Dunkerque class battleship

Dunkerque
Class overview
Preceded by:	Lyon-class (planned) Bretagne-class (actual)
Succeeded by:	Richelieu-class
Completed:	2
Lost:	2
General characteristics
Type:	Fast battleship
Displacement:	26,500 t (Standard, as designed) 35,500 t (34,900 long tons) (Strasbourg approx. 780 more) tonnes
Length:	215.1 m (706 ft)
Beam:	31.1 m (102 ft)
Draught:	8.7 m (29 ft)
Propulsion:	6 boilers 4 Parsons geared turbines 107,500 hp (designed)
Speed:	Dunkerque: 31.06 knots (58 km/h) Strasbourg: 30.90 knots (57 km/h)
Complement:	1,381
Armament:	8 × 330mm/50 Modèle 1931 guns (13-inch) (2 × 4) Mle 1932 turrets 3 × quadruple and 2 double 130 mm/45 DP Mle 1931 turrets 5 (D) or 4 (S) × double 37 mm (1.5 in)/50 CAD Mle 1933 turrets 8 × 13.2 mm/76 CAQ Mle 1929 Hotchkiss mountings
Armour:	Belt: Dunkerque: 225 mm Strasbourg: 283 mm Torpedo bulkheads: 30–50 mm Deck: Dunkerque: 115–125 mm Strasbourg: 127–137 mm Turrets: Dunkerque: 150 – 330 mm Strasbourg: 160 – 360 mm Conning tower: 270 mm
Aircraft carried:	4 floatplanes, 1 catapult

The Dunkerque-class battleship was a type of warship constructed for the French Navy in the 1930s.

The Dunkerques were designed to counter the German Deutschland-class pocket battleships. Their main armament was two quadruple 330 mm turrets forward, with a 225 mm (8.9 in) thick armored belt. They were smaller, with a 26,500- to 27,300-ton standard displacement and a smaller main artillery caliber, than the battleships authorized by the Washington Naval Treaty, but their speed was 7 knots higher than any of the battleships built from 1920 to 1937. When they were commissioned, only the last existing battlecruisers of the British Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy were their equals.

Given their characteristics, they were alternatively classified as fast battleships, small battleships,battlecruisers, and even as "ships of the line" (Fr. ).

Two ships, Dunkerque and Strasbourg, were completed. Together they formed the 1ère Division de Ligne ("1st Division of the Line"), and saw service during the early years of the Second World War. While they never encountered the German pocket battleships they were designed to counter, they suffered the British attack of Mers-el-Kebir, and stayed under the Vichy authorities control until they were scuttled at Toulon in November 1942.

In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed a ten-year moratorium on the construction of new battleships. But France and Italy were allowed to replace two old battleships after 1927, for a total of 70,000 tons.

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