French Battleships, 1922–1956 Paperback – January 18, 2021

Having recently read the recently published  French Battleships of World War One , it made sense to re-read this one in order to get a complete view of French battleship development through the years. John Jordan has since published three similar volumes on French battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, all of which are very fine books in their own right. Although this book has the luxury of only having to focus on four ships, the Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, (and a couple which were never completed), it nonetheless achieves a balance the other three books in the series don't QUITE achieve.After an introduction focusing on the impact of the Washington Naval Treaty and the moribund state of French capital ship design in the post-war era, the majority of the book focuses on the ships themselves. The book is arranged by alternating historical and technical chapters, which actually works better than the more segregated approach used by its successors. The history of each ship is laid out in some detail, the text accompanied with maps, orders of battle, diagrams of battle damage, lists of commanding and flag officers, and official reports. The technical chapters describe salient features of the ships' armor, armament, fire control machinery, command spaces, aviation facilities, and post-completion modifications.Where this book really shines, though, is the amount of detail and the quality of its presentation. The photographs, for the most part, are finely grained, well chosen, and have useful captions. An eight-page color section includes crisp plan and profile views of each ship at different stages during their careers. A large number of diagrams are provided, ranging from deck plans of Dunkerque's forward tower, to cross-sections through different types of shell, armor layouts, and depictions of the damage "Jean Bart" received at Casablanca. A large number of specification tables and insets accompany the text, including some interesting descriptions of French naval infrastructure. The overall look of the book harks back to the classic naval references of the 70s and 80s, but considering that most of the maps and diagrams are computer-drawn, it's definitely slicker and more polished.I seriously wish more warship monographs were like this. It's a very tight, concise work which doesn't mess around with extraneous details. It manages to deliver a solid dose of historical and technical details without totally overwhelming the reader. It has a couple flaws here and there (propulsion details are a little sketchy, and there isn't much in the way of analysis of strengths and flaws), but it's still among my favorite naval references.

This is a wonderful book. Authored by two of the foremost contemporary authorities on French warships, it is a greatly enhanced, single-volume elaboration -- in English -- of Robert Dumas' three-part French-language monograph covering the battleships "Dunkerque," "Strassbourg," "Richelieu" and "Jean Bart." This work's scope includes a look back at French dreadnought battleships commissioned and planned prior to 1932; as well as the fullest English-language profile I have seen of the never-completed battleship designs projected after 1939 ("Clemenceau," "Gascogne" and "Alsace"). The authors do a commendable job of describing the historic, political and technical factors influencing French capital ship development and procurement; then follow up with thorough technical descriptions and revealing operational histories of the four completed ships. The volume concludes with a candid and balanced assessment of the ships and comparisons with foreign contemporaries. The text is clear and to-the-point. The accompanying photos emphasize close-up views showing general arrangements and details of ship's equipment, but also include overall portraits demonstrating the changing profiles of the vessels throughout their lives. Especially delightful are the eight pages presenting 23 side elevation and overhead views -- in color -- of "Dunkerque," "Strassbourg," "Richelieu," "Jean Bart," "Clemenceau" and "Gascogne" as they appeared at different stages of their careers. These drawings are beautifully executed. Most of the numerous line drawings -- many prepared specifically by Mr. Jordan for this volume -- are well-done. This book does justice to these handsome and technically innovative ships while filling a long-neglected need in the English literature on naval history. I own the French-language Dumas trilogy that was the starting point for "French Battleships 1922-1956," but feel that this book was well worth its price.

This is a first rate book on a topic about which little has been written in any depth, apart from Mr. Dumas' previous works, which are only available in French. It is certainly, one of the very best publications of its type that I have read (and I have read many). It is very well written, and the quality of the paper, photos, line-drawings and color plates are all as good as it gets.The book covers all aspects of design development, construction and history of the Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu, and Jean Bart, as well as the partially completed Clemenceau and unbuilt Gascogne. many alternate designs for these projects are also discussed in some detail, with features shown in a number of drawings.My only minor complaints are that some of the good pictures from Mr. Dumas' previous works on the subject were not included (although many great new pictures were), and I would have preferred that some of the drawings and color plates could have been printed in a larger format. In fact, the detail in the color plates is fantastic, and it would be great if they were offered in a larger format as prints.Highly recommended to anyone interested in the topic.

I chose this book because I don't find a lot of good info on the French Navy. This helps fill out gaps from other books that I have. Finding good info on French ships is not easy. As a naval buff I like to get as much info as possible. I was happy with this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for material on French Battleships built after 1922.

Pictures, diagrams, after action synopsis and explanations for battleship engineering. That's all in here, if you are interested in battleships and how they are built and the kind of compromises they have then this is your book. The level of detail in the drawing and the pictures help pull this book together, it is one of the most complete books on battleship construction out there.

Spedizione velocissima, arrivato in un giorno, come sempre servizio di spedizione di Amazon risulta impeccabile, il libro è arrivato in ottime condizioni. Parlando deI libro in questione è il migliore riguardo questo argomento, non c'è nessun altra opera (in inglese, poiché libri totalmente in italiano riguardanti le corazzate francesi classe "Dunkerque" e "Richelieu" non esistono) che si può minimamente paragonare a questa. Robert Dumas & John Jordan hanno fatto un lavoro splendido, ma partiamo dall'inizio.Il libro è molto grande, copertina flessibile e carta di ottima qualità, tantissime foto (la maggior parte di cui non ho mai visto in vita mia, e introvabili pure su internet apparentemente) e schemi. La prima parte è un riassunto della situazione navale francese post prima guerra mondiale, e riassume le condizioni in cui versava la Marine Nationale, sia a livello di corazzate che di infrastrutture. Segue poi una parte incentrata sugli sviluppi politici (trattato di Londra e Washington), che porteranno alla realizzazione delle corazzate francesi classe "Dunkerque" e "Richelieu". Il testo in seguito analizza la costruzione delle navi in maniera molto tecnica, in ogni singolo dettaglio (per farvi un esempio, viene spiegato il processo di costruzione dei cannoni e il sistema di ricarica, la disposizione dell'apparato motore, planimetria generale della nave e dei vari ponti). Si passa poi alla parte operativa e alle varie battaglie o campagne a cui hanno preso parte e le varie modifiche che hanno subito nel tempo. Bellissimi i profili a colori dei vari schemi di cammuffamento. Per concludere, gli autori danno il loro giudizio su queste unità navali (spesso accompagnati da rapporti degli ufficiali che hanno prestato servizio a bordo) e sulle loro caratteristiche (protezione, armamento, apparato motore, pregi e difetti) ecc ecc.Insomma un libro completo, d'obbligo se siete amanti del settore.Voto 11/10

This book is for the serious student of the ships of world war 2. The book has excellent drawings from John Jordan that communicate the most important aspects of the ships. the battleships of the Dunkerque and Richelieu classes are discussed. The print, the binding exceed expectations. The drawings are not cluttered with lines, but very clear. The author shows only the important aspects he want to communicate to the reader. I only wish all technical-historical books were like this. There are nice colour plates of Jean Blade as well. This is book you want to have if you are interested in (French) battleships of the Dunkerque and Richelieu classes.

Ce livre est très bien, même s'il est en anglais. Beaucoup d'infos détaillées, de plans et de croquis en plus d'un bon aperçu historique, ce qui ne gâte rien, un simple déballage technique aurait pu être ennuyeux.A recommander à tous les passionnés mais aussi aux autres qui s'intéressent au sujet de près ou de loin.Même l'anglais est relativement facile à comprendre. Les termes étant toujours les mêmes, on finit par les comprendre.Ces navires méritent d'entrer dans votre bibliothèque !

This book does not cover 'French Battleships 1922 - 1956', more accurately it focuses on the new Dunqerque's and Richelieu's, dating from 1932 onwards. The old dreadnoughts do get a mention, but not much more than that. However, interesting recently discovered plans for battlecruisers dating from the late 1920's have been included: for political reasons these ships were never actually built.There is a great deal of technical detail, though some of it is repeated in captions to drawings, and all the measurements are metric. I wish there was at least a conversion chart- as appears in Mr Jordans recent book 'Warships after Washington': as it is, you cannot easily compare this data with that for British or American ships. The otherwise superb technical chapters can sometimes be a little hard to follow- for example, in chapter 2 we are frequently referred to chapter 4, and the excellent plans and tables often appear some pages away from the relevant text. That said, the actual detail given is first class and Mr Jordan diligently provides many excellent line drawings: his co- author's numerous full colour profiles are the best I have ever seen.These ships were sophisticated for their day, though service experience showed that many details of design and construction were suspect. The authors explain the problems. They were very wet at sea and the long slim forward hulls of the Dunkerques proved to be structurally weak. Moreover their overly short armour belts did not provide adequate bouyancy when the unarmoured ends were damaged. Dunkerque was deposited on the harbour floor after four hits at Mers El Kebir (all be it from 15 inch guns) and when damaged both of the Richelieus' suffered major flooding through cable ducts and poorly welded joints.The French had not built new battleships for 20 years and so were understandably keen to incorporate new technology, but the ships were excessively dependant on 1930's electronics. When Dunkerques' main switchboard was disabled the entire ship was immobilized, and the electrics that operated the main and secondary turrets made these very troublesome and 'fragile'. Water or oil damage would rapidly destroy electric cables and their connections.Some design decisions made to save weight proved mistaken in the outcome. The quadruple turrets gave excessive dispersion of fire- a problem not cured in the Richelieu until 1948. Moreover having all the heavy guns mounted forward was a tactical handicap- the Dunkerque and Strasbourg could not return fire at all at Mers El Kebir. The decision to place Richelieu's main directors one on top of the other was a disaster in the making and sure enough at Dakar they were all put out of action- by a torpedo strike near the stern of the ship! The the virtues of simplicity were overlooked- for example in action all of Dunkerque's armoured doors were disabled due to hydraulic failure: in RN and US ships these doors were balanced by simple counterweights. Of course many of the problems would have been overcome in time, but the defeat of France as early as June 1940 made rectification difficult, to say the least.The book is divided fairly evenly between technical description and historical narrative- and the latter is riveting to read. The Dunkerque's and Richelieu's were certainly unlucky ships: Dunkerque spent nearly four years undergoing endless sea trials (which clearly still left many problems undiscovered and unresolved), only to then have a very short and rather ignominious service life- though her sister did well to escape from the Mers El Kebir disaster. It is curious that Richelieu was shelled at Dakar by the Royal Navy in 1940 and yet was fighting in line with British battleships by 1943. She had been repaired in the USA, yet the USS Massachusetts had shelled her sister Jean Bart at Casablanca only a few months earlier!Despite some criticisms, this is a fine book- very thoroughly researched and presented with many interesting photo's and excellent, well annotated drawings. It's also hansom to look at and at less than £23 from Amazon it is a remarkable bargain.

Un livre incroyablement documenté !Avec des découvertes sur les projets français.Exemplaire.