French Battleship Richelieu

French Battleship Richelieu

The Richelieu was a French battleship, and the lead ship of her class.

She was the first French 35,000-ton battleship, designed to counter the Italian Littorio class battleships, the first modern battleships built since the 1922 Treaty of Washington. Ordered in 1935, she was a scaled-up version of the Dunkerque class battleships, featuring a main armament of eight 380 mm guns in two quadruple turrets in forward superfiring positions. Her armour and underwater protection were equal to her contemporaries, except the Japanese Yamato class battleships. Her speed was surpassed only by the fastest U.S. Navy battleships.

Nearly complete, but limited by a weak anti-aircraft artillery suite and optical-only fire control, she left Brest in northwestern France for Dakar in French West Africa (modern-day Senegal) in June 1940. She served during World War II, first on the Vichy Regime side, notably fending off a 1940 Allied attempt on Dakar, then later joined the Allies in 1943. Refitted in New York Navy Yard, she operated with Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean in 1944 and 1945.

She took part in the return of French forces to Indochina in 1945, and served into the 1960s.