Французский линкор типа «Курбе» «Париж»

French Courbet class battleship

Paris was the third ship of four s, the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy. She was completed before World War I as part of the 1911 naval building programme. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, spending most of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until her sister ship French battleship Jean Bart was torpedoed by the submarine on 21 December. The ships were long overall and had a beam of and a mean draught of They displaced at normal load and at deep load. Their crew numbered 1,115 men as a private ship and increased to 1,187 when serving as a flagship. The ships were powered by two licence built Parsons steam turbine sets, each driving two propeller shafts using steam provided by 24 Belleville boilers. These boilers were coal burning with auxiliary oil sprayers and were designed to produce The ships had a designed speed of The Courbet class ships carried enough coal and fuel oil to give them a range at a speed of .

The ship was ordered on 1 August 1911 and named after the French capital city. She was laid down on 10 November 1911 by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at its shipyard in La Seyne and launched on 28 September 1912. Due to the rising tensions in Europe in mid 1914, the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 1 August before she was formally completed on 14 August at a cost of F63,000,000. Paris was assigned to the 1st Division (1ère Division) of the 2nd Battle Squadron (2ème Escadre de ligne) of the 1st Naval Army (1ère Armée Navale) on 1 August, but did not join her squadron until 5 September. After working up she was sent, along with her sisters, to the Mediterranean Sea. She spent most of the rest of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until hit Jean Bart on 21 December with a torpedo. Before the end of the war she was fitted with seven Mle 1897 anti aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts. These guns were adaptions of the famous French Mle 97 75 mm field gun.

Paris was sent to Pula on 12 December 1918 to supervise the surrendered Austro Hungarian fleet, where she remained until 25 March 1919. She provided cover for Greek troops during the Occupation of İzmir (Smyrna) from May 1919 before returning to Toulon on 30 June 1919. She collided with the destroyer Bouclier at Toulon on 27 June 1922; both ships suffered severe damage. Paris received the first of her upgrades at Brest between 25 October 1922 and 25 November 1923. This included replacing one set of boilers with oil fired boilers, increasing the maximum elevation of the main armament from 12° to 23°, removal of her bow armour to make her less bow heavy, the installation of a fire control director, with a rangefinder, and the exchange of her Mle 1897 AA guns for Mle 1918 guns. After her return to service she supported an amphibious landing at Al Hoceima by Spanish troops during the summer of 1925 after the Rifs attacked French Morocco during the Third Rif War. She destroyed coastal defence batteries there despite taking light damage from six hits and remained there until October as the flagship of the French forces. She was refitted again from 16 August 1927 to 15 January 1929 at Toulon and her fire control systems were comprehensively upgraded. A large cruiser type fire control director was added atop the foremast with a 4.57 m coincidence rangefinder and a stereo rangefinder. The rangefinder above the conning tower was replaced by a duplex unit carrying two 4.57 m rangefinders and another 4.57 m rangefinder was added in an armoured hood next to the main mast. Two directors for the secondary guns were added on the navigation bridge, each with a coincidence rangefinder. A rangefinder was added to the roof of 'B' turret, the second one from the bow. Three rangefinders were provided for her anti aircraft guns, one on top of the duplex unit on the conning tower, one on 'B' turret and one in the aft superstructure.

Paris and Courbet formed a Fifth Squadron at the beginning of the war. They were transferred to the Atlantic to continue their training duties without interference. Both ships were ordered restored to operational status on 21 May 1940 by Amiral Mord and they were given six Hotchkiss twin machine gun mounts and two single 13.2 mm Browning machine guns at Cherbourg. Paris was ordered to Le Havre on 6 June to provide gunfire support on the Somme front and covered the evacuation of the town by the Allies, although the lack of spotting aircraft meant that she was not particularly effective in that role. Instead she helped to defend the harbour of Le Havre against German aircraft until she was hit by a bomb on 11 June. She sailed for Cherbourg that night for temporary repairs despite taking on of water per hour. She was transferred to Brest on 14 June and carried 2,800 men when that port was evacuated on 18 June. In the wake of the Armistice, Paris was docked at Plymouth, England. On 3 July 1940, as part of Operation Catapult, British forces forcibly boarded her and she was used by the British as a depot ship and as a barracks ship by the Polish Navy for the rest of the war. On 21 August 1945, after the war had ended, Paris was towed to Brest where she continued in her role as a depot ship. She was sold for scrap on 21 December 1955 and broken up at La Seyne from June 1956.