Richelieu Class Battleship - Design - 1938 Supplementary Program Battleships

1938 Supplementary Program Battleships

In 1937, Italy ordered two more Vittorio Veneto-class battleships, to be laid down in 1938. The French reaction was to order two more Richelieu-class battleships, with an improved design since the limited French naval building capacity required some delays before laying these units down.

The second London naval disarmament conference's failure had marked the end of international naval armament limitation policy. Japan had withdrawn from the conference on 15 January 1936; Italy also declined to sign the Second London Naval Treaty. A so-called "escalator clause" had been included at the American negotiators' urging, allowing the signatory countries of the Second London Treaty (France, the United Kingdom and the United States) to raise the battleship main battery caliber limit from 14 inches (356 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm), and the limit for battleship displacement from 35,000 tons to 45,000 tons, if Japan or Italy still refused to sign after April 1, 1937. Ultimately the U.S.A. adopted 16-inch (406 mm) guns for their new fast battleship classes, whereas the United Kingdom chose to respect the original Second London Naval Treaty limitations for the King George V-class battleships. Germany was not concerned, as she had not been invited to the second London naval disarmament conference, but officially the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz had 380 mm (15 in) guns and 35,000 tons displacements. France decided to respect the limitations of 35,000 tons and 380 mm (15 in) as long as no continental European power had broken them. Bearing such considerations in mind, the new Chief of the Navy General Staff (Chef d'Etat-major Général de la Marine), Admiral Darlan, ordered in December 1937 a study of new designs for two battleships, especially since the Dunkerque's trials were showing problems with her design, especially her all forward quadruple turret main artillery and her dual purpose (anti-aircraft and anti-ship) secondary artillery of relatively light caliber.

Three projects were studied, the first (project A) with the same quadruple arrangement forward as the Richelieu, but different secondary artillery arrangements, the second (project B) with one quadruple turret forward and one quadruple turret aft, the third (project C) with two fore triple turrets and one triple turret aft, in every case with a 380 mm (15 in) caliber. Project C lead to an excess displacement of 5,000 tons over the limit of 35,000 tons, so it was not proposed to the Chief of the Navy General Staff.

In June 1938, the French Admiralty's choice was tightly linked with the need to maximally use the shipyards where very large ships could be built. The Salou #4 graving dock in the Brest Navy Yards was intended to be ready for building a new battleship in January 1939, when the Richelieu will have been be floated out, as all other building for large ships were in use. On the new Caquot dock, in the Penhoët Shipbuilding Yards in Saint-Nazaire, the Jean Bart was being built and expected to be floated out in late 1939-early 1940. In the same shipbuilding yard, on the #1 slipway where the SS Normandie and Strasbourg had been laid down, the Joffre was to be built from November 1938 till 1941. Consequently, it was not reasonable to keep the Salou building dock empty for at least six months, waiting to start building a Project B design battleship which necessitated at least one year to come up with definitive drawings after it had been ordered. Therefore, the Project A design was chosen for the first battleship to be laid down in the Salou building dock. The Caquot dock could then be used for the second battleship to be laid down.

Admiral Darlan chose project A variant 2 for the first ship of the Richelieu-class' second pair to be laid down; she received the name of Clemenceau. He chose project B variant 3 for the second ship – a design in which he was much involved – and named her Gascogne after the French area where he was born, meaning also that this new battleship was a transition to a new battleship class again named after provinces.

When in the summer of 1939 the French intelligence services warned the French Admiralty that the keels of two German battleships had been laid down, supposed to be of 40,000 tonnes (39,000 long tons) tonnage and with 406 mm (16.0 in) guns, but actually Plan Z H-39 class battleships, it was decided to design a ship free of the limitations of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) and 380 mm (15 in). Based on the studies of 1938's Project C, new battleship designs emerged that led to the so-called Province or later Alsace-class battleships that were never even ordered.