History of the series “Richelieu. Crime and Punishment

Battleships of the type "Richelieu" were created as a counterweight to the Italian battleships of the "Littorio" type and the German type "Bismarck". By their design, they were enlarged "Dunkerque", which received more powerful artillery and reinforced armor.

The main caliber guns (380-mm guns with barrels 45 calibers long, i.e. 17 m) were again placed in four-gun turrets. They could fire 881 kg projectiles at a range of 37.5 km, and from a distance of 20 km they could penetrate 380 mm armor.

The average caliber has been increased to 152 mm. For the first time in the world, such heavy guns were used as universal ones, having an elevation angle of 85 degrees.

True, their effectiveness as anti-aircraft guns turned out to be low: they lacked both the rate of fire and "agility".

The Richelieu armor protection system was the best ever developed for battleships and cruisers. She surpassed even the one that such powerful ships as the German "Bismarck" and the Japanese "Yamato" had.

The main armor belt, with a slope of 15.5 degrees, was covered by a 170-mm armored deck from above. Below was another 40 mm deck with 50 mm bevels. Horizontal armor could withstand a 500-kg aerial bomb dropped from a height of 4700 meters.

The armor was complemented by a well-thought-out underwater protection system, which was an improved version of the Dunkerque protection. Its depth was from 4.5 to 7 meters, the total thickness of the bulkheads was from 77 to 97 mm. The only drawback was the lack of a lower armor belt capable of withstanding an underwater projectile hit.

The compact power plant occupied only 4 compartments. On trials in 1940, "Richelieu" developed an excellent speed of 32.6 knots (60.3 km / h!).

Very original solution was a chimney. The French took this element of naval architecture very seriously. Not wanting their own smoke to cover the target and interfere with the work of rangefinders, they made it bent to the stern, which gave the ship a unique, easily recognizable silhouette.

The French fleet lagged behind its rivals. so had to make up for lost time. In October 1935, the Richelieu was laid in Brest, in December next year in Saint-Nazaire - "Jean Bart". In 1938, the fleet command ordered two more battleships of this type - "Clemenceau" and "Gascogne".

In their architecture and layout, they differed from the lead ship. On the Clemenceau, in order to reduce overload, two side turrets of 152-mm guns and aircraft weapons were removed. "Gascogne" was generally arranged differently, because of which the ship acquired a different appearance (its main battery turrets were smashed to the extremities). This was done not because the "Dunkerque" and "Richelieu" scheme did not justify itself, but to best accommodation gun mounts for 152 mm and 100 mm guns.

Such a change required a significant alteration of the interior: the power plant had to be moved 19.5 meters forward, and the citadel lengthened by 3.5 meters and at the same time slightly reduced side armor. The Gascogne was again provided with aviation weapons, but the aircraft were placed in the hangar below deck, as on aircraft carriers.

In 1940, the Richelieu, which was in Dakar, was damaged by a British torpedo. dropped from an aircraft (July 8), and from the shells of a British battleship (September 23-25).

On February 5, 1943, he came to New York for repairs. During the repair, which took 6 months, the ship was thoroughly modernized. The main battery guns were drilled out to 381 mm in order to use British shells. Two damaged guns were replaced with those removed from the Jean Bart. Anti-aircraft armament was reinforced according to the American standard, installing 14 quadruple and 19 single 40-mm Bofors, as well as 50-20-mm Oerlikons. Later, in England, instead of the nine removed Oerlikons, 11 more single-barreled Bofors were added.

At the end of the war (April 1944 - May 1945) "Richelieu" had a chance to take part in the fighting against Japan. The battleship fired on land targets off the coast of Burma, Java, and New Guinea.

"Jean Bart" on June 19, 1940, having 77% readiness, left Saint-Nazaire for Casablanca. On November 8, 1942, he was severely damaged there during an American air raid.

After the war, various projects for the restoration of the battleship were put forward, in particular, it was proposed to turn it into an aircraft carrier. But in the end, they decided to complete the ship in its original quality.

In October 1945 "Jean Bart" returned to Brest. There, the interior was redesigned, the anti-aircraft armament was changed, radars were mounted, anti-torpedo protection was strengthened by installing boules, which increased the width of the hull to 35.5 m. The total displacement was 49,850 tons. In January 1949, sea ​​trials, and in 1951 the battleship entered service. Alas, it was a belated birth.

Richelieu has been in reserve since 1956. It was decommissioned in the summer of 1965, sold for scrap to Italy on 08/13/1968.

"Jean Bart" from the summer of 1961 was an artillery training ship-block. At the end of 1968, it was sold for scrapping to a Japanese company, and it was dismantled in 1969.

"Clemenceau" by January 1940 had 10% readiness. The Germans removed the section of the hull (130 x 20 x 10 m) located there from the dock and turned it into a floating battery. Allied aviation sank this pontoon on 04/27/1944. It was raised on 02/23/1948 and scrapped.

April 1689. English Channel. The 24-gun French frigate Serpan engages a Dutch ship. The French are clearly at a disadvantage. On board the Serpan is a load of kegs of gunpowder - the frigate can fly into the air at any moment. At this moment, the captain of the ship, Jean Bar, notices the 12-year-old cabin boy, who squatted down in fear. The captain in a rage shouts to the sailors: “Tie him to the mast. If he cannot look death in the eye, he is unworthy of life.”

The 12-year-old cabin boy was François-Cornille Bar, the son of Jean Bar and the future admiral of the French.

Oh, and a fierce family!

Father is especially famous - the legendary Jean Bar from Dunkirk, the most daring and successful of the French corsairs of the 17th century. It was in his honor that the best battleship of the French Navy during the Second World War was named. The Jean Bar is the second ship in the Richelieu series of battleships, which has had a surprisingly long and eventful life.

Design

French battleships of the Richelieu class are rightfully considered the most balanced and advanced battleships of the pre-war period. They had many advantages and almost no serious shortcomings. Minor flaws in their design were gradually eliminated for long years their services.

At the time of construction, these were the fastest battleships in the world (32 knots), noticeably inferior in combat power to only one Yamato and approximately equivalent to the German Bismarck. But at the same time, the French "35000-ton" along with the American "North Caroline" remained the smallest ships in their class.

Excellent performance was achieved with a special layout, with the placement of two four-gun main battery turrets in the bow of the ship. This made it possible to save on the weight of the towers (a four-gun tower weighed less than two two-gun ones), as well as to reduce the length of the citadel (“linear meter” of which weighed 25 tons), converting the released load reserve into additional armor thickness.

From the point of view of combat characteristics, the "all guns forward" scheme also had its advantages: the ability to fire full salvos at bow angles could come in handy when pursuing enemy raiders and heavy cruisers. The guns grouped in the nose had a smaller spread of volleys and simplified fire control. By unloading the aft end and shifting the weights to the midships, the seaworthiness of the ship improved, and the strength of the hull increased. Boats and seaplanes placed in the stern were no longer at risk from muzzle gases.

The disadvantage of the scheme was the "dead zone" at the stern corners. The problem was partially solved by the unprecedentedly large firing angles of the main battery turrets - from 300° to 312°.

Four guns in one turret threatened to lose half of the main artillery from a single hit by a "stray" projectile. In order to increase combat survivability, the Richelieu towers were separated by an armored partition, each pair of guns had its own independent ammunition supply system.

380 mm French guns surpassed all existing German and British naval guns in terms of armor penetration. The French 844-kg armor-piercing projectile could penetrate 378 mm of armor at a distance of 20,000 m.

The rapid slope of the chimney is a trademark of French battleships

The installation of nine medium-caliber guns (152 mm) turned out to be not a very rational solution: their high power and armor penetration did not matter when repelling destroyer attacks, while at the same time, insufficient aiming speed and low rate of fire made them practically useless when repelling attacks from the air. It was possible to achieve acceptable performance only after the war, when it no longer made much sense.

In general, the question of everything related to air defense and fire control systems “hung in the air”: due to the specific conditions for their completion, Richelieu and Jean Bar were left without modern radars. Despite the fact that before the war, France occupied a leading position in the development of electronic equipment.

However, "Richelieu" managed to get full set modern radio equipment during repairs in the United States in 1943. The Jean Bar, restored on its own, also received the best SLAs of its time. By 1949, 16 radar stations different range and purpose.

Richelieu arrives in New York

The air defense system of the late period looked very cool: 24 universal 100 mm guns in twin mounts, coupled with 28 anti-aircraft guns of 57 mm caliber. All guns had centralized guidance according to the radar. "Jean Bar", without exaggeration, received an outstanding air defense system - the best ever installed on battleships. However, the approaching era of the jet presented already different requirements for anti-aircraft systems.

A few words about the armor protection of battleships:

Richelieu-class battleships had the best horizontal armor among all ships in the world. The main armored deck with a thickness of 150 ... 170 mm, reinforced by a 40 mm lower armored deck with 50 mm bevels - even the great Yamato could not boast of such indicators. The horizontal armor of the Richelieu battleships was not limited to the citadel: a 100 mm armored deck with bevels (150 mm above the steering gear compartment) went into the stern.

The vertical armor of the French battleships is no less admirable. The resistance of a 330 mm armored belt, taking into account its 15 ° inclination from the vertical, side plating and 18 mm STS steel lining, was equivalent to homogeneous armor 478 mm thick. And at a meeting angle of 10 ° from the normal, the resistance increased to 546 mm!

Armor traverses differentiated in thickness (233-355 mm), a powerful conning tower, where the walls were 340 mm thick of solid metal (+ 2 STS linings, a total of 34 mm), excellent turret protection (430 mm forehead, 300 mm sides, 260 -270 mm rear), 405 mm barbettes (80 mm below the main armored deck), local anti-fragmentation armor of important posts - there is nothing to complain about.

Special attention was paid to the issues of anti-torpedo protection: the depth of the PTZ ranged from 4.12 meters (near the bow traverse) to 7 meters (midship frame). In the course of the post-war modernization, 122-meter boules 1.27 m wide were added to the Jean Bar. This further increased the depth of the PTZ, which, according to calculations, could withstand an underwater explosion with a capacity of up to 500 kg of TNT.

And all this splendor fit in the hull with a total displacement of only 48,950 tons. The given value corresponds to the "Jean Bar" of the 1949 model after its completion and all post-war measures to modernize the battleship.

Overall score

Richelieu and Jean Bart. Powerful, beautiful and very original ships, which favorably differed from other battleships with their well-thought-out, balanced design. Despite the large number of innovations introduced, the French never had to regret their bold decisions. The boilers of the Sural-Indre system worked without interruption, in which the combustion of fuel took place under an overpressure of 2 atm. The design of the battleships demonstrated excellent combat stability. "Jean Bar", being in an unfinished state, was able to withstand five to seven hits of American 406 mm shells, each of which weighed a ton and a quarter. It is easy to imagine the destructive power of these "blanks"!

We can safely say that in the person of "Richelieu" and "Jean Bar" any battleship of the Second World War would have met a worthy opponent, the outcome of a one-on-one duel with which hardly anyone could have predicted.

- "French LK" Richelieu "and" Jean Bar "", S. Suliga

Courage, betrayal and redemption

On May 10, 1940, German troops invaded France. At that moment, the unfinished battleship Jean Bar was in Saint-Nazaire, whose commissioning was scheduled for October of that year. Already on May 17, the situation became so serious that the French had to think about the immediate withdrawal of the battleship from Saint-Nazaire.

This could be done no earlier than on the night of June 20-21 - on the full moon, when the tide reaches its highest point. But before that, it was necessary to expand and deepen the channel leading to the Loire for the unhindered withdrawal of a huge ship.

Finally, it was necessary to complete the construction of the battleship itself - to partially commission its power plant, power generators, a radio station, install propellers and equip the battleship with the necessary navigation equipment. Connect the galley, ensure the habitability of the compartments for placement in them personnel. It was not possible to install the entire planned composition of weapons - but the French planned to commission at least one main battery turret.

All this grandiose complex of works should be completed in one month. At the slightest delay, the French had no choice but to blow up the battleship.

Shipyard workers in Saint-Nazaire have begun a race against time. Under German bombing, working 12-hour shifts, 3,500 people tried to do the impossible.

On May 22, the dock in which the Jean Bar was stationed was drained. Workers have started painting its underwater part.

On June 3, a propeller was installed on the inner shaft of the left side (from a set of spare parts for the Richelieu delivered from the Brest shipyard). Four days later, a propeller was installed on the starboard inner shaft.

Towers of medium caliber did not arrive by the appointed time. A compromise solution was urgently developed - to mount twin 90 mm anti-aircraft guns (sample 1926) in their place. The guns and ammunition supply systems were installed in a matter of days, but the ammunition sent from Brest was late for the ship's departure. The battleship was left without medium and universal calibers.

On June 13 and 14, a complex and time-consuming operation was carried out to install four 380 mm guns of the main battery turret.

On June 18, the Germans entered Nantes, which lies only 65 km east of Saint-Nazaire. On this day, the tricolor flag of France was hoisted on the battleship. The supply of electricity from the shore was cut off, now all the necessary electricity was generated by the only turbo generator on board the Jean Bar.

By this time, dredging workers had managed to clear a channel only 46.5 m wide (with a battleship hull width of 33 meters!). From the crew of "Jean Bar" remarkable courage and luck were required to safely escort the battleship through such a narrow path.

The operation was scheduled for the next night. Despite the absence of most of the weapons on the battleship and the minimum oil supply on board (125 tons), the estimated depth under the keel did not exceed 20-30 centimeters.

The tugboats pulled the Jean Bar out of the dock, but after 40 meters of movement, the bow of the battleship was buried in the silt. It was dragged from the shallows, but after a couple of minutes, the ground gnashed again under the bottom. This time the consequences were more serious - the battleship damaged part of the bottom plating and the right propeller.

By 5 in the morning, when the Jean Bar, helping with its own cars, was already reaching the middle of the river, Luftwaffe aircraft appeared in the sky. One of the dropped bombs pierced the upper deck between the barbettes of the main battery turrets and exploded in the inner compartments, forming a swelling of the deck flooring. The fire that had arisen was quickly extinguished with water from a broken pipeline.

At this time, the battleship was already confidently moving towards the open ocean, reaching a speed of 12 knots. At the exit from the harbor, two tankers and a few escorts from French destroyers were waiting for him.

Now that the horrors of imprisonment in Saint-Nazaire were over, the obvious question arose before the commander of the battleship, Pierre Ronarc: Where to go?

Despite the unfinished state and the absence of most of the crew (there were only 570 people on board, including 200 civilians - shipyard workers), on the evening of June 22, 1940, the Jean Bar battleship arrived safely in Casablanca. On the same day, a truce with the Germans was announced.

For the next two years, the Jean Bar quietly rusted at the pier in Casablanca; he was strictly forbidden to leave the harbor. The battleship was closely watched by the German and Italian authorities. British reconnaissance aircraft (one of which was shot down by anti-aircraft fire from a battleship) observed the situation from the air.

The French, hoping for the best, continued to maintain the mechanisms of "Jean Bar" in working order, engaged in self-made repairs and modernization of the composition of weapons. They closed up the hole from the German bomb with sheets of ordinary steel. The barbette of the unfinished turret II was filled with cement in order to reduce the trim to the stern. From Toulon, a set of rangefinders was delivered to control the fire of the main and universal calibers, taken from the battleship Dunkirk, which was undergoing repairs. Anti-aircraft armament was reinforced with five turrets with twin 90 mm guns. A search radar appeared on the roof of the superstructure.

Finally, on May 19, 1942, it came to the main caliber. With the permission of the occupying authorities, the Jean Bar fired five four-gun volleys towards the sea. The tests were successful, but the event did not go unnoticed (and even more so - unheard) for the American consul in Casablanca. A dispatch flew to Washington about the presence off the coast of North Africa of a powerful combat-ready battleship that could pose a threat to the allies. During Operation Torch planned for November 1942 (landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa), Jean Bar was included in the list of priority targets.

At dawn on November 8, 1942, a message was received on board the battleship about the movement of a group of unknown ships off the coast. At 6:00 local time, the team took up positions according to the combat schedule, the main battery guns were loaded. Closer to 8 in the morning, through the clouds of smoke from the destroyers standing in the harbor, breeding pairs, the silhouettes of a battleship and two cruisers were seen.

The Americans were serious - the battle group TG 34.1 was approaching Casablanca as part of the newest battleship Massachusetts with a 406 mm main caliber, supported by the heavy cruisers Wichita and Tuscaloosa, surrounded by a detachment of destroyers.

Museum ship USS Massachusetts, Fall River, today

The first blow was delivered by 9 Dauntless dive bombers, who took off from the Ranger aircraft carrier located 30 miles from the coast. One of the bombs hit the stern of the Jean Bar. Having broken through several decks and the bottom, she caused the flooding of the manual control compartment of the steering machines. Another bomb hit the embankment nearby - the battleship was showered with stone chips, the skin received cosmetic damage.

This was only the first cruel hello with which the Yankees greeted the ships of Vichy France. At 08:04, US Navy battleships and cruisers opened fire on ships in the harbor of Casablanca. Over the next 2.5 hours, Massachusetts from a distance of 22,000 meters fired 9 full volleys of 9 shells and 38 volleys of 3 and 6 shells at the French, achieving five direct hits on Jean Bar.

The meeting with a supersonic 1226 kg alloy steel blank did not bode well. The greatest consequences could have been hit by a shell that pierced the deck in the stern of the battleship and burst into the cellar of medium-caliber towers (luckily for the French, it was empty). The damage from the remaining four hits can be classified as moderate.

A piece of an armor-piercing projectile that hit the "Jean Bar"

One of the shells pierced through part of the pipe and the superstructure, and exploded from the outside, causing shrapnel damage to the side. Closer to 9 am, the ship shuddered from two direct hits on the barbettes of the main battery towers. The fifth shell again hit the stern, in a place already damaged by a bomb. Also, there are discrepancies about two close gaps: the French claim that there was a direct hit on the armored belt and the battleship's bulb.

Due to the strong smoke in the harbor, the Jean Bar managed to respond with only 4 volleys, after which the adjustment of the fire turned out to be impossible.

Having shot the motionless unfinished battleship, the Yankees considered the task completed, and retreated at full speed to the side high seas. However, by six in the evening of the same day, "Jean Bar" restored combat capability. The next day, his universal artillery fired 250 shells at the advancing Anglo-American troops, but the main caliber was not used so as not to reveal all the trump cards to the end.

On November 10, the American heavy cruiser Augusta confidently approached Casablanca. At this moment, "Jean Bar" fired at him a sighting salvo from 380 mm guns. The Yankees fled in horror, radio messages about the suddenly awakened giant rushed into the open air. The retribution was cruel: three hours later, the Dontlesses attacked the French battleship from the Ranger aircraft carrier, achieving two hits of 1000-lb. bombs.

In total, as a result of artillery shelling and air strikes, Jean Bar was heavily damaged, lost most of its electricity, took 4,500 tons of water and sat down on the ground as a stern. The irretrievable losses of the crew amounted to 22 people (out of 700 sailors on board). Excellent booking to the end fulfilled its purpose. For comparison, 90 people died on board the nearby light cruiser Primoge.

Speaking about the damage to the Jean Bar, it is worth taking into account that the ship was unfinished, many of its compartments were not sealed. The only turbogenerator was damaged - the power was supplied by emergency diesel generators. There was a reduced crew on board the ship. And yet, the motionless battleship turned out to be a "tough nut" and ruffled the allies' nerves.

After joining the French forces in Africa to the Allies, "Jean Bar" was removed from the ground and prepared to be sent under its own power for repairs in the United States. However, unlike its parent "Richelieu", "Jean Bar" required an extensive refurbishment with the manufacture of the missing turret of the main caliber. The problem was complicated by the lack of drawings of the tower mechanisms and the difficulty with the transition to the metric system of measures and weights. The process dragged on, as a result, work on the restoration of "Jean Bar" began on their own only after the end of the war.

Bold projects were considered for re-equipping the Jean Bar into an aircraft carrier or an exotic air defense battleship with the installation of 34 twin universal five-inch guns and 80 Bofors anti-aircraft guns. As a result of all the discussions, the designers returned with the simplest, cheapest and most obvious option. Completion of the battleship according to the original project with the introduction of the latest achievements in the field of automation and radio engineering.

The updated battleship returned to service in April 1950. Over the following years, "Jean Bar" was used as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet of the French Navy. The ship made many calls to European ports, made a visit to the United States. The last time "Jean Bar" was in the combat zone in 1956, during the Suez crisis. In the event of the stubbornness of the Egyptian leadership, the French command planned to use the guns of the battleship to bombard Egyptian cities.

In the period from 1961 to 1969, the Jean Bar was used as a training ship at the artillery school in Toulon. In January 1970, the last of the French battleships was finally excluded from the fleet and put up for sale. In the summer of the same year, it was towed to La Seime for disassembly for metal.

Veteran rests in laurels of glory on the French Riviera

Based on the monograph "French LK "Richelieu" and "Jean Bar"" by Sergei Suligi.

Good day to all readers of this portal. I, i.e. KGB, I'm getting in touch again with my very important opinion. This time we're talking about the battleship Gascony, a new Tier 8 premium battleship. I remind you that at the time when this review is being written, you can complete the Gold of France campaign, for completing which you will be given camouflage, including for Gascony. Let's start a little unexpectedly - with appearance ship. True, handsome? He is handsome in that special ship article, which was embodied precisely in heavy artillery ships of the first half of the twentieth century. A deck smoothly rising to the stem, a high side, a bow four-gun main gun turret menacingly looking forward, and two generalists slightly forlornly grouped behind it.

The bow superstructure is compact and looks proportionate to the ship (hello, Fuso!), and the aft superstructure is completely integrated into the chimney (or the pipe into the superstructure?). The long-range anti-aircraft caliber is grouped symmetrically along the sides in the center of the hull, which is also pleasing to the eye.

The ship looks predatory, aggressive, just about ready to go into a tough battle with a classmate ... and, of course, win.

Consider, as before, its main characteristics.

1. Booking. What about the ship with booking? Can it be considered a tier 8 protected battleship? Yes and no. It has a fairly thick belt 320mm thick, behind the belt there is a bevel of 50mm, behind the bevel - an additional 50mm for the GK cellars, 40mm for the SK cellars, and 30mm opposite MO and KO. That is, in total, without taking into account the slope, we have 400 mm for MO and KO and 420 for the GK cellars. Those are pretty good numbers. Gascony has decent 405mm barbettes for a 15″ battleship and very good forehead protection for the main gun turrets of 430mm. For comparison, Roma has only 350mm barbettes, and 380mm main gun turrets. The Monarch's barbet is even worse, only 320mm, the forehead of the GK towers is 381mm. Tirpitz / Bismarck has a 340mm barbet, a 360mm forehead of the towers. I will not give a comparison with American and Japanese battleships, because they exist in their own special league of ships with 406-410mm main guns. Gascony's plating is one of the clearly visible problematic features, because. it is equal to 32 mm, and it is like this throughout the stern, the entire bow, the entire deck not occupied by the superstructure. Well, that is, how is this a problem ... for LK8, the tips are all 32mm, but the deck in a large area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe hull area can be thicker - for the Americans 38mm, for Roma 45mm for Bismarck / Tirpitz in general 50mm. In general, Gascony accepts any 203 + mm and 152 mm explosives with IV well and with pleasure. What else can I say about booking ... well, except that the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe superstructures of the Frenchman is small, at least he was lucky with this.
2. Vitality. In terms of survivability, Gascony is almost equal to Alabama, a couple of thousand and a penny better than the Monarch, a couple of thousand worse than Roma and six thousand worse than Tirpitz / Bismarck, which is already noticeable. In general, in this case, survivability cannot be considered some kind of special weakness that distinguishes this battleship from others. According to PTZ, Gascony is not bad; her 37% make her stand out from the background of the Germans, but Roma's is slightly higher (40%), Amagi's is even higher (45%), and Alabama's is generally 50%. But still, 37% is 37%, this gives some hope to survive an unaimed torpedo salvo.
3. Artillery. So we started to approach the delicious. Yes, the artillery at Gascony is quite tasty. Firstly, these are 8 trunks in two towers, four trunks in each. Yes, and alas, we have to open the side when firing all the towers. But there is not much to open, because already at a heading angle of 36 degrees we can connect both towers of the main caliber. But, of course, Gascony is not at all about nose-autism and standing. In terms of reloading (cd 28 seconds), we are slightly worse than Bismarck / Tirpitz and slightly better than the rest of the LK8. This feature is the second notable feature of Gascony, and unlike the first (skin), we can safely write down the second feature as a plus for the ship. A rather unexpected discovery for me was the fact that, as a high-explosive autist, Gascony is even better than the Monarch, because he has a 35% chance of setting fire to HE, while Gascony has 36%. That is, we can easily switch to land mines when the enemy turns on us or when shooting at nose-autists. There are other small but tangible pluses, this is a firing range of 23.8 km, and ballistics (830 m / s for AP and HE shells). As for accuracy, it is very good: our sigma is 1.9. And this is better than the sigma of most other LK8, except for North Carolina (which has a sigma of 2.0). Take my word for it, sigma in 1.9 is felt in combat. The PMK is not bad, and with the UOP it allows you to reach a range of 8.4 km, and, in addition, up to 17 PMK barrels using land mines can be fired on board. In general, you can set fire to someone without any problems.
4. air defense. With BOP, BOP, an air defense module and an air defense flag, we have 105 parrots with a distant aura that hits 7.2 km. Not a fountain, almost two times worse than the distant aura of Carolina/Alabama, and one and a half times worse than the distant auras of Tirpitz/Bismarck and Roma. But in terms of range, not everything is so bad. Gascony also has a tangible medium aura of 1936 37mm machine guns, which with the above pumping gives out 128 parrots per 5.1 km. 37mm machine guns of 1933, of which exactly the same number (8x2) are issued by a miserable 24 parrots for 4.3 km. The close aura of 25mm machine guns hits as much as 4.4 km and gives out 67 parrots. Total: without RUPVO, but with BOP, UOP, an air defense module and a flag, you can fight off AB7 and get good protection from AB6. If you add to the above also RUPVO, then it will be possible to fight back from AB8 at the very least. But AB9 and AB10 will turn Gascony on their MPX in any hand.
5. Maneuverability. We have afterburner, which allows us to raise our base 32 knots to 34.5. However, this is again not enough to catch up with a destroyer fleeing from the light or quickly get close to a bow-out classmate or cruiser. In terms of rudder shift time (15.3 seconds), only the Monarch with his 15 seconds is better than us. Gascony in battle feels like a ship with sufficient maneuverability.
6. Disguise we have an average, 14.6 km with a module. But Roma and the Monarch have it much better. Gascony did not seem like a battleship about camouflage, but I'm sure there will be apologists for a different opinion.
7. Consumables. There are two significant benefits here. The first plus is, along with the standard belt, the ability to put a fighter. Or two, with the appropriate perk. The second plus, the most significant plus of the ship, is the heal. The Premium Healer restores 379 HP per second and has a cooldown of only 38 seconds! Twice as high as classmates. Remember this figure, it changes a lot in a seemingly mediocre battleship.

Okay, we are done with numbers and comparisons. Let's move on to the direct use of the ship on the battlefield. It was here that my jaw dropped a little, because the battleship showed a very high average damage (for my crooked hands), high accuracy, but a very low percentage of victories. And at the same time, the survivability was also very high.

Yes, I played few fights for statistically significant results, but here's what I got:

So what is the battleship Gascony about? About rush? About def? First line ship? Second? How to play it? And is it worth playing on it, in the sense of buying it?

Battleship Gascony I play differently. In a battle with dozens, where you were thrown to surrender, willy-nilly you have to tank with allies and not lean forward. In battles with sixes, of course, you need to go forward and only forward. IN without fail you need to shoot a lot and not be afraid to show the board for shooting.

Purely subjectively, Gascony is a tenacious ship, other battleships take out citadels from it not so often. Yes, Gascony probably also has the disease of breaking through the armor belt under water from a medium distance from cruisers, but so far I have not personally encountered this bug. Unlike the Republic, by the way. But most importantly, this is our cheat-hilka. If you didn’t get the citadel, but received white damage, or you got burned out, you can very quickly use the heal and pump out part of the HP back. This chip, chip fast speed restoration of the frailty is felt in every battle. This is a very, very important feature. Moreover, I dare say that it is for the sake of this chip that it is worth buying Gascony.

Gascony can knock something down, and even allows you to mock aviks of the sixth level, but already the avik of the seventh level can make a bo-bo if positioned incorrectly.

How does Gascony farm? Yes, in general, as usual, she farms, not better, but not worse than Tirpitz, Roma, Alabama ... somewhere around 350-400k clean you can get quite steadily, or even higher if there are a lot of downed Avik flies.

What modules did I put in there?

See picture:

And here is my selection of perks for the minimum required 10 point commander:

The red circles show the perks that will be taken for the remaining 9 points.

Conclusions:

Gascony is an average battleship in many respects.
-Gascony is comfortably controlled.
-Gascony can shoot down something in full air defense buildup.
-Gascony allows you to use different tactics.
-Gascony is a very tenacious battleship.
-Gascony farms just as well as Tirpitz/Alabama/Roma.

As a result, I want to say that I like to play Gascony more than Tirpitz, Alabama or Roma, and all because of the chito-hilka. As the English say, this is the main selling point of this ship. With this feature, the average battleship jumps a notch above its premium classmates. Definitely buy!

"Richelieu" after modernization in the USA, autumn 1943

In view of the approaching war, the French had to hurry. In October 1935, Richelieu was laid down in Brest, and in December of the following year, in Saint-Nazaire, his sistership Jean Bar was laid down. In 1938, two more battleships were ordered - Clemenceau and Gascony. They were somewhat different from the lead ship. "Clemenceau" in order to reduce the overload (which was revealed when the "Richelieu" was still on the slipway) lost two bow 152-mm towers and aircraft weapons.

"Gascony", on the other hand, was completely re-arranged, because of which the ship turned into an independent type. The turrets of the main caliber were smashed to the extremities, and the fourth battleship of the series took on a more traditional look. As the French themselves explained, this was done not because the Dunkirk and Richelieu scheme did not justify itself, but for better placement of 152-mm and 100-mm anti-aircraft guns. True, such a change required a significant alteration of the interior: the power plant had to be moved 19.5 m forward, and the citadel lengthened by 3.65 m and at the same time slightly reduced the thickness of the side armor. Aviation armament was also restored on the Gascony, and two seaplanes were placed in the underdeck hangar - like on aircraft carriers. True, neither Clemenceau nor Gascony had a chance to enter service.

Battleship "Gascony", France (project)

It was planned to be laid in 1940, construction was cancelled.

Displacement is normal 41500 tons.

Dimensions, power and speed - like Richelieu.

Armor: as on the Richelieu, but the belt is up to 320 mm.

Armament: 8380 mm and 9 152 mm guns, 16100 mm anti-aircraft guns, 22 31 mm machine guns and 36 machine guns, 2 seaplanes.

Fuhrer's Super Raiders

The defeat in the First World War, it would seem, finally crossed out Germany from the contenders for naval dominance. According to the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans were allowed to have in service ships with a displacement of up to 10 thousand tons with guns with a caliber of no more than 11 inches. Therefore, they had to say goodbye to the hope of keeping even their very first dreadnoughts and be content with only hopelessly outdated battleships built in the early 20th century. When it became possible to replace the latter with ships of new projects (and this was allowed to be done no earlier than after 20 years of their being in service), it was the “Versailles” restrictions that led to the appearance of “capital” ships of the Deutschland type, unusual in all respects.

"Pocket battleship" "Deutschland"

When it was created, the Germans proceeded from the fact that the new ship would primarily be used on enemy communications as a raider. The successful actions of Emden and Koenigsberg in 1914 against British shipping at the same time clearly showed that the weak armament of light cruisers leaves them no chance when a more serious enemy appears. Therefore, "Deutschland" must be stronger than any enemy heavy cruiser and at the same time faster than any battleship. This idea, frankly, is not new, but previous attempts to implement it rarely led to the desired result. And only the Germans finally managed to translate it into metal as close as possible to the idea. "Deutschlands" with a very limited displacement received powerful weapons, decent protection and a huge cruising range. In the German Navy, the new ships were officially classified as armadillos, in fact they were heavy cruisers, but because of the excessively powerful main battery artillery, they remained in the history of world shipbuilding as "pocket battleships".

Indeed, the Deutschland's armament - two three-gun 11-inch turrets and another 8 six-inch as a medium caliber - looked quite "battleship". The new 283 mm cannon (the Germans officially called it "28 cm", and therefore it is often listed as 280 mm in the literature) with a barrel length of 52 calibers and an elevation angle of 40 ° could fire 300 kg projectiles at a range of 42, 5 km. “Pushing” such artillery into cruising dimensions was made possible, firstly, by the all-out lightening of the hull due to the widespread introduction of electric welding and, secondly, by the use of fundamentally new engines - four twin diesel units with hydraulic transmission. As a result, the project left room for an armor belt 60-80 mm thick, and anti-torpedo protection about 4.5 m wide (together with boules), ending with a 40-mm longitudinal bulkhead.

The commissioning of the lead "pocket battleship" coincided with Hitler's rise to power and resulted in a noisy propaganda campaign designed to instill in the layman that the revival of the German fleet began with the creation of the "best in the world" ships. In fact, these statements were far from the truth. For all its originality, the Deutschland and the Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee that followed it were by no means superior to all the Washington cruisers in terms of armor protection, and they were inferior to everyone in speed by an average of 4-5 knots. The seaworthiness of the "pocket battleships" at first turned out to be unimportant, because of which they had to urgently remake the bow of the hull. To top it all, it should be noted that their real standard displacement exceeded the declared one (10 thousand tons) by 17–25%, and the total displacement on the Admiral Count Spee generally reached 16,020 tons!

The obvious limitations of the capabilities of "pocket battleships" in the light of the new naval doctrine announced by Hitler forced the construction of three more ships of the same type to be abandoned in favor of full-fledged battleships. In June 1935, an agreement was concluded in London, allowing Germany to have a fleet that was 35% of the British. Having won a diplomatic victory, the Germans could now build battleships quite legally.

The creation of ships went under the personal control of the Fuhrer. It is he who is considered to be the author of the new role assigned to the armored giants of the Kriegsmarine in the impending war. The fact is that, being unable to compete with the British fleet in a general battle, the Nazis intended to use their battleships as ocean raiders. It was in the actions of mighty ships against transport shipping that Hitler saw an opportunity to bring the “mistress of the seas” to her knees. According to the totality of the parameters "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" often

However, their continuity with their outstanding ancestors - Derflinger and Mackensen - is very conditional. The Scharnhorst project is largely descended from "pocket battleships". The only thing that the designers borrowed from the Kaiser battlecruisers so this is the booking scheme. Otherwise, the Scharnhorst is simply a Deutschland that has grown to normal size with a third 283-mm turret and a steam turbine plant.