French battleship Courbet ( 1911 ) Courbet was the lead ship of her class , the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy . She was completed before World War I and named in honour of Admiral Amédée Courbet . She spent the war in the Mediterranean , helping to sink the Austro - Hungarian protected cruiser in August 1914 . She spent the rest of the war providing cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro - Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea . Although upgraded several times before World War II , she was not deemed to be a first - class battleship and spent most of the interwar period as a gunnery training ship . Upon the German invasion of France , beginning on 10 May 1940 , " Courbet " was hastily rearmed . She supported Allied troops in the defence of Cherbourg during June , later that month taking refuge in England . As part of Operation Catapult , she was seized in Portsmouth by British forces on 3 July and was turned over to the Free French a week later . She was used as a depot and an anti - aircraft ship there until 31 March 1941 when she was disarmed and hulked . Her engines and boilers were removed in 1944 to prepare her for use as a breakwater during the Normandy landings in June 1944 . She was scrapped where she lay after the war . Description . " Courbet " was long overall . She had a beam of and at full load a draft of at the bow . She displaced at standard load and at full load . She proved to be rather wet in service as she was bow - heavy because of the superimposed turrets forward . " Courbet " had four propeller shafts powered by four Parsons direct - drive steam turbines , rated at . Twenty - four Niclausse boiler s provided steam for her turbines . These boilers were coal - burning with auxiliary oil sprayers . She had a designed speed of , although she reached during trials . She carried up to of coal and of oil and could steam for at a speed of . " Courbet " s main armament consisted of twelve Mle 1910 45 - calibre guns mounted in six twin gun turret s , with two turrets superimposed fore and aft , and one on each flank of the ship . For anti - torpedo boat defence she carried twenty - two Mle 1910 guns , which were mounted in casemate s . Four Modèle 1902 Hotchkiss gun s were fitted , two on each beam . She was also armed with four submerged Modèle 1909 torpedo tube s with twelve torpedoes . " Courbet " s waterline armoured belt extended well below the waterline as the French were concerned about protection from underwater hits . Her main armour was also thinner than that of her British or German counterparts , but covered more area . It was thick between the fore and aft turrets and tapered to towards the bow and stern . It extended below the normal waterline . Above the main belt was another belt , 180 mm thick , that covered the sides , and the secondary armament , up to the forecastle deck , deep , between the fore and aft turrets . The conning tower had armour thick . The main gun turrets had of armour on their faces , on their sides and roofs thick . Their barbettes had of armour . There was no anti - torpedo bulkhead although there was a longitudinal bulkhead abreast the machinery spaces that was used either as a coal bunker or left as a void . Career . " Courbet " was built by the Arsenal de Lorient , at Lorient . Her keel was laid down on 1 September 1910 and she was launched on 23 September 1911 . She was completed on 19 November 1913 and finished her trials before World War I began the following year . World War I . " Courbet " joined the 1st Division of the 1st Squadron of the French Mediterranean Fleet , at Toulon , upon commissioning in 1913 . She became the flagship of Vice - Amiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère , commander of the 1st Squadron , after the beginning of the war until 12 April 1915 . Lapeyrère decided immediately on a sweep into the Adriatic to surprise the Austrian vessels enforcing a blockade of Montenegro and the Anglo - French force , which included her sister ship " Jean Bart " , succeeded in cutting off and sinking the Austro - Hungarian protected cruiser " Zenta " in an engagement off Antivari on 16 August 1914 , although her accompanying destroyer managed to escape . She spent most of the rest of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until hit " Jean Bart " on 21 December with a torpedo . This forced the battleships to fall back to either Malta or Bizerte to cover the Otranto Barrage . After the French occupied the neutral Greek island of Corfu in 1916 she moved forward to Corfu and Argostoli , but her activities were very limited as much of her crew was used to man anti - submarine ships . Before the end of the war she was fitted with seven Mle 1918 anti - aircraft ( AA ) guns in single mounts . These guns were adaptations of the famous French Mle 97 75 - mm field gun . Interwar years . " Courbet " served as Vice - Amiral Charlier ' s flagship between 6 June 1919 and 20 October 1920 . The following year she became a gunnery training ship at Toulon , but she suffered a serious boiler fire in June 1923 that required repairs , so she was given the first of her upgrades between 9 July 1923 and 16 April 1924 , at La Seyne - sur - Mer . This included replacing one set of boilers with oil - fired boilers , trunking together her two forward funnels , increasing the maximum elevation of the main armament from 12° to 23° , removal of her bow armour to make her more seaworthy , the installation of a fire - control director , with a rangefinder , atop the new tripod foremast as well as the installation of an experimental rangefinder on top of her conning tower . She had another boiler fire in August 1924 and remained under repair for the rest of the year , but resumed her duties as a gunnery training ship upon her return from the dockyard . She was refitted again between 15 January 1927 and 12 January 1931 . This was much more extensive than her earlier refit as another set of boilers was converted to oil - firing , her high and medium pressure direct - drive turbines were replaced by geared turbines and her fire - control systems were comprehensively upgraded . A large cruiser - type fire - control director was added atop the foremast with a 4 . 57 - m coincidence rangefinder and a stereo rangefinder . The rangefinder above the conning tower was replaced by a duplex unit carrying two 4 . 57 - m rangefinders and another 4 . 57 - m rangefinder was added in an armoured hood next to the main mast . Two directors for the secondary guns were added on the navigation bridge , each with a coincidence rangefinder . A rangefinder was added to the roof of ' B ' turret , the second one from the bow . Her Mle 1918 AA guns were exchanged for Mle 1922 guns and they were provided with three rangefinders , one on top of the duplex unit on the conning tower , one on ' B ' turret and one in the aft superstructure . The 75 - mm guns had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90° . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of fire of 8 – 18 rounds per minute and had a maximum effective ceiling of . She was transferred from the gunnery school to the navigation school in 1937 , before her final refit between 1 April 1937 and 19 September 1938 that removed her torpedo tubes and overhauled her boilers . By 1939 she reverted to her role as a gunnery training ship , but she was ordered to Brest and Quiberon with her sister " Paris " upon the outbreak of World War II . World War II . " Courbet " and her sister " Paris " formed a Fifth Squadron at the beginning of the war . They were transferred to the Atlantic to continue their training duties without interference . Both ships were ordered restored to operational status on 21 May 1940 by Amiral Mord and they were given six Hotchkiss twin machine gun mounts and two single 13 . 2 - mm Browning machine guns at Cherbourg . " Courbet " was ordered to provide gunfire support to the defenders of Cherbourg against the advancing 7th Panzer Division and covered the evacuation of the town by the Allies , although the lack of spotting aircraft meant that she was not particularly effective in that role . " Courbet " sailed for Portsmouth on 20 June . She was seized there , as part of Operation Catapult , by British forces on 3 July and a week later was turned over to the Free French , who used her as a depot and an anti - aircraft ship in Portsmouth until 31 March 1941 when she was disarmed . Up to April 1944 she was deployed as a target ship in Scotland . At Loch Striven she was initially used as a target vessel for the " Highball " trials . Mosquito bombers would drop their stores and use Courbet as a target . " Highball " was a smaller version of " Upkeep " used in the Dambuster Raid . She left Loch Striven under tow from Growler and Thames on 6 April 1944 ( 15 ) . She remained in use as a depot and target ship until she was earmarked for use as a " Gooseberry " breakwater at Sword Beach during the Battle of Normandy . She had to be towed from Weymouth on 7 June 1944 by the British Rescue tugs " HMRT Growler " and " HMRT Samsonia " as her engines and boilers had been removed earlier and replaced with concrete . She was scuttled in place on 9 June and was hit by Neger manned torpedo es during the nights of 15 – 16 and 16 – 17 August . She was scrapped in place after the war . Footnotes . 15 . Admiralty War Diary April 5 , 1944 , Imperial War museum Records of H . Morris & C0 Ltd ( The Morris Furniture Group )