![]() ![]() With just four dreadnoughts barely in service in August 1914, of the Courbet class, all the rest of the battlefleet, except the last homogenous classes in 1902-1911, was a mess of prototypes or semi-prototypes, without a single clear class in sight. When WWI broke out, France was found ill-prepared, with a large collection of mismatched vessels, the young school result of fifteen years of experimental playground. France was slow to keep up, only planning a class of “semi-dreadnought”, instead, the Danton. In 1906, it was Great Britain who took the lead, and kept it until the end of WWI, with the dreadnought. From then on, the old rivalry went on under Napoleon III and the third Republic. France, 40 Battleships (1888-1917) The Design of French Battleshipsįrance invented the concept of sea going ironclad back in 1859 with the armoured frigate “Gloire”, immediately answered by the British Navy with the first all-iron armoured frigate, the Warrior, twice her size. ![]()
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