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(Vanilla) Alsace Design No.3, MN Alsace, 1940

Andromeda(USS Louisiana BB-71) all rights reserved.
This ship has become a preset ship.




The 1936 Treaty of London had retained the Washington displacement limit of 35,000 tons for capital ships while at the same time reducing maximum gun calibre to 14in (356mm). However, the US Navy had insisted on an ‘escalator’ clause that permitted a reversion to the original 16in gun calibre in the event of failure of the Japanese to sign up to the new agreement, and this was duly invoked on 31 March 1937. Following a further exchange of notes during spring 1938, an Anglo-US-French protocol of 30 June 1938 declared that battleships up to 45,000 tons could now be built.

France was initially reluctant to take advantage of this new possibility given the limitations of existing infrastructure; construction of even the 250-metre, 35,000-ton Richelieu class had proved problematic. The French therefore declared that they would respect the 35,000-ton limit as long as the other European powers observed it. However, France’s assumption that only the Pacific powers would really be interested in building 45,000-ton leviathans was upset by the German ‘Z’-Plan, which was presented to Hitler by Admiral Raeder on 27 January 1939. The centrepiece of the plan was the construction of six new battleships of 56,000 tons armed with 406mm (16in) guns, and the keels for the first two ships, allocated the temporary designations ‘H’ and ‘J’, were laid on 15 July at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg and on 15 August at AG Weser, Bremen, respectively. Despite the secrecy with which the Germans attempted to enshroud the programme, news of the construction of ‘H’ and ‘J’ did not escape the French intelligence services, which estimated displacement (incorrectly) as 40,000 tons and gun calibre (correctly) as 406mm. Thus, on 20 July 1939, Darlan made a formal request for studies by the STCN of battleships with a displacement greater than 35,000 tons, and for studies by the Direction des Armes Navales (DAN) of guns of 400mm (15.75in), 406mm and 420mm (16.5in) calibre.

During late 1939, the STCN drew up studies for ships of 40,000 tons, 42,500 tons and 45,000 tons standard displacement. All were essentially developments of the ‘C’ series of 1937-8, with two main turrets forward and one aft and nine 152mm secondary guns in triple centreline turrets. However, following experience with the detailed design of Gascogne, the aviation facilities were moved to the quarterdeck to permit a satisfactory arrangement of the 100mm DP tertiary battery amidships.

Type No. 1 was a slightly enlarged C3 (the original C3 had a standard displacement of 37,425 tons), with four metres additional length and two metres extra beam. There were nine 380mm in triple turrets, with one triple 152mm turret forward and two aft. The 100mm were disposed symmetrically as in Gascogne, and as in the latter there was a single centreline catapult on the quarterdeck. Protection was slightly increased over the Richelieu class, the most notable difference being a main armoured deck of 170mm over the machinery and 180mm over the magazines. There was a cost of an extra 15,000shp and a loss of one knot in maximum speed for the larger hull.

The second project was essentially Type No. 1 scaled up to accommodate 406mm guns. The cost of the larger hull was a further 20,000shp to provide a maximum speed of 31 knots.

Type No. 3, which can be considered the French attempt at a ‘super-battleship’, reverted to the 380mm gun but in three quadruple turrets, with a corresponding increase in the heavy AA battery to twenty-four guns. A marked increase in length to 265m permitted the fitting of two catapults, but the design was characterised by ‘quantitative’ rather than qualitative improvements.

The choice of the Naval General Staff was relatively straightforward. The 406mm calibre had a number of disadvantages: it introduced a fourth gun calibre to the battle fleet – the other major fleets all had only two; and the prolonged development of the new gun would inevitably create delays in the programme. Type No. 3, although attractive because it outclassed almost all (known) current foreign construction, was regarded as a step too far in terms of its size and impact on current French infrastructure. Type No. 1, on the other hand, was a well-balanced design which used existing weaponry and which could be accommodated with relatively minor adjustments to current infrastructure.

Two battleships of 40,000 tons were duly authorised on 1 April 1940. The first was to be laid down on the Penhoët No. 1 slipway following the launch of the carrier Joffre in 1941; the second in the new building dock at Brest Naval Dockyard before the end of 1942. All materials for their construction were to have been ordered in mid-1940, and an EMG note of 15 May 1940 proposed two names from Alsace, Normandie, Flandre and Bourgogne, to be chosen by the Navy Minister. These plans were to come to nothing when the French Army collapsed in June 1940, and the latter month effectively marked the end of the French battleship programme, which had begun with the laying down of Dunkerque in December 1932.

This ship is based on the No. 3 plan.

(Data as of 1940)
Displacement(Standard): 45,000 tons
Displacement(Normal): 51,500 tons
Length(oa): 265m
Beam: 35.5m
Armament:
Main Battery: 12 - 380mm/45 Mle 1935 (3 x IV)
Secondary: 9 - 152mm/55 Mle 1930 (3 x III)
Tertiary: 24 - 100mm/55 Mle 1945 (12 x II)
Light AA: 24 - 37mm (12 x II), 20 - 25mm (10 x II)
Maximum Power: 220,000 SHP
Speed: 32 knots
Armor Protection: Belt - 350mm, PBS - 170mm/180mm, PBI - 40mm