Alsace

Prototype: The Alsace was never to be built – the collapse of the French Republic in 1940 meant that only two of four planned Richelieu battleships would ever see the light of day, so construction of the Alsace and her sisters were never even truly begun. But the French battleship Alsace was brought to the design phase, and certain aspects of the vessel's likely configuration are known.

Class History: The Alsace-class battleships were planned to succeed and enlarge the Richelieu class. The design planned for an improved Richelieu design with three triple or quadruple 380mm turrets (two fore, one aft). Six names were proposed, and two had to be chosen from this list: Alsace, Normandie, Flandre, Bourgogne; two more units were not given names. The laying down of the lead ship of the class, Alsace, was planned for 1941; with the Fall of France in 1940, none of the ships were built.

Country: France is one of Europe’s largest countries. It is bordered by six countries other nations: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the southeast and Spain to the southwest. The United Kingdom borders France via the English Channel. The country is considered to be the gateway to Europe as there are several large international airports (two of these can be found in Paris), ferry terminals and the French rail service.

In 486, Frankish tribes unified under Merovingian kingship. In 843, Western Francia was established from the division of the Carolingian Empire. In 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown, and in 1792, the First French Republic was founded. In 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established.