WW1 French Navy

French Navy Pre-Dreadnought Battleship (1899-1916) Design of the class The Suffren was the last “classic” French pre-dreadnought. The next Republique class would indeed be of a modernized design, leaving no trace of the Jeune Ecole theories. Suffren was designed amost as a sister ship of Iéna, and improved Charlemagne design, whereas Suffren was at first … Read more

Marine Nationale, 1899-1944: Gueydon, Montcalm, Dupetit-Thouars Design development of the Gueydon class Following the success of the Jeanne d’Arc, the French admiralty tasked chief engineer Emile Bertin to create a simplified and cheaper version, to be built in series. However they still were intended to fill the same commerce-raiding strategy in line with the “Jeune … Read more

Marine Nationale, 1896-1920 The cruiser “Jeanne d’Arc” was the largest French cruiser in 1899, first oceangoing armoured cruiser and prototype for all following French armoured cruisers until 1907. Designed initially in 1892 as protected cruiser for overseas service, this was changed later and the design was modified by Engineer Emile Bertin as an armoured cruiser. … Read more

France (1891-1926) Admiral Charner, Bruix, Chanzy, Latouche-Tréville Follow-up cruisers of the Dupuy de Lôme. The previous Dupuy de Lôme was considered a prototype, an experimental armoured cruiser tailored for commerce warfare. The admiralty recoignised the merits of the design, innovative for them in the line of the young school, and it was decided to create … Read more

French Navy Pre-Dreadnought Battleship (1898-1907) Iéna was ordered in April 1897, and completed in 1902, based on the relatively successful previous Charlemagne class. Although still caracteristic of the earlier designs with a pronounced tumblehome, Iéna adopted the classic international two 12-in (305 mm) gun turrets configuration of the time, but was still relatively slow, and … Read more

France (1894-1900) Charlemagne, Saint Louis, Gaulois The Charlemagne class Battleships were three French “pre-dreadnoughts” ordered in 1894 over a new design, in an attempt to rationalize and standardize capital ships in France. Charlemagne, Saint Louis, Gaulois were originally intended for the Atlantic but were soon in service in the Mediterranean, taking part notably during WWI … Read more

WW1 French Battleships France, 40 Battleships (1888-1917) The Design of French Battleships France invented the concept of sea going ironclad back in 1859 with the armoured frigate “Gloire”, immediately answered by the British Navy with the first all-iron armoured frigate, the Warrior, twice her size. From then on, the old rivalry went on under Napoleon … Read more

France (1881-90) – France’s ‘Grand Hotel’ The Hoche is now as then, the supreme ugly ducking in the nest, a testimony of how hard naval engineers of the time tried to push their luck with designs that had to square circles in terms of iron construction, heavy weaponry, stability as a gun platform, seaworthiness, and … Read more

France (1870-1912) – About 60 cruisers The armoured cruiser Condé, from the Gloire class, seen from the Romanov Shtandard Imperial Yacht, from the Romanov family album 2, page 26 (CC) Compared to the relative simplicity of the interwar French lineage, the history of French cruisers goes back to 1860s steam frigates. The first “cruiser” per … Read more

France (1899) – France’s strangest pre-dreadnought Background The French Navy was under the influence of the ‘Jeune Ecole‘ (‘Young School’) during the years 1820-1909. There has been a collection of concepts and experiments to compensate the French inferiority in numbers compared to the arch-rival, the Royal Navy, by innovation. France has been very active in … Read more