I finally have an ORIGINAL ONI 203 French Naval Vessels :-)

[LouCoatney]

Some drawings and photos from my copy of ONI 203 French Naval Vessels now up on my http://www.coatneyhistory.com webpage.

At some expense I acquired this original ONI 203, French Naval Vessels, Feb43. It is the only original copy I know of, and that is including libraries.

Although it finally gives me the ONI plans for both battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg, heavily armored heavy cruiser Algerie, and Casablanca-doomed light cruiser Primaguet, ONI 203 is disappointing: the only deck and side plans for destroyers were for the Simoun class, and I was hoping for finally having some for the Mogador/Volta and LeHardi heavy and late construction classes. (I did add the little Le Hardi side view from ONI 204 German Naval Vessels.)

I suspect the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in Nov42 removed the need for a more comprehensive coverage in Feb43. Fortunately, there are such plans for the Suffren and Tourville heavy(?) cruiser classes in the 1950 ONI 200, but still ....

The original plans for French warships are on Internet at
http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defens ... tebato.php

but these do not include the wartime LeHardi destroyers or Strasbourg, and it takes some time finding the external views/plans needed for model designing.

Also on my webpage are photos of the latest World War 2 cardstock model ships I have designed and "2-D" sideview model plans for those needing miniature renditions on short notice for wargames, etc.

[Rick E Davis]

One of the possibilities of why your copy of ONI 203 had only one destroyer page(s) is that the ONI xxx series had removable pages for updating and not all copies have all the pages.

I had before I sold it a copy of ONI 201, Warships of the British Commonwealth, and I didn't have all the pages. I did scan the pages before I sold it however.

The same holds true for the more numerous ONI 54 USN copies.

[ensign2547]

Lou,

Took a look at my copy. Your ONI-203 should have 29 leaves or sheets + 3 blanks sheets. Ships covered with drawings and target angles are, Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu, Algerie, and Simoun. Drawing only for Duguay-Trouin, Primauguet and La Galissonniere. Target angles only for Aigle class. All other classes covered with photos only. Sheets issued Oct. 1942, Feb. 1943 and March 1943. I had emailed you some copies a couple of years ago.

[LouCoatney]

Right! Thanks for those e-mails!

Rick, ONI 203 seems to have been published in early 1943, after the mass scuttling at Toulon, so it looks like they just went with - published - what they had accumulated so far and didn't worry about comprehensiveness. For example, the L'Aigle section starts on the back of the page of another class, so they apparently didn't have deck and side views ready for it, but the model photos were done.

And my copy looks very original, with the old glossy pages and shoelace holes. And again, there is no original copy generally available in libraries ... including the Naval Academy ... at this point, as far as I know.

By the way, I had a DEVIL of a time finding the ONI 202 page for Trento/Trieste and a Sims (destroyer) page, so I know what it is like trying to complete a collection. (I've got virtually all of the major classes on my webpages at http://LCoat.tripod.com and www.coatneyhistory.com

There is an expensive recent book out about the Le Hardi class, and I think I'll wait until the price drops to get it.

As it is, I've got enough to design cardstock paper models of most of the 1940-42 French Navy.

Thanks for responding, guys.