French battleship Jean Bart (1940)

Jean Bart
Battleship Jean Bart
Jean Bart photographed by a plane from USS Ranger during Operation Torch in November 1942
History
France
NameJean Bart
NamesakeJean Bart
Laid down12 December 1936
Launched6 March 1940
Commissioned8 January 1949
In service1 May 1955
Out of service1 August 1957
Stricken10 February 1970
FateBroken up, 1970
General characteristics (Designed configuration)
Class and typeRichelieu-class battleship
Displacement
Length247.85 m (813 ft 2 in)
Beam33.08 m (108 ft 6 in)
DraftFull load: 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in)
Installed power
  • 6 × Indret Sural boilers
  • 155,000 shp (116,000 kW)
Propulsion
Speed32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement1,569
Armament
Armor
Aircraft carried4 × Loire 130 seaplanes
Aviation facilities2 × catapults
General characteristics (As completed)
Displacement
  • Normal: 43,052 t (42,372 long tons)
  • Full load: 49,196 t (48,419 long tons)
Draft10.9 m (36 ft)
Complement2,220
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
  • 8 × 380 mm guns
  • 9 × 152 mm guns
  • 24 × 100 mm AA guns
  • 28 × 57 mm (2.2 in) AA guns

Jean Bart was a French fast battleship, the second and final member of the Richelieu class. Built as a response to the Italian Littorio class, the Richelieus were based on their immediate predecessors of the Dunkerque class with the same unconventional arrangement that grouped their main battery forward in two quadruple gun turrets. They were scaled up to accommodate a much more powerful main battery of eight 380 mm (15 in) guns (compared to the 330 mm (13 in) guns of the Dunkerques), with increased armor to protect them from guns of the same caliber. Jean Bart was laid down in 1936 and was launched in 1940, following the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The ship was not complete by the time Germany won the Battle of France, and Jean Bart was rushed to Casablanca to escape advancing German troops. She had only one of her main turrets installed, along with a handful of anti-aircraft guns.

While in Casablanca, the French attempted to prepare the ship for action as much as was possible in light of limited infrastructure and the necessary parts to complete the vessel. Her anti-aircraft armament was slowly strengthened as guns became available and a search radar was fitted in 1942. In November, American and British forces invaded French North Africa in Operation Torch; Jean Bart initially helped to resist the attack, engaging in a gunnery duel with the battleship USS Massachusetts before being badly damaged by American dive bombers. Following the defection of French forces in the region to the Allied side, the French attempted to have the ship completed in the United States, but the requests came to nothing as the US Navy had no interest in the project. Jean Bart was accordingly repaired as much as possible in Casablanca, thereafter spending the rest of the war as a training ship there.

In 1945, discussions as to the fate of the ship considered converting her into an aircraft carrier, finishing her as a battleship, or discarding her altogether. The decision was ultimately made to finish her as a battleship, a process that took several years. Most work on the ship was completed by 1955, when she formally entered active service, and she conducted two overseas cruises to visit Denmark and the United States shortly thereafter. For the only time, Richelieu and Jean Bart cruised together on 30 January 1956. Jean Bart took part in the French intervention in the Suez Crisis in November 1956, including a brief four-shot bombardment of Port Said. Reduced to reserve in August 1957, she was used as a barracks ship until 1961. She remained, unused, in the French Navy's inventory until 1970 when she was struck from the naval register and sold for scrap.