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RICHELIEU BATTLESHIP MODEL
The
Richelieu battleship belonged to a class of fast battleships built for the
French Navy between the 1930s and 1950s. Initially
two ships were ordered in 1935 in response to Italian's
Littorio-class battleships. After Germany ordered two
Bismarck-class battleships, France responded with
another pair of Richelieus.
Richelieu
battleships were based on the preceding Dunkerque class,
but scaled up to accommodate more powerful 380 mm (15
in) guns and armor to protect them from guns of the same
caliber. To keep the ships within the displacement
limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, they
featured the same concentrated arrangement as the
Dunkerques for the main battery: two quadruple gun
turrets placed forward. They also incorporated new, more
compact boilers that allowed for a shorter hull for fast
speed.
Work on
Clemenceau and Gascogne stopped after
the Germans occupied France. Richelieu was finished
shortly before the French defeat in the Battle of
France, while Jean Bart battleship was hurriedly prepared to be
ready to go to sea during the campaign. Both vessels
fled to French colonies in Africa.
In
mid-1940, battleship Richelieu was attacked twice
and damaged by British forces attempting to coerce the
crew to defect to Free France.
After the
French African colonies shifted to Free French control,
Richelieu traveled to the United States for
modernization. She saw active service with the British
Home Fleet in early 1944 before being transferred to the
Eastern Fleet later that year. There, the battleship
took part in numerous operations against Japanese forces
in the Indian Ocean. She proudly attended the
Japanese surrender of Singapore at the end of the war.
After the
war, Richelieu battleship operated in French
Indochina as part of the initial effort to restore
French colonial rule. She provided fire support
to French forces in the colony during Operation Mapor.
In 1952,
Richelieu was removed from active service for use as a
gunnery training ship. In 1956, she was placed
in reserve and was thereafter used as a stationary
training vessel and barracks ship until 1968 when she
was sold for scrap.
The Richelieu class battleship was by no means inferior to their peers. In
fact, the distinctive look of the class is
only matched by their excellent, well-balanced design.
For one, she
had an impressively deep torpedo defense system. At the
system’s maximum depth amidships, she enjoyed a depth of
23’. That was greater than that of any of her
contemporaries.
This primarily wood
model of the French battleship
Richelieu is 49" long x 14" tall x 7"
wide
(1/200 scale).
We can also
build the
Richelieu
model in other popular scales such as 1/350
(28" long),
1/144 scale (68" long),
1/100 scale (98" long).
Email us to get a model:
Services@ModelShipMaster.com
We can also paint the model the camouflage theme
just like the
Richelieu after her refit in the US.
Learn more about the
Richelieu class battleship
here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Richelieu
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