FRENCH BATTLESHIP BRETAGNE

The French battleship 'Bretagne'.
Career	French Navy Ensign
Built by:	Arsenal de Brest
Laid down:	1 July 1912
Launched:	21 April 1913
Commissioned:	September 1915
Fate:	Sunk, 3 July 1940
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	23,230 tons standard, 26,180 tons full load
Length:	Length: 166 m
Beam:	26.9 m
Draught:	9.8 m
Propulsion:	4 shaft Parsons turbines, 18-24 boilers, 29,000 hp
Speed:	20 knots
Range:	4700 nm at 10 knots, 2680 tons coal and 300 tons oil
Complement:	1133
Armament:	★ 10 - 340 mm (13.4 inch 45 caliber) guns (5 × 2) ★ 22 - 138.6 mm guns (22 × 1) ★ 4 - 47 mm guns ★ 4 - 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armour	★ Belt 270 mm ★ three decks 40 mm each ★ Casemates 170 mm ★ 340 mm turrets ★ 314 mm conning tower

The '''Bretagne''' was a battleship of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. She was named in honour of the French region of Brittany, and was built by Arsenal de Brest.

Contents

Construction

Service

See also

External Links

References

Construction

Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1912, and she was launched on 21 April 1913. She was completed in September 1915 and carried a main armament of ten of the new 13.4 inch main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward, two centerline superfiring aft and one amidships centerline turret that could fire to both sides. These 13.4-inch main guns had come from the cancelled ''Normandie''-class battleships.
The '''Bretagne''' was converted to partial oil firing over the years in 1921 to 1925, and further reconstructed from 1932 to 1934. While her new boilers gave 43,000 hp, this came with only a meager increase in speed to 21 knots.

Service

Serving in the Mediterranean during both World Wars, the ''Bretagne'' sailed to Mers-el-Kebir after the Fall of France in 1940. The British had feared that the powerful French fleet would fall into Nazi hands, and were resolved to prevent this. Thus, after an ultimatum to surrender from the British batlleships HMS ''Hood'', HMS ''Barham'', and HMS ''Resolution'' was refused, the '''Bretagne''' was blown up and sunk by naval gunfire from these three ships at Mers-el-Kebir on 3 July 1940, with the loss of 977 French sailors.
Salvaged in 1952, she was scrapped thereafter.

See also

★ French ship ''Bretagne'' for other ships of the same name

External Links

★ Profile drawing of the battleship Bretagne (HTML)

References

★ Anthony Preston, An Illustrated History of the Navies of World War II (Bison Books Ltd., London, 1976) ISBN 0-600-36569-7

★ French battleship Bretagne: Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel (HTML) Accessed 11 August 2007.