Almost light destroyers in tonnage (1010 tons standard, 1337 tons fully loaded), they were approved in 1938, their keels laid down at the Loire and Brittany yards in 1940, but they were never completed. In addition to their main artillery, they were fitted with eight twin 100 mm turrets and eight twin 37 mm also in turrets, of a new model that was adopted by post war French escorts and destroyers. 100 mm/55 Model 1968, 100 mm/55 Model 1968 CADAM, ... Richelieu, Lorraine, ships refitted in the USA/UK during World War II. French destroyers had limited ASW grenades, but no dedicated lighter ships, like frigates. Their parsons turbines were coupled with 6 Indret supercharged oil-fired boilers to give them 130,000 hp for a top speed of 34 knots. The Courbet, Ocean and Paris were modernized in 1926-29 with a tripod supporting new rangefinders. Tomlin, H W (Lt) Royal Navy official photographer (cc).

In 1918, the French Navy emerged in a sorry state. Bourrasque, sinking slowly at Dunkirk, loaded with troops – Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive (cc). Programmed in 1938, they were considerably larger and faster, and can operate up to 60 modern aircraft. These ships completed the Dunkerque class. In the first scenario, the 25,000 tons Normandie class and 29,000 tons Lyon class battleships would have replaced without any doubt the early Courbet, by 1918 already obsolete with their 305 mm guns in lozenge arrangement.

Fairly it has to be precised however that at that stage only the Royal Navy and Germany ventured into it. With their breakneck speed and powerful armament, the Fantasque and Mogador easily outclassed any other destroyers in the Mediterranean and were a match for Italian light cruisers. Soon the fate of the French units, although declared neutral by the French according to the Armistice treaty, raised questions.

France also experimented with two motor torpedo boats (MBTs), VTB8 and VTB9 in 1935, but leading to no further developments.

This however never matched the scale of the Italian rebuild.

Modern Weapons. The first French heavy cruisers were typical of the Washington Treaty models: 10,000 tons, eight 8-in guns. There was also the Emile Bertin (1933), a prototype of light cruiser featuring triple 6-in turrets, followed by the six La Galissonniere (the galissonniere, Jean de Vienne, Marseillaise, Montcalm, Gloire and Georges Leygues, in service in 1935-37), innovating with a new prow, and reworked squared stern. The French Navy in World War II is an important and well-written piece of work, that tells the story of French naval forces between 1939 and 1945 from the perspective of pro-Allied individuals in the Vichy administration. Apart the dive bombers of the LN 401 type and imported SB2U Vindicator (that mostly operated from land bases) Béarn’s own air force was obsolete. On the other hand, in Toulon, on 27 November 1942, the Dunkerque and Strasbourg battleships, the battleship Provence, Cdt Teste, heavy cruisers Colbert, Foch, Algeria and Dupleix, light cruisers La Galissonnière, Jean de Vienne, La Marseillaise, destroyers Lynx, Chepard, Valmy, Verdun, Lion, Vauban, Eagle, Gerfaud, Vautour, Vauquelin, Cassard, Kersaint, Tartu, L’indomptable, le Volta, Mogador, La Palme, L’Adroit, casque, Lansquenet, Mamelouk, Sirocco, un torpilleur, submersibles Thetis, Vengeur, Espoir, Fresnel, Poincaré, Pascal, Achéron, Redoutable, Diamant, Venus, Mermaid, Naiade, Galatee, Pallas, Ceres, and D’Iberville sloop scuttled, and became dry losses. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Dunkirk and Strasbourg were started in 1932-34, entering service in 1937-38, and were responded by the Italians with their Littorio. We’d love your help. The Béarn was to be followed by the first dedicated French flat-tops, the two Joffre. Prior to this book's original publication in 1959, little had been done to dispel confusion regarding what really happened to the French Navy during World War II. Also from ww1, minesweepers of the Ardent (3), Friponne (2), Luronne, Granit and Meulière classes were also still enlisted.