République-class battleship
Illustration of Patrie
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Class overview | |
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Name | République class |
Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Suffren |
Succeeded by | Liberté class |
Built | 1901–1907 |
In commission | 1907–1936 |
Completed | 2 |
Scrapped | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
Displacement | 14,870 metric tons (14,640 long tons) |
Length | 135.25 meters (443 ft 9 in) loa |
Beam | 24.25 m (79 ft 7 in) |
Draft | 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Range | 8,400 nautical miles (15,600 km; 9,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Armor |
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The République class consisted of a pair of
Both ships entered service with the fleet in 1907, after the revolutionary British battleship
The fleet thereafter patrolled the southern end of the
Design
République ("Republic") and Patrie ("Fatherland") were authorized by the Fleet Law of 1900, which called for a total of six battleships.[1] The law was a reaction to the German 1898 Naval Law, which marked a significant expansion of their fleet under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Since Germany was France's primary enemy, a considerable strengthening of its fleet pressured the French parliament to authorize a similar program. Louis-Émile Bertin, who had become the Directeur central des constructions navales (DCCN—Central Director of Naval Construction) in 1896, was responsible for preparing the new design. Bertin had campaigned through the early 1890s for revisions to the battleships then being built, as he correctly determined that their shallow belt armor would render them vulnerable to flooding from hits above the belt that could dangerously destabilize the vessels.[2]
Upon becoming the DCCN, Bertin was in a position to advance his ideas on battleship construction. In November 1897, he called for a battleship
Design work on the ship continued for the next two years as the staff worked out various particulars. The staff submitted a revised proposal on 20 April 1898, with the displacement now increased to 15,000 t (14,800 long tons), which was on par with contemporary British designs. To ensure passage through the Suez Canal, draft was limited to 8.4 m (28 ft). The staff specified the standard main armament of four 305 mm (12 in) guns in two twin-gun turrets. The naval command approved the submission, but requested alterations to the design, particularly to the arrangement of the secondary battery layout. These proved difficult to incorporate, as the requested changes increased top weight, which necessitated reductions in armor thicknesses to keep the ship from becoming too top-heavy. The navy refused to allow the reductions, so further rearrangements were considered.[3]
On 23 December, the designers evaluated a pair of proposals for the secondary gun turrets from
The French originally planned to build six vessels of the class, which is sometimes referred to as the Patrie class, but developments abroad, particularly the construction of the British
General characteristics
The ships were 131 m (429 ft 9 in)
République and Patrie were built with a tall
They had a crew of 32 officers and 710 enlisted men, though while serving as a
Machinery
The ships were powered by three vertical
The propulsion system was rated at 17,500
Armament
The main battery for the République-class ships consisted of four Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893/96 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one forward and one aft. These guns fired a 350-kilogram (770 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 865 meters per second (2,840 ft/s). At their maximum elevation of 12 degrees, the guns had a range of 12,500 m (13,700 yd). Their rate of fire was one round per minute. Both the turrets and the guns were electrically operated; both guns were typically elevated together, but they could be decoupled and operated independently if the need arose. The guns had to be depressed to a fixed loading position, −5 degrees, between shots. Ready ammunition storage amounted to eight rounds per turret. Though earlier French battleships had carried a mix of several types of shells, including armor-piercing (APC), semi-armor-piercing (SAPC), cast iron, high-explosive, and shrapnel shells, République and Patrie standardized on a load-out of just APC and SAPC shells. In peacetime, each gun was supplied with 65 shells, for a total of 260 per ship, of which 104 were APC and the remaining 156 were SAPC. The wartime supply was three times that, at 780 shells in total.[15][16]
The secondary battery consisted of eighteen
Though designed with a tertiary battery of twenty-four 47 mm (1.9 in) guns for defense against
The ships were also armed with two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull, abreast the forward 164.7 mm gun turrets. They were arranged at a fixed angle, 19 degrees forward of the beam. Each tube was supplied with three Modèle 1904 torpedoes, which had a range of 1,000 m (1,100 yd) at a speed of 32.5 kn (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph), carrying a 100 kg (220 lb) warhead. Each ship carried twenty naval mines that could be laid by the vessels' pinnaces.[20]
Armor
The ship's main-belt armor consisted of two
Horizontal protection consisted of two armored decks. The upper deck, at main deck level, covered almost the entire ship, from the bow to the aft transverse bulkhead. It consisted of three layers of 18 mm (0.71 in) steel for a total thickness of 54 mm (2.1 in). Below that, the lower deck was flat over the engine and boiler rooms, consisting of three layers of 17 mm (0.67 in) steel, the total thickness being 51 mm (2 in). On the sides of the deck, it angled down to connect to the lower edge of the main belt. The sloped sides were two layers of 36 mm (1.4 in) steel. Sandwiched between the two decks and directly behind the belt was an extensively subdivided cofferdam, which Bertin intended to limit flooding in the event of battle damage. Coal storage bunkers were placed behind the cofferdam to absorb shell splinters or armor fragments.[22]
The main-battery turrets received the heaviest armor; the faces of the gunhouses were 360 mm (14 in) thick and the sides and rears were 280 mm thick, all cemented steel. Behind each plate were two layers of 20 mm (0.79 in) thick steel. The roof consisted of three layers of 24 mm (0.94 in) of steel. Their barbettes were 246 mm (9.7 in) thick above the main deck and reduced to 66 mm (2.6 in) below the deck; for the forward barbette, a transitional thickness of 166 mm (6.5 in) was used where the barbette was covered by the thin upper belt. The secondary turrets had cemented 138 mm (5.4 in) faces and sides and 246 mm (9.7 in) of
The forward conning tower had 266 mm (10.5 in) of steel on the front and side, with a 216 mm (8.5 in) thick rear wall. All four sides were backed by two layers of 17 mm plating. Access to the rear entrance to the tower was shielded by a curved bulkhead that was 174 mm (6.9 in) thick. A heavily armored tube that consisted of 200 mm thick steel protected the communication system that connected the conning tower with the transmitting station lower in the ship. Below the upper deck, it was reduced to 20 mm on two layers of 10 mm steel.[23]
Modifications
Tests were carried out to determine whether the main-battery turrets could be modified to increase the elevation of the guns (and hence their range), but the modifications proved to be impractical. The Navy did determine that tanks on either side of the vessel could be flooded to induce a heel of 2 degrees. This increased the maximum range of the guns from 12,500 to 13,500 m (41,000 to 44,300 ft). New motors were installed in the secondary turrets in 1915–1916 to improve their training and elevation rates. Also in 1915, the 47 mm guns located on either side of the bridge were removed and the two on the aft superstructure were moved to the roof of the rear turret. On 8 December 1915, the naval command issued orders that the light battery was to be revised to just four of the 47 mm guns and eight 65 mm (2.6 in) guns. The light battery was revised again in 1916, the four 47 mm guns being converted with high-angle anti-aircraft mounts. They were placed atop the rear main battery turret and the number 5 and 6 secondary turret roofs.[24]
In 1912–1913, each ship received two 2 m (6 ft 7 in)
Ships
Name | Builder[26] | Laid down[26]
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Launched[26] | Commissioned[26] |
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République | Arsenal de Brest
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27 December 1901 | 4 September 1902 | 12 January 1907 |
Patrie | Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée | 1 April 1902 | 17 December 1903 | 1 July 1907 |
History
Prewar careers
Despite having been built to counter German naval expansion, République and Patrie spent their careers in the
Throughout their peacetime careers, the ships were involved in several accidents. During maneuvers in February 1910, Patrie accidentally hit République with a torpedo, forcing her to return to port for repairs.[29] On 25 September 1911, République was damaged by the accidental explosion of the battleship Liberté in Toulon; the blast hurled a large section of the ship's armor plate into the air, striking République near her forward main battery turret, killing twenty-three men. Repairs were nevertheless completed quickly and the ships conducted their typical training routine that year. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 and during the ensuing July Crisis, the ships remained close to Toulon to be prepared for the possibility of war.[30]
World War I
At the outbreak of
In May 1915, Patrie was sent to reinforce the Dardanelles Division fighting
Fates
In late January 1918, République steamed to Toulon for maintenance, and while there, had two of her main battery guns removed for use by the
Footnotes
- ^ Ropp, p. 329.
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 86.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 88, 109.
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 297.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 89, 97–98.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 89, 108.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 248.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 89, 107–108.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 89.
- ^ Brassey, p. 21.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 89–92.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 204, 212–213.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 92–95.
- ^ Friedman, p. 223.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 95.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 96.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 98.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 98, 100.
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 100.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 281–282.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 282.
- ^ a b c d Jordan & Caresse, p. 88.
- ^ Rodríguez González, pp. 268–271.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 223, 225–226, 231–233.
- ^ "Torpedo Hits Battleship" (PDF). The New York Times. 17 February 1910. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 233–234.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 252, 254–258.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 55–56.
- ^ Caresse, p. 132.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 257–258, 267–268.
- ^ Hamilton & Herwig, p. 181.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 274, 276–277.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 277, 285–286.
References
- Brassey, Thomas A., ed. (1907). "Foreign Navies: France". OCLC 496786828.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "France". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 283–333. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Caresse, Philippe (2012). "The Battleship Gaulois". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2012. London: Conway. ISBN 978-1-84486-156-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7.
- Hamilton, Robert & Herwig, Holger, eds. (2004). Decisions for War, 1914–1917. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83679-1.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
- Rodríguez González, Agustín Ramón (2018). "The Battleship Alfonso XIII (1913)". In Taylor, Bruce (ed.). The World of the Battleship: The Lives and Careers of Twenty-One Capital Ships of the World's Navies, 1880–1990. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. pp. 268–289. ISBN 978-0-87021-906-1.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6.