page_title: Dunkerque-class battleship
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: Dunkerque-class battleship / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: 2-view drawing of the french navy battleship Dunkerque, showing her configuration and color after her refit in 2/1940. Deutsch: Zeichnung des französischen Schlachtschiffs Dunkerque im Bauzustand und Anstrich nach der Umrüstung für Atlantikeinsätze vom Februar 1940. Русский: Внешний вид французского линейного корабля «Дюнкерк» после модернизации, февраль 1940 года. Additional info obtained from: Robert Dumas: Les cuirassés Dunkerque et Strasbourg. Marines Editions et Réalisations 1993 Model at the Musée national de la Marine Video footage from Mers-el-Kebir 1940 Construction drawings Various photographs
context_page_description: The Dunkerque class was a pair of fast battleships built for the French Navy in the 1930s; the two ships were Dunkerque and Strasbourg. They were the first French battleships built since the Bretagne class of pre-World War I vintage, and they were heavily influenced by the Washington Treaty system that limited naval construction in the 1920s and 1930s. French battleship studies initially focused on countering fast Italian heavy cruisers, leading to early designs for small, relatively lightly protected capital ships. But the advent of the powerful German Deutschland-class cruisers proved to be more threatening to French interests, prompting the need for larger and more heavily armed and armoured vessels. The final design, completed by 1932, produced a small battleship armed with eight 330 mm guns that were concentrated in two quadruple gun turrets forward, with armour sufficient to defeat the Deutschlands' 283 mm guns. Strasbourg was completed to a slightly modified design, receiving somewhat heavier armour in response to new Italian Littorio-class battleships.
context_section_description: After commissioning in 1936, Dunkerque required extensive testing and evaluation, including extensive trials with her guns, as both the main and secondary battery mounts were new to French naval service. During this period, in May 1937, she represented France at the Naval Review for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. In early 1938, Dunkerque toured France's West African colonies and islands in the Caribbean. After finally being pronounced ready for active service in September, she became the flagship of the Atlantic Squadron. Shortly thereafter, Strasbourg was commissioned to begin working up, but the increasingly unstable international situation in Europe forced the French to rush the ship through trials; Strasbourg got little more than six months of testing and training before entering service, compared to more than two years for Dunkerque.
  During the Sudetenland Crisis with Germany in early April 1939, Dunkerque was sent to cover the return of the training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc as it returned from a cruise in the Caribbean, as a nearby German squadron would have threatened the vessel if war had broken out. Strasbourg then joined the squadron and the two ships were designated the 1st Battle Division. The ships visited Portugal in May before embarking on a lengthy tour of Britain later that month and in June. Both vessels conducted extensive training exercises off Brittany in July and August as Europe drifted toward war. As tensions rose with Germany over the latter's aggressive demands on Polish territory, the British and French naval commands agreed to divide responsibilities for joint operations in the anticipated war; France would cover Allied shipping in the central Atlantic, and for this purpose, Dunkerque and Strasbourg were assigned to the new Force de Raid (Raiding Force) to hunt down German commerce raiders.
caption: Dunkerque as she appeared in 1940
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