraft:	4 floatplanes, 1 catapult

The Dunkerque class was a new type of warship of the French Navy, labelled as "fast battleship". Not as large as other contemporary battleships, they were designed to counter the threat of the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland class. As it turned out, they were also superior to the later German 11-inch main gun Gneisenau class battlecruisers (Scharnhorst and Gneisenau).^[1] The French Navy, officially called the National Navy (French: Marine Nationale) is the maritime arm of the French military. ... For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... Pocket battleship is an English language term for a class of warships built by German Reichsmarine in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. ... The Deutschland class was a series of three Panzerschiffe (armoured ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the German Reichsmarine in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. ... The Gneisenau class were two large heavy-gun warships of the World War II German navy, the Kriegsmarine. ... Scharnhorst was a 31,500 tonne Gneisenau class battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine, named after the Prussian general and army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst and to commemorate the World War I armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst. ... Gneisenau was a famous World War II 31,100 ton Gneisenau class battlecruiser[1] of the German Kriegsmarine. ...

The design was very innovative: the whole of the main armament was mounted forward. This had been the case for the Royal Navy's Nelson class battleships but they had three turrets carrying nine guns and the angles of fire for the rearmost were limited by the turret in front. The Dunkerque used two quadruple turrets which gave unrestricted fire. In the context of the Treaty of Washington, the quad arrangement had the advantage of saving weight on turret armouring, compared to four double turrets, while retaining the same firepower. The drawback was that a single lucky shot immobilising one of the turrets would effectively put half the main artillery out of action. On the other hand, the entirety of the main artillery was able to fire forwards, as the ship closed in to her enemy, in an angle where she made the smalled possible target. The mounting of all the armament in quadruple turrets was a feature unique to the late design French battleships, and was also found on the subsequent Richelieu and Jean Bart. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). ... HMS Nelson For the Battleship class in the Cosmic Era of Gundam, see Nelson class battleship (Gundam) The Nelson class were battleships of the British Royal Navy built shortly following the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922. ... The Richelieu was a French battleship of World War II named for the seventeenth century statesman Cardinal Richelieu. ... The Jean Bart was a French battleship of World War II named for the seventeenth century seaman and corsair Jean Bart. ...

The armor protection of the class was also very modern, as it used the "all or nothing" armor scheme, unlike contemporary German warships. While the belt armor could only withstand the 11-inch German naval guns, the deck armor proved its worth against the 15-inch shells of the Royal Navy at Mers-el-Kébir in 1940.

Both ships, the Dunkerque and the Strasbourg, were kept by Vichy France and eventually destroyed in the Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. The Dunkerque was the first of a new type of warship of the French Navy, labeled as fast battleship. Not quite the size of a full battleship, they were designed to counter the threat of the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland class. ... The Strasbourg was a warship of the French Navy, labeled as fast battleship. Larger and more powerful than a mere battlecruiser, yet not a full battleship, they were designed to counter the threat of the German Pocket battleships. ... Motto Travail, famille, patrie French: Unoccupied zone of Vichy France (until November 1942) Capital Vichy Capital-in-exile Sigmaringen (1944-1945) Language(s) French Religion Roman Catholic Government Dictatorship Chief of state  - 1940 — 1944 Philippe Pétain President of the Council  - 1940 — 1942 Philippe Pétain  - 1942 — 1944 Pierre Laval... Combatants Vichy France Germany Commanders Jean de Laborde André Marquis Johannes Blaskowitz Casualties whole fleet scuttled ; 12 killed ; 26 wounded. ...

Notes

1. ^ http://www.lostbattalion.com