design as a result of the size constraints of French shipyards. Design work began before the Courbets had been ordered, and the emphasis was on increasing the caliber of the main battery to match foreign development of the so-called superdreadnought type such as the British . The naval high command initially specified a maximum displacement of and a main battery of twelve guns. The 340 mm turrets were significantly heavier than the 305 mm versions used in the Courbets, and the design staff found it impossible to retain six turrets within the prescribed displacement. They submitted a five-turret design, removing one of the wing turrets and moving the other to the centerline amidships, which kept the same ten-gun broadside. In addition, the belt armor was reduced slightly to accommodate for the greater weight of the main battery. A new naval law was passed in 1912 that projected a fleet of twenty-eight battleships by 1920; three ships were authorized for the 1912 budget, which became the Bretagnes. Upon completion, the ships were assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron and sent to join the fleet at Corfu; by this point, the fleet had settled into the blockade of the southern Adriatic and so the Bretagnes saw little activity during the war. The ships spent the 1920s and 1930s in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Squadrons, undergoing periodic refits and modernizations, and in the late 1930s, they took part in the non-intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War. After the start of World War II, they operated as convoy escorts in the Atlantic and in 1940, as war with Italy became increasingly likely, they were concentrated with the bulk of the French fleet in the Mediterranean as a deterrent. and were in Mers El Kébir when Germany defeated France in June 1940, and during a British operation to neutralize the French fleet, were attacked in the port by the British Force H. Bretagne was destroyed and Provence was badly damaged, later being refloated and returned to Toulon for repairs, where she was scuttled in 1942 to prevent her capture by the Germans. Meanwhile, was seized by the British while she was moored in Alexandria, Egypt and then turned over to the Free French Naval Forces. She saw action during the last years of the war bombarding German forces in occupied France. After the war, she was used as a training vessel and