MN Dunkerque - France’s Unlucky Fast Battleship
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- The French Navy, in the interwar period, was in a weird place. They were building modern cruisers and destroyers as fast as they could be laid down. And some...interesting submarines as well.
But their capital ship force was ageing and falling behind. From the Courbets, which were underwhelming when introduced. To the Bretagnes, which were showing their age.
Thus, you saw the French build a new ship. Dunkerque. This ship was a direct counter to the German Panzerschiffe, yes, but also France's first proper fast battleship. Or battlecruiser, to some people, because of her thin armor.
Either way, Dunkerque was a ship with a lot of promise. Only for that to be squandered, as it often was for the French Navy in the Second World War. From damage dealt by the British, to scuttling at Toulon.
Dunkerque did not have a happy life.
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As a french, I'm happy to see Dunkerque history ! Thank you for this video !
Crazy to think that this ship and HMS Hood sailed together in a search for German ships and not even a year later Hood was now firing at her instead.
Old English habits die hard...
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935The French Admiral refused to negotiate when offered other options. Fine if you have a strong hand, stupidity of you don't.
@@VersusARCH the french admiral was given three options: sail away with the British fleet; head to a British Port, a French Port in the West Indies, or to the US. He refused to negotiate on any of these and the British would not let these ships fall into German hands, I expect you would.have handed them over
For their mix of speed, power, and protection, I've always seen Dunkerque and Strasburg classed as battlecruisers, the clearest quick clue being the rows of portholes where battleships tended to carry armor plate but I'm not one to quibble over definitions, and I enjoyed this video immensely. I'd never even seen many of the photos here. Thank you for posting!
agree 100%
have always considered these to be battlecruisers, cool that it was added to war thunder very recently
I just would like to say that 2024 has been a Really bad year for me and I really look forward to seeing each one of your videos. Thank you
Another very well vid put together to cover a great subject.!!! Always enjoy your vids. Skynea!!!
Great Video 😊 Thanks for Sharing !😊
I had a group of war gaming buddies I'd drink beer with Friday night and play War Games with Saturday night.
We had a round robin of the French, Italian, British, German, American and Japanese battleships.
Each side had like four battleships and four cruisers. I don't remember if we used destroyers or not. We may have. Here - the French had some really good destroyers. if we did - there would probably be 4 of them.
Typically the fleets would have 3 commanders each - for a total of six players. Each commander taking four ships of the same category with one of them (usually the Battleship Guy) commanding the fleet.
The Battleships would slug it out while the lighter units would maneuver to get the Destroyers in position for a torpedo attack - or - defend against the enemy trying to do that. Thinking back - I'm pretty sure we had destroyers. I think it was a computer game that didn't have them.
The Italians beat the French.
The British Beat the Italians.
The Germans beat the British
The Americans Beat the Germans.
The Americans beat the Japanese.
These were not organized as Allies vs. Axis - it just worked out that way. The British, French and Americans could have ended up fighting each other - but they didn't.
Of course - victory in these matches - had as much to do with the decisions of the Fleet Commanders - as it did the nature of their ships.
One of the things we talked about - was that the lay out for French the main and secondary batteries had a specific result.
If they were winning - it allowed them to chase the enemy with their main guns.
If they were losing - it allowed them to fend off enemy destroyers with their secondaries.
The thing is - while the main batteries were split in the turrets - a traversing hit - would still take out all four guns and they could also suffer hits that would take out both batteries - divider or no.
I played War Games and Drank Beer with those guys for over twenty years - but - sadly - our group was destroyed by women ...
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If the depth charge explosion had set off Dunkerque's magazine, no one would think her anything other than a battlecruiser. [graveyard humor]
Our Mighty Gnome Overlord would be proud of you!
Okay, back into the depths of the Salt Mine!
Dunkerque is a really cool ship design. It would have been interesting if the US could have purchased her. We didn’t want any of the French ships because the difference in armaments would complicate logistics. I only know that because Riechelu was in New York harbor for years. Don’t get me wrong, America had an overwhelming capacity to manufacture ships. We also had a very diverse fleet of battleships ranging from the Iowa’s, South Dakota’s, North Carolina’s, modernized New Mexico class, and my personal favorite the Alaska class super cruisers. The idea of having a more agile and efficient battleship is something that I have always been fascinated with. So I really like ships similar to the Alaska class, Dunkerque’s and Scharnhorst. Definitely would have been cool though to see Dunkerque purchased and added into the pacific fleet.
Ever since I saw them, I loved them. These ships were so elegant, such a break from the French predreadnoughts, and so unfortunate.
Well, Richelieu did serve in the British Pacific Fleet. Even in 1945, Richelieu was actually useful, being (after the Iowa's) the fastest battleship of the Allied navies.
Another great video sky 👍🏻👍🏻 i think a christmas special is in order 😂
Visually appealing ships. With a bit of work . . . trading those 150mm secondaries for 100mm DP rifles, perhaps, along with replacing every lighter weapon with dual 40mm Bofors autocannon . . . they'd be excellent escorts, distant cover "heavies". or shore bombardiers. You might need to trade some accomodations space for an expanded cheese locker, but certain sacrifices must be made- nest pa?
Plus, they're likely cheaper to operate/refurbish than anything more upscale . . . like a Tillman.
Always happy to see a doco about this class. By far the most beautiful ships the French navy ever comissioned.
Whats up. Love the content. Cheers from Estonia
The British attack on the French fleet achieved little in the way of preventing French vessels falling into the hands of the Axis forces. In truth, the French would have probably scuttled their vessels rather than have their enemies seize them. It did, however, propagate a deep sense of betrayal in the hearts and minds of the French at that time. Thanks for covering this ship!
The french sided with the Germans and needed a bitch slap, which Churchill gave them!
mighty french castle! my favor
The USN called a turret with 2 cannons that could only be elevated together a twin turret. And a turret with 2 guns that could be elevated individually a two-gun turret. So. Dunkerque 330 mm turrets might've been a two twin-gun turret.
To survive 4 hits from the 15"/42 is a feat.
The French were not the first to use the idea of separating guns in a turret with an armored bulkhead. In the Philippines Fort Drum, the concrete battleship, had a similar arrangement for it's twin 14" turrets.
The dunker que!
But he mispronounced the other French battleship, the Ritchie LuLu.
Hey, don´t call the most beautiful Scharnhorst/Gneisenau ugly or terrible sisters!
Freaks can B beautiful ❤❤❤❤❤
VERY SAD , SCRAPED..
C'era anche la super alsace che era possente e la classe richelieu che era spettacolare
Re the name: Dünkirchen :)
Quad turrets are badass- viva la France....
Agincort!
¿La parodia?
Funny, Dun-ker-q
You should work on your narration. I really like your content, but you speak in short phrases, and sound stilted and awkward. You have nice low voice, but try to speak more narratively, like your telling a story.
Don't waste your time... I told him this a year ago. Just go with it.
I move playback speed to 1.25
@@johnjankowski3260 Thanks for that suggestion, it certainly helped.
you must read sir winston churchill's account of WHY they fired on the french fleet. the french government and their admiral Darlan refused to give up their ships to the british. the british did NOT want to fire on the french ships , BUT they were NOT going to stand for the french giving their ships to the germans or the italians. it was ALL the fault of the french leadership that got their men killed .
Well the French were under the pressure that if they did give the ships the germans would make hell to pay to the population of France, best France could do was promise they wouldnt let the ships ever fall to Axis hands by scutteling them which they did when the Germans did try to take the fleet which made the whole attack pointless other than showing strenght to the US.
It was not like that. The British might fear that the french fleet would fall at the hands of the German that's understandable.
But for the French, the fleet should stay neutral for the time been nor the German or the British would have the fleet and if they attempt to, fight, escape or self destruct.
Why would a country give away his fleet freely or by threat even to an ally ?
But i believe that the French should have continue to fight.
@ksmatch06 My guess is they saw what happened to Warsaw and didn't want the same thing to happen. Also, the government may have given up by the citizens kept on fighting by offering resistance.
The British didn't demand the ships rather they gave a number of options the first being come and join us then onto demilitarizing them in situ , sailing to a neutral port , sailing to the French West Indies not all those options were communicated to by Gensoul the OC at Mers el Kebir to his superiors in France .
The french sided with the Germans and needed a bitch slap, which Churchill gave them!
First!
Perfect example of the complete waste of $$$$$ in stupid invasions/wars. What was accomplished?
What was accomplish everything was.
American industry did very well?