French battleship Dunkerque

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Career France

Class and type:	Dunkerque class battleship
Named after:	City of Dunkirk
Laid down:	24 December 1932
Launched:	2 October 1935
Commissioned:	1 May 1937
Status:	Scuttled 27 November 1942
Homeport:	Toulon
General characteristics
Displacement:	26,500 tonnes
Length:	215.1 m
Beam:	31.1 m
Draught:	8.7 m
Propulsion:	6 Indret boilers 4 Rateau geared turbines 135,585 hp
Speed:	31 knots
Range:	13,900 km
Complement:	1381
Armament:	8 330mm/50 Modèle 1931 guns in quadruple turrets 3 x quadruple and 2 x double 130 mm AA turrets 5 x double 37 mm AA turrets 4 x double mm AA turrets
Armour:	225 mm (side belt) 30 mm (anti-torpedo bulkheads) 125-115 mm (deck) 330-310 mm (turrets)
Aircraft carried:	4 hydroplanes 1 catapult

The Dunkerque was the first of a new class of warship of the French Navy labeled as a "fast battleship".

Not as well-armed and considerably less armoured than contemporary battleships, they are nonetheless considered scaled-down battleships and they are considerably more balanced than battlecruisers. The Dunkerques were superior in all respects to and designed to counter the threat of the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland class, which were in effect scaled-up cruisers.

The design was very innovative, having the entire main armament mounted forward in two quadruple turrets which gave unrestricted forward fire. The Royal Navy's Nelson class battleships also had the entire armament mounted forward, but in three turrets carrying nine guns, with the angles of fire for the rearmost turret limited by the turrets in front. The mounting of the main armament in quadruple turrets was a feature unique to late-design French battleships such as Dunkerque, Richelieu and Jean Bart.

During the Phoney War, Dunkerque 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 Strasbourg. The sinking of these ships became one of the main objectives of the British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on 3 July 1940. Dunkerque was severely damaged by gunfire during this attack, settling on the bottom of the harbour. Two days later, she sustained further damage by torpedo-bombers from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.

After being refloated and temporary repairs completed, Dunkerque returned to Toulon in February 1942. She was in armistice custody, disarmed and in drydock, when the Germans invaded the so-called "Free Zone" on 27 November 1942. She was scuttled, along with Strasbourg, in the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. Her commanding officer, Capitaine de vaisseau Amiel, initially refused to sink his ship without written orders, but was finally convinced to do so by the captain of the nearby light cruiser La Galissonnière. Demolition charges were ignited, destroying the ship and setting the wreckage ablaze.