French battleship Lorraine Lorraine was a battleship of the French Navy built in the 1910s , named in honor of the region of Lorraine in France . She was a member of the " Bretagne " class , alongside her two sister ships , " Bretagne " and " Provence " . " Lorraine " was laid down in August 1912 at the " Chantiers de Penhoët " shipyard , launched in September 1913 , and commissioned into the fleet in March 1916 , after the outbreak of World War I . She was armed with a main battery of ten guns and had a top speed of . " Lorraine " spent the bulk of her career in the French Mediterranean Squadron . During World War I , she was stationed at Corfu to prevent the Austro - Hungarian fleet from leaving the Adriatic Sea , but she saw no action . She was modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s , and in 1935 , her amidships 340 mm gun turret was removed to install aircraft facilities in its place . After the outbreak of World War II , " Lorraine " carried a shipment of gold from the French treasury to Bermuda before returning to operate in the Mediterranean . At the French surrender in July 1940 , " Lorraine " was moored in Alexandria , where she was disarmed by the Royal Navy . After joining the Free French Naval Forces in December 1942 , " Lorraine " was refitted for active service ; she provided gunfire support for the landings in Operation Dragoon in August – September 1944 and bombarded German positions around La Rochelle in April 1945 . After the end of the war , " Lorraine " was used was a gunnery training ship and then a barracks ship until late 1953 , when she was stricken and sold to shipbreakers . Design . " Lorraine " was ordered on 15 July 1912 , as a replacement for the battleship " Liberté " , which had been destroyed by a magazine explosion the previous year . She was laid down at the " Chantiers de Penhoët " shipyard in Saint - Nazaire on 1 August 1912 and launched on 30 September 1913 . She was commissioned into the French Navy on 10 March 1916 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a full - load draft of . She displaced around at full load and had a crew of between 1124 and 1133 officers and enlisted men . She was powered by four Parsons steam turbines with twenty - four Guyot du Temple water - tube boilers . They were rated at and provided a top speed of . Coal storage amounted to . " Lorraine " s main battery consisted of ten 340mm / 45 Modèle 1912 gun s mounted in five twin gun turret s , numbered from front to rear . They were placed all on the centerline ; two were in a superfiring pair forward , one amidships , and the last two in a superfiring arrangement aft . As completed , however , the amidships turret did not have its guns installed until January 1917 . The secondary battery consisted of twenty - two Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1910 guns in casemate s along the length of the hull . She also carried seven Hotchkiss guns , two on the conning tower and one on the roof of each turret . The ship was also armed with four submerged torpedo tube s . The ship ' s main belt was thick and the main battery was protected by up to of armor . The conning tower had thick sides . Service . After entering service in 1916 , " Lorraine " and her sisters were assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Battle Squadron . The three ships remained in the unit for the remainder of the war . They spent the majority of their time at Corfu to prevent the Austro - Hungarian fleet from attempting to break out of the Adriatic . The fleet ' s presence was also intended to intimidate Greece , which had become increasingly hostile to the Triple Entente . Later in the war , men were drawn from their crews for anti - submarine warfare vessels . As the Austro - Hungarians largely remained in port for the duration of the war , " Lorraine " saw no action during the conflict . In 1917 , she returned to Toulon for a periodic refit , but apart from that voyage , she saw no time at sea for the rest of the year . In January 1919 , she went to Cattaro , where she guarded the former Austro - Hungarian Navy . She assisted in repatriating Austrian naval personnel , and escorted former Austro - Hungarian warships to France and Italy ; this duty lasted until March . The French Navy intended to send " Lorraine " and her sister " Provence " to the Black Sea to join operations against the Bolsheviks , but a major mutiny prevented the operation . The two ships went to Constantinople in October 1919 , where they formed the core of the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron , which operated until July 1921 . " Lorraine " underwent her first refit starting on 10 November 1921 , which lasted until 4 December 1922 . After emerging from refit , " Lorraine " was placed in reserve , due to fiscal limitations in the post - war French Navy . She returned to service the following year — 1923 – with the 1st Battleship Division of the Mediterranean Fleet . " Lorraine " was modernized a second time between 15 November 1924 and 4 August 1926 . A third refit followed on 17 September 1929 and lasted until 6 June 1931 . During these periods in dock , the range of the main battery was increased , the anti - aircraft battery was strengthened , and her boilers were replaced with newer , oil - fired models . Between 18 September 1934 and 20 September 1935 , a fourth and final pre - war refit was carried out in Brest ; " Lorraine " s amidships turret was removed , and an aircraft catapult along with a hangar for three aircraft were installed . The aircraft were initially Gourdou - Leseurre GL819 and Potez 452 seaplanes , though they were later replaced with Loire 130 flying boat s . In 1936 , " Lorraine " was transferred to the Atlantic Squadron , where she remained until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 . World War II . After the start of World War II , " Lorraine " served primarily in the western Mediterranean . On 4 December , " Lorraine " operated out of Casablanca against German surface forces , along with the cruiser " Algérie " , " La Galissonnière " , and " Marseillaise " , and several destroyer s and submarine s . During this period , she carried a shipment of gold bullion from the French treasury to Bermuda . On 1 January 1940 , she was transferred to the 2nd Battleship Division of the 1st Squadron , and went into drydock for refit , which lasted until April . On 27 April , " Lorraine " and her two sisters were transferred to Alexandria . On 10 June , Italy declared war on France ; by that time , both " Bretagne " and " Provence " had moved back to the western Mediterranean . " Lorraine " was the only French capital ship in the eastern Mediterranean , though she was joined by four British battleships and an aircraft carrier . On the night of 20 – 21 June , " Lorraine " formed the center of an Anglo - French task force , along with the cruisers , , and for a bombardment of Italian positions at Bardia . The operation , which caused only minimal damage , was the last combined British and French naval operation before the French surrender . Following the French surrender , the French commander , Vice Admiral Godfroy , concluded an agreement with Admiral Andrew Cunningham to demilitarize and intern the French ships in Alexandria ; this included " Lorraine " , four cruiser s , and three destroyers . In December 1942 , the ship ' s crew decided to join the Allies in the Free French Naval Forces , and so " Lorraine " was placed back into service . On 3 July 1943 , the ship left the Suez and sailed around Africa to Dakar , having stopped in Cape Town on the way . After arriving on 12 October , she was used briefly as a training ship ; on 2 December , " Lorraine " was sent to Oran for refitting . The work included removing the aircraft facilities and installing a large number of anti - aircraft guns , including eight guns , fourteen guns , and twenty - five guns . Radar equipment was also installed on the ship . The overhaul readied " Lorraine " to participate in Operation Dragoon , the Allied invasion of southern France in August 1944 . On 15 August , " Lorraine " joined the bombardment force , Task Force 86 , that supported landings . She and the American battleship hammered German defenses in and around Toulon , including 340 mm coastal guns that had been removed from " Provence " . The bombardment lasted until 21 August . Over the course of 1 – 13 September , " Lorraine " , four cruisers , and two destroyers shelled German defenses throughout the French Riviera . Among the targets " Lorraine " attacked were fortresses at Sospel and Castillon , along with Axis positions around Carqueiranne and Saint - Tropez . " Lorraine " left the bombardment area on 17 September , but remained in the western Mediterranean until she was sent to Portsmouth for a brief refit toward the end of the year . She was then sent to Cherbourg in December . In late March 1945 , " Lorraine " left Cherbourg to participate in her final wartime operations , codenamed " Vénérable " and " Vermeille " . In the operations , which took place in April , the French Navy focused on eliminating a pocket of German resistance in Gironde . On 14 – 20 April , " Lorraine " and several cruisers and destroyers bombarded the German " Girond - Nord " fortress in Royan in support of an attack by the French 10th Division and American 66th Division ; the German defenders surrendered on the 20th . After completing the operation , " Lorraine " returned to Brest before being sent to Toulon . Starting in February 1947 , she was used as a stationary gunnery training ship . Later , she was used as a barracks ship , until she was stricken from the naval register on 17 February 1953 . She was sold on 18 December , to a French shipbreaking company , and towed to outside Toulon in January 1954 and broken up for scrap .