As
the 19th century came to a close, the primary competition of the
Royal Navy was still the centuries old rival France, although Imperial Russia
was coming up fast. For two decades the French navy had been dominated by the
Jeune Ecole who disdained battleships. This clique believed that masses of
small, cheap torpedo boats could overwhelm the British Fleet for a mere fraction
of the costs of battleships. Also part of their theory was that fast armored
cruisers could attack the Achilles Heel of Great Britain, her merchant fleet. If
there had to be battleship construction, they should be small coast defense
battleships. Battleship construction in the 1870s to 1890 was characterized by
small coast defense types. To further muddle strategic continuity, naval
administrations had the life span of a gnat. There were 31 different
administrations in a 33 year time span. By 1890 it was decided to bring the
French battleships back from the coast defense precipice. Even when a larger
ship was authorized the procedure for for ordering new ships was so Byzantine
that French ships took far longer to complete then almost all other powers. The Magenta was ordered in 1880
but not completed until 1893. The Plan of 1890 contemplated building ten blue
water, not coast defense, battleships.
Over the next decade the French Navy completed these ships, which can be grouped
in two separate types based upon their characteristics. The French battle line
was known as a collection of samples in that French building practices tended to
build one-off designs. This was primarily caused by lack of funds so multi-ship
orders were not placed. With each new design the French would again rearrange
all of the pieces. The only exception was the 1894
St. Louis
class in which three battleships were built to the same design. This process
resulted in little commonality from class to class or from ship to ship. French
design emphasized rate of fire and seaworthiness and were less interested in
speed and armor. Single mount turrets were favored in a lozenge pattern with for
and aft turrets and a wing turret on each side amidship. In appearance they had
heavy military masts and an extreme tumblehome. The genesis for the 1890 plan
was a war scare and tariff war with
Italy
in 1889 and fleet maneuvers in which the faster “Italian Fleet” could avoid
contact with the “French Fleet” and ravish the French Mediterranean
coastline. Also the British had announced a big battleship program that year. In
response initial plans called for 14,000-ton battleships with four 12.-inch guns
and a 17-knot maximum speed. However, the young turks of the Jeune Ecole and
penny-pinching politicians protested this “Gigantism” and estimates were cut
down to a maximum displacement of 12,000-tons, handcuffing designers.
The
first five ships in the 1890 program were each given to a different designer,
except Charles Martel and Bouvet
had the same designer but even then the ships were not to the same design. Charles
Martel, Carnot
and Jaureguiberry
were ordered April 14, 1891 and Massena
and Bouvet
were ordered May 18, 1892. With long building times, although built faster than
ships of the previous decade, the first three were completed in 1897 and the
last two in 1898. No two ships had the same length or displacement running from
367-ft (oa) for Jaureguiberry to 402-ft (oa)
for Bouvet.
The largest and slowest was Bouvet
with a top speed of 17-knots but the other four were at or close to 18-knots.
They all had a common major armament of fore an aft single 12-inch gun turrets
with single 10.8-inch wing turrets. The 12-inch main guns were 45 caliber except
Massena
with 40 caliber while for the 10.8-inch guns three of the four had 45 caliber
and Charles
Martel and Bouvet
had 40 caliber. The first three had eight 5.5-inch/45 secondaries and four 47mm
QF. The last two reduced the secondary gun size in order to increase the QF
guns. These two had eight 3.9-inch secondaries with twelve 47mm QF guns. With a
limit of 12,000-tons something had to go in order to permit more QF guns,
exhibiting the folly of a hard displacement limit.
It wasn’t until 1893 that the French discovered the economy of ordering
multiple ships of a common design. On September 30, 1893 three ships were
ordered from the same design and became the
St
Louis
class. There was a significant time gap between the order of this class and the
orders for the ninth and tenth ships of the 1890 program.
Jena
wasn’t ordered until 1897 and Suffren
in 1890. All five of these ships did away with the wing 10.8-inch guns and
carried standard twin-12 inch gun turrets fore and aft. Suffren
was significantly larger with a length of 422-ft (oa) and displacement of
12,527-tons, breaking the 12,000-ton limit and a 1,000 tons heavier than the
St
Louis
class. All five had four 12-inch/40 twin turrets but secondary gun caliber
started climbing. The
St
Louis
class went back to ten 5.5-inch/45 but also packed eight 3.9-inch guns and
twenty 47mmQF guns.
Jena
went to eight 6.4-inch, and Suffren
to ten 6.4-inch/45. Each had the same eight 3.9-inch tertiary guns and
Jena
twenty 47mmQF and Suffren twenty-two 47mm. All
five ships hit 18-knots.Charlemagne
and Gaulois
completed in 1899,
St Louis
in 1900,
Jena
in 1902 and Suffren in 1904.
The
single ship ordering approach changed with the advent of the 20th
century. The designs of the 20th century were built with multiple ships in the
class and each succeeding class improved upon the previous design. One of the
factors that bedeviled French battleship designers was the restrictively low
maximum displacement. Enacted by penny-pinching politicians, this resulted in
ships in which too much was attempted on too small of a design. Designers had to
make severe compromises that grouped guns together to provide common armor
protection or carried them too low for stability purposes. The limited
displacement of the designs caused these “work-arounds”, which in turn
created grave operational flaws in the ships and ham strung their combat
effectiveness.
The last of the 1890
program, Suffren
was of the limited design but exceeded it and showed what could be accomplished
with the 527-tons that she ran past the politically imposed 12,000 limit. The Suffren
did reintroduce the practice on mounting secondary guns in turrets instead of
casemates as still found in the designs of the Royal Navy. Turret placement
proved to be far better than casemate placement for the secondaries and it was
here that French designers were significantly ahead of their British
contemporaries. It was with the next design that the limited displacement
shackles were removed from the designers. With the Republique design the
designers could provide a good, effective armor scheme with a belt running
almost the entire length of the battleship. Displacement rose by 2,000 tons,
allowing the designers to create a balanced, well armed, well armored design.
The Republique
design of 1901 had only two ships in the class, Republique and Patrie,
but the four sisters of the follow-up design could be considered half sisters of
the Republique
class. In fact Eric Gille in his volume on French battleships, Cent
Ans de Cuirasses Francais, list all six ships as the battleships of
15,000 tons of the Republique Type, which he
calls the ultimate French pre-dreadnoughts.
However,
most authorities separate the two ships of the Republique
class from the four ships of the Liberte
class. Some authors list the Liberte
class as the Verite class because the lead
ship Liberte
was not in service too long before blowing up in harbor. The names chosen for
the ships hearken back to the 1st Republic of the 1790s with Verite
(truth), Justice, Liberte
and Democratie.
You might think of them as Gaulic superman ships with the motto, Truth,
Justice and the
Parisian Way
. The Republique
class was of 14,870 tons and armed with four 12-inch/45 (305mm) main guns,
sixteen 6.5-inch (164.7mm) secondary guns with twelve in six twin turrets and
the other four in casemate positions, thirteen 65mm QF, ten 47mm QF and two
underwater 18-inch 450mm beam torpedo tubes. The armor was reasonable with a 11
to 7inch belt, 12 ½ inches on main turrets and 13-inches on the conning tower.
The vertical triple expansion engines developed 17,500ihp and drove three shafts
for a maximum speed of 18 knots. The ships had three stacks with two grouped
right behind the forward superstructure and the third separated far aft in front
of the aft superstructure. Although still possessing a goodly tumblehome, the
design did not have the excessive tumblehome of earlier designs. Republique
was laid down in December 1901, followed by Patrie
in December 1902.
Designers
were thinking of ways to improve the class right from the initial design. The Liberte
was ordered only seven months after the Patrie.
The new design was hardly new at all in that it had the same appearance, same
armor, same machinery for the first two (the second two increased power to
18,000ihp with two fewer boilers but from a different manufacturer), same
dimensions and same armament, except for an increase to 12-inch/50 for the main
guns, a large increase in size of secondary armament and a slight increase in
torpedo size to 460mm. In keeping with the trends in other navies, the size of
the secondary guns was increased, although the number of guns was reduced.
Displacement rose slightly to 14,900 tons. The secondary armament for the Liberte
design was ten 7.6-inch/45 (194mm) guns with six in single gun turrets and four
in casemates. The ships were handsome, as they were less piled up than earlier
designs and continued to exhibit distinctly French characteristics. With their
tumblehome, top hat stack caps, fierce-face appearance and small sized turrets,
there was no mistaking their French design.
A continuing problem with French construction was the slow building time. The
yards were inefficient and a British yard could pump out two battleships in the
time it took a French yard to produce one. The Liberte
class ships were no exceptions from this malady. Liberte
was launched April 19, 1905 and finished in December 1907 but took a long time
from the laying of the keel and launch. Justice
was laid down in May 1902, launched on September 27, 1904 but not completed
until July 1907. Verite took almost five years
to build as well. She was laid down in May 1903, launched four years later in
May 1907 and completed in May 1908. Democratie
was the quickest build only taking four years. Laid down in May 1903, she was
launched in April 1904 and completed in July 1907. Although contracted in 1902,
the ships were not in commission until the end of 1907 and into 1908. By this
time HMS
Dreadnought had already been in service for some time and
therefore the design was obsolescent, if not obsolete, from the start of their
service. With the entente cordial the French navy no longer had to concern
itself with the channel or Atlantic squadrons, as the Royal Navy could station
its vast battle fleet against the emerging German High Seas Fleet. Instead, the
French focused their gaze upon the Mediterranean where
Italy
was seen as the most likely enemy.
The
last of the French predreadnought battleship designs will always be somewhat of
a mystery because they were actually a postdreadnought design. HMS
Dreadnought was launched February 10, 1906 and completed years
before the last mixed gun French design was ordered. The French had gone from
one extreme to another. From ordering one ship designs, the Danton class consisted of six
ships of a common design. Unfortunately the design chosen was already obsolete.
The Danton class battleships were
big ships and were actually heavier than the Dreadnought
at 18,400-tons normal compared to the 17,900-tons normal for Dreadnought.
Why then did
France
build the mixed gun Danton class when they could
have ordered ships with all big guns? In Cent
Ans de Cuirasses Francais Eric Gille points out that not everyone
was in favor of the Dreadnought
design. Even in
Great Britain
there were critics of the design who believed the all big gun battleships would
be too big and reduce the quantity of battleships that could be ordered. Others
pointed out that the Japanese fleet had smothered the Russian fleet at the
Battle of Tsushima with secondary hits that could not be achieved with the puny
QF secondary guns of Dreadnought.
These critics either overlooked or were unaware that it was the big caliber hits
that sealed the Russian’s fate, not the medium caliber shells, which caused
crew casualties but not fatal damage to the Russian ships. You could probably
call this group the “All Your Eggs in One Basket” group as they were afraid
the loss of one or two all big gun battleships would take out too much of the
fleet’s strength. They preferred to spread the risk in having a larger
quantity of less capable ships. The distinguished French designer Emile Bertin
basically held this same view and was dubious of the Dreadnought
design.
The creation of Les Cuirasses de 18,000
tonnes type Danton, actually originated as the Dreadnought
was under construction. Since the 12,000-ton shackles have been removed after
the Suffren,
each new design had jumped in size. However, for the Danton
class it was a huge jump from 15,000-tons to 18,000-tons. In August 1905 the
Minister of Marine sketched out preliminaries for the ships of the 1906 program.
His idea was for three battleships with a displacement of 18,000-tons, 18-knot
top speed, four 12-inch (305mm) main guns and twelve 9.4-inch (240mm) secondary
guns in six twin turrets. Other proposals quickly followed and finally the basic
characteristics were boiled down to three choices. One was the design as seen by
the minister, a second was for a French version of Dreadnought
with ten 12-inch guns (305mm) and a third was a compromise between the two with
six 12-inch (305mm) and twelve 7.6-inch (194mm). Then another group came in in
favor of all big guns but using the 10.8-inch (274mm) gun. They pointed out that
the Germans were using their own eleven inch (280mm) guns and they thought the
10.8-inch gun was the equivalent.
Vital Statistics |
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Length:
480-feet 11-inches (146.58m)(oa), Beam:
84-feet 8-inches (25.8m), Draught:
28-feet 8-inches (8.74m), Displacement:
18,400-tons normal, 19,450-tons full load,
Armament:
four 12-inch/45 (305mm) (2x2), twelve 9.4-inch (240mm) (2x6),
sixteen 2.9-inch (75mm) QF 1x16, ten 1.85-inch (47mm) QF 1x10, two
18-inch (457mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:
Belt
– 10.5 to 6-inches (267-152mm), Main
Turrets – 11.8-inches (300mm), Barbettes
– 11-inches (280mm), Secondary
Turrets – 8.7-inches (220mm), Armored
Deck – 2.75-inches (80mm), Conning
Tower – 11.8-inches (300mm)
Machinery:
four Parsons turbines, four shafts, 26 Belleville boilers,
22,500shp, 19.25-knots (35.6kph) maximum speed, 3,370nm (6,234km)
maximum range at 10-knots (18.5kmph), 1,750nm (3,237km) maximum
range at 18-knots (33.3kmph), Complement
- 921
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After doing some
calculations it was determined that it would take 20,000-tons displacement for a
ship mounting ten 12-inch (305mm) guns and since the ministry was looking at a
18,000-ton battleship, the all big gun option was removed from the options. The
coincided with the conclusion that the greater rate of fire of the 9.4-in gun (3
rounds/min) over the 12-in (2 rounds/min) more than compensated for the lighter
projectiles. Other options were 17,200-tons for four 12-in and ten 9.4-in.
18,000-tons for four 12-in and twelve 9.4-in and 17,400-ton for four 12-in and
sixteen 7.6-in. The design with four 12-in and twelve 9.4-in guns was chosen and
the French passed on the opportunity to build their own dreadnought design. This
proved to be a grievous error, as their subsequent dreadnought program was
always a day late and a franc short.
On May 8, 1906 orders for two of the three ships were placed with Danton
to be built at Breat and Mirabeau
at
Lorient
. However, the machinery for the design was still undecided. As with every other
navy, French battleships had used triple expansion reciprocating engines. The
French were very interested in turbine machinery installed in Dreadnought
and waited to find out how the turbines performed on Dreadnought’s
trials. Dreadnought was completed in
October 1906 and her turbine power plant proved to be an outstanding success, as
important or more so than the all big gun layout. On December 29, 1906 the
ministry ordered that turbines would be used in the Danton
class. With the decision to go with turbines made, it was decided to expand the
class from three to six and at the end of December Voltaire,
Vergniaud,
Diderot
and Condorcet
were ordered. It still took some time to order turbines as French at that time
had no turbine manufacturer. Four Parsons turbines were used in each ship with
26
Belleville
boilers to provide the steam. Since the Royal Navy was also equipping their
battleships and battle cruisers with Parson turbines, the French order was at
the tail end of the queue. Finally on January 10, 1908 Danton
was laid down, almost two years after the order was placed and on July 4, 1909
she was launched. Although it took a year and a half to reach the launch date,
the class completed very quickly given the history of slow construction for
French yards. Danton, Diderot
and Condorcet
completed in April 1911. The other three took another year with Voltaire
completing in May 1912, Mirabeau
in July and Vergniaud in November. The
turbines proved to be a success in the French design just as they were with Dreadnought
with Danton
and Voltaire
exceeding 20-knots and the other four achieving speeds slightly below 20-knots.
Although completed in April 1911, Danton had to go through
trials and finally joined the fleet at the end of 1911 with 1st
Squadron, First Division of
l’armee navale. All of 1912 was spent in cruises along the coasts of
Provence
and
Corsica
. In 1913 Danton
went further afield, participating in fleet maneuvers off of
Provence
and
Tunisia
and in the fall steaming with the squadron to the Levant with visits to
Egypt
,
Syria
and
Greece
. There were more maneuvers in May 1914 off
Corsica
,
Algeria
and
Tunisia
. In August with the outbreak of World War One, the primary task of the French
Fleet was to bottle up the Austro-Hungarian Fleet. On 16 August 1914 Danton
and her squadron encountered the Austrian light cruiser Zenta,
which was hit. The balance of 1914 was spent patrolling the Ionian Sea with
occasional sorties into the Adriatic and visits to
Malta
and
Bizerte
. For 1915 it was more of the same for Danton.
Finally in 1916 she was sent to
Toulon
for a refit, which was completed in December 1916. At the start of March she
steamed to Corfu but by mid month she was back in the western
Mediterranean
. On March 19, 1917 Danton was cruising south of
Sardinia
when she was spotted by the German U-Boat U-64. A single torpedo put
paid to Danton, which sank after 30
minutes. However, most of the crew was rescued with 806 saved and 296 lost.
The Combrig Danton
When you think of predreadnought, you think of small battleships, at least
significantly smaller than a dreadnought. However, at 18,000-tons the Danton
was not a small ship and the 1:700 scale Combrig
Danton
is a large model. The Combrig hull
casting is usual excellent casting work with zero defects or flaws. As usual, a
light sanding along the waterline will remove a very slight casting remnant that
you really can’t see but can feel. Since it is a French design, you’re
guaranteed interesting hull sides. First and foremost is the tumblehome.
Although the Danton doesn’t have the
very extreme tumblehome of earlier French battleship designs, it still exhibits
a strong sloping tumblehome. Another feature in common with earlier French
predreadnought designs, which carried secondary guns in turrets or carried the
lozenge main gun arrangement, is the reverse curve from the tumblehome presented
by sponsons which flair outward from the tumblehome sides. The anchor positions
are also another interesting feature in that they recessed wells in which the
anchors are withdrawn. This is a remarkably advanced feature for a 1908 design.
There are two such wells on the starboard side and one on the port side. The bow
freeboard is smooth from deck to waterline but armor belt makes appearance
beyond the hull sides below the forward turret. The belt is visible from that
point all the way to the stern. There are inset tertiary positions at bow and
stern. Lastly you get that wonderful gaullic mixture of square shuttered hull
windows and portholes.
When you look at the deck detail, you’ll notice one big difference from
predreadnought battleships from other navies. There is no wooden planking, just
smooth steel decks. Don’t let the lack of deck planking fool you, Combrig
still packs a wealth of detail on the decks. The forecastle is dominated by
anchor equipment and fittings such as the hawse and windlass plates. Any
manufacturer provides closed deck access hatches but with the Combrig
Danton
you’ll find that these access hatches are open with a well and inclined ladder
leading into the hull. The deck edge has the usual mixture of open chocks and
double bollard fittings. The bollards are not just straight posts but rather
wider at top than the base, which is much harder to capture in resin casting.
There are a number very finely incised rectangles on the forecastle. I don’t
know what their original purpose on the ship was but they are there.
The amidship area from the forward superstructure to the deck break leading to
the quarterdeck has enough holes to qualify for a golf course. There are two
large superstructure locator wells on centerline and three secondary turret
wells on each side. But that is the just the start of it as the French loved
free standing, large, louvered ventilators, as big as deck houses. There are
plenty of locator wells on the Combrig
Danton’s
deck. The circular wells in the aft portion of the deck are for the last two of
the five funnels of the ship. The first
three are found on top of the large superstructure located behind the bridge.
Also located amidship are more of the open access hatches with visible ladders,
circular coal scuttles, deck plate lines and a number of skylights. At the very
aft end, right before the deck break you’ll find five more skylight fittings
and 16 small locator holes for pillars/posts that support a large superstructure
platform. The quarterdeck has its own share of well detailed fittings with
skylights, large and small bollard fittings, open chocks, more locator holes and
some form of machinery.
Smaller Resin Parts
If you like multiple turrets and multiple funnels, the Combrig Danton is the kit for you.
With eight turrets you can have it your way and five funnels would do any
Pittsburg
steel mill proud. There are two large superstructure pies. One is the bridge
and an even larger amidship structure. The tall three story bridge has finely
incised square windows running along the sides. The turrets are oval in shape in
French fashion. The French preferred small turrets to emphasize the length of
the gun barrels. This was part of the fierce
face design philosophy in which aggressive appearance was part of the
design. The small turrets may have presented a smaller target but surely it
negatively impacted crew efficiency. The main turrets have an additional armor
plate on the front face, deep barrel openings and single centerline sighter’s
hood on the crown. The secondary turrets are smaller editions of the main
turrets. Both main and secondary
barrels are nicely cast with reinforcing bands at the base and nicely flared
muzzles. They were straight with no warp but do have small casting vents at the
muzzle, which will have to be removed. The tertiary guns are fine and the small
QF (47mm) are especially well cast with separate resin mounts and barrels and
brass shoulder rests. The five funnels have four different patterns. Three are
circular with one tall funnel and two shorter ones. The other two are oval in
shape and are of different heights. The funnels have typical double caps with
two aprons/guy stay tie down fittings that resemble top hats. The aprons are
very thin and finely cast. One funnel had some damage to one of the aprons
undoubtedly caused by the fineness of the casting making it susceptible to
damage.
A thin resin wafer has the superstructure decks. There are three of these, one
for the navigation deck atop the bridge, one for the central superstructure with
which the deck extends beyond the deck house, and the smallest which is an aft
platform resting atop pillers/posts. The decks will require minor cleanup to
remove resin remnants left over from removing the platforms from the casting
wafer and you’ll have to remove the thin resin film covering the deck
openings. The fore and aft platforms appear to have solid bulkheads but in
reality this would be canvas covered railings. The large central platform is the
most interesting piece as it has openings for three stacks, two large ventilator
openings and two smaller ventilator openings. Additionally it has plenty of deck
houses and sky lights. This sheet also includes eight other parts, which are
conning tower, small deck houses, and small platforms. There is a second smaller
resin wafer, which contains seven domed ventilator crowns.
Most of the smaller resin
parts are on resin casting runners. Two runners have the large louvered
ventilator towers. The casting of these louvers is superb. Of the twelve louvers
only three are identical. Two more runners have fittings and equipment. One has
eight identical searchlights. If you examine the mounts, you’ll notice that
the detail far exceeds typical searchlight mounts. The other fittings runner
contains windlasses, deck winches and other fittings. Three smaller resin
runners have the masts, yards and cranes. There are eight open ships boats in
various sizes and two covered steam launches. Lastly there are five anchors.
Three are the bow anchors with heavy flukes. Unfortunately one fluke had broken.
The other two are smaller stream anchors.
Brass Photo-Etch Frets
Combrig includes one large and one
small brass photo-etch frets with their Danton.
Most of the brass parts are specific for Danton
but Combrig does provide inclined
ladders, multi-platform accommodation ladders, and anchor chains. The modeler
will have to provide railing. Specific parts are the five funnel grates, boat
skids, boat chocks, platform supports, davits, pulleys & tackle for the
cranes, crane platforms, QF gun shoulder rests, and forecastle fittings. The
small fret contains platform supports with open and closed patterns in different
sizes.
Instructions
It is the standard one page back-printed Combrig
format. The front page has a 1:700 scale plan and profile of Danton.
Use these drawings to define exact attachment points for various parts, as well
as for the rigging diagram. The history and vital statistics are in Russian. The
back page has the actual assembly instructions with a starboard quarter view of
the model and five smaller inset boxes, which detail subassemblies. The
subassemblies include the shelter deck atop the central deckhouse, cranes, QF
guns, forecastle detail and deck boats. Also included are parts laydown for
resin and photo-etch parts.
Verdict
The Danton
was not a pre-dreadnought but a post-dreadnought design, in which the French
chose to build a mixed armament battleship and rejected the all big gun layout
of HMS
Dreadnought but had a greater displacement than the British
battleship. The 1:700 scale Combrig Danton
provides excellently produced resin and brass parts to model Danton
in all her eight turret, five funnel, top hat cap glory.
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