Even before the revolutionary all-big-gun HMS Dreadnought was completed in 1906, the French were “already well off the pace.” slow building times, because of the inferior state of their naval infrastructure, meant the French would never fully compete with the British and German navies, then the two largest in the world. The book opens with a preface and introductory pre-history of early twentieth-century French battleships. These were materials the Kriegsmarine confiscated during the Occupation and were not returned to France until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. They draw upon Dumas’ 1990s French monographs, and rely heavily upon primary sources in the French archives, especially the recently made available Fonds Potsdam. The authors assert these French battleships represented influential and radical designs, and that the British, Germans, and Italians were desirous of these warships. Nevertheless, other warships and topics are examined, as are the proposed, but never completed French capital ship designs. Jordan and Dumas rightly devote most of their book to the Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu, and Jean Bart. This is a first-rate history of the four modern fast capital ships of the Marine Nationale and is a superb presentation of the Dunkerque– and Richelieu-class battleships prior to, during, and after World War II. Originally published in 2009, the 2020 release is a high quality, superior stock paperback, the type readers expect from Seaforth Publishing. John Jordan and Robert Dumas have shifted the spotlight in their reissued French Battleships, 1922-1956. The French, Italian, and other fleets generally receive short shrift. After all, these nations’ navies did the bulk of the fighting. Most histories of World War II at sea rightly focus on the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Germany.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |