What if France build the 37,000 ton A-2 BC in 1930

The Dunquerque is not only a Deutschland killer - it can go toe-to-toe against pre-rebuild Italian battleships. And post rebuild too.
To me, the two more likely theaters for cooperation are the Med and the Southwest Pacific (Indochina and Oceania)
The Dunquerques would have matched up pretty well against the Kongos - although it wasn't realised at the time that one would be re-militarized, and the modernisations would raise their speed to 30kts.
 

Driftless

Donor
As you know I have a few Free French destroyers in my TL and their short range and speed has impacted how and where they are used.

BEARN was a piece of junk but if the Allies got their hands on her earlier she would have found her way to an American yard and would have been operationalized and found useful employment much like HMS ARGUS and HMS EAGLE (until she was sunk). The only reason this didn't happen OTL was that by the time she was done refitting in the US, the USN and RN had plenty of flight decks.

Yes indeed! Among their other attributes, you've put the sprinter ability of the French destroyers to good use. I would like to have seen how the French cruisers Algerie, Dupleix, Colbert, etc could have done with a full war service
 
For starters the twins would be upgraded to 15' guns ASAP. They were originally intended to have 15" guns but production delays forced them to settle for 11" gun
The KGVs wouldn't have been stuck with those 14" guns with a pair of 15" gunned German battle cruisers running around.
 
For starters the twins would be upgraded to 15' guns ASAP. They were originally intended to have 15" guns but production delays forced them to settle for 11" gun
Why? This design has an even smaller main armament caliber than the OTL Dunkerque class so why would the Germans be more prone to escalation than OTL? Also I'm not sure the 15in guns could be hurried more than OTL for the twins.

Conway's all the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 said:
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement allowed a maximum calibre of 16in, and Hitler soon had second thoughts, ordering the ships to be equipped with 380mm (15in) guns; but as the 280mm triple turret was readily available and the development of a new 15in turret would take some years, he agreed that the two vessels should have 11in weapons initially because he urgently needed capital ships for his political ideals. The ships would be upgunned at the earliest possible opportunity. The 380mm twin turret was later to be used for the Bismarck class - which was therefore tied to this mounting as other navies were settling on 16in as the ideal battleship calibre.

The KGVs wouldn't have been stuck with those 14" guns with a pair of 15" gunned German battle cruisers running around.
The Brits didn't exactly upgun their designs when the Italians started their building their Littorio class battleships (the first was laid down before any of the German twins) in OTL...
 
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Still intrigued here by the carrier option. Thinking they would be armored similar to the Brits, & doctrinally operating as mobile airfields supporting ops in the Med or near FIC. That is in or near littorals. Still they can be near the size of the Lexington and could have some hefty speed.
 
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