I'll come back to what the British are up to, but the historical enemy
has to be considered.
It all starts going wrong in May 1968. The student strikes are
joined by workers' sit-ins, the UNEF holds a 50,000-person meeting in
the Stade Sebastien Charlety demanding a new government, and de Gaulle
flees the country for French military headquarters in Germany. So far,
so historical. But his helicopter vanishes en route, believed to have
been shot down by parties unknown, and with no firm hand the situation
in Paris grows worse until the rioters overwhelm the Paris police and
the CRS.
After hasty elections, Guy Debord declares the Sixth Republic and
forms the new Situationist government. While the post-Dadaist artistic
flowering that follows is the envy of the world (at least that part of
the world that's under thirty), other states can't help noticing how
there now seems to be a Soviet sympathiser, a nuclear-armed one at
that, embedded within Europe.
The Soviets covertly supported the revolt because they thought that
they could hollow out the new government and get a handy puppet state.
This didn't quite work; the Situationists were much more hostile to
communism (which they had been fighting since well before the
revolution) than outsiders had expected. Political realities leave the
French dealing with both the USSR and China, generally trying to play
them off against each other.
As far as naval forces are concerned, Clemenceau and Foch are joined
by Joffre, of similiar design but with updated sensors; similarly
Jeanne d'Arc is joined by Charlemagne. The Super Étendard is rushed
into service early; it's unreliable at first, but gives the carriers a
stand-off strike capability via Exocet that the earlier Étendard
simply can't achieve.
Submarines are mostly Daphné and Aréthuse diesel attack boats, but the
Redoutable, Terrible, and Foudroyant SSBNs are in service by 1975 with
Indomptable nearly ready.
Smaller combatants include five frigates of the Tourville class,
and four Suffrens.
(Next: weapons)
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