The Dunkerque and Strasbourg-class

[flyingdutchman]

Just placed on my weblog what happened with the Thüringen and what her influence was for the influence of the fast French battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg which were an answer to the pocket battleships of the Deutschland-class
Follow the link http://warshipsresearch.web-log.nl/warships/2011/04/the-french-battleships-strasbourg-and-dunkerque-according-to-the-dutch-newspaper-het-vaderland-staat-en-letterkundig-nieuws.html

gruss Ronald

[Leutnant Werner]

Very interesting information. I wonder, Ronald, if SMS PRINZ EUGEN of the Austro-Hungarian Navy also was examined the same way as SMS THÜRINGEN. Can you provide further information?

Thanks beforehand

Ekke

[Matrose71]

I can't say what was the influence of the SMS THÜRINGEN to the modern french battleships.
Perhaps the slope armour design behind the main amour deck and belt.

To my opinion the modern fast french battleships (Dunkerque class and Richelieu class)were very very good hull and armour designs, perhaps the best of WWII.
But both classes suffers on major main gun problems. Both main guns had a to high working pressure, with a to short barrel, to heavy shells and the spaces between the guns were to narrow! Both guns suffer on major despertion problems.

On a one to one fight at 1940/41 with  equal german or english battleships, all my euros wouldn't go to the french battleships, because they could only hit a target by luck but not by experience.

[Tiornu]

Without a copy of the French report on the Thüringen trials, it would be very difficult to identify features later incorporated in Dunkerque. The influence was probably deep in the details, not anything general and easily visible. The line from Normandie's armor scheme to Dunkerque's is pretty straightforward in context with the All-or-Nothing priorities that became the international norm in the 1920's. One error that the journalist made was his description of the armor deck--the secondary armor was a splinter deck beneath the main armor, not a bomb deck above the main armor. Normandie, in keeping with the standards of her time, did have a lamination of the armor deck totaling at least 40mm, depending on where the measure is taken. This lamination lasted into the 37,000-ton battlecruiser (in this case, 38mm) that the French considered before settling on a smaller design, but Dunkerque ended up with a very thin upper deck.