1) The rate of fire was hampered by the slow rate in which the hoists could deliver projectiles.  Reportedly, the pre-war average rate of fire for Richelieu was 1.33 rounds per minute.  When Jean Bart was completed post-war, she could then achieve a rate of fire of nearly two rounds per minute.

2) A spanning tray to protect the breech threads ran in and out automatically.  Complete ramming time was 13.5 seconds.  The breeches were operated hydro-pneumatically and opened upwards automatically during the runout cycle.  Breech opening and closing times are both given as 3.5 seconds.

1) Apparently only AP rounds were developed prior to 1940.  HE shells may have been first produced for these guns by Crucible Steel Company of America.  Actual designation for dye-filled APC "K" shells was:  38 cm Obus de Perforation (RC) K Modele 1936.

2) The propellant charge was in quarters, making them unusually heavy.  These were rammed two at a time, with inertia holding the first two bags in place while the last two were rammed.

3) USA multi-tube charges were supplied after the Richelieu's New York refit, but these were disliked by the French because they had a tendency to warp and break during handling.

4) Modified SD19 powder bags (originally designed for the Dunkerque class) were also used during 1944-1945.  These gave a slightly reduced muzzle velocity of 2,690 fps (820 mps).

5) Both AP and HE shells had dye bags ("K" shell).  Richelieu was assigned yellow and Jean Bart orange.

6) The AP cap weight was 185 lbs. (84 kg).

7) The AP burster was composed of 80% melinite and 20% dinitronaphtaline.

8) The US designed-and-manufactured APC projectiles were externally identical to the French design and weighed the same, with the exact same cavity shape and percentage.  The base fuze was the US Mark 21 BDF.  The filler was Explosive "D", not TNT.  The base plug was the standard US Navy design, as was its threaded sides and other details.  The biggest visual difference in the blueprints between the US and original French APC projectiles was that the AP cap and nose shape was that of the US Navy 14" Mark 16 Mod 8 AP projectile:  Oval nose under the cap and a flat-tipped-cone-faced, moderately thick, moderately hard (circa 555 Brinell
maximum) AP cap with the windscreen threaded to near its softened (circa 225 Brinell) lower skirt edge just above the forward bourrelet, not at the maximum-hardness upper-face edge as with most foreign and later US Navy AP shells (even the 14" Mark 16 MOD 10 AP shells had the new-model, short-windscreen AP caps late in World War II).  This odd-ball late-1930's US Navy standard cap and windscreen design allowed the windscreen-holding threads to be cut into softer metal -- less expensive -- and made the windscreen several inches longer than later designs (also slightly heavier, of course); there was a narrow gap between the inside of the lower windscreen and the slightly-narrowed AP cap side above the threaded area.  The caps were soldered on with a ring of 8 (I think) shallow pits in the nose at the bottom edge of the cap having the cap edge bent into them (forming "dimples"), reinforcing the solder; identical to the US AP cap attachment method.  The windscreen might have had the plugged cut-outs for an internal dye bag used in US World War II large-caliber AP projectile to allow water to ram though the windscreen on water impact and dye the splash, but I am not certain; it most certainly did not use the French "K" dye-bag design (see below).

9) The original French projectiles had pointed, hardened AP caps contoured to the bluntly-pointed nose under the cap, getting gradually thicker from just above the bourrelet to about the same level as the tip of the nose (33 cm gun design) or somewhat higher (last 38 cm gun design), at which level they abruptly became much blunter, though still thickening to a blunt point in the center.  The lower edge of the cap was softened and was forced into a shallow groove ring cut into the projectile's lower nose all around, not in the spaced dimples of the US design.  The long French windscreen design was reinforced to hold the K spotting dye-bag charge and had a much wider attachment threaded area to the AP cap's upper side to more firmly hold the windscreen in place.  Also, this reinforcement had a wide flat "floor" braced against the upper face of the AP cap, so that when the windscreen's K filler explosion removed most of the windscreen, this flat area would remain, allowing the shell to dive underwater exactly like a Japanese Type 91 diving shell with minimum drag or projectile path distortion.

Gascogne
   -137.5 / +137.5 degrees

Alsace
  about  -150 / +150 degrees

1) These turrets were equipped with a unique "semi-flexible" chain rammer carried on an extension from each cradle which permitted loading at any angle and thus a theoretical high rate of fire.  The shells were "vigorously rammed" so that they would be held in place at high elevations by their own driving bands.  However, I have to question if shells sliding back out of the breech when operated at high elevations was a problem, as loading was typically performed at about +15 degrees of elevation.

2) Both training and elevation were electro-hydraulic with RPC.

3) The gunhouse was divided by a 4.5 cm (1.8") bulkhead.

4) Gascogne was a modified design with a fore and aft turret rather than the all-forward design of her half-sisters.  For that reason, her main-battery arcs were limited to allow the placement of more AA guns in areas free from blast effects.  Alsace was the proposed lead ship of a new class of battleships with a standard displacement of around 45,000 tons (45,700 mt).  None of these battleships were laid down at the time of the surrender.

5) Each turret had two sets of shell rooms and powder magazines, each pair on the same deck at opposite ends of the barbette.  The pairs were stacked one above the other on two decks with each pair feeding two guns in a half turret.  There were two dredger hoists to a handling room below the turret with an upper hoist going to each gun.  The upper hoist was a three-level cage, with the shell riding in the lower level and two powder bags on each of the upper levels.

6) The gun axis in each pair were 76.8 in (195 cm) apart while the two inner guns were 116.1 in (295 cm) apart.