world of warships french battleships citadel germans

She might be vulnerable to a terrible loss of morale if she suffered damage to her wine store as occurred in 1945 off Malaya. Richelieu was significantly faster than Bismarck but had a much shorter range. The two ships would both be vulnerable to hits below their armour belts but, alas, I do not know anything about the delay of French fuses. There is a puzzle (at least for me) in that Richelieu’s turrets might be more vulnerable that one might initially suspect to hits on turret roofs if such hits could cause fragments to detach from the inside of the facehardened armour. On the other hand, we know that Bismarck’s guns were vulnerable to hits at likely battle ranges.

However, the short armoured citadel of Richelieu suggests that Bismarck might be able to cripple Richelieu by multiple hits outside the citadel. If Richelieu’s armour had been made by Britain or Germany, she would have had a very good immune zone against Bismarck’s guns. One problem is that there is conflicting information on the quality of French armour.

If we look at armour schemes and immunity zones, it is more complicated. We can add that Richelieu’s guns or shells were defective in 1940, although that might have been corrected by 1941 had France not fallen in 1940. The critical advantage is that Bismarck’s guns had much less dispersion and Bismarck had radar for ranging and a good fire control system as judged by comparison with that of contemporary RN battleships. At the time when both ships were afloat, it is easy to predict a victory for Bismarck.

World of warships french battleships citadel germans