French Battleship Richelieu : Her History In Pictures! Completed just days before the Germans seized France.
The French Government rushed her down to North Africa to keep her in French hands.
The lead ship and namesake of her class, she posessed the same two quadruple gun turrets as her predecessor class, the Dunkerque class.
The French military scaled up the Richeliue so she could harness a much more powerful main battery.
One that consisted of eight 380 mm (15 in) guns, which compared to the 330 mm (13 in) guns of the Dunkerque class.
Fully loaded Richelieu displaced 43,992 long tons in the water and had a length of 247.85 meters or 813 feet.
The Royal Navy set about sinking Richelieu as she was not joining the Free French Naval Forces and her allegiance to the Germans was of course unnaceptable.
She was heavily damaged by the Royal Navy at both Operation Catapult in July 1940 and the Battle of Dakar in September.
She would sail to America for repairs.
USN photographer, colorized by – http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/irootoko_jr/imgs/a/e/aed7956c.jpg
Aftern repairs, she would join the British Fleet in the later part of the war and help out with a few bombardments of German positions.
Eventually she would participate in the Pacific, though she would not contribute anything at the Battle of Malacca Strait where she was too far removed to participate.
After the war the French would take back posession.
In conclusion, in 1956, the French placed her in reserve status.
And was thereafter used as a stationary training vessel and barracks ship until 1967. In 1967, the French Navy made the decision to discard her.
She was sold for scrap in 1968, and sadly broken up in Italy from 1968 to 1969. She would have made a great museumship!
