LE CUIRASSÉ RICHELIEU

PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 23, 2024!

The Richelieu will remain a ship with a silhouette that combines elegance and power. It will be the centerpiece of the French Navy and will bring pride back to the hearts of many sailors during the darkest hours of the Royal Navy. The battleship will sail on almost all the seas of the world. In June 1940, it will be in Dakar under the orders of Vichy, then it will be necessary to wait for the Anglo-American landing in North Africa for it to join the Allied forces. Modernized in the United States, it will be incorporated into the Home Fleet. It carried out patrols in the Norwegian Sea, it will be transferred to the Eastern Fleet to fight the Japanese units based in Singapore. At the end of 1945, it will be present in Indochina and will return to Toulon in February 1946. The Richelieu will subsequently make numerous trips on the French and North African coasts. A training ship at the end of its career, the battleship will end its days within the III Maritime Region before being immobilized in Brest and ending up in La Spezia, dismantled by Italian scrap dealers.

The genesis, technical characteristics, as well as the history of the Richelieu, will be reported to you through 112 pages, 240 photographs, 8 color profiles, 4 maps and 16 plans.