Alsace

History

During late 1939, studies were being drawn up for capital ships displacing 40,000 tons or greater to counter the German H-class battleships. Three studies were drawn up of a 40,000 ton, 42,500 ton and 45,000 ton battleships, alongside studies of 400mm, 406mm, and 420mm naval guns. To undertake the construction of a new generation of battleships even greater than the Richelieu class, would have required a major program to develop and expand pre-existing dockyards to be able to accommodate a ship of such a size. Early plans envisaged a dock 275 meters long and 58 meters wide, to be capable of accommodating the new generation of battleships that came to be the Alsace class, whose first form was slated to be 252 meters long and 35 meters wide.

Of the three designs, the main focal point was the main armament. Type No. 1, the 40,000 ton design, was an up-caling of the Project C3 design that came out of the studies for the latter two Richelieu-class battleships Gascogne and Clemenceau. Type No. 1 was to carry nine 380mm guns in three triple turrets, laid out in the contemporary AB-X style, with a secondary armament of nine 152mm guns in three triple turrets, and sixteen 100mm dual-purpose guns in eight dual turrets. It was designed to be capable of a top speed of 31 knots to keep pace with other French capital ships, with 170,000 shaft horsepower to propel her to this speed. Type No. 1 was the most realistic and achievable design, but it may not have been enough to counter the German H-class battleships, which were to be armed with 406mm guns.

Type No. 2 was a direct step up from Type No. 1, designed to carry nine new 406mm guns in the same layout as Type No. 1. Displacing 42,500 tons, Type No.2 was four meters longer than Type No. 1, and required an additional 20,000 shaft horsepower to maintain the top speed of 31 knots, bringing her total horsepower up to 190,000. Type No. 2 would have carried the largest guns in the Marine Nationale, but this would have been a problem, as it would have introduced a fourth gun caliber to the fleet (alongside Richelieu’s 380mm, Dunkerque’s 330mm, and Bretagne’s 340mm), while the other powerful navies — bar the Royal Navy — only had two calibers. Furthermore, the 406mm gun’s own development program would have inevitably delayed the construction of these new battleships, and early estimates showed that Alsace would not be completed until 1946.

Type No. 3 — the largest and most powerful study — was the largest complete ship study of the Marine Nationale. Displacing 45,000 tons, Type No. 3 reverted back to the 380mm guns, instead carrying twelve of them in three quadruple turrets, in the same turret design as the preceding Richelieus. Type No. 3’s AA suite was substantially improved, with the four additional 100mm DP dual gun turrets, and an increased number of 37mm AA guns. Type No. 3 was thirteen meters longer than the original Type No. 1 design, had a belt 20mm thicker, and was designed to be capable of outputting 220,000 shaft horsepower so the ship could reach 32 knots. While Type No. 3 had a wide range of benefits and outclassed almost all (known) current foreign battleships, the design was simply too large for the current French infrastructure and shipyards to handle.

The Naval General Staff’s choice was relatively straightforward. Type No. 2’s 406mm guns would take too long to properly develop, and Type No. 3 was simply too large to construct as of the moment and would require lengthy and expensive government investment in the shipyards. Type No. 1 was chosen, as it was regarded as a well-balanced design which used mostly existing weaponry and could be built with relatively minor adjustments and improvements to the French shipyards and infrastructure. Two battleships of the Type No. 1 design were approved on the 1st of April 1940. The first, named Alsace, was to be laid down at the Penhoët No. 1 slipway following the launch of aircraft carrier Joffre in 1941. However, following the collapse of the French Army in June 1940, all capital ship construction plans were scrapped, and the two ships of the Alsace-class ultimately never made it to the shipyards.

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  Artist's depiction of Alsace.

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  Various versions of the Alsace-class design projects in comparison with the Richelieu-class battleship.