At the start of WWII, France was among the second rank of the world's major naval powers. Their dreadnought construction program had been interrupted by the outbreak of WWI, leaving them with five pre-1914 battleships, two Courbets and three Bretagnes. The Courbets were the first French dreadnoughts, and by 1939, both had been relegated to training duties.¹ In front-line service, the Bretagnes were joined by the two ships of the Dunkerque class, the only small battleships built under the Washington Naval Treaty. They displaced only 26,500 tons standard, well under the 35,000 ton treaty limit, and were designed to hunt the German Deutschland class panzerschiffe.² Two more battleships of the Richelieu class, built to the full treaty limit with two 15" quad turrets forward, were nearing completion.³ They had been laid down to counter the Italian Littorios, and another pair, counters to Bismarck and Tirpitz, had been authorized in 1938, although only one was laid down before the outbreak of war, and both were suspended in favor of more urgent projects.⁴

Dunkerque

In the early months of the war, the Marine Nationale cooperated closely with the RN, dispatching its battleships to hunt German raiders and protect transatlantic convoys. In mid-1940, as the risk of Italy entering the war grew, the Dunkerques and Bretagnes were dispatched to the Mediterranean as a deterrent, operating out of Mers-el-Kebir, in modern Algeria. Unfortunately, they could do nothing in the face of the disaster that overtook France in June 1940, also drawing Italy into the war. Courbet and Paris, stationed at Cherbourg and Le Havre respectively, provided artillery support to the defenders of those cities when the Germans approached, but ultimately were forced to evacuate to Britain in late June. Richelieu, officially completed the day after Paris fell, was sent to Dakar, in West Africa, to keep her under French control and give the French government leverage over the Germans. Richelieu's sister Jean Bart, launched in early May, was hastily made ready for sea and escaped only hours ahead of the Germans, then headed straight for Casablanca with only a handful of AA guns operative. Ultimately, the Armistice signed between Germany and France on June 22nd left the French in control of their fleet,⁵ but stipulated that they must be returned to their home ports, many of which were in the German-occupied zone.⁶ Read more...

As it's Easter, I thought it was time to once again honor the US military's chaplains, charged with the spiritual health of the troops. Last year, I told the story of the Four Chaplains who gave up their lives on the torpedoed troopship Dorchester. This year, we'll look at the first Chaplain to win the Medal of Honor in the 20th century, Father Joseph T. O'Callahan of the USS Franklin.

Joseph O'Callahan

O'Callahan was a Jesuit who taught math at Holy Cross before the war, and became the first of his order to join the Navy's chaplain corps when he requested an appointment in late 1940. His first assignment was to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, where he quickly gained a reputation for hard work and care among not only Catholics but all he came in contact with. Finally, after 18 months in Florida, he was assigned to the carrier Ranger, just in time for her to be sent to support Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. O'Callahan provided a narration of the action to the crewman on duty throughout the ship over the 1MC, then went topside to help haul the body of a gunner killed by AA fire out of the Dauntless and provide him a proper burial at sea. Read more...

Gentlemen,

The last six months have not seen a victory on the scale of Texel, but we have continued to win most of our engagements. The biggest loss was one of our fast battleships and a pair of British battlecruisers in a night action, and the largest cause was the stupidity of the British commander, who allowed his flagship to be destroyed in the opening moments of the engagement.

In the past six months, we've laid down two battleships, 2 CLs and a quartet of destroyers. We have ships about to commission as well, 8 destroyers, a CVL and a CL. What will replace them is an open question, although after serious losses to air attack off the German coast, the staff would suggest an emphasis on carriers. Read more...

The ultimate purpose of sea power is to effect events on land, where most people spend their time. Often, this takes the form of controlling trade and use of the sea, but it can also involve direct projection of power ashore. This is usually unpopular with those on land, and while it's usually best to make your displeasure known at sea, this hasn't always been possible. The alternative is usually fixed coastal defenses, set up ashore to make life more difficult for attackers. Initially, these took the form of lookouts and conventional fortifications, set up to protect against raids on major settlements and up rivers, such as the Roman fortifications which protected southeast England and northern France. It was only with the development of gunpowder that land-based defenders gained an effective weapon against ships, and dedicated coastal defenses began to appear. One early example was Dartmouth Castle, which was built in the 1400s to protect Dartmouth, in soutwest England, and was sited to cover an iron chain to keep enemies out of the harbor. Artillery and booms like the chain would both form a vital part of coastal defenses for the next half-millennium.

Dartmouth Castle, protecting the river Dart

The first large-scale coastal defense system appears to have been the Device Forts,⁷ constructed in England and Wales under Henry VIII to guard against the possibility of invasion by the French. The Device Forts were built in the era during which midevial castles were giving way to more modern bastion forts, of which the most impressive were so-called "castles", stone forts equipped with numerous heavy guns and intended to protect important cities and anchorages, as well as providing the defenders some protection against enemy troops. More numerous were the blockhouses, smaller stone buildings equipped with a few guns and positioned to defend against naval assault only. The first castles used rounded bastions, although these left "dead zones" near the walls where attacking troops could shelter, and later fortifications were angular in the style of the bastion forts being developed in continental Europe. These could cover all of their external walls with enfilading cannon fire, making them much harder to attack from land, although they still used vertical stone walls that were vulnerable to cannon fire.⁸ Read more...

During the 1960s, the world's shipping companies were in trouble. Their existing break-bulk cargo ships were proving uneconomical to load and unload as labor costs, particularly in developed countries, climbed, and ships spent over half their time sitting still while stevedores emptied and filled their holds. Something better would be needed, presumably a way to package cargo into larger containers which could be moved on and off the vessel relatively easily.

CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship ever to dock in North America⁹

This wasn't a completely new idea. In fact, its roots stretched back over a century, to the early train ferries, designed to bridge bodies of water too wide for bridges. Fully-loaded rail cars would be brought aboard on internal tracks and then shuttled across to the other side. Much the same was done during WWII, when LSTs were filled with fully-loaded trucks, which would simply be driven off on the beach at the far end. However, this kind of loading was rather inefficient, with an LST able to carry only a quarter of what it could if loaded with bulk cargo. During the Bismarcks campaign, the sacrifice in cargo was unacceptable, and a compromise was found in the form of loading the LST with trailers, which could carry more cargo than trucks, but still be unloaded quickly. Read more...

It's our normal open thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not military/naval related.

I'd like to highlight the USN's response to the coronavirus, the deployment of the hospital ships Mercy and Comfort to Los Angeles and New York, respectively. Of course, this is somewhat overshadowed by the recent attempt by a rather disturbed train driver to ram Mercy.

Overhauls for 2018 are The Early Battlecruisers, Why do we need so many ships?, ASW in WWI, So You Want to Build a Battleship - Design Part 1, The Pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau, and Operation Staple Head. 2019 overhauls are the last part on commercial aviation, German Guided Bombs Part 4, Manila Bay, Naval Fiction, So You Want to Build a Battleship - Construction Part 2, The Philadelphia Experiment and A Brief History of the Destroyer.

Lord Nelson recently visited S.S. Anne, a cruise ship that was temporarily open to the public when docked in Kuchiba City, Kanto. Her priorities are rather different than mine.

SS Anne from pierside

I'll start with the good things. The ship was gorgeous, both inside and out, and the crew was very friendly. I particularly enjoyed the public art on display throughout the vessel. It looks like regular passengers would have a lot to do, with a pool, a gym, crew-led aerobics, and a very nice restaurant. We even got to tour the kitchen, although I'm not sure how good their hygiene standards were, given that the Captain had some sort of stomach bug while I was there. Read more...

The general cargo ship is the oldest of merchant ships, dating back to when man first began to move cargo across water. It is essentially an empty shell, filled with cargo loaded aboard one piece at a time. This cargo, known as break-bulk, can be anything from bolts of cloth to heavy equipment like trucks and industrial equipment. Traditionally, even liquids and bulk cargoes like grain were packaged up and moved aboard such ships, although the 19th century saw the creation of specialized bulk carriers and tankers for such cargo.

Three-island cargo ship Vega

Until the advent of containerization and other systems for improved handling of non-bulk cargo, break-bulk ships moved most of the world's general cargo. Typically, these ships were in the "three-island" layout, with their engines under the bridge amidships, and a forecastle and poop providing accommodation for the crew. Except for the engines, the entire main body of the ship was taken up by a number of holds, each loaded and unloaded through a hatch in the deck above it. Most ports were quite primitive and provided little more than a place to tie up, so cargo was handled by the ship's own booms, which usually limited loads to 10 tons or less. Initially, hatches were fairly small, which meant a lot of work inside the holds to make sure they were properly filled, increasing turnaround time and cost. Read more...

Gentlemen,

The long-anticipated war with Germany has finally started. Thanks to some poor guidance from Winston Churchill, we sent a force into the Baltic and had a rough time of it, losing CL Coetlogon to a submarine torpedo and taking substantial damage. We stand allied with Britain, however, and have a chance to make up the deficit.

We now have to decide on our war strategy and build plan. We have no invasion options in the German colonies, leaving us with a substantial surplus for new construction, particularly once our CAs commission next month. Read more...

Gideon Welles’ program to reform the Navy and supply it with the vast numbers of new vessels it would need to support the Northern war effort (and deter possible European threats) was tremendously successful. But like all such programs, it took time, and Southern privateers had a narrow window of opportunity to operate before the superior power of the U.S. Navy could be brought to bear.

Privateer Sumter intercepts brig Joseph Parks

Southern privateers began hauling their prizes into New Orleans as early as May 1861. These early war privateers were typically smaller vessels, refitted for war, that operated close to the coastline and pounced upon unsuspecting Northern merchantmen. In confrontations with United States naval vessels, they were outmatched and typically captured or sunk. Nevertheless, they operated in great numbers and with some success for the first year of the war, until the blockade—which made returning prizes to port difficult—began to take effect, and would-be entrepreneurs turned to blockade-running. Read more...