28/11/2023 - The idea behind the increased size of French ships, was to allow the Germans to increase the size of their initial building of large ships of capital rank. Altering the Versailles Treaty when France and Britain are unable to restore the monarchy in Russia. The Germanic States are to be used as a buffer state between the 'Western Allies' and the Soviet Union. To that end the Germans are given a better starting Fleet to combat the Red menace. The replacement ships are increased in size from 10,000 tons to 60% of the Washington Treaty limit (35,000 tons x 60% = 21,000 tons.) Any Allied ship built to the Treaty Limits should be much better than the Germanic States new builds. But, until those ships were built the German 'Admiral Hipper' could have had a free rein out amongst the sea lanes of commerce. By the time WW2 broke out, there were plenty of modern capital ships and rebuilt ones that could catch and dispatch the German raider classes. I am sure there are more modern drawings for the Dunkerque and others for me to draw from.
Built in reply to the Germanic States battleraiders of the Admiral class (Graf Spee etc), the ships needed to be better armed, armoured and faster than those ships. The French design was for a 'croiseur de combat' of 32,000 tons, just over 700 feet and armed with 38cm guns (14.96"). A large dual purpose secondary armament and lots of smaller AA rounded out the armament. Speed while a factor, it was decided that a speed of 30-31 knots would be sufficient for its task.
Like the other major navies the French opted for a quadruple turret for mounting its main armament and surprisingly also for its secondary armament. With a balanced one turret forward and one aft the Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Aquitaine, and Languedoc proved to be an excellent investment in service.
