Illustration of the No. 3 variant
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Class overview | |
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Name | Alsace class |
Preceded by | Richelieu class |
Succeeded by | None |
Planned | 2 |
Completed | 0 |
General characteristics (No. 1 design) | |
Type | Fast battleship |
Displacement | |
Length | 252 m (827 ft) |
Beam | 35 m (114 ft 10 in) |
Installed power | 170,000 shp (130,000 kW) |
Speed | 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) |
Armament |
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Armor |
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General characteristics (No. 2 design) | |
Displacement |
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Length | 256 m (840 ft) |
Beam | 35.5 m (116 ft 6 in) |
Installed power | 190,000 shp (140,000 kW) |
Speed | 31 knots |
Armament |
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Armor |
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General characteristics (No. 3 design) | |
Displacement |
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Length | 265 m (869 ft) |
Beam | 35.5 m |
Installed power | 220,000 shp (160,000 kW) |
Speed | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
Armament |
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Armor |
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The Alsace class was a pair of fast battleships planned by the French Navy in the late 1930s in response to German plans to build two H-class battleships after the Second London Naval Treaty collapsed. The Alsace design was based on variants of the Richelieu class, and three proposals were submitted by the design staff. The proposed armament included nine or twelve 380 mm (15 in) guns or nine 406 mm (16 in) guns, but no choice was definitively made before the program ended in mid-1940. According to one pair of historians, logistical considerations—including the size of the 12-gun variant and the introduction of a new shell caliber for the 406 mm version—led the naval command to settle on the nine 380 mm design. But another pair of authors disagree, believing that the difficulty of designing and manufacturing a three-gun turret would have caused prohibitive delays during wartime, making the third, largest variant the most likely to have been built. The ships would have forced the French government to make significant improvements to its harbor and shipyard facilities, as the smaller Richelieus already stretched the limitations of existing shipyards. With construction of the first member of the class scheduled for 1941, the plan was terminated by the German victory in the Battle of France in May–June 1940.