FRENCH NAVAL PLANS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21377, 29 December 1932, Page 7

FRENCH NAVAL PLANS

GREAT BATTLE-CRUISER MOST POWERFUL VESSEL BRITISH FEATURES COPIED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received December 28, 9.45 p.in.) LONDON, Dec. 28 The naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that the French battlecruiser Dunquerque, orders for the construction of which have been given, compliments the British Navy by copying the salient features of H.M.S. Nelson. The Dunquerque will, in effect, be a battle-cruiser version of the Nelson and Hood, with all the heavy guns forward and the boilers ana machinery affc. The Dunquerque is an overwhelming reply to the German pocket battleship. It will be two and a-half times larger and four knots faster, and will fire a broadside twice as heavy as a battle-cruiser.

The Dunquerque .will be able to engage any warship afloat without undue risk.

In order to neutralise the new German Navy and ensure the predominance of the Channel, the Dunquerque, with two or three proposed sister-ships, will operate from the naval base at Brest.

it was seated last month that the French Government had ended its battleship holiday and was giving orders for the laying of the keel of the battle-cruiser Dunquerque, the first capital ship to be built for the French Navy for nearly 20 years. This ship will have a displacement of 26,500 tons. She will carry eight 13-inch guns and so will be the most powerful battleship ever built, except the Hood. Her guns will have a range of 23 miles. Italy also is experimenting with a battle-cruiser with eight 15-inch guns. The Dunquerque prejudices the British plan to limit capital ships to 22,000 tons.