French battleship Courbet (1911)
Courbet-class battleship / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about French battleship Courbet (1911)?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Courbet was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships, the first ones built for the French Navy. She was completed shortly before the start of World War I in August 1914. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, where she helped to sink an Austro-Hungarian cruiser, covered the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, and often served as a flagship. Although upgraded several times before World War II, she was not considered to be a first-line battleship by the 1930s and spent much of that decade as a gunnery training ship.
Courbet before 1922 | |
History | |
---|---|
France | |
Name | Courbet |
Namesake | Admiral Amédée Courbet |
Operator | |
Ordered | 11 August 1910 |
Builder | Arsenal de Lorient |
Cost | F57,700,000 |
Laid down | 1 September 1910 |
Launched | 23 September 1911 |
Completed | 8 October 1913 |
Commissioned | 19 November 1913 |
Fate | Scuttled, 9 June 1944, during Operation Neptune |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Courbet-class battleship |
Displacement | |
Length | 166 m (544 ft 7 in) (o/a) |
Beam | 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
Draught | 9.04 m (29 ft 8 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets |
Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
Endurance | 4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 1,115 (1,187 as flagship) |
Armament |
|
Armour |
|
A few weeks after the German invasion of France on 10 May 1940, Courbet was hastily reactivated. She supported Allied troops in the defence of Cherbourg in mid-June, taking refuge in England shortly afterwards. As part of Operation Catapult, the ship was seized in Portsmouth by British forces on 3 July and was turned over to the Free French a week later. She was used as a stationary anti-aircraft battery and as an accommodation ship there. Courbet was disarmed in early 1941 and was used as a target ship during 1943. Her engines and boilers were removed in 1944 to prepare her for use as a breakwater during the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune) in June 1944. She was scrapped in situ after the war.