Battleships: Bretagne Class

[Brian James]

Bretagne Class Dreadnought Battleship FS Provence...She was one of three Bretagne-Class Battleships,built at Arsenal de Lorient in 1913,she had two sister ships, Bretagne and Lorraine. Provence entered service in March 1916, after the outbreak of World War I. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.4 in guns and had a top speed of 20 knots.
Provence spent the bulk of her career in the French Mediterranean Squadron, where she served as the fleet flagship. During World War I, she was stationed at Corfu to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from leaving the Adriatic Sea, but she saw no action. She was modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s, and conducted normal peacetime cruises and training maneuvers in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. She participated in non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War.
In the early days of World War II, Provence conducted patrols and sweeps into the Atlantic to search for German surface raiders. She was stationed in Mers-el-Kébir when France surrendered on June 22nd 1940. Fearful that the Germans would seize the French Navy, the Royal Navy attacked the ships at Mers-el-Kébir. Provence was damaged and sank in the harbor, though she was refloated and moved to Toulon, where she became the flagship of the training fleet there. In late November 1942, the Germans occupied Toulon and, to prevent them from seizing the fleet, the French scuttled their ships, including Provence. She was raised in July 1943, and some of her guns were used for coastal defense in the area; the Germans scuttled her a second time in Toulon as a blockship in 1944. Provence was ultimately raised in April 1949 and sold to ship breakers.

[Brian James]

FS Bretagne was the Lead Ship of her Class of three Dreadnought Battleships, built at Arsenal de Brest, launched on April 21st 1913, and completed on November 29th 1915; her sister ships were Provence and Lorraine. Bretagne entered service in February 1916, after the start of World War I. She spent the bulk of her nearly 25-year-long career in the Mediterranean Squadron and sometimes served as a flagship. Bretagne spent World War I providing cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, but she saw no action.
She was significantly modernised in the 1920s and 1930s, and conducted normal peacetime cruises and training manouevres in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. Bretagne escorted troop convoys after the beginning of World War II in September 1939 and was briefly deployed to the Atlantic in search of German blockade runners and commerce raiders. Bretagne was stationed in Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, when France surrendered on June 22nd 1940. Fearful that the Germans would seize the French Navy, the British attacked the ships at Mers-el-Kébir; Bretagne was hit four times and exploded, killing the majority of her crew. Her wreck was salvaged in 1952 and broken up for scrap.

[designeraccd]

Her look during WW 1, and at Mers el Kebir 1940........ DFO

[designeraccd]

A nice shot of FRANCE fitting out in 1913....... Another from WW1. DFO

[Brian James]

Check out those natty spats!...Lead Ship,Dreadnought Battleship FS Bretagne pictured c1916.

[Brian James]

The interned Bretagne Class Battleship Lorraine pictured in Alexandria Harbour in April 1942.