French battleship Bretagne
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
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| Name: | Bretagne |
| Namesake: | Brittany |
| Laid down: | 1 July 1912 |
| Launched: | 21 April 1913 |
| Completed: | September 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 10 February 1916 |
| Fate: | Sunk by gunfire from HMS Hood, Valiant and Resolution, 3 July 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Bretagne-class battleship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 166 m (544 ft 7 in) |
| Beam: | 26.9 m (88 ft 3 in) |
| Draft: | 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 4 shafts, Parsons steam turbines |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range: | 4,600 nmi (8,500 km; 5,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Crew: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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Bretagne was a battleship of the French Navy built in the 1910s, and the lead ship of her class; she had two sister ships, Provence and Lorraine. The ship was laid down in July 1912 at the Arsenal de Brest, launched in April 1913, and commissioned into the fleet in February 1916, after the outbreak of World War I. She was named in honour of the French region of Brittany, and was armed with a main battery of ten 340 mm (13 in) guns.
Bretagne spent the bulk of her career in the French Mediterranean Squadron. 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 remained in service during the 1920s and 1930s, while her sisters were placed in reserve. She participated in non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War. Bretagne escorted convoys after the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, and was stationed in Mers-el-Kébir when France surrendered on 22 June 1940. Fearful that the Germans would seize the French Navy, the British Royal Navy attacked the ships at Mers-el-Kébir; in the attack Bretagne was hit badly and exploded, killing the majority of her crew. The wreck was eventually raised in 1952 and broken up for scrap.
Bretagne was 166 meters (544 ft 7 in) long overall and had a beam of 26.9 m (88 ft 3 in) and a full-load draft of 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in). She displaced around 25,000 metric tons (25,000 long tons; 28,000 short tons) at full load and had a crew of between 1124 and 1133 officers and enlisted men. She was powered by four Parsons steam turbines with twenty-four Niclausse boilers. They were rated at 29,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW) and provided a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). Coal storage amounted to 2,680 t (2,640 long tons; 2,950 short tons).
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