By far and away the best of the French heavy cruisers, the French would have loved to have built many more of them. But those pesky dates get in the road. Algerie was the last cruiser laid down in 1930 under the '10,000 ton' rules. Four months later the Naval treaties have disappeared and the French can recast the design to give a much bigger, better, best design. But that is in my world. In the real world the size of cruisers changes in 1930 from 10,000 tons to 8,000 tons. If I take that change away, the best 8,000 ton light cruiser of WW2 never gets built (Georges Leygues class). Decisions, decisions! I do it for the US Navy, delete the Brooklyn/Cleveland classes and build more 8" cruisers instead. So, sorry Georges Leygues but you become one of history's lost notes. Increase the Algerie class to a four ship class and the next Emile Bertin class minelaying cruisers to a two ship class. Which would take us through to late 1938, early 1939, when the four ship St Louis class can be laid down.
The Algerie benefited from the work on triple turrets done on the Amiral Aube. The Algerie would be fitted with three and the later St Louis class with four. The Algerie would be 38 feet shorter and two to three knots slower than the previous Suffren class. But overall the Algerie's were a much more powerful class than the Suffren's. Double the armour and AA potential. I would definitely like to have four of these in my fleet - but wait - I have!
