 In the years before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , the French Navy considered several proposals for battlecruisers . The Navy issued specifications for a battlecruiser design to complete part of the 28 capital ships to be built by 1920 . Three designs , one by P. Gille and two by Lieutenant Durand @-@ Viel , were completed in 1913 . All three designs were similar to contemporary battleship designs , specifically the Normandie class , which introduced a quadruple gun turret for the main battery , which was adopted for all three proposals . The first two called for the same 340 mm ( 13 in ) gun used on all French dreadnoughts , though the third proposed a much more powerful 370 mm ( 15 in ) gun . Though the design studies were complete , the French Navy did not authorize or begin construction of any battlecruisers before the start of the war . 
