|
''Courbet'' was the lead ship of her class, the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy. She was completed before World War I and named in honour of Admiral Amédée Courbet. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, helping to sink the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser in August 1914. She spent the rest of the war providing cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea. Although upgraded several times before World War II, she was not deemed to be a first-class battleship and spent most of the interwar period as a gunnery training ship. Upon the German invasion of France, beginning on 10 May 1940, ''Courbet'' was hastily rearmed. She supported Allied troops in the defence of Cherbourg during June, later that month taking refuge in England. As part of Operation Catapult, she was seized in Portsmouth by British forces on 3 July and was turned over to the Free French a week later. She was used as a patrol vessel depot ship and an anti-aircraft ship there until 31 March 1941 when she was disarmed and hulked. Her engines and boilers were removed in 1944 to prepare her for use as a breakwater during the Normandy landings in June 1944. She was scrapped where she lay after the war. ==Description== ''Courbet'' was long overall. She had a beam of and at full load a draft of at the bow. She displaced at standard load and at full load.〔Dumas, p. 223〕 She proved to be rather wet in service as she was bow-heavy because of the superimposed turrets forward.〔Gardiner & Gray, p. 197〕 ''Courbet'' had four propeller shafts powered by four Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, rated at . Twenty-four Niclausse boilers provided steam for her turbines. These boilers were coal-burning with auxiliary oil sprayers.〔Whitley, p. 36〕 She had a designed speed of ,〔 although she reached during trials. She carried up to of coal and of oil and could steam for at a speed of .〔 ''Courbet''s main armament consisted of twelve 45-calibre guns mounted in six twin gun turrets, with two turrets superimposed fore and aft, and one on each flank of the ship. For anti-torpedo boat defence she carried twenty-two guns, which were mounted in casemates. Four Modèle 1902 Hotchkiss guns were fitted, two on each beam. She was also armed with four submerged Modèle 1909 torpedo tubes with twelve torpedoes.〔 ''Courbet''s waterline armoured belt extended well below the waterline as the French were concerned about protection from underwater hits. Her main armour was also thinner than that of her British or German counterparts, but covered more area. It was thick between the fore and aft turrets and tapered to towards the bow and stern. It extended below the normal waterline. Above the main belt was another belt, 180 mm thick, that covered the sides, and the secondary armament, up to the forecastle deck, deep, between the fore and aft turrets. The conning tower had armour thick. The main gun turrets had of armour on their faces, on their sides and roofs thick. Their barbettes had of armour. There was no anti-torpedo bulkhead although there was a longitudinal bulkhead abreast the machinery spaces that was used either as a coal bunker or left as a void.〔Whitley, p. 35〕 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「French battleship Courbet (1911)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|