Painlevé

Notes: Planned sistership to Joffre, these carriers would have very likely operated US lend-lease carrier aircraft just like the Royal Navy. Some Foruminians were disappointed Joffre did not have "Wildcat Operations" so that has been addressed with Painlevé. We also added Dauntless operations to give the French access to a better dive bomber. Expert Torpedoes will help the French-built Br. 510 torpedo bomber, and complement the Expert Dogfighter and Expert Bomber 2 on Joffre.

Class History: The Joffre class was a class of two aircraft carriers planned by France prior to World War II. Only one of the two vessels was begun, and neither was launched before the project was cancelled in 1940. The class was named in honour of Joseph Joffre.

Joffre was designed to give the French Navy a fleet carrier of greater capability than the existing Béarn. Béarn was hopelessly outclassed by the late 1930s as French aircraft carrier design had not kept pace with developments in other countries, and badly hampered by the fact it was not designed from the keel up as an aircraft carrier, but was instead a converted World War I-era battleship. Joffre was a design aimed at rectifying the deficiencies, but was still of limited capacity.

The lead ship was laid down on 18 November 1938, but the rapid arrival of World War II led to a slow down of construction and the ultimate cessation of work that came in June 1940 as the country capitulated to German invasion. Work on Joffre was not continued by the Germans and the hull was scrapped. The second planned vessel of the class, Painlevé was never laid down.

As the course of the war went, the lack of naval aviation did not become a factor for the French fleet, as France fell to land invasion before its navy could play a major role in the proceedings.

Country: France is one of Europe’s largest countries. It is bordered by six countries other nations: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the southeast and Spain to the southwest. The United Kingdom borders France via the English Channel. The country is considered to be the gateway to Europe as there are several large international airports (two of these can be found in Paris), ferry terminals and the French rail service.

In 486, Frankish tribes unified under Merovingian kingship. In 843, Western Francia was established from the division of the Carolingian Empire. In 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown, and in 1792, the First French Republic was founded. In 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established.