Battleships of the type Gascogne
Construction and service
Total information
Booking
Armament
Built ships
were not mortgaged
Gascogne-class battleships- series project battleships, the prototype for which were ships of the type Richelieu. Type battleship project Gascogne developed according to the 1938 program, the ships were intended to strengthen the French fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ship type layout Gascogne practically unchanged repeated battleships of the type Richelieu, with the exception of the placement and configuration of the main caliber weapons. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the subsequent surrender of France, the laying of ships of this type was not carried out.
General information
Lead ship of the type Gascogne became the first, after some interruption, to receive the name of a large province of France, and not a political or public figure. It is believed that the initiator of this idea was the Chief of the General Staff, Vice Admiral Darlan, born in the province of Gascony. The previous ship with this name was supposed to be a battleship Gascogne type Normandie, the hull of which was launched in 1914, but construction was never completed.
History of creation
Predecessors
Prerequisites for creation
By the beginning of 1937, a difficult political situation had developed in Europe. France could find itself at war with Germany and Italy at the same time. Design of battleships began in Germany Scharnhorst And Gneisenau, which were similar in their characteristics Dunkerque And Strasbourg. In 1936, construction of battleships began in Germany Bismarck And Tirpitz. At the same time, battleships of the type were built in Italy Littorio. To maintain the military balance at sea, France needed the construction of two more battleships, identical Richelieu.
Permission to build two new battleships with names Clemenceau And Gascogne, received from Parliament on 2 May 1938, as part of the 1938 budget. However, French industry was not ready to immediately begin construction of two large ships. Shipyards in Saint-Nazaire after the construction of the battleship Strasbourg were busy building an aircraft carrier Joffre. The dock in Brest and the new dock in Saint-Nazaire supported the construction of battleships Richelieu And Jean Bart, therefore, the laying of new battleships could only take place after the ships under construction were launched. However, taking into account the delay in construction behind schedule, the expected dates for the laying of new ships were assumed no earlier than the winter of 1939-1940. It was decided to use this delay to improve the project Richelieu.
Design
Battleship A1 project
A2 battleship project
A3 battleship project
A3 bis battleship project
B1 battleship project
B2 battleship project
B3 battleship project
B3 bis battleship project
B3 ter battleship project
Battleship S1 project
Battleship C2 project
Battleship C3 project
In the process of modernizing the project, the issue of the configuration of auxiliary and anti-aircraft artillery was again considered. On similar battleships in Germany and Italy, the auxiliary artillery consisted of 152 mm guns in armored non-universal turrets. Anti-aircraft artillery on a battleship Bismarck consisted of 105-mm anti-aircraft guns, and on Littorio- 90 mm anti-aircraft guns. Considering the problems with the French 130-mm turrets, the Chief of the General Staff, Vice Admiral Darlan proposed the following options for development by the technical department:
- eight 380 mm caliber guns, arranged as in Richelieu
- nine guns in three-gun turrets - two in the bow, one in the stern
- 152 mm guns, with arrangement as in Richelieu
- 130 mm guns with arrangement as in Dunkerque
- a combination of 152 mm non-universal and 100 mm universal guns.
The technical department also developed several projects in options “A”, “B” and “C”. In the projects of option “A”, the arrangement of the main caliber guns repeated the configuration of the battleship Richelieu, and the remaining options provided for more significant changes. In the projects of option “B”, the possibility of placing two four-gun main caliber turrets in the bow and stern was considered. In option “C”, the main caliber guns were placed in 3 three-gun turrets in a linearly elevated pattern - two turrets in the bow, and one turret in the stern of the ship. Option “C” was abandoned due to the excess of the displacement permitted under the 1935 treaty.
For further development, on March 19, 1938, draft options “A” and “B” were adopted. For Clemenceau the “A2 (qv)” option was chosen, with four 3-gun 152-mm universal installations - with two on the sides and two linearly elevated in the stern. This version also installed six two-gun 100-mm mounts of the 1937 model - two behind the main caliber turret and two on each side in the area of the aft superstructure. For battleship Gascogne The design of the “B3 ter” variant was chosen: three turrets with 152 mm universal guns were placed in a linear, elevated position - two in the bow and one in the stern. Due to differences in the location of the main caliber turrets, the design of this battleship is classified as a separate type Gascogne.
To more effectively fire 100-mm and 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, it was decided to leave only one aircraft catapult located in the stern, reducing the number of aircraft in the hangar to two. The freed-up space was used to place eight 100-mm two-gun installations on board. To reduce displacement, it was decided to reduce the thickness of the armor belt on the battleship Gascogne up to 320 mm.
When the battleship project Gascogne was presented at the General Staff, he was very well received. Among the management there was a proposal to build a battleship Clemenceau according to the battleship project Gascogne, however, it took at least 12 months to prepare for the construction of a ship according to a new project, and to build a ship according to the project Richelieu production has already started. It was decided to use the available time for a more thorough study of the project Gascogne, A Clemenceau build according to a previously agreed upon design. After agreeing on the budget, Clemenceau laid down in Brest on August 24, 1938.
Meanwhile, work on the battleship project Gascogne continued. The first developed plan for the ship, with the catapults located amidships and the aircraft hangar behind the forward turret, was presented to Darlan on December 22, 1938, after which a series of discussions followed on the location of aircraft facilities and anti-aircraft guns. Concern was expressed that the proposed central location of the catapults would inevitably bring the 100mm and 37mm guns closer together, thereby creating mutual firing interference. This led to a proposal to place the catapults on the quarterdeck, freeing up the central area for anti-aircraft guns.
Construction
It was originally assumed that the battleship Gascogne will be laid down in August 1939. In the event that the first materials for the ship were not prepared by June 16 of the same year, the start date for construction was postponed until June 1940.
As a result of the protracted design process for the battleship Gascogne, which in no case could be laid before the completion of the body Jean Bart, orders for armor and main guns were not made until June 1939. Then production was suspended along with the construction of the battleship Clemenceau September 28, 1939. Work resumed only on April 12 of the following year, and by June 1, 1940, about 6% was ready. building materials and the laying of the ship was envisaged during the summer months.
Launching was planned for the spring of 1942, and commissioning was planned for June 1944. However, in May 1940, German troops crossed the border into France. In June 1940, the shipbuilding enterprise was occupied by the occupying German forces. Having discovered insignificant reserves of prepared materials and spare parts for the construction of the battleship, they were declared war trophies, and registered as Schlachtschiff S(Russian) Battleship C). Work on the construction of the battleship was stopped and never resumed.
Description of design
Frame
Battleship hull Gascogne repeated the layout of the battleship Richelieu without noticeable external differences. Significant changes occurred in the placement of the superstructure - due to the fact that the main caliber towers were located both in the bow and stern of the ship, the superstructure had to be located closer to the bow - in the middle, and not offset to the stern, as in Richelieu. This is also associated with a deep redesign of the interior and a change in the layout of the armor.
The normal displacement according to the project should not exceed 35,000 tons; at full load, this number would reach 44,000 tons.
Booking
Reservation of the battleship Gascogne
Placement in the project Gascogne guns of the main and auxiliary caliber on the same axis, led to the need to increase the armored citadel to 135.1 m, compared to 131.45 m for Richelieu. The aft transverse bulkhead of the citadel was located on frame 50.50, and the bow bulkhead was on frame 185.60. The anti-torpedo protection scheme repeated the layout of battleships of the type Richelieu.
Power plant and driving performance
Layout of the battleship's main power system Gascogne repeated the design of battleships of the type Richelieu and consisted of six boilers of the type Sural, developed by engineer-general Norge and produced by the company Indret. The boilers supplied the generated steam to the turbines of four turbo-gear units. The TZA was driven by four propeller shafts, transmitting rotation to propellers with a diameter of 4.87 meters.
Auxiliary equipment
The lifeboat equipment of the battleship Gascogne according to the project consisted of:
- 11th motor boat - 2 pcs.
- 10.8 m motor boat - 3 pcs.
- 9th motor boat - 2 pcs.
- 13th motor pinnace - 2 pcs.
- 7th longboat - 1 piece
- 5th dinghy - 1 piece
- 3rd punts - 2 pcs.
Crew and habitability
The total number of crew for the project was 1670 people.
Armament
Main caliber
Transverse and longitudinal section of the 380-mm turret of the battleship Richelieu
Main armament of battleships of the type Gascogne consisted of eight 380-mm 45-caliber guns, housed in two four-gun turrets. The towers were placed in a diametrical projection, forward and aft of the superstructure. The design of the towers did not differ from the towers located on the battleship Richelieu. The guns had a Velin piston sector lock, opening upward, equipped with a hydropneumatic drive and counterweights. Towers for battleships were designed by Saint-Chamon.
The turrets were divided into two parts by a central bulkhead, 45 mm thick, the barrels of each half had a common cradle, the distance between the axes of the guns in one cradle was 195 cm, between the axes of the internal barrels - 295 cm. The maximum elevation angle of the guns was 35°, the maximum firing range was 41.7 km. Horizontal and vertical guidance was carried out using electric motors of the Leonard system, driving hydraulic drives. The vertical aiming speed was 5.5° per second, the horizontal aiming speed was 5° per second. The mass of each turret, including the weight of ammunition and armor, was 2476 tons.
Loading of the guns could occur at any elevation angle of the barrels. Tests in 1940 showed a practical rate of fire of 1.3 rounds per minute. The main one was a 380-mm armor-piercing projectile of the 1936 model, weighing 890 kg, containing 21.9 kg explosive, consisting of 80% melinite and 20% dinitronaphthalene. The high-explosive projectile was developed at the end of the Second World War and had a mass of 884 kg (model 1945) and 879 kg (model 1949). Under the ballistic tip there was a reservoir with dye. When firing such a projectile, the dye produced colored smoke to facilitate shooting adjustments.
Auxiliary/anti-aircraft artillery
Three-gun 152 mm anti-mine caliber turret
Battleship auxiliary artillery Gascogne consisted of nine 152-mm guns located in 3 three-gun turrets. In the battleship project Gascogne Only three turrets with 152 mm guns were preserved, however, due to their location on the center line, there were no dead zones, as on a battleship Richelieu.
A semi-armor-piercing projectile was intended for firing against ships OPFK Mle 1931 weighing 56 kg, or a heavier projectile Mle 1937 weighing 57.1 kg with a colored smoke generator. The high-explosive projectile of the 1936 model weighed 55 kg. Later, the guns used American armor-piercing shells weighing 58.8 kg - at a distance of 55 cables, such a shell penetrated 120 mm of armor. The maximum firing range (at an elevation of 45°) was 145 cables, and for a lightweight 47-kg anti-aircraft projectile UAE Mle 1936 with a remote fuse - 131 cables (26,500 m) and about 14,000 m in height.
The arrangement of the main and auxiliary armament turrets made it possible to more optimally place eight installations of twin 100-mm guns, in groups of two installations, at the “corners” of the superstructure. Each group of guns had its own director.
Each group of 100 mm guns had its own director, installed to replace the auxiliary director of the 152 mm guns. Night shooting was controlled by two 4-meter rangefinders.
The mass of the twin installation of 100-mm guns was 13.5 tons, the guns had a semi-automatic bolt and a spring-type rammer. The guns were located in a common cradle; the installation had a rotating floor and was protected by a box shield open at the rear. Remote grenades were used to fire at air targets OAE M1e 1928, with a weight of 13.5 kg, a unitary cartridge weight of 22.7 kg. Loading was done manually, the firing range in height was 10,000 m.
Semi-armor-piercing shells were used to fire at surface targets. ORT M1e 1928, weighing 15 kg, with a contact fuse. The ammunition capacity was 400 rounds per barrel, of which only 10 were semi-armor-piercing. Several ammunition shells were illuminating.
Groups of 100 mm mounts were reinforced by six quad mounts of 37 mm 50 caliber Mod. 1925 semi-automatic type, two installations were added to the bow groups, and one to the stern groups. installations arr. 1933.
Aviation weapons
The location of the aircraft hangar repeated the layout on US battleships - the hangar was located in the stern below the deck, and the aircraft was raised to the catapult level using an elevator. Near the catapult there was a crane for installing the aircraft on the catapult and lifting the aircraft from the water. The hangar housed two seaplanes with folded wings, the third was on a catapult in a state of full readiness for flight.
Layout of hangars and aircraft on the battleship Gascogne
- Maximum speed:
- at an altitude of 300 km/h
- near the ground - 270 km/h
- Cruising speed - 258 km/h
- Practical range - 1200 km
- Service ceiling - 5800 m
- Crew - 3 people
Communications, detection, auxiliary equipment
Battleship command and rangefinder posts Gascogne equipped with 14-meter and backup 8-meter rangefinders. For the auxiliary 152 mm artillery, 8-meter rangefinders were used. For 100 mm anti-aircraft artillery, 5th rangefinders were used, and for smaller caliber anti-aircraft artillery, 1st rangefinders were used. Control rangefinder posts of the main caliber were located on the upper tier and in the rear part of the main superstructure. The 100 mm gun directors are located on the rear of the superstructure near the chimney, as well as on the sides of the main superstructure, at the base.
French Battleships. 1922-1956. - ISBN 978-1-84832-034-5
This ship in art
Ship Gascogne introduced in the game World of Warships as the Tier VIII battleship Gascogne. Also based on type Gascogne A hypothetical project of a French battleship from the late 40s - early 50s of the 20th century, called République, was introduced into the game as a Tier X ship.
Image gallery
April 1689. English Channel. The 24-gun French frigate Serpan engages a Dutch ship. The French are at a clear disadvantage. On board the Serpan there is a cargo of barrels of gunpowder - the frigate can fly into the air at any moment. At this moment, the ship's captain, Jean Bart, notices a 12-year-old cabin boy, who squatted down in fear. The captain, furious, shouts to the sailors: “Tie him to the mast. If he does not know how to look death in the eye, he is not worthy to live.”
The 12-year-old cabin boy was François-Cornille Bar, the son of Jean Bar and the future admiral of the French.
Oh, what a fierce family they were!
The father is especially famous - the legendary Jean Bart from Dunkirk, the most daring and successful of the French corsairs of the 17th century. It was in his honor that the best battleship of the French Navy during the Second World War was named. Jean Bart is the second ship in the Richelieu series of battleships, which had a surprisingly long and eventful life.
Design
French battleships of the Richelieu class are rightfully considered the most balanced and advanced battleships of the pre-war period. They had many advantages and almost no serious disadvantages. Minor flaws in their design were gradually eliminated over the many years of their service.
At the time of construction, these were the fastest battleships in the world (32 knots), noticeably inferior in combat power only to the Yamato and approximately equivalent to the German Bismarck. But at the same time, the French “35,000-ton ships”, along with the American “North Caroline”, remained the smallest ships in their class.
Excellent performance was achieved using a special layout, placing two four-gun main battery turrets in the bow of the ship. This made it possible to save on the mass of the turrets (a four-gun turret weighed less than two two-gun turrets), as well as to reduce the length of the citadel (“a linear meter” of which weighed 25 tons), converting the allocated load reserve into additional armor thickness.
From the point of view of combat characteristics, the “all guns forward” scheme also had its advantages: the ability to fire full salvoes at the bow angles could be useful when pursuing enemy raiders and heavy cruisers. The guns grouped in the bow had a smaller spread of salvoes and simplified fire control. By unloading the aft end and shifting the scales to the midships, the ship's seaworthiness improved and the strength of the hull increased. Boats and seaplanes located in the stern were no longer at risk of exposure to muzzle gases.
The disadvantage of the scheme was the “dead zone” at the stern corners. The problem was partially solved by the unprecedentedly large firing angles of the main caliber turrets - from 300° to 312°.
Four guns in one turret created the threat of losing half of the entire main battery artillery from a single hit from a “stray” shell. In order to increase combat survivability, the Richelieu turrets were separated by an armored partition; each pair of guns had its own independent ammunition supply system.
380 mm French guns were superior in armor penetration to all existing German and British naval guns. The French 844 kg armor-piercing projectile could penetrate 378 mm of armor at a distance of 20,000 m.
The rapid slope of the chimney is a trademark of French battleships
The installation of nine medium-caliber guns (152 mm) turned out to be not a very rational decision: their high power and armor penetration did not matter when repelling attacks from destroyers, at the same time, insufficient aiming speed and low rate of fire made them practically useless when repelling air attacks. It was possible to achieve acceptable characteristics only after the war, when this no longer made much sense.
In general, the question of everything related to air defense and fire control systems “hangs in the air”: due to the specific conditions of their completion, “Richelieu” and “Jean Bart” were left without modern radars. Despite the fact that before the war, France occupied a leading position in the development of radio-electronic equipment.
However, Richelieu managed to obtain a full set of modern radio equipment during repairs in the USA in 1943. Restored on its own, Jean Bart also received the best fire control system of its time. By 1949, 16 were installed on board radar stations various ranges and purposes.
"Richelieu" arrives in New York
The air defense system of the late period looked very cool: 24 universal 100 mm cannons in twin mounts, coupled with 28 57 mm anti-aircraft guns. All guns had centralized guidance based on radar data. The Jean Bart, without exaggeration, received an outstanding air defense system - the best ever installed on a battleship. However, the approaching jet era was already placing different demands on anti-aircraft systems.
A few words about the armor protection of battleships:
Richelieu-class battleships had the best horizontal armor of any ship in the world. The main armored deck was 150...170 mm thick, reinforced by a 40 mm lower armored deck with 50 mm bevels - even the great Yamato could not boast of such indicators. The horizontal armor of the Richelieu battleships was not limited to the citadel: a 100 mm armored deck with bevels went into the stern (150 mm above the steering gear compartment).
The vertical armor of French battleships is no less admirable. The resistance of the 330 mm armor belt, taking into account its inclination of 15° from the vertical, the side plating and the 18 mm STS steel lining, was equivalent to homogeneous armor with a thickness of 478 mm. And at a meeting angle of 10° from the normal, the resistance increased to 546 mm!
Armored traverses differentiated by thickness (233-355 mm), a powerful conning tower, where the thickness of the walls was 340 mm of solid metal (+ 2 STS linings, a total of 34 mm), excellent turret protection (430 mm front, 300 mm sides, 260 -270 mm rear), 405 mm barbettes (80 mm below the main armored deck), local anti-fragmentation armor for important posts - there is nothing to complain about.
Special attention was paid to the issues of anti-torpedo protection: the depth of the PTZ ranged from 4.12 meters (in the area of the bow beam) to 7 meters (midship frame). During the post-war modernization of the Zhanu Baru, 122-meter boules with a width of 1.27 m were added. This further increased the depth of the PTZ, which, according to calculations, could withstand an underwater explosion with a power of up to 500 kg of TNT.
And all this splendor fits into a hull with a total displacement of only 48,950 tons. The given value corresponds to the Jean Bart model of 1949 after its completion and all post-war measures to modernize the battleship.
Overall rating
Richelieu and Jean Bart. Powerful, beautiful and very original ships, which stood out from other battleships with their well-thought-out, balanced design. Despite the large number of innovations introduced, the French never had to regret their bold decisions. The boilers of the Sural-Indre system operated uninterruptedly, in which fuel combustion occurred under an excess pressure of 2 atm. The design of the battleships demonstrated excellent combat stability. "Jean Bar", being in an unfinished state, was able to withstand five to seven hits from American 406 mm shells, each of which weighed a ton and a quarter. It’s easy to imagine the destructive power of these “blanks”!
We can safely say that in the person of "Richelieu" and "Jean Bar" any battleship of the Second World War would have met a worthy opponent, the outcome of a one-on-one duel with which hardly anyone could have predicted.
- “French LC “Richelieu” and “Jean Bart””, S. Suliga
Courage, Betrayal and Redemption
On May 10, 1940, German troops invaded France. At that moment, the unfinished battleship Jean Bart was in Saint-Nazaire, whose entry into service was scheduled for October of the same year. Already on May 17, the situation became so serious that the French had to think about the immediate withdrawal of the battleship from Saint-Nazaire.
This could be done no earlier than on the night of June 20-21 - on the full moon, when the tide reaches highest point. But before that, it was necessary to expand and deepen the canal leading to the Loire for the unhindered withdrawal of the huge ship.
Finally, it was necessary to complete the construction of the battleship itself - to partially commission its power plant, electricity generators, radio station, install propellers and equip the battleship with the necessary navigation equipment. Connect the galley, ensure the habitability of the compartments to accommodate personnel. It was not possible to install the entire planned composition of weapons - but the French planned to commission at least one main-caliber turret.
This entire enormous complex of work must be completed in one month. At the slightest delay, the French had no choice but to blow up the battleship.
Shipyard workers in Saint-Nazaire began a race against time. Under German bombing, working 12-hour shifts, 3,500 people attempted the impossible.
On May 22, the dock in which the Jean Bart stood was drained. Workers began painting its underwater part.
On June 3, a propeller was installed on the inner shaft of the left side (from a set of spare parts for the Richelieu, delivered from the Brest shipyard). Four days later, a propeller was installed on the starboard internal shaft.
The medium-caliber towers did not arrive by the appointed date. A compromise solution was urgently developed - to mount twin 90 mm anti-aircraft guns (model 1926) in their place. The guns and ammunition supply systems were installed in a matter of days, but the ammunition sent from Brest was late for the ship’s departure. The battleship was left without medium and universal calibers.
On June 13 and 14, a complex and time-consuming operation was carried out to install four 380 mm main caliber turret guns.
On June 18, the Germans entered Nantes, which lies only 65 km east of Saint-Nazaire. On this day, the tricolor flag of France was raised on the battleship. The supply of electricity from the shore stopped; now all the necessary electricity was generated by the only turbogenerator on board the Jean Bart.
By this time, the dredging workers managed to clear a channel only 46.5 m wide (with a battleship hull width of 33 meters!). The crew of the Jean Bart required remarkable courage and luck to safely navigate the battleship along such a narrow path.
The operation was scheduled for the next night. Despite the absence of most of the weapons on the battleship and the minimum reserve of oil on board (125 tons), the estimated depth under the keel did not exceed 20-30 centimeters.
The tugs pulled the Jean Bart out of the dock, but after only 40 meters of movement, the bow of the battleship buried itself in the mud. It was pulled off the shoal, but after a couple of minutes the ground began to grind under the bottom again. This time the consequences were more serious - the battleship damaged part of the bottom plating and the right propeller.
By 5 a.m., when the Jean Bart, assisted by its own vehicles, was already reaching the middle of the river, Luftwaffe planes appeared in the sky. One of the dropped bombs pierced the upper deck between the barbettes of the main battery towers and exploded in the internal compartments, forming a bulge in the deck flooring. The fire that arose was quickly extinguished with water from the broken pipeline.
At this time, the battleship was already confidently moving towards the open ocean, reaching a speed of 12 knots. At the exit from the harbor, two tankers and a small escort of French destroyers were waiting for him.
Now that the horrors of imprisonment in Saint-Nazaire were behind us, the commander of the battleship, Pierre Ronarch, faced an obvious question: Where to go?
Despite the unfinished state and the absence of most of the crew (there were only 570 people on board, including 200 civilians - shipyard workers), on the evening of June 22, 1940, the battleship Jean Bart arrived safely in Casablanca. On the same day, a truce with the Germans was announced.
For the next two years, the Jean Bart rusted quietly at its pier in Casablanca; he was strictly forbidden to leave the harbor. The battleship was closely monitored by German and Italian authorities. British reconnaissance planes monitored the situation from the air (one of which was shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the battleship).
The French, hoping for the best, continued to maintain the Jean Bart mechanisms in working order, engaged in homemade repairs and modernization of the weapons. They repaired the hole from the German bomb with sheets of ordinary steel. The barbette of the unfinished turret II was filled with cement in order to reduce the trim at the stern. A set of rangefinders for fire control of the main and universal calibers, removed from the battleship Dunkirk, which was undergoing repairs, was delivered from Toulon. Anti-aircraft weapons were reinforced with five turrets with twin 90 mm guns. A search radar appeared on the roof of the superstructure.
Finally, on May 19, 1942, it came to the main caliber. With the permission of the occupation authorities, the Jean Bart fired five four-gun salvoes towards the sea. The tests were successful, but the event did not go unnoticed (and even more so, unheard) for the American consul in Casablanca. A dispatch was sent to Washington about the presence of North Africa a powerful, combat-ready battleship that could pose a threat to the allies. During Operation Torch (the landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa) planned for November 1942, Jean Bart was included in the list of priority targets.
At dawn on November 8, 1942, a message was received on board the battleship about the movement of a group of unknown ships off the coast. At 6:00 local time, the team took up positions according to the combat schedule, and the main caliber guns were loaded. Closer to 8 am, through the clouds of smoke from the destroyers standing in the harbor separating pairs, the silhouettes of a battleship and two cruisers were seen.
The Americans were serious - battle group TG 34.1 was approaching Casablanca, consisting of the newest battleship Massachusetts with a 406 mm main caliber, supported by the heavy cruisers Wichita and Tuscaloosa, surrounded by a detachment of destroyers.
Museum ship USS Massachusetts, Fall River, today
The first strike was carried out by 9 Dontless dive bombers, which took off from the Ranger aircraft carrier located 30 miles from the coast. One of the bombs hit the rear of the Jean Bart. Having broken through several decks and the bottom, it caused flooding of the compartment manual control steering machines. Another bomb hit the embankment nearby - the battleship was showered with stone crumbs, and the hull received cosmetic damage.
This was only the first cruel greeting with which the Yankees greeted the ships of Vichy France. At 08:04, US Navy battleships and cruisers opened fire on the ships in Casablanca harbor. Over the next 2.5 hours, the Massachusetts fired 9 full salvoes of 9 shells and 38 salvoes of 3 and 6 shells at the French from a distance of 22,000 meters, achieving five direct hits on the Jean Bart.
The meeting with a supersonic 1226 kg alloy steel blank did not bode well. The greatest consequences could have been a hit from a shell that pierced the deck at the stern of the battleship and exploded in the cellar of the medium-caliber towers (luckily for the French, it was empty). Damage from the remaining four hits can be classified as moderate.
A piece of an armor-piercing shell that hit the Jean Bart
One of the shells pierced through part of the pipe and the superstructure, and exploded from the outside, causing shrapnel damage to the side. Closer to 9 am, the ship shuddered from two direct hits on the barbettes of the main battery towers. The fifth shell hit the stern again, in a place already damaged by the bomb. Also, there are discrepancies regarding two close explosions: the French claim that there was a direct hit in the armored belt and bulb of the battleship.
Due to the heavy smoke in the harbor, the Jean Bart managed to fire only 4 salvos in response, after which it was impossible to adjust the fire.
Having shot the motionless, unfinished battleship, the Yankees considered the task completed and retreated at full speed towards the open sea. However, by six in the evening of the same day, “Jean Bar” had restored its combat capability. The next day, his universal artillery fired 250 shells at the advancing Anglo-American troops, but the main caliber was not used so as not to fully reveal all the trump cards.
On November 10, the American heavy cruiser Augusta confidently approached Casablanca. At that moment, the Jean Bart fired a sighting salvo at it from 380 mm cannons. The Yankees took to their heels in horror, radiograms about the suddenly awakened giant rushed into the open air. The retribution was cruel: three hours later, the Dontlesses from the aircraft carrier Ranger attacked the French battleship, achieving two hits of 1000 pounds. bombs.
In total, as a result of artillery shelling and air strikes, the Jean Bart received heavy damage, lost most of its electricity, took on 4,500 tons of water and sat stern on the ground. The irretrievable losses of the crew amounted to 22 people (out of 700 sailors on board). The magnificent armor fulfilled its purpose to the end. For comparison, 90 people died on board the nearby light cruiser Primoge.
Speaking about the damage to the Jean Bart, it is worth taking into account that the ship was unfinished, many of its compartments were not sealed. The only turbogenerator was damaged - power was provided using emergency diesel generators. There was a reduced crew on board the ship. Nevertheless, the immobile battleship turned out to be a “tough nut to crack” and greatly frayed the nerves of the allies.
After French forces in Africa joined the Allies, the Jean Bart was removed from the ground and prepared to be sent under its own power for repairs in the United States. However, unlike its parent "Richelieu", "Jean Bar" required extensive restoration repairs with the manufacture of the missing main caliber turret. The problem was complicated by the lack of drawings of the tower mechanisms and the difficulty of switching to the metric system of weights and measures. The process dragged on, and as a result, work on restoring the Jean Bart began on its own only after the end of the war.
Bold projects were considered for converting the Jean Bart into an aircraft carrier or an exotic “air defense battleship” with the installation of 34 twin universal five-inch guns and 80 Bofors anti-aircraft guns. As a result of all the discussions, the designers returned with the simplest, cheapest and most obvious option. Completion of the battleship according to the original design with the implementation latest achievements in the field of automation and radio engineering.
The updated battleship returned to service in April 1950. Over the following years, Jean Bart was used as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet of the French Navy. The ship made many calls to European ports and made a visit to the United States. The last time the Jean Bart was in a combat zone was in 1956, during the Suez Crisis. If the Egyptian leadership was stubborn, the French command planned to use the battleship's guns to bomb Egyptian cities.
Between 1961 and 1969, Jean Bart was used as a training ship at the artillery school in Toulon. In January 1970, the last of the French battleships was finally removed from the fleet and put up for sale. In the summer of the same year it was towed to La Seime to be dismantled for metal.
A veteran rests in his laurels of glory on the French Riviera
Based on materials from the monograph “French LC Richelieu and Jean Bart” by Sergei Suliga.
Battleships of the Richelieu class were created as a counterweight to the Italian battleships of the Littorio class and the German Bismarck class. By their design, they were enlarged Dunkerques, which received more powerful artillery and enhanced armor.
The main caliber guns (380 mm cannons with barrels 45 calibers long, i.e. 17 m) were again placed in four-gun turrets. They could fire 881 kg shells at a range of 37.5 km, and penetrate 380 mm armor from a distance of 20 km.
The average caliber was increased to 152 mm. For the first time in the world, such heavy guns were used as universal ones, having an elevation angle of 85 degrees.
True, their effectiveness as anti-aircraft guns turned out to be low: they lacked both rate of fire and agility.
The Richelieu armor protection system was the best ever developed for battleships and cruisers. It surpassed even that of such powerful ships as the German Bismarck and the Japanese Yamato.
The main armor belt, with a slope of 15.5 degrees, was covered on top by a 170-mm armored deck. Below was another 40mm deck with 50mm bevels. The horizontal armor could withstand a 500 kg aerial bomb dropped from an altitude of 4700 meters.
The armor was complemented by a well-designed underwater protection system, representing an improved version of the Dunkerque protection. Its depth ranged from 4.5 to 7 meters, the total thickness of the bulkheads was from 77 to 97 mm. The only drawback was the lack of a lower armor belt capable of withstanding an underwater projectile hit.
The compact power plant occupied only 4 compartments. During trials in 1940, Richelieu achieved an excellent speed of 32.6 knots (60.3 km/h!).
A very original solution was a chimney. The French took this element of naval architecture very seriously. Not wanting their own smoke to cover the target and interfere with the rangefinders, they made it bent towards the stern, which gave the ship a unique, easily recognizable silhouette.
The French fleet lagged behind its rivals. so we had to catch up. In October 1935, the Richelieu was laid down in Brest, and the Jean Bart was laid down in December of the following year in Saint-Nazaire. In 1938, the fleet command ordered two more battleships of this type - Clemenceau and Gascogne.
Their architecture and layout differed from the lead ship. On the Clemenceau, in order to reduce overload, two side turrets of 152 mm guns and aircraft weapons were removed. "Gascogne" was generally arranged differently, which is why the ship acquired a different appearance(its main battery towers were smashed to the ends). This was done not because the “Dunkerque” and “Richelieu” scheme did not justify itself, but for better placement of artillery mounts of 152 mm and 100 mm guns.
This change required a significant modification of the interior: the power plant had to be moved 19.5 meters forward, and the citadel had to be lengthened by 3.5 meters and at the same time the side armor had to be slightly reduced. The Gascogne was again equipped with aircraft armament, but the aircraft were placed in a below-deck hangar, as on aircraft carriers.
In 1940, Richelieu, located in Dakar, was damaged by a British torpedo. dropped from an airplane (July 8), and from shells from a British battleship (September 23-25).
On February 5, 1943, she came to New York for repairs. During the repair, which took 6 months, the ship was thoroughly modernized. The main caliber guns were drilled to 381 mm to use English shells. Two damaged guns were replaced with those removed from the Jean Bart. Anti-aircraft weapons were strengthened according to American standards, installing 14 quad and 19 single 40-mm Bofors, as well as 50-20-mm Oerlikons. Later, in England, instead of the nine removed Oerlikons, another 11 single-barreled Bofors were added.
At the end of the war (April 1944 - May 1945), Richelieu had the opportunity to take part in hostilities against Japan. The battleship fired at ground targets off the coast of Burma, Java, and New Guinea.
"Jean Bart" June 19, 1940, having 77% readiness, left Saint-Nazaire for Casablanca. On November 8, 1942, he was seriously damaged there during an American air raid.
After the war they advanced various projects restoration of the battleship, in particular, it was proposed to turn it into an aircraft carrier. But in the end they decided to complete the ship in its original quality.
In October 1945, Jean Bart returned to Brest. There, the interior was redesigned, the anti-aircraft armament was changed, radars were installed, and anti-torpedo protection was strengthened by installing boules, which increased the width of the hull to 35.5 m. The total displacement was 49,850 tons. Sea trials took place in January 1949, and in 1951 the battleship entered service. Alas, it was a belated birth.
"Richelieu" has been in reserve since 1956. It was decommissioned in the summer of 1965 and sold for scrap to Italy on 08/13/1968.
Since the summer of 1961, the Jean Bart has been a gunnery training ship. At the end of 1968 it was sold for scrap to a Japanese company and dismantled in 1969.
"Clemenceau" by January 1940 had 10% readiness. The Germans removed the section of the hull located there (130 x 20 x 10 m) from the dock and turned it into a floating battery. This pontoon was sunk by Allied aviation on April 27, 1944. It was raised on February 23, 1948 and scrapped.
"Richelieu" after modernization in the USA, autumn 1943.
In view of the approaching war, the French had to hurry. In October 1935, the Richelieu was laid down in Brest, and its sistership Jean Bart was laid down in December of the following year in Saint-Nazaire. In 1938, two more battleships were ordered - Clemenceau and Gascony. They were somewhat different from the lead ship. “Clemenceau,” in order to reduce overload (which was revealed when “Richelieu” was still on the slipway), lost two bow 152-mm turrets and aircraft weapons.
“Gascony” was completely reconfigured, which is why the ship became an independent type. The main caliber towers were spaced at the ends, and the fourth battleship of the series acquired a more traditional look. As the French themselves explained, this was done not because the Dunkirk and Richelieu scheme did not justify itself, but for better placement of 152 mm and 100 mm anti-aircraft guns. True, such a change required a significant alteration of the interior: the power plant had to be moved 19.5 m forward, and the citadel had to be lengthened by 3.65 m and at the same time the thickness of the side armor had to be slightly reduced. Aviation armament was also restored on the Gascony, with two seaplanes placed in a below-deck hangar - just like on aircraft carriers. True, neither Clemenceau nor Gascony ever came into operation.
Battleship "Gascony", France (project)
It was planned to be laid in 1940, construction was cancelled.
Normal displacement is 41,500 tons.
Dimensions, power and speed - like Richelieu.
Armor: like Richelieu, but the belt is up to 320 mm.
Armament: 8380 mm and 9 152 mm guns, 16100 mm anti-aircraft guns, 22 31 mm machine guns and 36 machine guns, 2 seaplanes.
Fuhrer's Super Raiders
Defeat in the First World War seemed to have finally eliminated Germany from the list of contenders for naval dominance. According to the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans were allowed to operate ships with a displacement of up to 10 thousand tons with guns with a caliber of no more than 11 inches. Therefore, they had to say goodbye to the hope of preserving even their very first dreadnoughts and be content with only hopelessly outdated battleships built at the beginning of the 20th century. When the opportunity arose to replace the latter with ships of new projects (and this was allowed to be done no earlier than after 20 years of their being in service), it was the “Versailles” restrictions that led to the appearance of “capital” ships of the “Deutschland” type, unusual in all respects.
"Pocket battleship" "Deutschland"
When creating it, the Germans proceeded from the fact that new ship will primarily be used on enemy communications as a raider. The successful actions of the Emden and Koenigsberg against British shipping in 1914 clearly showed that the weak armament of light cruisers leaves them no chance when a more serious enemy appears. Therefore, Deutschland must be stronger than any enemy heavy cruiser and at the same time faster than any battleship. This idea, frankly speaking, is not new, but attempts to implement it previously rarely led to the desired result. And only the Germans managed to finally translate it into metal as closely as possible. The Deutschlands, with a very limited displacement, received powerful weapons, decent protection and an enormous cruising range. In the German Navy, the new ships were officially classified as battleships; they were essentially heavy cruisers, but due to the overly powerful main-caliber artillery, they remained in the history of world shipbuilding as “pocket battleships.”
Indeed, the Deutschland’s armament - two three-gun 11-inch turrets and another 8 six-inch guns as a medium caliber - looked quite “battleship-like.” The new 283-mm cannon (the Germans officially called it “28-cm”, and therefore in the literature it is often listed as 280-mm) with a barrel length of 52 calibers and an elevation angle of 40° could fire 300-kg projectiles at a range of 42, 5 km. “Squeezing” such artillery into cruising dimensions was made possible, firstly, by the comprehensive lightening of the hull due to the widespread introduction of electric welding and, secondly, by the use of fundamentally new engines - four twin diesel units with hydraulic transmission. As a result, the project left room for both an armor belt 60–80 mm thick and anti-torpedo protection about 4.5 m wide (including bulges), ending with a 40 mm longitudinal bulkhead.
The entry into service of the lead “pocket battleship” coincided with Hitler’s rise to power and resulted in a noisy propaganda campaign designed to convince the average person that the revival of the German fleet began with the creation of the “best in the world” ships. In reality, these statements were far from the truth. For all their originality, the “Deutschland” and the “Admiral Scheer” and “Admiral Graf Spee” that followed it were not superior to all “Washington” cruisers in terms of armor protection, and in speed they were inferior to all of them by an average of 4–5 knots. The seaworthiness of the “pocket battleships” initially turned out to be unimportant, which is why they had to urgently redo the bow of the hull. To top it all off, it should be noted that their actual standard displacement exceeded the declared one (10 thousand tons) by 17–25%, and the total on the Admiral Graf Spee generally reached 16,020 tons!
The obvious limitations of the capabilities of “pocket battleships” in the light of the new naval doctrine declared by Hitler forced the abandonment of the construction of three more ships of the same type in favor of full-fledged battleships. In June 1935, an agreement was concluded in London allowing Germany to have a fleet that was 35% of the British one. Having won a diplomatic victory, the Germans could now build battleships quite legally.
The creation of the ships was under the personal control of the Fuhrer. It is he who is generally considered to be the author of the new role assigned to the armored giants of the Kriegsmarine in the brewing war. The fact is that, being unable to compete with the British fleet in a general battle, the Nazis intended to use their battleships as ocean raiders. It was in the actions of powerful ships against transport shipping that Hitler saw the opportunity to bring the “mistress of the seas” to her knees. Based on the totality of parameters, “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau” often
However, their continuity with their outstanding ancestors - "Derflinger" and "Makensen" - is very conditional. The Scharnhorst project largely traces its origins to “pocket battleships.” The only thing that the designers borrowed from the Kaiser's battlecruisers was the armor scheme. Otherwise, the Scharnhorst is simply a Deutschland grown to normal size with a third 283 mm turret and a steam turbine unit.
