 Bretagne in Toulon during World War I
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Bretagne |
| Namesake | Brittany |
| Ordered | 1 May 1912 |
| Laid down | 22 July 1912 |
| Launched | 21 April 1913 |
| Completed | 29 November 1915 |
| Commissioned | 10 February 1916 |
| Fate | Sunk, 3 July 1940 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | Bretagne-class battleship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 166 m (544 ft 7 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) (mean) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | 4 shafts; 2 steam turbine sets |
| Speed | 20.6 knots (38.2 km/h; 23.7 mph) |
| Range | 4,700 nmi (8,700 km; 5,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Crew | 1,193 (1,250 as flagship) |
| Armament |
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| Armour |
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Bretagne was the lead ship of her class of three dreadnought battleships built in the 1910s for the French Navy. Bretagne entered service in February 1916, after the start of World War I. She spent the bulk of her nearly 25-year-long career with the Mediterranean Squadron and sometimes served as its flagship. During World War I she provided cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, but saw no action.
The ship was significantly modernised in the interwar period, and when she was on active duty, conducted normal peacetime cruises and training manoeuvres in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. After World War II broke out in September 1939, Bretagne escorted troop convoys and was briefly deployed to the Atlantic in search of German blockade runners and commerce raiders. Germany invaded France on 10 May 1940 and the French surrendered only six weeks later, at which time the battleship was stationed in Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria. Fearful that the Germans would seize the French Navy, the British attacked the ships there on 3 July 1940 after the French refused to surrender or demilitarise the fleet; Bretagne was hit four times and exploded, killing the majority of her crew. Her wreck was salvaged in 1952 and broken up for scrap.