Dunkelt class and Richelieu class battleships

The turrets are all on the foredeck because of the important protection on the concentration**, as the ammunition depots are usually located very close to the main gun mounts, and concentrating the turrets in one place allows the ammunition depots to be combined. In this way, when installing the armor, you can focus on thickening the armor of an ammunition compartment, instead of focusing on thickening it separately; This brings two benefits. 1. Because the centralized protection of one place can save a lot of armor, and the excess displacement can be used for other purposes.

2. The concentration of the main gun in the front can concentrate fire. But this layout comes with some drawbacks; The lack of a main gun in the rear caused a blind spot in firepower, which is very dangerous if the enemy is in the rear of the battleship in actual combat.

Before World War II, the French navy, because its colonies were mainly concentrated in North Africa, its main task was to seize naval 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 to the land. Based on this, the Dunkirk class and the Richelieu class have the following characteristics in design:

It has high speed, but the endurance is not too demanding; It had a main gun and a density of fire 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.

In fact, due to treaty restrictions, this design had to be adopted in order to reduce tonnage.

The Richelieu-class battleship is a first-class battleship built by the French Navy, and it is also the most powerful and last first-class battleship in the history of the French Navy.

Displacement: 38,500 tons of standard displacement, 47,548 tons of full load displacement (49,850 tons of Jean Bar).

Dimensions: 248 meters long, 33 meters wide, draft meters (Jean Bar meters).

The main engine power is 150,000 horsepower (165,000 horsepower on Jean Bar), speed: 30 knots (32 knots on Jean Bar); Endurance: 5000 nautical miles at 18 knots.

Armament: 8 quadruple 380mm 45x guns; 9 triple 152mm 55x secondary guns; 12 twin 100mm 45x anti-aircraft guns (24 Jean-Barr); 4 quadruple mm anti-aircraft machine guns (48 40mm Bofors cannons and several 20mm Erlikon cannons converted in the United States in 1942, allowing Barr to carry a large number of 57mm anti-aircraft guns when completed); Carrier-based aircraft: 3 seaplanes (the hangar and catapult were removed after the refit in 1942).

Armor: waterline armor belt (maximum) 330 mm degrees; upper deck 150-170 mm, main deck 50-40 mm; turret frontal 430 mm; Turret 405 mm; Command tower 340 mm. The total weight of the armor is 16,460 tons.

Crew: 1550-1670 people.

Compared with the American and Japanese ships of the same period, there is a gap.

In Europe, it's not top-notch either.

The data looks good. Actually, so-so. After all, France's coastal defense strategy at that time was coastal defense.

Richelieu, standard displacement of 35,000 tons, full load displacement of 47,600 tons, equipped with two new quadruple 1935 45 times diameter 380 mm main turrets, arranged side by side on the foredeck; The aft deck is lined with three triple 152 mm high flat guns in a three-point position, and six twin 100 mm anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the hull.

The armor plates near the waterline are 328 mm thick and have a 15-degree camber, and there are 18 mm thick spall liners behind the armor plates. In the bow and stern of the ship, the thickness of the armor was 127-152 mm. The Seliu-class battleships have extremely strong underwater protection capabilities, and the armor below the waterline is greatly exceeded, and the horizontal armor and lightning resistance performance are also greatly exceeded.

The many actual battles of the Second World War proved the excellent protection of the Richelieu-class battleships.

When France designed the Richelieu-class ships, they required high speeds. The Richelieu uses four steam turbines with a total power of 150,000 horsepower, four axles of propulsion, and a design speed of 30 knots. Compared to the high speed, the endurance of the Richelieu class is not outstanding.

The Richelieu can carry 6,800 tons of heavy fuel oil and has a maximum endurance of 5,000 nautical miles when sailing at an economic speed of 18 knots. But the Mediterranean operation was enough.

Nelson class, standard displacement 33950 tons, full load displacement, 38000 tons.

**: 3 triple 16-inch 45x caliber guns;6 twin 6-inch 50x caliber secondary guns;6 inch 45x caliber guns;8 40-mm guns (16 40-mm anti-aircraft guns were added in 1938 and 60 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were added during the war);Millimeter torpedo tubes.

Armor: main armor belt 13-14 inches;Transverse armor (front) 8-12 inches, (rear) 10-4 inches;Armored deck (power compartment) 3 inches, (ammunition depot) 6 inches;Turret (frontal) 16 inches, (top) 7 inches, turret 15-12 inches;Conning tower 13 inches.

Power: 2 steam turbines and 8 oil-fired boilers, power: 45,000 hp. Speed: knots, oil storage: 3805 tons of heavy oil, cruising power: 7000 nautical miles.

The Richelieu class is stronger than the Nelson class in all aspects, and it was built 10 years late, and the design ideas and equipment technology are more advanced, the only deficiency is that the main gun is slightly weaker, the caliber is one inch less, and the number is one less, mainly because the imaginary enemy of the Richelieu class is the Italian and German navies, and there is no need to strengthen the main gun. Personally, I think that if you fight, Richeliu will have the advantage. Because the actual combat proved that the Nelson-class main gun adopts the configuration of high-speed light bullets, and the penetration ability is actually not as good as the old 15-inch main gun, and the Nelson-class speed is too slow to accompany the high-speed fleet action, when the Royal Navy designed this class of battleships, in order to one-sidedly pursue the caliber of the main gun, the main gun was all front-loaded, which actually exceeded the basis of the hull displacement, resulting in a hard performance injury.