Jean Bart

History

Jean Bart was a French battleship of World War II, named for the 17th-century seaman, privateer, and corsair Jean Bart. She was the second Richelieu-class battleship. Derived from the Dunkerque class, Jean Bart (and her sister ship Richelieu) were designed to fight the new battleships of the Italian Navy. Their speed, shielding, armament, and overall technology were state of the art, but they had a rather unusual main battery armament arrangement, with two 4-gun turrets forward and none aft.
Jean Bart was incomplete when France surrendered to Germany in June 1940. She sailed from Saint-Nazaire to Casablanca just before the Armistice. She was sunk in harbour in 1942. After the war she was re-floated, completed with an updated anti-aircraft battery, and entered service in 1955. She had a very short career: Jean Bart was put into reserve in 1957, decommissioned in 1961, and scrapped in 1969.

Design

Jean Bart was meant to be a largely identical sibling to her sister Richelieu, but because of historical circumstances – namely, the Fall of France – this was not quite the case. As laid down, she was to be identical to her sister, a 35000-ton design meant to counter the Italian Littorio-class, adopting the unique 2x4 main battery layout in order to save weight. However, the defeat of Allied armies in northeastern France forced Jean Bart to be evacuated from France to Casablanca in Morocco before completion, and this would ultimately render her completed in a unique manner.

Her life at Casablanca saw her in a hap-hazard state, with only a single main battery turret, and her anti-aircraft armament made up of leftover 90mm guns and whatever 37mm cannons and machine guns (down to even 8mm) could be found. After Operation Torch, her battle with Massachusetts, and damage from the Ranger's SBD Dauntless dive bombers, Jean Bart fell into Allied hands, and the idea of an American refit, similar to what Richelieu received, was discussed.

Two ideas predominated French plans. The idea of Jean Bart as a surface combatant had taken a back seat – her 380mm guns were to be replaced by 340mm guns from the old WWI battleship Lorraine, captured by the British in Alexandria during Operation Catapult in 1940. In the first design, in place of her No.2 turret, 152mm mounts (which were never fitted), and 90mm guns, fifteen USN 5”/38 Mk.32 twin Dual-Purpose mountings were to be fitted. She would also receive sixteen quadruple Bofors 40mm cannon mountings, and fifty Oerlikon 20mm cannon single mounts. Her aviation facilities would be able to launch up to six aircraft, American or British naval bombers or fighters. The second variant focused purely on AA, and featured seventeen 5”/38 mounts, and twenty quad 40mm Bofors mounts.

Despite this, the United States refused to offer any reconstructions to Jean Bart, or divert any resources to the incomplete and damaged battleship. Instead, she would have to wait until after the war. On 22 February 1945, the CSM (Consiel Superieur de la Marine) decided to complete Jean Bart, although how was still to be decided, as many in the Marine Nationale, such as Admirals Barjot and Férnard, wanted to complete her as an Aircraft carrier. Due to the unimpressive characteristics of conversion designs alongside their prohibitive costs, the CSM decided against this, and thus instead began to focus on her completion as a battleship. This ultimately manifested as a ship that would resemble the Richelieu, but with vastly increased Anti-Aircraft capabilities.

Thanks to the benefits of the experience of operating the Richelieu, many of the flaws of the Richelieu-class could be solved in construction, rather than manifesting in service. Thus her main battery received built-in firing delays to combat excessive dispersion, and her improved ammunition handling allowed the guns to complete their firing cycle in 32 seconds, for a maximum rate of fire of 1.9 rpm. They retained the three aft 152mm triple mounts like Richelieu, and they retained their anti-air ability. Her main heavy anti-air, however, would come from twelve 100mm/45 CAD Mle 1946 twin mountings, which were fully stabilized and equipped with RPC (Remote Power Control). With an extremely high rate of fire of 20-25 rpm and good ceiling, they were excellent anti-aircraft guns, although their effectiveness was hampered greatly by the poor performance of their ACAE Fire Control Radar. Finally, for closer-range defense came the excellent 57mm/60 Mle 1947, a weapon produced under license from Bofors. Although the gun came from Bofors, all elements of the mounting was developed by the navy’s Services Techniques, and it also had full RPC. Fourteen twin mounts (ACAD Mle 1948) were utilized by the Jean Bart, which paired with the DRBC Radar (which automatically followed targets) made these powerful and rapid-firing guns lethal with no more human involvement that the simple press of a button. In the end, when Jean Bart was finally completed in 1955, she was over 5000 tons heavier than Richelieu was when she had first been ‘completed’ in 1940.

Before the end of her life, three more projects were proposed to modernize the last French battleship.

The first, in 1957, envisioned her twelve 100mm mountings stripped and replaced by 100mm/55 CAS Mle 1953, which was not only slightly more powerful than the Mle 1946, but also had more than twice the rate of fire, able to output 60 rpm. Some 57mm mounts would also be replaced with these 100mm guns. The second, in 1958, envisioned a far more radical change to a missile battleship, with different versions involving missile counts from as low as 25 to as much as 325. A third option would have seen a 152mm turret removed and replaced with a Terrier SAM system, for training purposes only.

None were chosen.

Service

Jean Bart was launched on 6 March 1940, in the middle of the ‘phoney war’. Although she was supposed to be completed in early 1941, the end of the phoney war and the Fall of France would totally destroy these plans and force the French to evacuate the Jean Bart from France. By May 1940 as the Allies buckled under the German offensives French workers focused on making her able to get to sea first and foremost, and this effort consumed almost all the attention of the facility with some 3,050 workers on 12-hour shifts to get her ready. Eventually, through painstaking effort, despite the fact only half her boilers and half her main battery were installed, Jean Bart was ready to escape. On the 19th of June at 0330 three tugs pulled her out of the fitting-out dock into a hastily dredged channel that was only 45 meters across and for which Jean Bart’s hull only had a 30 cm clearance in regards to the bottom. However, the darkness made it difficult to see the buoys marking the channel, and she soon grounded by the bow. By 0445 she had finally been freed, and started her engines up for the first time – not a moment too soon, as just then three He.111’s arrived overhead and bombed the incomplete battleship, inflicting one hit with a 100 kg bomb that dealt insignificant damage. Making 12 knots, she headed for the open ocean, and at 0630 met up with two le Hardi-class destroyers as escort. A British destroyer and two tugs attempted to bring the French battleship to Britain, but the French declined this, and continued to Casablanca, eventually picking up speed to 24 knots after refueling. With only one operational engine room, she experienced numerous breakdowns and difficulties on her voyage and finally reached Casablanca on the evening of the 22nd. In the wake of her arrival, despite the disagreement of her captain (Captain Ronarc’h), much of her anti-aircraft battery was stripped for the defense of the port – leaving only four 13.2mm machine guns behind. Following the British attacks in Operation Catapult, steps were taken to prepare the ship for any attacks, such as cementing over empty barbettes, sealing off incomplete compartments, finally adding more 13.2mm (and one 8mm) machine guns for defense, as well as setting up rudimentary fire-control capabilities. More weaponry would be added as time went on, including 37mm cannons and 90mm heavy AA guns.

In November 1942, the Allies initiated Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy North Africa. Part of this campaign was the Naval battle of Casablanca, which Jean Bart was a part of. Although immobile, Jean Bart fought from her moorings as a French squadron of contre-torpilleurs lead by a light cruiser engaged American warships in a surface action. Jean Bart entered the action at 0708, firing a two-gun salvo from her 380mm turret at the battleship Massachusetts at a range of 22000 meters, her shells falling 600 yards of the starboard bow of the American ship. Three more salvoes followed until 0719, as the makeshift rangefinders could no longer target the American ships. Massachusetts returned fire with her nine 16” guns, and quickly started hitting. At 0725 a 16” shell punched in aft through Jean Bart’s armor decks, detonating against the aft transverse bulkhead inside a fortunately empty 152mm magazine. At 0735 a second shell passed through the bottom of the bow, exploding in the water. A minute later a near miss hit the quay and sent splinters into the side of the ship, and the minute after another shell passed through the funnel, clipped the end of the armor deck, and exited out the side of the hull into the water. A fourth shell passed through the tip of the quay and bounced of the Jean Bart’s main armor belt, failing to explode. For a brief while Jean Bart had some respite, until 0806 when another 16” shell struck the turret I barbette, demolishing a 90mm mount in the process and ricocheting away, jamming the turret, while another shell in the same salvo stuck the second turret barbette, breaking up and failing to penetrate. The last hit was scored at 0810, passing through the armor deck over the steering gear and detonating beneath the steering gears. Jean Bart was battered by the bombardment, but was not out of the fight. Within ten hours her turret had been un-jammed, and the two days later she surprised the cruiser Augusta by opening fire on her at a range of 16000 meters. Her second salvo landed close enough to dye the front of the American ship orange with the splash, and her seventh salvo straddled the heavy cruiser, as did the two following salvoes. The Americans, no longer willing to deal with the French battleship from the sea, ordered an airstrike, and at 1500 SBD dive-bombers from the carrier Ranger dove on the French warship with 1000 lb. bombs. Two hits were scored, the first obliterating the forecastle deck, and the second hitting starboard abreast the aircraft hangar, blasting open the side of the ship. Both hits caused massive fires, and took the French warship out of the fight.

Repairs started not long after the fall of Casablanca, and the French aimed to send the battleship to America for a refit similar to that of her sister Richelieu. Despite their efforts, the Americans refused to refit a second French battleship, and she remained as she was until after the war.

It would not be until August of 1945 that Jean Bart finally returned to France, arriving at Cherbourg on the 29th. There she remained idle while deliberations about her fate took place, and eventually it was decided to complete her as a battleship, work beginning on the 11th of March 1946. Work was largely completed in January of 1949, and soon after conducted machinery and gunnery trials. In April of 1950 was considered officially complete, however, this was far from the truth, the battleship lacking much of her anti-aircraft armament. This work was continued in late 1951, and it would not be until May 1955 that she finally became active within the Marine Nationale, and was substantially upgraded in anti-aircraft power and overall fire control compared to her sister Richelieu. However, her state was mostly that of training and diplomatic visits until the 1956 Suez Crisis. This caught Jean Bart, not fully manned, off guard, and although substantial effort was put into making her fully operational, only one 380mm and one 152mm was fully manned, and a similar state of operation was available from her AA guns. Jean Bart lead a force of two light carriers, a light cruiser, and four destroyers. She embarked troops, which were transferred to the landing force, and then was sent to bombard Port Said. However, she only fired four 380mm shells before the operation was cancelled and Jean Bart returned to France.

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  Jean Bart in the harbor of Casablanca, photographed by a plane from USS Ranger. Turret number two was not yet operational.

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  Jean Bart incomplete in Casablanca harbor, taken from an airplane of USS Ranger

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  Jean Bart attacked by planes of USS Ranger

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  Damaged Jean Bart photographed in Casablanca on November 16, 1942

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  Battleship Jean Bart in 1968 in the harbour of Toulon

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  Battleship Jean Bart in 1968