Normandie-class battleship
Artist's impression of a Normandie-class battleship
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Class overview | |
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Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Bretagne class |
Succeeded by |
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Planned | 5 |
Completed | 1 (Béarn, as an aircraft carrier) |
Scrapped | 5 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Battleship |
Displacement | |
Length | 176.4 m (578 ft 9 in) ( o/a ) |
Beam | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
Draft | 8.84 m (29 ft) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
Range | 6,600 nmi (12,200 km; 7,600 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Crew | 1,204 as flagship |
Armament |
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Armor |
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The Normandie class consisted of five
The ships were never completed due to shifting production requirements and a shortage of labor after the beginning of World War I in 1914. The first four ships were sufficiently advanced in construction to permit their launching to clear the slipways for other, more important work. Many of the guns built for the ships were converted for use by the Army. After the war, the French Navy considered several proposals to complete the ships, either as originally designed or modernized to account for lessons from the war. The weak French post-war economy forestalled these plans and the first four ships were broken up.
The last ship, Béarn, which was not significantly advanced at the time work halted, was converted into an aircraft carrier in the 1920s. She remained in service in various capacities until the 1960s and was ultimately scrapped in 1967.
Development
In December 1911, the French Navy's Technical Committee (Comité technique) issued a report that examined the design of the
The French Navy's design staff (Section technique) submitted the first draft of the new dreadnought design in February 1912. The size of French shipyard facilities significantly affected the design. Length was limited to 172 meters (564 ft), beam to 27.5 m (90 ft 3 in), and draft to approximately 8.7 m (29 ft). These dimensions limited the design to a displacement of around 25,000 metric tons (24,605 long tons) and a speed of 20 to 21 knots (37 to 39 km/h; 23 to 24 mph), depending on the armament arrangement.[1]
The design staff presented three alternatives, all armed with a secondary armament of twenty 138.6 mm (5.5 in) guns in a new twin-gun casemate mounting. The first was a design with the same ten 340 mm guns as the Bretagnes, but with a top speed greater than 21 knots. The second was for a ship with a dozen 340 mm guns arranged in two quadruple-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure with superfiring twin-gun turrets and a speed of 20 knots. The last proposal was a ship that was armed with sixteen 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in four quadruple turrets and a speed of 20 knots.[2]
The staff also prepared two different designs for the propulsion system. Two sets of
The General Staff decided in March 1912 to retain the 340 mm gun of the Bretagne class and favored the all-turbine design. They chose the new quadruple turret and preferred an armament of twelve guns in two quadruple and two double turrets.
The Technical Department prepared two new designs, A7, which incorporated the five twin turrets, and A7bis, which was armed with three quadruple turrets. The A7bis design was some 500 t (490 long tons) lighter than the A7 design, and on 6 April, the Navy accepted a quadruple-gun-turret design submitted by
Description
The Normandie-class ships were 175 m (574 ft 2 in)
The first four ships were equipped with one set of steam turbines driving the inner pair of four-bladed, 5.2 m (17 ft 1 in)
The ships' engines were rated at 32,000
Armament
The main battery of the Normandie class consisted of a dozen 45-
The guns had a range of 16,000 meters (17,000 yd) and had a
The ships would also have been armed with a secondary battery of twenty-four 55-caliber
Protection
The
Above the waterline belt was an upper
The hull of the Normandies had a
Ships
Ship | Builder[22] | Laid down[22]
|
Launched[22] | In Service[22] | Fate[10] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Normandie | St Nazaire
|
18 April 1913 | 19 October 1914 | — | Incomplete, scrapped 1924–1925 |
Flandre | Arsenal de Brest, Brest
|
1 October 1913 | 20 October 1914 | — | Incomplete, scrapped October 1924 |
Gascogne | Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient
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20 September 1914 | — | Incomplete, scrapped 1923–1924 | |
Languedoc | Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde, Lormont | 1 May 1913 | 1 May 1915 | — | Incomplete, scrapped June 1929 |
Béarn | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer
|
5 January 1914 | 15 April 1920 | May 1927[23] | Converted to an aircraft carrier, scrapped 1967[23] |
Construction and cancellation
Named after provinces of France,[24] Normandie and Languedoc were ordered on 18 April 1913, although neither was formally authorized until the enabling finance bill (loi des finances) was passed on 30 July, and Flandre and Gascogne on that same day. Béarn had been planned to be ordered on 1 October 1914, but it was brought forward to 1 January; the five ships would permit the creation of two four-ship divisions with the three Bretagne-class dreadnoughts then under construction.[22]
Work on the class was suspended at the outbreak of World War I, as all resources were needed for the Army. The mobilization in July greatly impeded construction as those workmen in the reserves were called up and work was effectively halted later that month. The labor force available to work on the Normandies was further reduced by conscription and orders for
In July 1915 work on the ships' armament was suspended, save the guns themselves, which could be converted for use by the Army.[3] Four of the completed 340 mm guns were converted into railway guns for the French Army. Nine of the guns built for Languedoc were also mounted on railway carriages in 1919, after the end of the war.[25] Several of the 138.6 mm guns were also modified for service with the Army.[3]
Ship | Hull[26] | Engines[26] | Boilers[26] | Moving parts of turrets[26] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Normandie | 65% | 70% | Delivered | 40% |
Languedoc | 49% | 73% | 96% | 26% |
Flandre | 65% | 60% | Delivered | 51% |
Gascogne | 60% | Turbines 44%; VTE 75% | Delivered | Captured |
Béarn | 25% | 17% | 20% | 8–10% |
The boilers intended for Normandie and Gascogne were used to replace the worn-out boilers of various destroyers,
In January 1918, a final wartime order specified that the ships remained suspended, but that all material that had been stockpiled for work would remain in place. By that time, some 3,086 t (3,037 long tons) of steel plating that had been earmarked for Gascogne had been taken for other uses.[28]
On 22 November, days after the Armistice with Germany, the design staff sent the General Staff a proposal to complete the first four Normandies to a modified design. The General Staff replied that the ships would need a top speed of 26 to 28 kn (48 to 52 km/h; 30 to 32 mph) and a more powerful main battery.[29] Since the dockyard facilities had not been enlarged during the war, the size of the ships could not be significantly increased. This allowed for only modest improvements, particularly for the installation of anti-torpedo bulges. In February 1919, the General Staff decided that the ships would be completed anyway, because new vessels incorporating the lessons of the war could not be completed for at least six to seven years, due to the lengthy design studies such battleships would require.[30]
The Technical Department created a revised design that incorporated some improvements. The machinery for the four ships that had been launched during the war would be retained;[31] increasing their speed to 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) required a corresponding increase to 80,000 shp (60,000 kW), which could be obtained by building more powerful turbines.[32] The elevation of the main guns was to be increased to 23–24 degrees, which would increase the range of the guns to 25,000 m (82,000 ft) lest they be out-ranged by foreign battleships.[31] The need to engage targets at longer ranges was confirmed by the examination of one of the ex-Austrian Tegetthoff-class ships that had been surrendered to France at the end of the war. The main armored deck was to be increased to 120 mm (4.7 in) to increase resistance to plunging fire. The submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes were to be replaced with deck-mounted 550 mm (21.7 in) tubes, and fire-control equipment was to be improved. Equipment for handling a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft and a single-seat fighter was also to be installed.[33]
After the war,
Plans to complete Béarn included replacement of the coal-fired boilers with eight oil-fired Niclausse boilers and new, more powerful turbines. A new quadruple turret that allowed for greater range was considered, along with twin turrets mounting 400 mm (16 in) guns.
Notes
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 184.
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, pp. 184–185, 189.
- ^ a b c Preston 2002, p. 68.
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 185.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 412.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 188–189.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 191–192.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 191, 201.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 201.
- ^ a b c d e Smigielski, p. 198.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 191.
- ^ Friedman, p. 209.
- ^ Preston 1972, p. 51.
- ^ Friedman, p. 207.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 413.
- ^ a b c Le Masson, p. 414.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 197.
- ^ Friedman, p. 225.
- ^ Friedman, p. 229.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 198–199.
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, pp. 199–200.
- ^ a b c d e f Jordan & Caresse, p. 189.
- ^ a b c Roberts, p. 261.
- ^ Silverstone, pp. 88, 97, 99, 103, 107.
- ^ Friedman, p. 210.
- ^ a b c d e f Jordan & Caresse, p. 202.
- ^ Smigielski, p. 204.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 415.
- ^ Preston 2002, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 416.
- ^ a b Preston 2002, p. 69.
- ^ a b Smigielski, p. 199.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 417.
- ^ a b Preston 2002, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Le Masson, p. 419.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 300.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 190, 201–202.
- ^ Preston 2002, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Preston 2002, p. 71.
References
- ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Jordan, John (2020). "From Battleship to Carrier: Béarn". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford, UK: Osprey. pp. 8–27. ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
- Le Masson, Henri (1984). "The Normandie Class Battleships with Quadruple Turrets". Warship International. XXI (4). ISSN 0043-0374.
- ISBN 0-88365-300-1.
- Preston, Antony (2002). The World's Worst Warships. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-754-2.
- Roberts, John (1980). "France". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 255–279. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-9.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- Smigielski, Adam (1985). "France". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 190–220. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
Further reading
- Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905–1970. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 0-356-04191-3.