- Plastic model kit, assembly, glue & paint required
- Molded in gray and dark red
- 380 Pieces – 9 sprues, lower & upper hull, decks
- Approximate Dimensions: 13.9” L x 1.9” W
- Box dimensions: 15.5" L x 5.5" W x 2.3" H
- Recommend for 14 years and above.
This Trumpeter 1/700 scale model kit of the Richelieu from 1943 comes with a display stand, one piece hull (full or waterline versions), decks, and accurate waterslide decal markings.
The Richelieu class were fast battleships built for the French Navy between the 1930s and 1950s. Initially two ships were ordered in 1935 in response to Italian orders for the Littorio-class battleships the previous year. The Richelieus were based on the preceding Dunkerque class, but scaled up to accommodate more powerful 380 mm (15 in) guns and armor to protect them from guns of the same caliber. To keep the ships within the displacement limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, they featured the same concentrated arrangement as the Dunkerques for the main battery: two quadruple gun turrets placed forward. They also incorporated new, more compact boilers that allowed for a shorter hull (which required less heavy armor) for the desired top speed. After Germany ordered two Bismarck-class battleships, France responded with another pair of Richelieus, but built to modified designs. The first, Clemenceau, received modified secondary and anti-aircraft batteries, while Gascogne had her superfiring main battery turret shifted aft, along with other changes.
Work on Richelieu was expedited as war with Germany became increasingly likely in 1939, and she was completed just days before the Germans won the Battle of France in June 1940. The ship, still missing most of its anti-aircraft guns, fled to Dakar in French West Africa to keep her under French control. There, she came under repeated British attacks that had been intended to either compel the battleship to join the Free French Naval Forces or sink her. The first, during Operation Catapult in July 1940, centered on attacks by Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers that scored one torpedo hit but did not do serious damage. The second attack, resulting in the Battle of Dakar, followed in September and involved a planned landing of Free French Forces to seize the colony. A pair of British battleships—Barham and Resolution—attacked the ship at long range, though fire from Richelieu and nearby coastal batteries kept the British at bay until the submarine Bévéziers torpedoed and badly damaged Resolution, forcing the British to withdraw. Richelieu had been hit once in the battle, and more importantly for her state of readiness, three of her main battery guns had exploded from faulty shells during the action.
After the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942 that resulted in the defection of significant parts of the French overseas empire, Richelieu was transferred to Free French control. She was sent to the United States for permanent repairs and modernization to bring the ship up to the latest American and British standards, including a powerful anti-aircraft battery of fifty-six 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns and forty-eight 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon autocannon, though the US Navy refused to share its most advanced radars with the French. After completing the overhaul and modernization, the ship served with the British Home Fleet in early 1944; there, she served as part of the force guarding against the German battleship Tirpitz that threatened the convoy lanes to the Soviet Union. She saw no action during this period, as the German fleet remained in port, largely the result of crippling fuel shortages.
