The Gloire was the only ship of its class to complete. The other three were not in a state that would allow them to be taken to British or other ports. The two ships that were able to be completed post war became the Colbert and De Grasse. The Gloire sailed out of Brest Roads as escort to the Jean Bart on its way to a North African port. Once the Jean Bart was delivered to Casablanca, the Gloire transferred to the main fleet base at Mers-El-Kebir. It spent the next two years shuttling between Mers-El-Kebir and Toulon carrying the top Fleet Admirals who were producing the strategy they thought would keep as many French ships above water as possible. While Vichy France was neutral, the brass knew that once that neutrality was broken, the German forces would enter mainland Vichy France in an effort to capture any ships / shipping in the Mediterranean ports. The Allied forces landed in North Africa in November 1942 and rolled easily across to Kasserine Pass where the US forces encountered German forces for the first time and got a bloody nose. A lesson was learnt. Meanwhile the French Fleet at Mers-El-Kebir had surrendered to the Allied forces and while the ships were in good order, all of them required upgrades/refits to bring them up to date. The Gloire was sent to the USA for refurbishment, arriving there in May 1943. Three months later the ship emerged in a much enhanced state with a new AA armament, Radar control for the directors, removal of the aircraft. The ship then sailed for Scapa Flow to join the Richelieu.
With the Richelieu at Scapa Flow, the two ships joined in the many sorties with the 'Home' Fleet, based at Scapa Flow, took up the coast of Norway in support of the Russian Convoys. With the Scharnhorst likely to break out over the Christmas New Year period of 1943/44, the Duke of York and Jamaica were placed to the North while the Richelieu and Gloire were placed to the South. Scharnhorst went North and the Duke of York went into the History books. Both ships took part in the Battle for Convoy JW60, Richelieu and Gloire are with the main fleet. Richelieu gets its chance to help sink a German battleship, the Gloire is a spectator.
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The Gloire survives the war and is made Flagship of the Far East Fleet, trying to reclaim lost territory in South East Asia. Failure, no more French Indochina. The ships being forced to withdraw in 1954. Returning to France in 1955 the Gloire is surveyed to see what can be done to upgrade the ship to a modern warship. The first thing to be done was to fit the upgraded French Radar systems that have been produced in France since the end of the war. The survey showed the ship to be in good condition and could be converted to carry the AA missiles being developed by Aerospatiale. French surface-to-surface missiles were also becoming bigger and better with ship launched versions being produced.
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Many new systems were fitted aboard the Gloire, the new twin Merstrie launchers, the quad Mistral launchers, the 57mm semi-auto AA system, new radar controlled director for the two triple 6" forward. Controlling it all was the new command centre receiving its information from all the surface and air search radar fitted. The Merstrie missiles had two dedicated radar controllers that were supposed to control all four missiles in the air. This did not quite work out as planned. A further four controllers had to be fitted on the bridge and after-bridge to cure the problem. In this guise the Gloire served through to 1984 when the ship was placed in reserve and eventually scrapped in 2000.
