At the start of World War Two, Dunkerque
and Strasbourg were tasked to hunt
German Panzershiffes. By October Strasbourg
had split off to form the core of another taskforce. In November Dunkerque,
Georges Leygues (whom British sailors
called Gorgeous Legs), Montcalm
and eight destroyers joined a British force, which included HMS
Hood, to hunt what they thought was the Deutschland.
In reality the ships they sought were Scharnhorst
and Gneisenau. The book, Flagship
Hood, has a picture of Dunkerque’s
tower bridge, taken from the Hood
during this joint search. This photo is ironic, considering the next meeting
between Dunkerque and Hood.
In early 1940 Dunkerque was
transferred to Mers-el-Kebir to counter any Italian threat in the Mediterranean.
On July 3, 1940 Dunkerque again met Hood,
which was accompanied by Resolution, Valiant,
and Ark Royal, at the Battle of
Mers-el-Kebir.
To avoid capture of the French Fleet by Germans or Italians, Churchill
ordered the French forces neutralized. The French were given an ultimatum with
several options. They refused to act and British Force H opened fire on the
French Fleet. Dunkerque was the
target of Hood. Four 15-inch shells
hit Dunkerque from Hood.
The first hit went through the seaplane hanger and exited below the waterline,
without exploding. The light plating encountered by this shell was insufficient
to detonate the fuze. The second hit was on the starboard front corner of B
turret. Most of the shell ricocheted away but the turret armor was penetrated
and the entire gun crew of the starboard half of the turret was killed. The
French had built a 40 mm armored bulkhead separating the port and starboard
halves of each turret. The port half of the turret continued in action as the
armored partition isolated the damage, smoke and fire to the starboard side. The
third hit was at the top of the main armored belt near the starboard twin
secondary mount. It exploded inside the Dunkerque
and caused disruption of electrical power. This hit effectively hamstrung Dunkerque.
The fourth hit was close to the second and went under the belt and exploded
against the torpedo bulkhead. This explosion shut down a fireroom and limited
the maximum speed of Dunkerque.
No longer capable of putting out to sea, it was ordered that Dunkerque
be grounded. The British ceased fire and steamed away. The next day Admiral
Esteva, commander of French North African naval forces, rather unwisely issued a
press release stating that Dunkerque
had only received minor damage. Because of this statement Force H returned to
visit Dunkerque on July 6. This time
the Swordfish and Skuas of Ark Royal were
used against Dunkerque. The patrol
vessel Terre Neuve was along the port side of Dunkerque,
embarking coffins of those that died on July 3 from the fire of Hood. One
torpedo cut this patrol vessel in two. On a following attack wave, another
torpedo hit the wreckage of the stern of Terre Neuve and detonated 42 depth
charges located there. This massive explosion next to Dunkerque,
tore a hole 40 meters long below the waterline of the starboard side of Dunkerque.
Dunkerque settled by the bow and for
a second time, the British sailed away.
Refloated in August, Dunkerque was
unable to sail until February 1941, when she reached Toulon with repair
scaffolding still in place. She was still undergoing repairs, when she was
scuttled on November 27, 1942 to avoid capture by the German Army. The wreck of
the Dunkerque was not salvaged until
1958.
Alain Moitrot used plans available from the Musee de la Marine in
Paris to build a 1:200 scale model of this elegant warship. The hull is made out
of wood and all superstructure from Evergreen plastic. Everything is
scratch-built except the railing, which is from Verlinden.
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