After another 132 reservists from Richelieu were demobilized, a total of 1,039 officers and men were left aboard the ship. Though the number of guns was reduced, the new arrangement actually secured the same broadside, as three turrets could still be brought to bear to either side of the ship. The ship was in need of a thorough refit, and she was dry-docked in Cherbourg from August to September to survey the work that would be needed to be done. The refit eventually began on 1 January 1950 and lasted until 24 October 1951, and it included a thorough overhaul of her propulsion machinery, replacement of her worn main and secondary battery guns, and repairs to her anti-aircraft battery, along with other modifications. [12], The ships were armed with eight 380 mm/45 Modèle (Mle) 1935 guns arranged in two quadruple gun turrets,[a] which were placed in a superfiring pair forward of the superstructure. Given the limited ability to repair the damage to the ship, Marzin focused efforts on ensuring that the main and secondary batteries could be effectively used, even if the ship could only be employed as a static floating battery against an expected second attack from British forces. She was finally commissioned in 1955, thereafter taking part in the French intervention in the Suez Crisis in November 1956. Work on the ship was completed on 15 June 1940, days before France surrendered to Germany after the Battle of France. The Allied command initially considered employing her to support the invasion of Normandy, but as she was only supplied with armor-piercing shells, she was instead sent to reinforce the British Eastern Fleet, along with a group of escort aircraft carriers. They were supplied with a total of 3,600 semi-AP and high explosive rounds, the former for surface targets and the latter for use against aircraft. They definitely draw a line between battlecruisers and battleships. [8][10], After returning to port, work began to prepare the ship for action as quickly as possible. [2][5], By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the hull had been assembled; the start of the war led the naval command to decide to slow work on other, less complete vessels to focus efforts on Richelieu and her sister ship Jean Bart. The Sural boilers were experimental, and were thus a major risk to take with what were to be the most powerful capital ships of the French fleet; they nevertheless proved to be generally reliable in service. The fleet then proceeded to the Andamans, and at 17:30, Richelieu opened fire at Port Blair; poor visibility hampered her shooting, and she ceased fire at 18:07, by now having expended the main battery ammunition that had been allotted for the bombardment. Also, significant British naval units were in the area, including the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes moored in Dakar and the British South Atlantic Squadron, which was nearby. [19][20], The British believed that the arrival of Force Y indicated that the French were aware of Operation Menace, but de Gaulle decided to proceed with the attack regardless. The small Dunkerque-class battleships that had been ordered provided the template for the next French battleship design, but it needed to be scaled up to match the new Italian vessels, both in terms of offensive and defensive characteristics. France like other nations who signed the Washington Naval Treaty, was limited in battleship construction. The US Navy had not initially been interested in repairing Richelieu; while the Germans and Italians retained a number of powerful battleships, the United States had recently commissioned or would soon complete eight fast battleships, more than sufficient to cover US requirements for the Pacific War and to send to Europe to reinforce the Royal Navy. The plan called for the East Indies Fleet to be divided into multiple groups, each with escorting cruisers and destroyers: four of the escort carriers were to directly support the landings, Richelieu and Queen Elizabeth each formed independent surface action groups, and another pair of escort carriers provided air protection for the surface groups. 6 the only operable gun in the turret. Though permitted to build two battleships after 1927, French naval planners were more concerned with cruisers. The turrets were divided into two separate gun houses by a bulkhead to reduce the risk of the entire turret being disabled by a single hit. This bulkhead was increased to 40 to 50 mm (1.6 to 2.0 in) abreast of the secondary magazines and the forward main battery turret, as the narrowing hull reduced the total width of the underwater protection system. The deck was increased in thickness to 100 mm over the propeller shafts and 150 mm over the steering gear. Since the automatic 37 mm guns were not available, eight 37 mm Mle 1925 semi-automatic guns in four twin mounts were added. [1], Richelieu displaced 37,250 long tons (37,850 t) standard and 43,992 long tons (44,698 t) fully loaded, with an overall length of 247.85 m (813 ft 2 in), a beam of 33.08 m (108 ft 6 in) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in). And in July, her Loire seaplanes finally arrived; tests with the catapults were conducted in October. In addition to the hull cleaning and boiler repairs, she had new fire control and search radars installed, including a US SG-1 search radar, British Type-281B air search radar, and Type-285P fire control radars, in addition to other equipment, including an FV1 jammer and high-frequency direction finding gear. [77], For the first and last time of either of their careers, Richelieu and Jean Bart cruised together on 30 January 1956. With her normal displacement now at 43,600 t (42,900 long tons) and her hull slightly bowed (possibly caused by the torpedo hit), Richelieu began machinery trials in late September. The Richelieus were based on the preceding Dunkerque class, but scaled up to accommodate more powerful 380 mm (15 in) guns and armor to protect them from guns of the same caliber. [59], Gascogne was never laid down, as she had to wait until Jean Bart was launched, by which time the war had begun. The British warships approached the port and came under fire from the coastal batteries, leading the Anglo-Free French commanders, de Gaulle and Admiral Andrew Cunningham to conclude that they would have to directly attack the port if the operation was to succeed. Loading could be accomplished at any angle, and owing to the heavy propellant charges, the rate of fire was relatively slow, at 1.3 shot per minute. Ninety minutes later, the British battleships and two heavy cruisers approached and fired their 380 mm main batteries at Richelieu. The Dunkerques carried their armament in two quadruple gun turrets arrayed in a superfiring pair forward of the superstructure, and the designers experimented with other arrangements, including combinations of triple and twin turrets, but the need to minimize the length of the armor belt (and thus its weight) necessitated the Dunkerque layout. During this period, the French Navy discussed proposals to complete Jean Bart or convert her into an aircraft carrier, ultimately settling on the former. On 22 September, the liner SS Banfora was due to arrive with a load of 380 mm shells, and as a result, French search aircraft were arrayed to the north to cover the liner's approach; they were completely surprised by the arrival of the Anglo-Free French force on the morning of 23 September. Richelieu stopped in Aden for repairs to the boiler tubes, but the problem was not corrected. [61][62], The next major operation followed a week later. Richelieu arrives in New York. The other ships quickly followed suit and F4U Corsair fighters circled overhead to spot for the ships' guns. Richelieu fired four-gun salvos, with two guns per turret, and she scored hits with the second salvo, demolishing several buildings and damaging the power station. She stopped in Algiers on 26 March to take on additional supplies; there, she was visited by General Henri Giraud and Admiral André Lemonnier. It was the greatest sea battle of World War Two. [28][29][30], After the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942 that resulted in the defection of significant parts of the French overseas empire, Richelieu was transferred to Free French control. Nevertheless, shipyard workers had repaired her hull damage by September 1943, and she spent the rest of the war as a training ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The French decision to lay down Richelieu in 1935 put the country in violation of the Washington Treaty, which was to expire on 31 December 1936, as the combined tonnage of the two Dunkerques and Richelieu exceeded the 70,000 long tons (71,000 t) that had been allotted to France during the moratorium on new battleship construction. [45][46], The ship accordingly steamed to Greenock to take on fuel and ammunition, before cruising south to the Mediterranean with an escort of three British destroyers. Illustrious, joined by the carrier Victorious, which had recently arrived, provided air cover to the fleet. They also incorporated new, more compact boilers that allowed for a shorter hull (which required less heavy armor) for the desired top speed. [27], Work on Richelieu was expedited as war with Germany became increasingly likely in 1939, and she was completed just days before the Germans won the Battle of France in June 1940. This article covers the French Dunkerque class and Richelieu class A makeshift fire control director was installed in 1941, but it proved to be unreliable and so an ad hoc director system was set up using shore-based observation points to triangulate targets for the main battery. Heavy use of the pumps caused frequent breakdowns, which further slowed work. Japanese aircraft attacked the fleet as it withdrew back to Trincomalee but were, once again, poorly coordinated and they failed to damage the ships. The French sought to deploy an independent task force consisting of Richelieu, the four light cruisers still in service, and four destroyers, with a view toward reestablishing French control in Indochina. American 6-inch/47 Mk 16 shells were used as a starting point to supply the 152 mm guns, as they were the same caliber and required relatively minor modifications for use in the French weapons. [6], With German troops advancing across France by mid-June, the Navy decided to evacuate Richelieu to Dakar in French West Africa; while earlier plans had been to send the fleet to British ports to continue the war, when the possibility of a negotiated armistice arose, the government decided that the fleet would be a useful bargaining chip. Another refit followed from October 1953 to February 1954. [25][26] Guns 5 and 6 remained in action but failed to score any hits. Richelieu was part of the force that liberated Singapore after the Japanese surrender in September, and she later operated in French Indochina as part of the initial effort to restore French colonial rule. While the British battleships were turning to unmask their rear guns, the submarine Bévéziers torpedoed and badly damaged Resolution. There, she came under repeated British attacks that had been intended to either compel the battleship to join the Free French Naval Forces or sink her. The Free French then attempted to land further east at Rufisque, but were repulsed. In March, the Allies determined that five battleships to counter the battleship Tirpitz (which had been damaged in September 1943) was excessive. Jaujard left the ship and her crew was reduced to 750 men. The facilities there were not capable of completing the second main battery turret, nor were the Germans interested in allowing the needed armor plates and guns to be shipped there. The belt was also decreased in thickness from 360 mm to 330 mm (though the angle of inclination was increased to compensate for the reduction); coupled with minor reductions in armor elsewhere in the ship, these changes offset the weight of the 152 mm battery and brought the displacement within Washington limits. On October 14, Richelieu sailed for Mers el-Kebir and later to Scapa Flow, where she arrived on November 20, 1943. At the same time, the shipyard began building a steel cofferdam around the ship that was to have been completed by late October, which would allow the rest of the hull to be pumped dry. The ship's original Anschütz gyrocompasses were replaced with Sperry models. France, heavily reliant on her connections to her Afri… The French coastal batteries hit several of the cruisers and destroyers, but Richelieu was moored facing north, which prevented her from taking part in the initial duel. As a result, they could only be used for long-range barrage fire against low-flying torpedo bombers. The destroyers departed while underway, allowing Richelieu to keep up a speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) in heavy seas. The treaty had included a moratorium on new battleship construction that was extended by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 (which France had signed but not ratified), though France and Italy had secured an exception to allow them to build up to 70,000 long tons (71,000 t) of new battleships as their fleets were older than those of the other signatories. The strike proceeded uneventfully for Richelieu and on 18 May the American contingent detached to rejoin the main American fleet in the Pacific while the Eastern Fleet returned to Trincomalee, arriving on 27 May. She also took aboard gold reserves from the Bank of France and 250 cadets from the École Navale (Naval Academy). In his report on the attack and subsequent repairs, Marzin criticized faulty design and construction practices that hindered damage control efforts, including insufficient pumping equipment, poor quality control for the welding of bulkheads, and a failure to ensure that critical components like the turret trunks were watertight. The cofferdam was modeled to conform to the hull and was built with an interior void that could be used as a ballast tank so it could be floated in position and sunk in place. The new ships would be built to the maximum Washington limits: 35,000 tons displacement and a battery of eight guns of either 380 mm or 406 mm. The French had counted some 160 shells landing near the ship. [52][53][54], In 1945, discussions as to the fate of the ship considered converting her into an aircraft carrier, finishing her as a battleship, or discarding her altogether. On 10 October, the workers attempted to attach the patch that had been manufactured, but it did not work; it did not create a watertight seal, which meant the compartments could not be pumped out. Under the terms of the armistice, Richelieu was to be returned to Toulon, where she would be demobilized, though the Germans later decided against permitting the move, as they feared the British would try to seize the ship during the passage through the Strait of Gibraltar; the British, meanwhile, were under the mistaken impression that the Germans sought to seize the French fleet for their own use. While this work was being carried out, the crew cleaned and painted the ship and continued to work on readying the armament. She incurred minor damage to her bow 20 mm guns from the blast effects of firing the main battery nearly directly forward. Test firings of the guns were conducted on 13 and 14 June. When Richelieu departed the Mediterranean, Cunningham, now the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, recommended to the Admiralty that she be fitted with gunnery radars. The lower armor deck was 40 millimetres (1.6 in) thick on the flat and increased to 50 mm (2 in) on the sloped sides that connected to the lower edge of the armor belt. [4], The weight problem was solved by adopting a new type of boiler, designated "Sural" (short for suralimenté [pressure-fired]); these boilers were much more compact than the type used in the Dunkerque class and the Richelieus had a wider beam (allowing three boilers side-by-side instead of just two), so the boiler rooms could be reduced from three to two, with the total machinery space shortened considerably. Germany didn't. The ships allocated for the operation consisted of Richelieu, Queen Elizabeth, two heavy cruisers, two escort carriers, and five destroyers. Marzin instead returned to Dakar on 28 June; the convoy arrived, having been significantly delayed, on 4 July. The vessels would also carry a secondary battery of dual-purpose guns, be capable of a speed of 29.5 to 30 knots (54.6 to 55.6 km/h; 33.9 to 34.5 mph), and carry belt armor that was 360 mm (14 in) thick. During this period, she was present for Operations Cockpit, Transom, Pedal, and Crimson. She was present for the Japanese surrender of Singapore at the end of the war. Her career proved to be a short one, and she was placed in reserve in 1957. After the French African colonies shifted to Free French control, Richelieu was taken to the United States to be repaired and modernized, while Jean Bart was not completed. It was sandblasted and those sections of plating that exhibited pitting had new plates welded over top. She returned to Trincomalee on 16 September before getting underway again on 27 September, bound for Indochina. [47], In November, American and British forces invaded French North Africa in Operation Torch; Jean Bart initially helped to resist the attack, engaging in a gunnery duel with the American battleship USS Massachusetts and heavy cruisers on the first day of the invasion. Shell handling equipment and ammunition hoists were not completed for the main battery, and the only usable guns were three 37 mm and six of the 13.2 mm mounts. Wiring in the area was also cut by fragments and needed to be replaced. Three shifts of workers, totaling some 2,000 men, worked on the ship twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for five months to rush the ship back into service. To prepare Richelieu for reserve, dehumidifiers were installed in the secondary turrets to inhibit rust and the 100 mm and 40 mm quad mounts were covered. Drawings of the plans for the 380 mm shells were prepared in Dakar and forwarded to the United States, where a contract to produce 930 shells was ordered from Crucible Steel. In return, Richelieu's gunners claimed three of the six aircraft that were shot down, and damaged another. In mid-1940, Richelieu was attacked twice and damaged by British forces attempting to coerce the crew to defect to Free France, while Jean Bart was badly damaged by American forces during Operation Torch in November 1942. Quickly identified as a threat by the Royal Navy, efforts to track Bismarck were underway after its commissioning … Britain objected to the construction program, but France dismissed them by pointing out that Britain had unilaterally signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement earlier in 1935, effectively abrogating the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles that had severely constrained the size and effectiveness of the German fleet. 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