French Battleships of World War One

This is a superb book and I give five stars, though whether I will have the stamina to read it fully, cover to cover, I am not sure, given the dry narrative style. It is a problem now that of course there are no people still alive who knew these ships and, like all such modern books, the content focuses on statistical data. There is a paragraph or so of .evaluation at the end of each chapter, but that does not quite meet the criticism.Like 'Uncle Bob' I also dislike the 'of world war one' title. The book starts with a short resume from 1870, picks up with rather more detail about ships of the early 90's, but does not really get into its stride until the chapter on the Charlemagnes - partly because Mr Caresse has written previous monographs about these and the following Iena and Suffren designs. Notably the 'section' and 'profile' drawings -which are excellent- only begin with the Charlemagnes. The impression is always given that older ships were just inferior and of little consequence by 1914 - which may be true but they should be considered far more for their value when new.The authors do emphasise that the constructors were always hampered by political refusal to spend money on really adequate dimensions. In France wrangling over designs went on for years, meanwhile the British were busy building many battleships. The irony is that construction periods lasting up to about seven years resulted in very expensive ships - much more expensive than the far larger but standarized British designs which were built in less than half the time. More discussion about these matters would have been useful here.There seem to be some other blind spots where design parameters have been accepted without critical comment. For example there is a long paragraph covering the thickness of armour on the Charles Martel's, but little explanation of its actual coverage or effectiveness. It is not very useful to be told that these ships and the British Royal Sovereigns both had belt armour about 450mm thick without mention of its very different distribution in the two designs. The authors seem to accept the end- on fire logic for the lozenge gun layout, whereas in practice it was impossible to make effective use of midship mounted gums in this way.There are some excellent drawings showing turret arrangement and working ('Patrie', for example) but I would have liked this for all the classes of ship and, again, the earlier ones receive few such drawings. I also note that the authors are not very interested in machinery. Usually there is a paragraph, but I cannot find any pictures or drawings dedicated to the subject.216 pages detail design and construction, the remaining 100 pages cover later history, including reconstruction of the Dreadnoughts prior to World War Two. There are good drawings showing these design changes, though not many photographs. These sections are quite comprehensive though, again, the narrative style is rather dry.This is a much better book than you may imagine from reading this review! Many of the photo's are superb glass plate portraits and thankfully not many stretch across the binding. The detailed drawing are also excellent. Overall, the book rather resembles RA Burts' series of books on British Battleships and like those it is excellent value for money at less than £30 to buy.So, this substantial tome is well worth buying but I just wish authors would include more real critical analysis, including the 'hunting out' of comment and anecdotes from people who lived with the ships during 'their time'. I collect such books, but really would like them to be more enjoyable to read.One final comment: enthusiasts must thank Seaforth Publishing for promoting this book (published to their usual high standard). Without Seaforth we would not have much new material to read!

Extremely informative & beautifully illustrated. It is pity that "the fleet of samples" is not given the detail of the rest of the ships. A worthy addition to any battleship book collection.

This is not the book I was expecting, but thats probably my fault. I was expecting a book about the French "dreadnought" battleships of WW1. This book is about far more- the evolution of French battleships from the "fleet of samples" onwards- yes, those funky steam punkers with the wacky hull designs that are so fascinating and visually appealing. The format follows the now classic Seaforth layout of class by class detailed technical descriptions lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings.The reason I have given this 4 out five, rather than a full five is simply because I feel there is a fascinating story buried in here which the authors allude to in the design and appraisal sections for each class, but they do not draw out the thread and discuss in any detail. Simply put, the French designed and built battleships around a theory of sea warfare that seems to have differed fundamentally from the approach taken by their rivals in the RN, which partly explains the designs of their ships (the other explanation being a political decision to limit the displacement of their battleships to appease the Jeune Ecole school who favoured what would today be called “asymmetrical warfare”).The ”tumblehome” hull designs of all the classes up to the “Patries” are the distinctive feature, yet the term does not appear in the text, neither are the reasons for the continuation of this feature from the days of sail. Mention is made of the need for all round fire, but the tactical imperatives are not discussed- I’m left with the impression that the French thought future naval battles would be close range “melee” Lissa or Trafalgar style battles- hence the adoption of the “lozenge” style armament distribution of the larger guns? The development of the quick firing smaller calibre gun led the French to develop the “Canet” turrets for what we would today think of as the “secondary” armament- but reading the text its apparent that in fact the French regarded these as the main armament of the ships- the discussion of the “Patries” brings this out to some degree.Re tumblehome hulls the text mentions that architect Louis Emile Bertin gave a detailed analysis of the risks associated with French hull designs in the early 1890’s, but had to wait until his appointment as Chief designer later in the decade to cajole the naval establishment into moving away from these designs. It sounds as if there was quite a controversy, but this is not discussed in depth- a shame. Looking superficially Bertin’s designs of the late 1890’s (Patries, Henry IV) to my eye closely resemble the designs by Watts for the Dreadnought hull and Invincible class armoured/battle cruisers. Who influenced who?!French designs went head to head with British designs in the Russo Japanese War of 1904/5- some discussion of the merits of each and lessons from Tsu-Shima would have been welcome- there is one mention that the French thought Tsu-Shima vindicated their “mission kill” approach of a high volume of medium calibre fire, but the early loss of Oslyabya to heavy gunfire is not discussed. Perhaps the authors did not want to stray too far from the technical descriptions of the ships?In summary my comments are more along the lines of “more please!” rather than a criticism of the book- mine is already covered in ink, so all in an excellent book and well worth the cash if this fascinating period of naval history is your thing.

A slightly abstruse subject but I found the book extremely interesting on several levels, not least the arcane workings of the French Admiralty and politicians of the era. Too interesting a read to miss.

This is an excellent book. At last there is a quality description of the French battlefleet of WWI and before. A very welcome addition to the many publications on the RN, which was the dominant and most advanced fleet of the time. Good technical descriptions, very clear line drawings and quality photographs.

This, the fourth book in this superb series, more than met my expectations. I can only hope the authors have some other delights to share with us. Thank you-Merci

Great reference book, plenty of photographs I haven't seen anywhere else. It's one of them MUST HAVE books.

Really interesting book; one of a fascinating series. Very clear and well organised content; lavishly illustrated. Recommended.