French battleship Dunkerque

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	24 December 1932
Launched:	2 October 1935
Commissioned:	1 May 1937
Fate:	Scuttled
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	36,380 tonnes
Length:	215.1 m
Beam:	8.7 m
Width:	31.1 m
Propulsion:	6 Indret boilers 4 Rateau geared turbines 135,585 hp
Speed:	trial: 31,06 knots (design 29.5 kts)
Range:	7.500 nm at 15 kts
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
Armour	225 mm (side belt) 30 mm (anti-torpedo bulkheads) 125–115 mm (deck) 330/310 mm (turrets)
Aircraft	4 floatplanes 1 catapult
Motto:

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 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. 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''.

During the Phony War, she was used, along with her sister-ship Strasbourg, to escort convoys.

After the collapse of France, she was docked in Mers-El-Kebir, along with the Strasbourg; the ships became one of the main objectives of the Destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir by the British on the 3 July 1940. The Dunkerque was heavily damaged by the British fleet; three month later, she sustained further attacks by torpedo-bomber aircraft from the Ark Royal.

The Dunkerque returned to Toulon for repairs in February 1942, and was still there when the Germans invaded the so-called "Free Zone" on the 27 November 1942. She was scuttled, along with her sister-ship Strasbourg and most of the French Fleet, to avoid capture by the Germans.

External link

[Maritimequest Dunkerque Photo Gallery]

Dunkerque class battleship

Dunkerque | Strasbourg

List of battleships of France

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