Bretagne-class battleship
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The Bretagne-class battleships were the first "super-dreadnoughts" built for the French Navy during the First World War. The class comprised three vessels: Bretagne, the lead ship, Provence, and Lorra
Provence in harbor
US Navy recognition photo of Provence
One of Provence's turrets used as a shore battery
Attack on Mers-el-Kébir
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The attack on Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940, during the Second World War, was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir, near Oran, on the coast of French Algeria.
Bretagne-class battleship
…duties and anti-commerce raider patrols until the fall of France in June 1940. Bretagne and Provence were sunk by the British Royal Navy during the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir the following month; Provence was later raised and towed to Toulon, where she was again scuttled in November 1942. Lorraine was disarmed by the British…
The battleship Strasbourg under fire
Modern view of the harbour at Mers El Kébir in Algeria
French photograph of the bombardment
Bretagne on fire, still under bombardment