French carrier development in the interwar period

In OTL the only Marine National aircraft carrier to see service before 1940 was the Bearn which wasn't what you'd call cutting edge. Is it possible to get one or more purpose built carriers into commission before 1938. Looking at the commssion dates for the Illustrious' to get more than one the French would have to outbuild Britain to get two carriers but could they build they own Ark Royale in the same period?

Supplimentary questions are what would the French fly off the ship and what would Italy's response be?
 
Were you thinking of accelerating the development of something like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joffre_class_aircraft_carrier so it actually gets produced ?

To be honest I'd prefer something a bit better. Something closer to HMS Ark Royal or even USS Ranger and ideally I'd like to see it laid down before 1934. Unlike all the other powers that operated carriers France stuck with the old and obsolete Bearn as it's only sea going flightdeck throughout the 20's and 30's, and I'd really like to see France use up it's 60,000 tons of WNT carriers on something decent.
 
Trouble is a lot of that era french naval development was as a response to what germany or italy did and both had no aircraft carriers.
 
To be honest I'd prefer something a bit better. Something closer to HMS Ark Royal or even USS Ranger and ideally I'd like to see it laid down before 1934. Unlike all the other powers that operated carriers France stuck with the old and obsolete Bearn as it's only sea going flightdeck throughout the 20's and 30's, and I'd really like to see France use up it's 60,000 tons of WNT carriers on something decent.

Its probably only going to happen logically if Germany or Italy start a carrier early, these were Frances naval opponents in the 30's.

Or maybe something in SE Asia which involves FIC and the Japanese fleet (with carriers) that drives home the need for Naval air?

I dont think there are any domestic drivers unless get really creative :)
 
Its probably only going to happen logically if Germany or Italy start a carrier early, these were Frances naval opponents in the 30's.

Or maybe something in SE Asia which involves FIC and the Japanese fleet (with carriers) that drives home the need for Naval air?

I dont think there are any domestic drivers unless get really creative :)

I was wondering about that. Would CV's make sense to the French for colonial work? Cheaper than battleships and more flexible in the Far East?
 

sharlin

Banned
Although the French had a major overseas empire in the far east, their military presence in the region was quite pathetic, the Dutch had stronger forces in the region than the french.
 

Cook

Banned
...and what would Italy's response be?
In the confined space of the Mediterranean where they were able to operate always within range of land based aircraft, the Italians didn’t consider that they needed an aircraft carrier.
 
In the confined space of the Mediterranean where they were able to operate always within range of land based aircraft, the Italians didn’t consider that they needed an aircraft carrier.

And weren't the RN laughing their heads off about that idea.
 
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