Lyon-class battleship

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Plan and left elevation drawing of the Lyon class as depicted in the Journal of United States Artillery
Class overview
NameLyon
BuildersFrance
Operators French Navy
Preceded byNormandie class
Succeeded byDunkerque class
Planned4
Completed0
Cancelled4
General characteristics
TypeBattleship
Displacement29,600 t (29,133 long tons)
Length
  • 190 m (623 ft 4 in) (p/p)
  • 194.5 m (638 ft 1 in) (
    o/a
    )
Beam29 m (95 ft 2 in)
Draft8.65 to 9.2 m (28 ft 5 in to 30 ft 2 in)
Installed power40,000 
CV (39,000 shp
)
Propulsion
  • 4 shafts
  • Mixed
    triple-expansion steam engines
    or all-turbine systems
Speed21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Armament
Armor

The Lyon class was a set of

laid down
.

Design

An artist's depiction of the Normandie class, which provided the basis for the Lyon design

The French Navy began a

dreadnought battleship construction program in 1910 with the four ships of the Courbet class. Two years later, the French legislature passed a naval law which called for a fleet of twenty-eight battleships by 1920. Under this plan, three ships would be ordered in 1912; these became the Bretagne class. Two more were projected for 1913 and another two for 1914, which were to be the first four Normandie-class battleships, though an amendment to the law increased the pace of construction to four Normandies in 1913 and a fifth of the same design in 1914. Four ships were projected for 1915.[1][2] Design work on the vessels to follow the Normandies began in 1912; the design staff submitted several proposals for the new battleships, with displacements ranging from 27,000 metric tons (26,574 long tons) to 29,000 t (28,542 long tons).[3] In 1913, the Navy authorized a fourth class of battleships, what was to have been the Lyon class, and scheduled their construction for 1915.[4][5]

One of the main considerations for the new design was the armament to be carried. The French were aware that the latest British battleships—the Queen Elizabeth class—were to be armed with 38 cm (15 in) guns, prompting significant consideration of matching this caliber for the Lyon design. The design staff prepared four variants, two armed with the standard French 34 cm gun in twin or quadruple gun turrets, and two armed with 38 cm guns in twin turrets. The designers also briefly considered a ship armed with twenty 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in quadruple turrets, but the decrease in gun caliber was deemed to be a step in the wrong direction and it was quickly rejected. At the time, the French Navy believed that at the expected battle ranges in the Mediterranean, the 34 cm gun was effective and so the larger 38 cm gun was not necessary.[6] The design staff determined the 38 cm gun would take too long to design, so the proposals that incorporated these weapons were rejected and officials chose between the two 34 cm proposals. The first proposal, which mounted fourteen guns, was a 27,500-metric-ton (27,066-long-ton) ship 185 meters (607 ft) long. On 24 November 1913, the design staff instead chose the slightly larger second design, armed with sixteen guns in four quadruple turrets, but the specific 34 cm gun to be used to arm the ships was still an open question.[4]

The first proposal by the Directorate of Artillery (Direction de l'artillerie) was for the existing 45-caliber[a] gun used by the Bretagne and Normandie-class ships to be modified to use a slightly longer shell that weighed 590 kg (1,300 lb), 50 kg (110 lb) more than the existing shell, and was optimized for underwater performance. The second proposal was for a 50-caliber gun that fired a larger 630 kg (1,390 lb) shell. Accommodating the extra volume and weight of the longer gun was estimated to increase the displacement of the design to 31,000–32,000 t (31,000–31,000 long tons) and to increase the cost from 87 million francs to 93–96 million. The first option was ultimately selected in February 1914.[7] The first two ships, Lyon and Lille, were scheduled to be ordered on 1 January 1915, and Duquesne and Tourville would have followed on 1 April.[3]

The run-up to and beginning of World War I led to the end of the Lyon class. The French government mobilized its reserve forces in July, a month before the conflict, and thereby stripped its shipyards of many of the specialized tradesmen required for constructing the ships. The French also redirected their industrial capacity to weapons and munition orders from the army. In light of such constraints, the navy decided that only those ships that could be completed quickly would be worked upon, such as the Bretagnes.[4][8]

Ships

Construction data
Ship Builder[3]
Lyon
St Nazaire
Duquesne
Arsenal de Brest, Brest
Lille
La Seyne
Tourville
Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient

Characteristics

The ships would have been 190 m (623 ft 4 in)

amidships.[9]

The

superfiring pair aft, although the contemporary Journal of United States Artillery suggests the turrets would have been mounted in two superfiring pairs, forward and aft.[7][10] The turrets weighed 1,500 t (1,500 long tons), and were electrically trained and hydraulically elevated. The guns were divided into pairs and mounted in twin cradles; a 40 mm (1.6 in) thick bulkhead divided the turrets. Each pair of guns had its own ammunition hoist and magazine. They could be fired simultaneously or independently.[11] Before work on the Lyon class had started, the French Navy had begun experimenting with new types of shells. After learning that shells had penetrated the hulls of battleships underwater to burst below their armored belts during the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1904 and during British gunnery trials in 1907, the French Navy began investigating how they might optimize shell design to improve their performance through the water. By 1913 the navy believed that it had a design that could be accurate through the water for a distance of 100 meters (328 ft).[12]

The

anti-aircraft guns and six submerged torpedo tubes of unknown size.[6]

The ships would have been protected with a modified version of the armor layout of the earlier Normandie class. The primary alteration was that the upper

mild steel; the deck sloped downwards to meet the bottom of the waterline belt and the sloped portion of the deck would have had a total thickness of 70 millimeters (2.8 in). The upper armored deck was intended to be 40 millimeters (1.6 in). Between the end barbettes, below the waterline belt, the thickness of the hull would have graduated from 80 to 35 millimeters (3.1 to 1.4 in) in thickness down to a depth of 6 meters (19 ft 8 in) below the waterline forward and 4.5 meters (14 ft 9 in) aft.[14]

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ^ In this case, "caliber" refers to the length of the gun expressed in terms of the barrel diameter; a 45-caliber gun would be 45 times long as it is in diameter.

Citations

  1. ^ Gardiner & Gray, pp. 190–191
  2. ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 162
  3. ^ a b c d e Gardiner & Gray, p. 199
  4. ^ a b c O'Brien, p. 47
  5. ^ Wilmott, p. 143
  6. ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 204
  7. ^ a b c Jordan & Caresse, p. 206
  8. ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 189
  9. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 204–205
  10. ^ Barnett, p. 377
  11. ^ Friedman, p. 209
  12. ^ Friedman, pp. 204, 208
  13. ^ Friedman, p. 225
  14. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 204–207

References

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