Although the ships could hunt cruisers, they were also designed to fight Deutschlands and older Italian battleships armed with 305 mm guns. Their place on the spectrum from battleship through fast battleship to battlecruiser depends chiefly on the breadth of their armor coverage. Gun caliber alone cannot settle the label because national industry limited what France could manufacture. Their protection was intended to defeat 283 mm fire and remain credible against 12- and 13-inch weapons at likely battle ranges, making equivalent-fire resistance the more useful test.
Chapter · 19:10-28:36
The case for calling Dunkerque a fast battleship
The decisive classification evidence is protection against comparable gunfire and the breadth of armor coverage, not gun caliber alone.