The ''Bretagne''-class battleships were the first "

super-dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

s" built for the French Navy during the First World War. The class comprised three vessels: ''Bretagne'', the lead ship, ''Provence'', and ''Lorraine''. They were an improvement of the previous , and mounted ten guns instead of twelve guns as on the ''Courbet''s. A fourth was ordered by the Greek Navy, though work was suspended due to the outbreak of the war. The three completed ships were named after French provinces. The three ships saw limited service during World War I, and were primarily occupied with containing the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea. After the war, they conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean and participated in non-intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War. After the outbreak of World War II, the ships were tasked with convoy duties and anti-commerce raider patrols until the fall of France in June 1940. ''Bretagne'' and ''Provence'' were sunk by the British Royal Navy during the

Attack on Mers-el-Kébir The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (Battle of Mers-el-Kébir) on 3 July 1940, during the Second World War, was a British naval attack on neutral French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir, near Oran, on the coast of French Algeria. The atta ...

the following month; ''Provence'' was later raised and towed to Toulon, where she was again scuttled in November 1942. ''Lorraine'' was disarmed by the British in Alexandria and recommissioned in 1942 to serve with the Free French Naval Forces. She provided gunfire support during

Operation Dragoon Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, th ...

, the invasion of southern France, and shelled German fortresses in northern France. She survived as a gunnery training ship and a floating barracks until the early 1950s, before being broken up for scrap in 1954. ''Bretagne'' and ''Provence'' were scrapped in 1952 and 1949, respectively.

Design

By 1910, France had yet to lay down a single dreadnought battleship; Britain had by then completed ten dreadnoughts and five

battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...

s, with eight and three more of the two types, respectively, under construction. Germany had built eight dreadnoughts and one battlecruiser and the United States had six built and four more building. Late that year, the French Navy laid down the first of the four ships. To remedy the inferiority of the French fleet, the government passed the ''Statut Naval'' on 30 March 1912, authorizing a force of twenty-eight battleships, to be in service by 1920. The first three ships were to be laid down in 1912. The ''Bretagne'' class were replacements for the battleships ''Carnot'', ''Charles Martel'' and ''Liberté''. They were developed from the ''Courbet'' class, and were built with the same hulls. The primary reason for the decision to use the same hull design as the ''Courbet'' class was limitations of French shipyards. The ''Courbet''-class ships were the largest possible ships that could fit in existing dockyards and refitting basins. The Superior Naval Council () ordered the construction department to prepare designs for a ship armed with twelve guns in six twin gun turrets. The additional weight of the 340 mm turrets compared to the of the ''Courbet''-class ships imposed insurmountable problems for the designers. To incorporate six turrets with the same arrangement of the earlier vessels, with four on the centerline in superfiring pairs and two wing turrets amidships would have required an additional displacement as well as a significant increase in the length of the hull. After several other proposals, the Superior Naval Council chose a design with five twin turrets, all mounted on the centerline. This would achieve the same broadside of ten guns, despite the reduction in the number of guns. The width of the

armored belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal vehicle armor, armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from p ...

was reduced by to compensate for the increased weight of the main battery. ''Provence'' was the first ship of the class to be laid down, which she was on 21 May 1912 at the '' Arsenal de Lorient''. ''Bretagne'' was laid down at the ''Arsenal de Brest'' shipyard in Brest on 22 July 1912. ''Lorraine'' followed at the '' Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire'' shipyard in

St. Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. T ...

almost six months later on 7 November 1912. Due to the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, French industrial capacity was redirected to the army and work slowed on the ships. The Greek Navy ordered a battleship to be named ''Vasilefs Konstantinos'' to the same design from AC de St Nazaire Penhoet. Work began in June 1914 but ceased on the outbreak of war in August and never resumed. The contract dispute was settled in 1925.

General characteristics

The ships were

long at the waterline A vessel's length at the waterline (abbreviated to L.W.L)Note: originally Load Waterline Length is the length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water (the ''waterline''). The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat over ...

and long overall. They had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draft of between and . At the designed load, the ships displaced , and at full combat load, this increased to . The crew included 34 officers, 139 petty officers, and 1,020 enlisted men, for a total crew of 1,193. The vessels carried a number of smaller boats, including two steamboats, three patrol boats, one long boat, three dinghies, two dinghies, two whaleboats, and two lifeboats. The ships' propulsion systems consisted of four

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s. ''Bretagne'' was equipped with twenty-four Niclausse boilers; ''Lorraine'' had the same number of Guyot du Temple

boilers A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

. ''Provence'' was equipped with eighteen Belleville boilers. All three ships were coal-fired. The turbines each drove a single screw and were rated at a total of . This provided a top speed of . The four ships could carry of coal, though additional spaces could be used for coal storage, for up to . At maximum speed, the ships could steam for ; at , the range increased significantly to A further reduction in speed to correspondingly increased the range to . The ships were modified several times in the interwar period. In 1919, ''Bretagne'' was equipped with a heavy tripod mast; ''Provence'' and ''Lorraine'' were given tripod masts in the early 1920s. Four of ''Bretagne''s boilers were converted to oil-firing in 1924, and half of ''Provence''s boilers in the rear boiler room were similarly converted in 1927. ''Bretagne'' subsequently had six new oil-fired boilers to replace the rest of the old coal-fired boilers, and her direct drive turbines were replaced with Parsons geared turbines. ''Provence'' was similarly modified in 1931–1934. ''Lorraine''s propulsion system was improved in a similar pattern. In 1935, ''Lorraine'' had her center main battery turret replaced with an aircraft catapult and a hangar for three aircraft. These were initially Gourdou-Leseurre GL-819 and Potez 452 seaplanes, though they were replaced with the Loire 130

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

. In March–May 1944, the aircraft installation was removed.

Armament

The ship's main battery consisted of ten

340mm/45 Modèle 1912 gun The 340mm/45 Modèle 1912 gun (13.4 in) was a heavy naval gun of the French Navy. While the calibres of the naval guns of the French Navy were usually very close to those of their British counterparts, the calibre of 340 mm is specific t ...

s in five twin gun turrets. The turrets were mounted all on the centerline, with two in a superfiring pair forward of the

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...

, one amidships between the two

funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...

, and two superfiring aft of the rear

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. These guns had a maximum elevation of 12 degrees, with a range of ; this was a result of the Councils belief that the decisive battle range would only be and that fleets would not engage at ranges longer than . ''Lorraine'' was modified in 1917 to increase the elevation of the guns to 18 degrees, which correspondingly increased the range to . ''Bretagne'' and ''Provence'' were similarly modified after the end of the war in 1919. Each gun was supplied with 100 rounds of ammunition, stored in shell rooms located beneath the

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...

magazines. Twenty-two Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1910 guns were mounted in

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

s along the length of the ship's hull. They were expected to be used offensively to attack the upper works of enemy battleships, as well as to defend against torpedo boat attacks. The secondary battery fire control consisted of two central directors four rangefinders, which were located abreast of the superfiring turrets, fore and aft. The ships carried seven 47 mm M1885 Hotchkiss quick-firing guns. Two were placed on the conning tower and one was placed on each main battery turret. During World War I, a pair of guns were added. The ships' armament were rounded out by four torpedo tubes. The tubes were submerged in the ships' hulls. In the interwar period, all three ships had their armament rearranged. In 1919–1920, ''Bretagne'' had the four forwardmost of her 138 mm guns removed, along with the 75 mm and two of the 47 mm guns. In their place, four 75 mm mle 1897 guns were installed on the forward superstructure. Twenty-four

Hotchkiss Hotchkiss may refer to: Places Canada * Hotchkiss, Alberta * Hotchkiss, Calgary United States * Hotchkiss, Colorado * Hotchkiss, Virginia * Hotchkiss, West Virginia Business and industry * Hotchkiss (car), a French automobile manufactu ...

machine guns were installed on the forecastle deck in 1927. The four rearmost 138 mm guns were removed during this refit, along with the 75 mm guns, which were replaced with eight 75 mm mle 1922 anti-aircraft guns. Sixteen

13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun The Hotchkiss 13.2 mm machine gun (french: Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss de 13,2 mm, ''Mle 1929'', ''Mle 1930'', etc), also known as the Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun, and the like, was a heavy machine gun, primarily intended for anti-aircraft use, d ...

s, in quadruple mounts, were also added. ''Provence'' had her four forward 138 mm guns removed in 1919, and was equipped similarly to ''Bretagne''. In 1931–1934, she received the same eight 75 mm guns as ''Bretagne'' did, and in 1940, three quadruple mounts of 13.2 mm guns were fitted. ''Lorraine'' followed a similar pattern, though in 1935, her center main battery turret was removed; an aircraft catapult was fitted in its place. At this time, four Model M1930 guns were added, along with two of the 13.2 mm quadruple mounts. In 1940, the 100 mm guns were removed to arm the new battleship ''Richelieu'', and eight 75 mm M1922 guns replaced them. In March–May 1944, fourteen and twenty-five guns in single mounts were added, and the quadruple 13.2 mm guns were removed.

Fire control

The ''Bretagne''s were provided with

Barr and Stroud Barr & Stroud Limited was a pioneering Glasgow optical engineering firm. They played a leading role in the development of modern optics, including rangefinders, for the Royal Navy and for other branches of British Armed Forces during the 20th ce ...

rangefinders. Each turret had rangefinder under an armoured hood at the rear of the turret. Between the wars, fire-control directors were added for the main, secondary and anti-aircraft armament. The rangefinder on the forward superfiring turret was replaced by a instrument.

Armor

The ships' main armored belt was thick amidships and reduced to on either end of the ship. Above the belt, the secondary battery casemates were armored with thick steel plate. Horizontal protection consisted of three armored decks; the main deck was thick. The upper and lower decks were both 40 mm thick. Sloped armor thick connected the main deck to the armored belt. Each of the main battery barbettes that housed the lower turret assemblies were armored with thick steel. The forward-most and rear-most turrets had thick sides. The superfiring turrets were less well protected, with 270 mm thick sides. The amidships turret was the most heavily armored, with thick sides. The conning tower was protected with thick armor plating. The total weight of armor was .

Ships

{, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" , + Construction data ! scope="col" , Ship ! scope="col" , Builder ! scope="col" , Laid down ! scope="col" , Launched ! scope="col" , In Service ! scope="col" , Fate , - ! scope="row" , , Arsenal de Brest, Brest , 22 July 1912 , 21 April 1913 , 10 February 1916 , Sunk by the Royal Navy at Mers-el-Kébir, 4 July 1940 , - ! scope="row" , , Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire,

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...

, 7 November 1912 , 30 September 1913 , 10 March 1916 ,

Scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

beginning January 1954 , - ! scope="row" , , Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient , 21 May 1912 , 20 April 1913 , 1 March 1916 , {{indented plainlist, * Scuttled at Toulon, 27 November 1942 * Refloated, 11 July 1943, and eventually scrapped , - ! scope="row" , ''Vasilefs Konstantinos'' , Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire{{sfn, Mach, p=384 , 12 June 1914{{sfn, Mach, p=384 , , , Work halted, August 1914{{sfn, Mach, p=384

Service history

All three ships of the class entered service with the French Navy in 1916. ''Bretagne'' and ''Lorraine'' were assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Battle Squadron, while ''Provence'' served as the fleet

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

for the entirety of the First World War. They were deployed to guard the southern end of the Adriatic Sea, based in Argostoli and

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

, to block a possible sortie by the Austro-Hungarian fleet. The three ships largely remained in port, though ''Provence'' was repeatedly used to intimidate the government of Greece, which favored Germany during the war.{{sfn, Whitley, p=42 In January 1919, after the end of the war, ''Lorraine'' was sent to Cattaro to guard the Austro-Hungarian fleet. She joined her sisters in Toulon in June 1919; later that year the ships formed the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet until 1921.{{sfn, Whitley, p=43 Financial problems forced the French Navy to reduce its battleship force to four active vessels. ''Lorraine'' and ''Provence'' were reduced to reserve status in 1922, and the latter went into drydock for a major overhaul.{{sfn, Whitley, p=43 ''Lorraine'' returned to service with the Mediterranean Squadron in 1923.{{sfn, Whitley, p=44 ''Bretagne'' remained in service and conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean and along the coast of North Africa during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1934, ''Bretagne'' and ''Provence'' were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, based on France's Atlantic coast. In 1936, they joined the non-intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War.{{sfn, Whitley, p=43 At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, ''Bretagne'' and ''Provence'' were based in Toulon with the 2nd Squadron, while ''Lorraine'' was assigned to the Atlantic Squadron.{{sfn, Whitley, pp=43–44 Provence-1

After undergoing a refit in the early months of the war, ''Provence'' conducted anti-raider patrols with Force Y, based in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

. ''Bretagne'' was also overhauled early in the war; in March 1940 she escorted a convoy to Halifax and returned with another convoy loaded with aircraft for the French Air Force. She was then ordered to join ''Lorraine'' in Force X, to be based in Alexandria to operate in concert with the British

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...

. Two weeks later, ''Bretagne'' was instead ordered to steam at high speed to

Bizerte Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...

, to join the Force de Raid with ''Provence''. The ships put in at Mers-el-Kébir and remained there until after the fall of France in June 1940.{{sfn, Whitley, p=44 To prevent the ships of the French Navy from falling into the hands of the occupying Germans, British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

ordered the neutralization of all French warships.

Force H Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940, to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany. The force occupied an odd place within the ...

was to deliver an ultimatum to the ships based at Mers-el-Kébir; on 3 July, the British squadron arrived outside the harbor and demanded that the ships sail with them to Britain or they would be sunk.{{sfn, O'Hara et al., pp=31–32 The British and French negotiated for several hours, and culminated in the British opening fire on the French fleet. In the span of ten minutes, ''Bretagne'' was sunk and ''Provence'' was badly damaged.{{sfn, O'Hara et al., p=32 ''Bretagne'' was hit by at least four {{convert, 15, in, abbr=on shells from {{HMS, Hood, 51, 6, {{HMS, Resolution, 09, 2 and {{HMS, Valiant, 1914, 2 and exploded, killing the vast majority of her crew. ''Provence'' was set on fire and sank to the bottom of the harbor,{{sfn, Whitley, p=44 though she was subsequently raised and transferred to Toulon, where she was later scuttled in 1942 to prevent her from being seized by the Germans. They nevertheless salvaged the ship starting in July 1943.{{sfn, Roberts, p=257 Two of her main guns were emplaced as coastal batteries outside Toulon. ''Lorraine'' was disarmed in Alexandria until December 1942, when she joined the Free French Naval Forces. She served as a training ship for much of 1943 until a major refit at the end of the year to prepare her to participate in

, the invasion of southern France. She provided gunfire support during the landings before steaming to Britain for a minor refit. She remained in Britain until March 1945, when she bombarded German-held fortresses in northern France.{{sfn, Whitley, p=44 After the end of the war, ''Lorraine'' served as a gunnery training ship in Toulon. She was then used as a barracks ship until February 1953, when she was stricken from the naval register and sold for scrapping at the end of the year. She was broken up for scrap outside Toulon the following year. ''Bretagne'' remained at the bottom of Mers-el-Kébir until she was raised for scrapping in 1952 and broken up. ''Provence'' was raised in April 1949 and scrapped.{{sfn, Whitley, p=44

Footnotes

{{reflist, 20em

References

* {{cite book , last = Dumas , first = Robert , year = 1986 , editor-last = Lambert , editor-first = Andrew D , chapter = The French Dreadnoughts: The 23,500 ton Bretagne Class , title = Warship , volume = X , pages = 74–85, 158–165 , publisher = Conway Maritime Press , location = London , isbn = 978-0-85177-449-7 , ref = {{sfnRef, Dumas * {{cite book , last = Hore , first = Peter , year = 2006 , title = Battleships of World War I , location = London , publisher = Southwater Books , isbn = 978-1-84476-377-1 , ref = {{sfnRef, Hore * {{cite book , last1 = Jordan , first1 = John , last2 = Dumas , first2 = Robert , year = 2009 , title = French Battleships 1922–1956 , publisher = Naval Institute Press , location = Annapolis , isbn = 978-1-59114-416-8, name-list-style=amp , ref = {{sfnRef, Jordan & Dumas * {{cite book , last=Mach , first=Andrzej V. , chapter=Greece , pages=382–386 , editor1-last=Gardiner , editor1-first=Robert , editor2-last=Gray , editor2-first=Randal , title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 , year=1985 , location=Annapolis , publisher=Naval Institute Press , isbn=978-0-87021-907-8 , name-list-style=amp , ref = {{sfnRef, Mach * {{cite book , last1 = O'Hara , first1 = Vincent P. , last2 = Dickson , first2 = W. David , last3 = Worth , first3 = Richard , year = 2010 , title = On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of the Second World War , publisher = Naval Institute Press , location = Annapolis , isbn = 978-1-59114-646-9, name-list-style=amp , ref = {{sfnRef, O'Hara et al. * {{cite book , last = Roberts , first = John , chapter = France , pages = 255–279 , editor1-last = Gardiner , editor1-first = Robert , editor2-last = Chesneau , editor2-first = Roger , year = 1980 , title = Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946 , publisher = Naval Institute Press , location = Annapolis , isbn = 978-0-87021-913-9, name-list-style=amp , ref = {{sfnRef, Roberts * {{cite book , last=Smigielski , first=Adam , chapter=France , pages=190–220 , editor1-last=Gardiner , editor1-first=Robert , editor2-last=Gray , editor2-first=Randal , title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 , year=1985 , location=Annapolis , publisher=Naval Institute Press , isbn=978-0-87021-907-8 , name-list-style=amp , ref = {{sfnRef, Smigielski * {{cite book, last=Whitley, first=M. J., author-link=Michael J. Whitley, title=Battleships of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia, publisher=Naval Institute Press, location=Annapolis, year=1998 , isbn=1-55750-184-X, ref = {{sfnRef, Whitley