Provence

Bretagne class battleship : Bretagne, Lorraine & Provence
Built in France by ****nal de L'Orient, launched in April 1913 and commissioned 1915.
L 544'06" B 88'06" Draft 29' Disp 23,230 tons standard and 26,180 tons full load
Machinery : Quadruple screws driven by Parsons geared turbines supplied by 24 C/F boilers with oil sprayers to raise steam quickly, 29,000 SHP for 20 knots bunkers 2,700 tons coal 300 oil
Armament : Ten 320mm Just under13.5&quot guns in five twin turrets, twenty-two 5.5" guns in single mounts, 4 47mm signalling guns and four 18" torpedo tubes.

This is one of the two sisters shelled by the Bitish fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, the French did not wish to follow any of the British suggestions to prevent their fleet falling into the hands of the Nazi's so Admiral somerville was forced to open fire with Hood, Valiant and Resolution, which left Bretagne on the bottom after her aft magazine exploded, Provence was seriously damaged, sadly 1,297 French sailors were killed and about 350 were wounded in an action no-one wanted.
The French ships which escaped were laid up in Toulon and were eventually scuttled to keep them out of the hands of the Nazi's

Hi Steve, thanks for the info on her. I have a reproduction of painting by one who was at Mers El-Kebir, the marine painter Marin Marie. He was (decrypting?) officer on Strasbourg. That ship is shown half a boatlength ahead of the others here: LINK Dunkerque is overtaken? (- atteint). Bretagne is exploding. The light ship with the black tower this side of the Strasbourg must be the Provence or her sister. (Btw, he betrays no acrimony in his writings, but found all of the three alternatives presented unacceptable. One of his painting of the incident was used in Churchill's memoirs published in Life, I read, and that picture was supressed in the French edition).
I believe this could be a picture of the Provence or her sister in the heat of the action: LINK Another photograph from Mers El Kebir: LINK Here's the action on Youtube: LINK
A writer for BBC finds it an extremely important battle, quote: In June 1940, the only fleet large enough to have a chance of threatening the Royal Navy was that of France. France's surrender posed the possibility that this might fall into German hands, and Churchill acted ruthlessly to prevent that happening, ordering his admirals to neutralise the French ships at all costs and at great speed. One admiral, in Gibraltar, protested at these orders – he was later sacked. Another, in Alexandria, ignored them and successfully spent several days negotiating a French disarmament. In Oran, North Africa, a third, carried the orders out to the letter, and this, combined with the inflexibility of his French opposite number, led to the attack by the Royal Navy on the French base of Mers-el-Kebir on the 3rd of July 1940. Three French battleships were put out of action and over a thousand sailors died on them.
This was the decisive battle of 1940 that saved Britain from the possibility of invasion. With the Navy safe, the Battle of Britain could have been lost and invasion would probably still not have been possible. In fact it was won, and for obvious reasons became the symbol of that period. Meanwhile, Mers-el-Kebir was forgotten. (End of quote). The official British report on the battle: LINK
Regards, Stein

Excellent stuff Stein - many thanks

Dear Stein, here are some more pictures of Provence at various stages throughout her career......

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=159140

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=159348

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=159141

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=159349

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=159139

Terry (Caravellarella)

Thanks Terry.
Pardon me being nosy, but you do seem to have an interest in ships grouped into two subjects where the common angle seems hard to find: old French warships and comparatively modern Japanese cargo carriers - are there something common to those groups that I could have seen? Regards, Stein.