and so was ignored. In November 1942, the Allies invaded French North Africa and Jean Bart initially fired on the invasion fleet before being disabled by the US battleship . After the invasion, which resulted in French forces in North Africa turning to Free France, Richelieu was sent to the United States to be completed and modernized. She thereafter served with the British Home Fleet in the Indian Ocean and later in French Indochina, where she ended the war. Jean Bart was finally completed after the war; both vessels continued on in service with the French fleet, primarily as training vessels, before being decommissioned in 1968 and broken up. Alsace class After work on the Richelieus began and the international naval treaty system fell apart following Japan's and Italy's refusal to sign the Second London Naval Treaty, the French Navy began design studies on the next class of battleships that would take advantage of the escalator clause in the treaty that allowed displacement to be increased to and the main battery to be increased to 406 mm (the treaty had added a limit of guns). The design staff prepared several studies in 1939, all of which were derivatives of the three-turret design that had been drawn up during the Richelieu design process. The first variant had nine 380 mm guns in triple turrets, with slightly improved protection over the Richelieus and a more powerful secondary battery. The second version was essentially the same, but scaled up for 406 mm guns, and the third featured three quadruple 380 mm turrets. The navy settled on the first version, as the second variation would have introduced a fourth shell caliber to the fleet, thus complicating logistics, and the third design was too large and expensive. Two ships were authorized in April 1940, with construction to begin in 1941 after the aircraft carrier was launched, but following the French collapse in June, the program was cancelled. Footnotes References External links Maritimequest French battleship photo index Battleship France