French battleship Bretagne

Bretagne in Toulon during World War I
History
France
NameBretagne
NamesakeBrittany
Ordered1 May 1912
Laid down22 July 1912
Launched21 April 1913
Completed29 November 1915
Commissioned10 February 1916
FateSunk, 3 July 1940
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeBretagne-class battleship
Displacement
  • 23,936 t (23,558 long tons) (normal)
  • 26,600 t (26,200 long tons) (deep load)
Length166 m (544 ft 7 in) (o/a)
Beam27 m (88 ft 7 in)
Draught9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) (mean)
Installed power
Propulsion4 shafts; 2 steam turbine sets
Speed20.6 knots (38.2 km/h; 23.7 mph)
Range4,700 nmi (8,700 km; 5,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew1,193 (1,250 as flagship)
Armament
Armour

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.