Normandie-class battleship
Artist's impression of a Normandie-class battleship
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| Class overview | |
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| Preceded by: | Bretagne class |
| Succeeded by: |
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| Planned: | 5 |
| Completed: | 1 (Béarn, as an aircraft carrier) |
| Scrapped: | 5 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Battleship |
| Displacement: | Full load: 25,230 t (24,830 long tons) |
| Length: | Length overall: 176.6 m (579 ft 5 in) |
| Beam: | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draft: | 8.65 m (28 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power: | 32,000 shp (24,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range: | 6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Crew: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Normandie class of dreadnought battleships was a group of five ships ordered for the French Navy in 1912–13. The class comprised Normandie, the lead ship, Flandre, Gascogne, Languedoc, and Béarn. The design incorporated a radical arrangement for the twelve 340 mm (13.3 in) main battery guns: three quadruple gun turrets, as opposed to the twin turrets used by most other navies. The first four ships were also equipped with an unusual hybrid propulsion system that used both steam turbine and triple expansion engines to increase fuel efficiency.
The ships, named after provinces of France, were never completed due to shifting production requirements after the outbreak of war in 1914. The first four ships were sufficiently advanced in construction to permit their launching to clear the shipyards for other, more important work. Many of the guns built for the ships were instead converted for use by the Army. After the war, the French Navy considered several proposals to complete the ships, either as originally designed or modernized to account for lessons from the war. The weak French post-war economy, however, necessitated that the first four ships be broken up for scrap. The last ship, which was not significantly advanced at the time work halted, was converted into an aircraft carrier in the 1920s. She remained in service in various capacities until the 1960s. The ship was ultimately scrapped in 1967.
In December 1911, the French Navy's Technical Committee issued a report that examined the design of the Bretagne class that had been ordered for 1912. They concluded that the amidships gun turret was an unsatisfactory choice, based on previous experiences with blast damage on battleships from the 1880s. This position influenced the construction of the next class of dreadnought battleships, for which design work began shortly thereafter. The French Navy's design staff submitted the first draft of the new dreadnought design in February 1912. The size of French shipyard facilities significantly affected the design. Length was limited to 172 meters (564 ft), breadth to 27.8 m (91 ft 2 in), and draft to approximately 8.8 m (29 ft). These dimensions limited the ship to a displacement of around 25,000 metric tons (25,000 long tons) and a speed of 20 to 21 knots (37 to 39 km/h; 23 to 24 mph), depending on the armament arrangement. The design staff advocated retaining the same armament and armor as the previous Bretagne class, and a top speed of 21 knots.
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