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The ''Dunkerque''-class battleship was a type of warship constructed for the French Navy in the 1930s. The ''Dunkerque''s were designed to counter the German pocket battleships. Their main armament was two quadruple 330 mm turrets forward, with a thick armored belt. They were smaller, with a 26,500- to 27,300-ton standard displacement and a smaller main artillery caliber, than the battleships authorized by the Washington Naval Treaty, but their speed was 7 knots higher than any of the battleships built from 1920 to 1937. When they were commissioned, only the last existing battlecruisers of the British Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy were their equals. Given their characteristics, they were alternatively classified as fast battleships, small battleships, battlecruisers, and even as "ships of the line" (Fr. ''navires de ligne'').〔 Two ships, and , were completed. Together they formed the ''1ère Division de Ligne'' ("1st Division of the Line"), and saw service during the early years of the Second World War. While they never encountered the German pocket battleships they were designed to counter, they suffered the British attack of Mers-el-Kebir, and stayed under the Vichy authorities control until they were scuttled at Toulon in November 1942. == Background == In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed a ten-year moratorium on the construction of new battleships. But France and Italy were allowed to replace two old battleships after 1927, for a total of 70,000 tons. In the late 1920s, the most powerful battleships had been designed before the Washington Treaty, and were armed with four double turrets of or diameter guns. The s, built between 1922 and 1927 with three triple 16-inch turrets forward, were based on the 1921 G3 battlecruiser concept. The top speed was, for most battleships of the time, , although the s had top speeds, and a few under Western flags, the fast battleships or battlecruisers, had top speeds exceeding . But neither France nor Italy intended to build battleships that were similar to the most recent American, British, or Japanese battleships, which were very heavily armed and armored. They wished only to modernize their aging battleships, refurbishing the propulsion machinery, and upgrading the main artillery, despite the Treaty of Washington authorizing them to undertake much more radical modernizations than could the other treaty powers. In the same way, both France and Italy reserved the right to employ their replacement capital ship tonnage allocation () as they saw fit, subject to Treaty limits – not only were two battleships of possible, but also three of or four of . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dunkerque-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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