For July 14, French National Day, the USNI provided us some beautiful pictures of French Battleship Richelieu that we simply had to share.
When the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) announced the construction of the Littorio-class battleships in 1935, the French Navy ordered the construction of two new battleships to match them. The new Richelieu-class battleship was an upscaled version of Dunkerque, with eight 380 mm guns mounted in two quadruple-gun turrets on the ship’s bow.
Richelieu was 90% completed when she was moved from the port of Brest during the invasion of France to the port of Dakar in North Africa, which fell under the control of the Vichy regime shortly after. Richelieu was a key active participant in the Battle of Dakar against the Royal Navy, and she fired her main and secondary guns at the British ships. After the Allied invasion of North Africa, Richelieu and several other Vichy French ships joined the Free French Navy, which was on the side of the Allies. However, due to damage, as well as ongoing issues that were the result of her rushed completion, Richelieu was sent to New York City for a complete refit that took most of 1943 to complete.
After her refit, Richelieu went on to serve in the North Atlantic and the Pacific throughout 1944 and 1945. She was part of the British Pacific Fleet and was deployed to bombard Japanese installations in Indonesia and Burma. She also participated in the opening stages of the First Indochina War, which broke out immediately after the Second World War ended. When she returned to Brest, her “flamme de guerre” pennant flag was 52 meters long, denoting that she had been away from France since June 1940. She didn’t see much service after her return and was retired in 1967.
One of her guns still remains in the harbor of Brest, the city in which she was built.
- Richelieu was one of the few battleships to see service in almost every combat theater during World War II, ranging from the North Atlantic to the Pacific.
- She only sailed once alongside her sister ship, Jean Bart, in 1956.
- Throughout her service, only Royal Navy ships faced her in combat. Richelieu sortied against German and Japanese heavy cruisers but couldn’t bring them to battle.
- Richelieu achieved double the rate of fire of British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant and the battlecruiser Renown during the shore bombardment of Sumatra.
A starboard broadside view of French battleship Richelieu while underway on an unidentified date at an unspecified location. Sailors aboard the vessel appear to be standing in formation, indicating that their ship could either be arriving at or departing from port.
An aerial starboard broadside view of camouflaged French Battleship Richelieu while underway during trials after her refit on August 26, 1943.
The French Marine Guard marches in ceremony preceding morning colors aboard the Richelieu.
The repaired battleship Richelieu in action somewhere at sea. Guns of the main batteries of the French battleship Richelieu are fired at one time during the test run of the ship which was repaired in the United States after sustaining damage in an African port.
HMS Renown with the French Battleship Richelieu and the HMS Valiant during exercises of the 1st Battle Squadron of the Far Eastern Fleet in early 1944. By this time, battleships and battlecruisers had become subordinate to the aircraft carrier.
US heavy cruisers tied to piers in May 1952, with the French Battleship Richelieu visible at the right.