French battleship Jean Bart (1911)

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For other ships with the same name, see French ship Jean Bart.

Jean Bart in 1914
History
France
NameJean Bart
NamesakeJean Bart
Ordered11 August 1910
Builder
Arsenal de Brest, Brest
CostF60,200,000
Laid down15 November 1910
Launched22 September 1911
Completed2 September 1913
Commissioned19 November 1913
Decommissioned15 August 1935
RenamedOcéan, 1 January 1937
Reclassified
  • As a training ship, 1 November 1934
  • As an
    accommodation ship
    , 1936
Captured27 November 1942 by Nazi Germany
FateScrapped, 14 December 1945
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeCourbet-class battleship
Displacement
  • 23,475 t (23,104 long tons) (normal)
  • 25,579 t (25,175 long tons) (
    full load
    )
Length166 m (544 ft 7 in) (
o/a
)
Beam27 m (88 ft 7 in)
Draught9.04 m (29 ft 8 in)
Installed power
  • 28,000 
    PS
    (20,594 kW; 27,617 shp)
  • 24 ×
    Belleville boilers
Propulsion4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets
Speed21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Endurance4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement1,115 (1,187 as flagship)
Armament
Armour

Jean Bart was the second of four

Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser Zenta on 16 August 1914. She was torpedoed by an Austro-Hungarian submarine in December and steamed to Malta for repairs that required three and a half months. She spent the rest of the war providing cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea and sometimes served as a flagship
.

After the war, she and her

occupied Toulon in 1942 and used her for testing large shaped charge warheads. She was sunk by Allied bombing in 1944, and after the war ended, was refloated and scrapped
beginning in late 1945.

Background and description

Brassey's Naval Annual
1912

By 1909, the French Navy was convinced of the superiority of the

kW; 27,617 shp).[4] The ships had a designed speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). The Courbet-class ships carried enough coal and fuel oil to give them a range of 4,200 nautical miles (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[5]

The

Canon de 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Mle 1902 Hotchkiss guns were fitted, two on each broadside in the superstructure. They were also armed with four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) submerged torpedo tubes, a pair on each broadside,[4] and could stow 10 mines below decks. The ships' waterline belt ranged in thickness from 140 to 250 mm (5.5 to 9.8 in) and was thickest amidships. The gun turrets were protected by 250–360 millimetres (9.8–14.2 in) of armour and 160-millimetre (6.3 in) plates protected the casemates. The curved armoured deck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick on the flat and 70 mm (2.8 in) on the outer slopes. The conning tower had 266 mm (10.5 in) thick face and sides.[6]

Construction and career

Jean Bart in 1913

Jean Bart was ordered on 11 August 1910

President of the French Republic, boarded France on 16 July for a state visit to Saint Petersburg, Russia. After encountering the battlecruisers of the German I Scouting Group in the Baltic Sea en route, the ships arrived at Kronstadt on 20 July. They made a port visit to Stockholm, Sweden, on 25–26 July, but a planned visit to Copenhagen, Denmark, was cancelled due to rising tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and the ships arrived at Dunkerque on 29 July.[9]

World War I

When France declared war on Germany on 2 August, the sisters were in Brest and departed for Toulon that night. They were met off

semi-dreadnoughts Condorcet and Vergniaud because Jean Bart was having problems with her 305 mm ammunition and France had yet to load any. The ships rendezvoused with a troop convoy the following day and escorted it to Toulon.[10]

When France followed with a declaration of war on Austria-Hungary on 12 August,

Bay of Cattaro to discharge the unfired shells remaining in the guns after sinking Zenta. Boué de Lapeyrère transferred his flag to Jean Bart's newly arrived sister Paris on 11 September. Aside from several uneventful sorties into the Adriatic, the French capital ships spent most of their time cruising between the Greek and Italian coasts[11] to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from attempting to break out of the Adriatic.[12]

Patriotic postcard featuring Jean Bart posted from Malta (1915)

Jean Bart was torpedoed on 21 December by the Austro-Hungarian submarine

75 mm (3 in) Mle 1891 G guns on anti-aircraft mounts. On 27 April 1916, the French began using the port of Argostoli on the Greek island of Cephalonia as a base. Around this time many men from the battleships' crews were transferred to anti-submarine ships. At the beginning of 1917, the French began to use the Greek island of Corfu as well, but growing shortages of coal severely limited the battleships' ability to go to sea.[13] The situation was so bad that Vice-Admiral Gabriel Darrieus wrote in 1917:

The military capabilities of the Armée Navale, which has already been badly affected by the shortages of personnel and constant changes in the general staff, need to be maintained by frequent exercises, and although from March to June we were able to follow a normal pattern, the coal crisis is currently preventing any manoeuvres or gunnery training, even for the ships returning from repairs. The big ships have lost 50 per cent of the capability they had several months ago.[14]

In 1918, they were almost immobile, leaving Corfu only for maintenance and repairs. On 1 July, the Naval Army was reorganised with Jean Bart, Paris and Courbet assigned to the 2nd Battle Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.[14]

Interwar years

After the

company of Greek infantry which opened fire. The demonstrators fled and encountered Jean Bart's landing party, which also fired upon them. A total of about 15 people were wounded, included six sailors, one of whom later died of his wounds. Delegates from the other mutinous crews were not allowed aboard and the mutiny collapsed when Amet agreed to meet their main demand to take the ships home. Three crewmen were sentenced to prison terms upon her return, although the sentences were commuted in 1922 as part of a bargain between Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré and the parties of the left.[15]

The ship returned to Toulon by 1 July and was placed in reserve. On 10 February 1920, the 1st Naval Army was disbanded and replaced by the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée orientale) and its Western counterpart (Escadre de la Méditerranée occidentale); all the Courbets were assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the latter unit, with Courbet, Jean Bart and Paris in the 1st Battle Division and France in the 2nd Battle Division. Vice-Admiral Charles Charlier commanded both the 1st Division and the Western Mediterranean Squadron at this time. The two squadrons were combined into the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée) on 20 July 1921. In June 1923, the 1st Battle Division, including Jean Bart, was cruising off the coast of North Africa when Courbet had a boiler-room fire.[16]

Jean Bart received the first of her two refits between 12 October 1923 and 29 January 1925. This included replacing one set of four boilers with oil-fired

Barr & Stroud 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) FT coincidence rangefinders were installed for the 14 cm guns in October 1925.[17]

In mid-1925, the ship participated in manoeuvres in the Atlantic Ocean with Courbet and Paris and then made port visits to

mainmast. A traversable Zeiss 8.2-metre (26 ft 11 in) rangefinder was fitted to the roof of the forward superfiring turret in lieu of its FT model rangefinder and FTs were installed in the new gunnery directors for the secondary armament. The ship's Mle 1918 AA guns were exchanged for seven Canon de 75 mm Modèle 1922 guns and they were provided with a pair of high-angle OPL Modèle 1926 3-metre (9 ft 10 in) stereoscopic rangefinders, one on top of the duplex unit on the roof of the conning tower and one in the aft superstructure.[18]

The modernisation was completed on 29 September 1931 and Jean Bart recommissioned on 1 October as the flagship of the 2nd Battle Division commanded by

stokers and signalmen. She made her last sea voyage on 15 June 1935.[21]

Océan in Toulon, circa 1939

Her condition was poor enough by that time that she was not thought to be worth the expense of a third refit similar to those her sisters received.

shaped-charge warheads intended to be delivered by Mistel composite aircraft. The 8,000-pound (3,600 kg) warhead was positioned in front of the main-gun turrets, the closest one of which had its armour reinforced by an additional 100-millimetre (3.9 in) plate. The high-velocity jet formed by the shaped charge penetrated through the additional armour, the 300-millimetre (11.8 in) turret-face armour, the 360-millimetre rear armour and the front and rear of the aft turret, and into the superstructure to a total depth of 28 metres (92 ft).[24] She was sunk by Allied aircraft in 1944[4] and later raised for scrapping, which began on 14 December 1945.[25]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 139–140
  2. ^ Dumas, p. 223
  3. ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 143
  4. ^ a b c Whitley, p. 36
  5. ^ Dumas, p. 224
  6. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 143, 150, 156–158
  7. ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 142
  8. ^ Silverstone, p. 101
  9. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 142, 243–244
  10. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 244, 254
  11. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 244, 254–257
  12. ^ Halpern, p. 19
  13. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 258, 260, 274–275, 277, 280, 283
  14. ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, p. 277
  15. ^ Masson, pp. 88–92, 96–97, 99
  16. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 288–290
  17. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 298–299, 302–303
  18. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 299–303
  19. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 291, 293
  20. ^ Jordan & Moulin, p. 221
  21. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 293–294
  22. ^ Dumas, p. 229
  23. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 294, 320
  24. ^ Forsyth, pp. 80–81
  25. ^ Dumas, p. 231

Bibliography

Further reading

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