France against the world

I'm not saying French ships couldn't compete, but French high command was absolutely horrendous in the inter-war period, and the French armed forces were completely unprepared for any conflict, despite having numbers and equipment on hand. Of course, it didn't help that De Gaulle published his strategies (which were rejected by the French, and adopted by the Germans with a few tweaks to complete the Blitzkrieg package).

Ship v Ship, the Richelieu may have had a chance... Crew v Crew... absolutely not, at least not in the early war.

Of course that's my opinion, I'm not trying to attack anyone or get in a fight... []

 

Ship to ship, the Richelieu was the defenite winner. But your right, the crews and command of the French werent great, so, it might have gone either way.

 

As long as it's not "baby blue." I could justify the pink as "Mountbatten Pink."(sp)

All kidding aside. They do have some great ships with some fantastic characteristics. They are fun and I'll put in my 2 cents worth on this. I think that pound for pound the best heavy cruiser in Treaty is the Suffren. After running that ship in Ravena and seeing what it can do, you just can not go wrong if you built one.

 

I'd agree with you if it wasn't for Mogami. I think Mogami has a slight edge due to the speed. Mogami DEFINITELY looks cooler. That tripod that's on most of the suffrens I've seen built is awful (the tripods look much differently in the photos...were they modified at some point?)

I'm definitely not afraid of no steenkin frenchies. A Bismarck sailing side-by-side with Hood to engage a frog barge would be a beautiful sight.

 

What did you say about frenchies mike? steenkie you say? So its fair to say then, that the Richelieu, going against a Bismark with equal crews and control, would lose? You obviously havent spent enough time in this hobby []. Just playing, but it the Bismark could get a lucky hit on one of the Richelieu's main turrents, then it would be all over. Because of the Quad turrents, the Richelieu would be more accurate, but more likely to have 1/2 of its main armament destroyed with one hit. It all depends on many variables.

 

The quad turrets were divided by an armored plate down the middle. The was one instance where one half of the turret was knocked out and the other kept firing away.

 

Also, there's the possibility of the shells interfering with each other like with the USN triple turrets. The USN solved the problem with delay coils, not sure if the French had the issue though.

 

Man, I wish I was going to be around for the Treaty Nats. I would have loved to show what a Richelieu's twin sidemounts can do to another ship. Heh.

Hey, if next year's Treaty Nats is held in mid August, I can make it!

 

Interested in how the Richelieu compared to other battleships?

Visit this site

Makes for some interesting reading.

 

Love to have you man. Where are you stationed at? I did 15 months at Camp Humphreys. I loved it over there.

 

I'll be stationed at Osan Airbase, which is close to Humphreys. I know Humphreys pretty well. Heh.

 

Osan was much nicer then the Hump when I was over there. The prices on the blankets was much better in Song Tan then in Anjung-ri!

 

Great discussions here.
Some very interesting opinions, and theories also.
Something to consider though.
This is not 1940.
And those of us that build and run French ships are tickled that the French built us such wonderful boats for the combat clubs.
It was said in the days of sail, that the ship to beat, was a ship that was built in France, but had a British crew.
We don't think that we have to be better captains than anyone else, because we have the better boats. So if we are just pretty good captians, then the world fleet will have a fight on their hands.
Mikey

 

Mike M.
I was hoping that you could attend our Nats event this year, but it was not to be.
To be honest. I do not think that Treaty was ready for a Richelieu class battleship being at our Nats this year, even if we Frenchies were.
But you can rest assured that I will do everything possible to make sure that next years Nats will be held after you return from overseas, and the French fleet will stand ready to sortie out with your fine ship.
Mikey
Vive la France

 

Guerriere and Java were both built in France, and crewed by Brits, and both were utterly crushed by American built ships with American sailors.

I think adding French to the equation in any manner is just a recipe for defeat.

 

I like to watch the Tour de France. My son Jeremy and I are looking to go to France next year during the tour and ride a couple of stages 3 or 4 days after the tour passes thru.

 

The problem with the French, is that they are overly cocky. Their greatest general (within the last 300 years) did not have this flaw, as he was Corsican, but instead he was overly paranoid... which you gotta admit is way better than cocky. haha.

 

How many Frenchies do you have out there Mikey?