Wednesday, March 31, 2021

the giant battleships of france

in june 1940 when french surrendered they had SEVEN battleships,  2 around 700 feet long and 2 longer. all with long names... but two newest were incomplete.
by size order: r+j 800 feet.
1,  rich' went to a port, west coast of nile continent (africa.) soon in july 1940 brit bombd rich' there n it sank but... refloated. in sep' 1940 rich' SHOT AT brit ships as ordered by vichy french under nazi. end nov' '42 vichy surrendered there, so rich' used by allies in 1944.
2, similarly jean, on nov' 8, '42, on west coast of morocco, jean shot at  u.s. ships so u.s. sank jean. refloated but sat inactive in contrast to rich'. so if you were naive.... vichy did obey nazi, wouldn't they? brits expected this and acted: in july 1940 v the british attacked french battleships in two ports.  i criticise french for not keeping them at brit port. as above attacked on west coast and also  in algeria. 
3,4,5: ba' dun' and stras' each 700 feet long, similar story.  ba's dun' n stras went to south edge of med' sea=nile sea. brits bombd n damaged dun' in algerian port. str' escaped to south coast of france. after repair dun' went there too. in nov' 1942 nazi tanks and troops came so french crew sunk dun' n stra'. similarly:
6, ba' provence, shorter, brits damaged in july 1940, in port algeria. it went to port toulon, on south coast of france. lay inactive on the north edj of nile sea (med') until event in nov' 1942, scuttled.  waited inactive during april 1942. later nazi soldiers enterd t' in nov' 1942 so french sunk it same as other french warships. nazi refloated it... uh oh ! but did not use it in battle. nazi only refloated prov' as above for a cannon.
2 smaller ones:  6 bret', brits sunk it and damaged others at algerian port. scrapped bret' for metal kuz old.  that month brit attacked french rich' in west africa port.
7, ba' lo' was in egypt disarmed, in july 1940, thru april '42 and after.
nazi had six battleships but before 1942 brit sank 1 in May 1941: n-bism' sank a brit ship not ba'. br' retaliated many hits so its crew set bombs that sunk bis'.

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