Whats the difference?? Dunkerque class

[dseehafer]

Greetings all,

 

    Kicking off the first French ship of the new series we have the Dunkerque class, whos differences go far beyond their aesthetics! Lets dig in!

 

We shall start with the Bridge towers, Dunkerque left, Strasbourg right. As allways this order will not change.

 

A: A is marked on both ships. This is perhaps the only area of the bridge towers that are exactly the same on both ships. (besides some slight differences in the small masts atop the towers)

 

B: B is marked on both ships. Both have a searchlight platform in this area, but strasbourg also has an AA gun here and does not have the inward gap that appears on Dunkerque's tower, also this platform on strasbourg is both conected to the tower and resting atop the bridge, on Dunkerque it is only attached to the tower.

 

C: C is marked on Dunkerque. Strasbourg does not have this (or the one below it) rearward facing platform(s) extending from the rear of the superstructure. However, Strasborg features a walkway extending completely around the superstructure just below the very top row of large windows, Dunkerque cannot boast the same platform.

 

D: D is marked on Dunkerque. Notice that Dunkerques bridge has only one deck where Strasbourg has two. Dunkerque has a square object atop its bridge that Strasbourg does not have.

 

E: E is marked on strasbourg. Only strasbourg has this small structure/deck on the face of her tower.

 

 

Looking down at the top of the bridges we can see (epecially in the circled area) that even from above the superstructure's look different.

 

 

Moving on to the midsections.

 

A: A is marked on Dunkerque. This searchlight platfrom is different on both ships, specifically Strasbourg's has allot more "going on", where Dunkerque's is more plain.

 

B: B is marked on Strasbourg, Strasbourg has a protective side skirt wrapping around this AA mount, which also makes the platfrom it is sitting on appear taller as well, at least from the side.

 

C: Shown on strasbourg we see that Strasbourg has an extra deck (?) or structure of some sort here, which is absent on Dunkerque.

 

 

Dunkerque top, Strasbourg bottom

 

 

That pretty much does it for aesthetical differences, moving on to statistic/ tactical differences.

 

Starting with armor. Dunkerque had a 225mm belt, Strasborgs was increased to 283mm. dunkerques deck was between 115-125mm thick, Strasbourg's decks were increased to 127-137mm. Dunkerque's armored bridge boasted armor between 150-330mm, Again strasbourg's was increased in thickness from 160-360mm. The reason for Strasbourg's armor being superior to Dunnkerque's is because the German's responded to Dunkerque by building the Scharnhorst class, France wasnt too worried about the Scharnhorsts because they were assumed (incorrectly) to mount the same guns the Deutschland class did and Dunkerque's armor was (on paper at least) proof against the Deutschland's guns. Instead it was when Italy responded to Dunkerque by building the Littorio class with 15" guns that the French decided a second, more heavily armored Dunkerque was needed.

         Because of all this extra armor Strasbourg weighed approximately 780t more than Dunkerque. also because of all this extra weigh Strasbourg was slightly slower at 30.9kn compared to Dunkerque at 31.06kn. besides AA armement no further differences exist between the two.

 

Below we see a Dunkerque class battlecruiser. We see that she only has one bridge deck, we notice a gap on her tower face, about halway down the bridge tower we see a walking platform, we dont have to go any further to know that we are looking at Dunkerque herself.

 

 

 

Below we see a Dunkerque class battlecruiser. We see that she has two bridge decks. We see a walking platfrom just below her very top row of large windows on her tower, we see a serachlight platform that is both connected to the tower and standing on the top of the bridge, we dont need to go any further to know that we are looking at Dunkerque's up-armored sister the Strasbourg.

 

[An_Average_Jho]

Love the Dunkerque. Can't wait for the French to be introduced to WoWs.

[dseehafer]

Love the Dunkerque. Can't wait for the French to be introduced to WoWs.

 

I agree, they will be absolutely perfect at tier 5, they are basically French Kongo's.

[Guest]

These are lovely warships, I always did like this class, It was both unique, and the airplane hangars they had were a advanced feature for their times. 

[ryuukei8569]

Love the Dunkerque. Can't wait for the French to be introduced to WoWs.

 

I suspect though, that we are going to be waiting a long time before we see a french line come up in the game. Hell I don't expect to see a french premium introduced for some time yet.