The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
Photograph of battleship Richelieu
U.S. Navy. Via Wikipedia
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Richelieu was designed in
response to Mussolini's declaration in 1934 that Italy would construct two battleships
with 15" guns. The design was sound, with two quadruple turrets to
reduce the length of the armored citadel
and allow good protection (particulary horizontal protection) within
the treaty displacement. The
6" guns in the original design proved useless as antiaircraft weapons and the
number was reduced to allow for a 3.9" antiaircraft battery.
Richelieu was 95% complete
when metropolitan France fell to
the Germans.
She fled to Dakar in West Africa, where she exchanged fire
with a British
task force that attempted unsuccessfully to bring Dakar over
to
the Free French. With the invasion of North Africa by the Allies,
Richelieu
went over to the Allied side and sailed to New York for
extensive
modifications, including regunning to allow her to use American
ammunition. She then fought with the British Far East
Fleet
against Japan
(from April 1944.)
Four ships of the class were authorized, but aside from Richelieu, only Jean Bart could be launched before
the fall of France. She was moved to Casablanca, where there were no
facilities for her completion, and where she was badly damaged when she
put up resistance to Operation TORCH. She was completed postwar, in
1955.
References
Gogin (2010; accessed 2012年3月29日)
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