French Battleship Provence

French Battleship Provence

Provence was a battleship of the French Navy built in the 1910s, named in honor of the French region of Provence. She was a member of the Bretagne class, alongside her two sister ships, Bretagne and Lorraine. Provence was laid down in May 1912 at the Arsenal de Lorient, launched in April 1913, and commissioned into the fleet in March 1916, after the outbreak of World War I. She was armed with a main battery of ten 340 mm (13 in) guns and had a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

Provence spent the bulk of her career in the French Mediterranean Squadron, where she served as the fleet flagship. During World War I, she was stationed at Corfu to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from leaving the Adriatic Sea, but she saw no action. She was modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s, and conducted normal peace-time cruises and training maneuvers in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. She participated in non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War.

In the early days of World War II, Provence conducted patrols and sweeps into the Atlantic to search for German surface raiders. She was stationed in Mers-el-Kébir when France surrendered on 22 June 1940. Fearful that the Germans would seize the French Navy, the British Royal Navy attacked the ships at Mers-el-Kébir. Provence was damaged and sank in the harbor, though she was refloated and moved to Toulon, where she became the flagship of the training fleet there. In late November 1942, the Germans occupied Toulon, and to prevent them from seizing the fleet, the French scuttled their ships, including Provence. She was raised in July 1943, and some of her guns were used for coastal defense in the area; the Germans scuttled her a second time in Toulon as a blockship in 1944. Provence was ultimately raised in April 1949 and sold to shipbreakers.