1940 The French Navy at Sea

British Newsreel. May 2, 1940.After the World War I, the French Navy remained the 4th in the world, after the British, US and Japanese navies, but the Italian Navy, considered as the main enemy, was close. This order of fleets, with the French Navy equal to the Italian Navy, was sanctioned by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty.Every naval fleet consists of a variety of ships of different sizes, and no fleet has enough resources to make every vessel supreme in its class. Nonetheless, different countries strive to excel in particular classes. Between the world wars, the French fleet was remarkable in its building of small numbers of ships that were "over the top" with relation to their equivalents of other powers.For example, the French chose to build "super-destroyers" which were deemed during the Second World War by the Allies as the equivalent of light cruisers. The Le Fantasque class of destroyer is still the world's fastest class of destroyer. The Surcouf submarine was the largest and most powerful of its day. The Dunkerque class battleships, designed specially to fight the German so-called pocket battleships, were, in spite of their relatively small size, very well-balanced designs and precursors of a new fast battleship generation in the world. The Richelieu class full-size battleships are considered by some experts as most successful battleships, built under displacement limits of Washington Treaty in the world.

Category:

News & Politics

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• French
• Navy
• World
• War
• II
• Richelieu
• Dunkerque

[TheMightOfTheEnglish]

@binaway the british could never use terror in india ,do you think the indians would of allowed it, we couldnt run india without the indians, a population of 300 plus million in the 30s , 2 million indians fought for us in ww2 , we used force from time to time were needed but we wernt that type of empire , we fought mau maus ,kenya would of been awful with them in charge,we fought communist chinese in malaya and the likes ,but handed these countries back, we werent lke the french in indo china

[binaway]

@historatia Terror is the only way to keep an Empire intact ( ie Stalin, Genghis Khan). The British working class got the vote in 1918 and after WW2 the British public & free press would not have allowed a British government to unleash the terror campaign required to keep India a subject state. The same with the rest of the empire. Besides India it cost more to control the Empire than could be earned from it. It was also impossible to defend especially with US & USSR hostility to colonialism

[historatia]

@chloe7829 Will a short "gar nichts" suffice? My comments arose as a response to an off-topic set of comments by Poles (do I dare call them Polophones as in Francophones and Anglophones?) who continue on YT to make claims on this as well as other vids that I find false and intellectually erroneous and objectionable.

[chloe7829]

@historatia What does all of this have to do with the French Navy, of which this is a website?

[trent8002003]

French designers were quite schizophrenic. They designed the best looking destroyers/cruisers and the worst possible looking battleships (esp those in WWI).

[historatia]

@PolskiNarodowiecND Poland was NEVER the biggest country in Europe. (Russia has always held that place.) Whats more the "Commonwealth" was NOT a "POLISH" state but a "Commonwealth" and "Personal Union". When the Poles sought to make it all "Poland" the others rebelled and got out. It seems you know extremely little in that Polish chauvinistic brain of yours. End of Story? Do you think you're the Pope and have the great wisdom? Learn something first OK?

[historatia]

@PolskiNarodowiecND Call me a cretin all you like, but the WORDS of the Armistice AND the Poland Treaty (Trianon) clearly state that the Polish State was to be of those areas indisputably SETTLED by people of POLISH culture over generations. and the OTHER AREAS were to be subjected to plebiscite (vote), with the exception of the corridor which was granted. Lord Curzon as appointed to do the determinations. He DREW the LINE AND POLAND REFUSED TO ACCEPT IT.... It became a rogue state.

[TSR1989FF]

@historatia Well that's the first time i've been subject to both Pedanticism & Sarcasm both in the same comment, oh well i guess it makes a change if nothing else.

[historatia]

@PolskiNarodowiecND What Poles took from others (Like Wilno, Lwow, East Galicia, much of Belarus, Danzig and West Prussia, East Prussia, West Prussian, German Silesai, other countries have a RIGHT to take back. Insofar as Warsaw was Russian under Russian Domain for a very long time, I guess they haver a right that too. Well, fine, have it your way. (You will notice that Poland already has bad relations with Russia, Lithuania and the Ukraine. Are you giving Stettin and Breslau back to the Germans

[historatia]

@PolskiNarodowiecND The area settled by "Polish people" was NEVER "the biggest", and those "other people" under Polish occupation most of the time had a RIGHT to self-determination to LEAVE the commonwealth WITH THEIR LANDS and ally with other people like the Prussians, Russians and Austrians.. THAT is the end of the story to explode your Polish Myths of being the rightful POLISH MASTER RACE of Central Europe.