readx; It is said that the ** cow next door is ready to start building a catamaran super battleship, so how can the French rooster who is a neighbor with Hans Meow being a neighbor across the sea be indifferent. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On 12 November 1921, the Washington Conference was held in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives of nine countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. After struggles and compromises among the countries, the meeting reached the "Five-Power Naval Agreement," which stipulates that the total tonnage of capital ships that the five countries can possess shall be limited by standard displacement, and the United States and Britain shall not exceed 525,000 tons; Japan 315,000 tons; 175,000 tons in France and Italy. However, the issue of submarines and surface auxiliary ships was not agreed upon.

According to this "Five-Power Naval Agreement", the 1927 and 1929 shipbuilding plans drawn up by the Tsundere Gallic chicken did not include plans to build new battleships. Thus, at the London Naval Conference of 1930, the only thing directly relevant to France was the following:

The second part of it: Article 7: 2, among the submarines retained, newly built or acquired by each signatory country, there may be three submarines with a maximum displacement of no more than 2,800 tons (2,845 metric tons); These submarines were not to carry naval guns of a caliber of 6.1 inches (155 mm). Within this limit, France could retain a large submarine with a displacement of 2,880 tons (2,926 metric tons) and an 8-inch (203 mm) gun caliber that had been launched.

Based on the above situation, and stimulated by the Red Chinese Navy, the French also began to have a plan to build a catamaran super-battleship named the "Napoleon" class.

But if you want to understand the "Napoleon" class catamaran super battleship, you must first understand the Richelieu-class battleship (English: Richelieu-class-battleship, French: Cuirasse-class-Richelieu), which is a first-class battleship built by the French Navy, and is also the most powerful and last first-class battleship in the history of the French Navy, with a total of four ships of this class, named Richelieu, Jean Bar, and Clemonso, The last ship, the USS Gascoigne. During the ill-fated construction and service life of this class of ships, it witnessed the invasion and liberation of France.

This ship was born from the French Navy Supreme Council on June 25, 1934 on the French Navy's shipbuilding plan under the new situation, in order to counter the biggest threat to the French Navy in the new era - the Italian Navy's Veneto-class battleship, the new ship with PN-196 as the design code, based on the Dunkirk-class battleship, began construction on October 22, 1935, named Richelieu on January 17, 1939, Germany invaded France in May 1940, France surrendered, In June 1940 the Richelieu entered service with the Vichy French Navy. The second ship Jean Bar was started on December 12, 1936, and was forcibly launched and towed to Casablanca on May 6, 1940, and continued to be built after the liberation of France, and was commissioned in the Navy of the French Fourth Republic on August 1, 1949.

The standard displacement of this class is 35,000 tons, the full load displacement is 47,600 tons, and it is equipped with two new quadruple 1935 45 times diameter 380 mm main turrets, which are arranged side by side on the foredeck; The aft deck is lined with three-point three-seat triple-mounted 152-mm high-level guns, and six twin-mounted 100-mm anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the hull. The two quadruple guns in the bow of the ship, although inferior in number to the Veneto-class battleships (3x triple 9 guns), have a more intensive firepower output than the Veneto-class.

The Richelieu-class battleship was a type of battleship built in France. Ships of the same class: Richelieu, Jean Bart, Clemenceau (unfinished). By the outbreak of World War II, 3 Risselieu-class battleships were under construction, and only Richelieu Richelieu was close to completion during the war. The hull of the unfinished No. 3 ship, Clemenceau, was halted after the defeat and surrender of France, and was eventually sunk by the Allies.

In the 20 years after the end of World War I, France was one of the five great naval powers, and in the Washington Naval Treaty, the size of France's capital ships was set at five ships of 35,000 tons (the total tonnage must not exceed 175,000 tons). However, France's national power weakened after World War I, and in the 15 years since the Washington Naval Treaty came into force, the French Navy's capital ships never reached or exceeded the treaty limit of 175,000 tons.

In the 1930s, France's potential adversaries, Italy and Germany, greatly expanded their navies, posing a serious threat to France's maritime interests. In the mid-30s, Italy began construction of Vittorio Veneto-class battleships with a speed of 30 knots and nine 381 mm guns. And the Bismarck-class battleships that Germany began to build, were armed with 8 380-mm guns.

The French Navy in the early 1930s had only 4 old battleships from the First World War, with a displacement of about 20,000 tons. In 1932, France built two Dunkirk-class battleships. The ships of this class had high speed and moderate armor, but the power of the 330 mm guns equipped with them could not only compete with the new type of battleships, but also quite barely compete with the German contemporaries of the Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers. So, starting in the 30s, the French Navy designed and built a new type of battleship - the Richelieu-class battleship. to maintain the maritime superiority of the French Navy in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic.

The Richelieu-class ship No. 1 "Richelieu" (Richelieu was a famous cardinal in the French Middle Ages) started construction in Brest on October 22, 1935. Over the next four years, the construction of the second ship, Jean Barr, and the third ship, Clemenceau, began. France planned to build the first three Richelieu-class battleships, followed by three more Richelieu-class modifications, and it was expected that by the mid-1940s, when the entire shipbuilding program was completed, France would have eight newer battleships to compete with similar warships of the Italian and German navies. Unlike the global navies of Britain and the United States, the French navy before World War II was mainly focused on North Africa, so its main task was to seize sea supremacy in the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic, and to ensure the maritime connection between the colonies and the French mainland. Therefore, as the core of the main fleet of the homeland, the Richelieu-class battleships are based on the operational idea that they can fight a decisive battle with the Italian capital ships or the British Mediterranean detachment in the Mediterranean, and at the same time can carry out escort, break diplomatic relations, and provide fire support and suppression tasks on land. Based on this, the Richelieu class has the following characteristics in design: it has high speed, but the endurance is not too demanding; with a main gun sufficient to deal with the new Italian battleships; It has a strong horizontal armor belt, and it is also necessary to enhance the ability to protect against the air.

Armament system

From the Dunkirk class, the French battleships adopted a very peculiar layout: the two quadruple main guns were all arranged on the foredeck, and the rear deck had no main guns, and only several auxiliary turrets were arranged on top of each other. The Richelieu-class battleships also followed this general arrangement: it was equipped with two quadruple 380 mm guns on the foredeck, while on the aft deck there were no main guns, and three triple 152 mm secondary guns were arranged in a zigzag pattern. The layout of the two main turrets in front of the bridge reduces the area of heavy armor protection, saves weight and strengthens the defense capability of key areas, and the disadvantage of this main turret arrangement is that there are dead spots when the main guns are fired.

At the beginning of the design of the Richelieu class, the French planned to install 406 mm guns on it: nine 406 mm guns were mounted on three triple turrets, in a "two on the foredeck and one on the back". It was later found that this scheme greatly exceeded the tonnage of the battleship and the construction cost was unaffordable, so it was changed to 6 406 mm guns with 2 turrets in the front. But in this way, the number of main guns of the whole ship is too small, and the density of fire is insufficient. Finally, after careful consideration, the 380-mm caliber gun was used on the "Richelieu", which was lighter in weight and was able to install 8 guns in 4 packs, which correspondingly increased the density of fire. The French and British guns had the shortest barrels, 45 times the caliber; Italy is 50 times the caliber, Germany is 52 times (equivalent to 47 times) caliber. However, the French artillery had the largest charge load, so although the French gun had the shortest barrel and a heavier projectile, it was not inferior to its class in terms of muzzle velocity, range and armor-piercing ability. Each quadruple turret of the 380-mm naval gun weighed 2274 tons, and the turret was hydraulically controlled and used an electric hydraulic pump as the driving power. The 4 guns in the turret were divided into two groups, and the two guns in each group were linked, and relatively independent of the 2 guns of the other group. Thus, structurally, the artillery arrangement of the Richelieu class was actually 2x2x2, and not 4x2 outwardly. Another feature of the French 380 mm turret is that it can be reloaded at any angle. Thanks to the use of a reloading system called "elastic loading", the combat rate of fire of the gun was increased, which was significantly higher than that of other fixed-angle loading battleships.

Protection

At the beginning of the design, the Richelieu class also required its main armor to be able to withstand the bombardment of 380 mm guns at 27,000 meters (at this time, 380 mm armor-piercing shells could penetrate 331 mm armor plates). Due to the significant weight savings in the front of the main gun, the "Richelieu" had sufficient weight indicators for armor protection. The armor plates near the waterline are 328 mm thick and have a 15-degree inclination, and there is an 18 mm thick spall liner behind the armor columns. In the non-vital parts of the bow and stern, the thickness of the armor is 127-152 mm.

The turret is also a key point of protection. The thickness of the frontal armor of the turret reached 430 mm, the thickness of the sides was 270 mm, and the thickness of the seat armor was 405 mm. The standard of armor protection of the conning tower could not be lower than the waterline, and the thickness of the conning tower armor of the "Richelieu" reached 340 mm. At the time of the design of the Richelieu, the threat from the air was already growing. Therefore, in addition to installing a large number of anti-aircraft guns, it has also strengthened horizontal armor, and there are two decks on the ship, with the first layer being 150-170 mm thick and the second layer being 40-100 mm thick, which can effectively reduce the damage of aerial bombs to warships. The armor on the roof of the turret was also thicker than that of the average battleship, 195 mm. The enhanced horizontal armor effectively improves the protection capability of the hull.