The armour scheme is assessed against the ship's intended work rather than against battleship standards: it could resist destroyer fire while the cruiser used its eight-inch guns at a more favorable distance. The serious design complaint is the mounts' roughly 180-degree traverse. Despite generous visible clearance, the guns could not exploit wider arcs, creating blind sectors and reducing tactical flexibility for want of a better training and cable arrangement. The contrast shows how a seemingly small mechanical limitation could undercut an otherwise coherent hull and armour design in a maneuvering fight.
Chapter · 5:20-8:46
Protection for cruiser work, undermined by narrow gun arcs
The Suffrens carried protection suited to fighting destroyers at useful range, but their eight-inch mounts wasted much of the hull's apparent firing clearance.