sirpaul wrote:
Is this a French battle design without treaty limits? 3rd of class???
The
Alsace-class was the next battleship class the French had planned. When France saw the London Treaty was being abandoned by rival countries they embarked on a few studies for new battleships that disregarded the treaty limits.
Alsace was to be about 45,700 tones. Progress on the class had reached the naming phase. There were to be 4 ships:
Alsace,
Normandie,
Flandre, and
Bourgogne. Essentially it was a more heavily armed
Richelieu. There were several designs proposed, but all had a 3rd main battery turret. The main difference was that one had triple 16" turrets and one simply had third 4 gun 16" turret. I believe that due to industrial feasibility the variant with the 4-gun 15" turret was chosen. They were already making 15" guns, and the knowledge base was already established.
As I am sure you noticed, she was to have a below-deck stern hanger. I have added a few elements to an AU story he has been writing that involves WWII battleships remaining in service well into the later half of the 20th century. If the battleship was to remain a constant capital ship in the navies of the post war world, another class of would likely have been constructed post 1945 by most battleship owning powers. Along with
Richelieu and
Jean Bart a few units of the Alsace-class would have had a place in the future of a Liberated France.
Alsace has earned a place on my future whiff build list. Anyone else want to help
?