The war in Europe had begun with the invasion of Poland only a few months
earlier when the French Navy considered a new battleship design. It was very
early in 1940 when the Conseil Superieur decided that the navy needed more
battleships. France had two ships of the Richelieu class under construction and
two ships of a modified Richelieu design ordered in the 1938 program. However,
Germany had their Bismarck and Tirpitz well advanced and had six improved battleships of the H class projected for
construction. Looking to the Mediterranean, the relationship with Italy was
uneasy as Mussolini sat on the fence. The Italians has four battleships of the Vittorio
Veneto class completing, building or on order. Three design
standards were considered with a 40,000-ton design armed with nine 15-inch guns
in three triple turrets, two forward and one aft; a 42,500-ton design called for
the same arrangement but with nine 16-inch guns; the third design called for
using the maximum limit under the proposed 1936 London Naval Treaty of
45,000-tons but mounting twelve 15-inch guns, using the same quadruple turret
designed for the Richelieu.
Considering that the triple gun turrets would require a new turret and mount
design and 16-inch gun development would take even longer, using an existing
design was the obvious choice with two quad turrets forward and one aft.
Armor protection would have been similar to the Richelieu and a top speed of
30 knots would have been required, which would require 197000 shp. Secondary and
AA armament would have also been on the lines of the modified Richelieu of the Gascogne. On April 15, 1940
the construction of four battleships of the class was approved by the
legislature. The names selected were Alsace,
Normandie, Flandre,
and Bourgogne and two more were
considered for construction. However, the ships were never laid down as that
spring brought the German Blitzkrieg tof the West and France had been over-run
by that summer. MB Models produces a 1:1250 scale model of the Alsace 1940 French battleship design with a resin hull and white metal turrets,
superstructure and other equipment. The master casting was prepared by John
Youngerman.
The MB Models 1:1250 scale Alsace is available directly from the manufacturer at Waterline Ships Co.
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