French Battleship Jean Bart

French Battleship Jean Bart  

Type: Battleship/AA Battleship
Lenght: 248m
Beam: 35m
Draught: 9,60m
Propulsion: 4 x Parsons geared turbines and 6 x Indret «Sural» boilers w/ 150,000hp
Speed: 59km/h
Range: 14,207km at 37km/h / 5,891km at 56km/h
Complement: 1,280
Armanent: 4  x 340mm/45 Modele 1912 guns in one turret, 34 x 5in/38 DP twin gun mounts (replaced their 6 inch), 76 x 40mm Quad Mount Bofors, 36 x 20mm single mounts.

- After the first kamikazes where used in the Phillipines in 1944, the USN ordered to many ships to be armed with much AA guns was possible. During the "AA crisis", someone remember to convert the French Battleship Jean Bart was an AA Battleship. With no second opinions asked, the Jean Bart began is convertion on the Project 2 AA convertion in November/1944 and was finished in July/1945.
- Sent to the Pacific alongeside with the Light Cruiser Jeanne D'Arc, 10 destroyers escort/frigares (from the RN) and 1 Bogue-class escort carrier, the French Fleet joined the US 7th Fleet for Operation Majestic (Olympic under a new codename).
- During the invasion of the Ariake, on the November 16th 1945, the captain of the Jean Bart, seen that the kamikazes/bombers where targeting mostly the landing ships, make the unthinkable: Nearing beaching the ship itself, we give AA support and "literal" direct gun support fire on the japanese bunkers still intact and on the 4 kamikaze destroyers that manage to sneak in (only one of then was sunk before reaching is target, while the second already beached itself and the other 2 where to close to friendlies to the main battery guns). Without the AA support from the battleship, some historians said that the Ariake beachead could have end up like Omaha in Normandy.
- The AA support for the Jean Bart was so great that the Japanese High Command even gave an order to is Kamikaze/light bombers/medium bombers pilots to NOT attack any ship if the Jean Bart is protecting.
- Besides Operation Majestic, the Jean Bart also support the Oshima landings, the Sagami landings on Operaion Coronet, the Nagoya landings and the Naval Battle of Northern Honshu (althrough during its way to Okinawa/Iwo Jima/Guam/Manila, it bombed/give the crap out of fullish Kamikazes during its voyage to the destination)
- When the Pacific Campaign ended, the Jean Bart was sent to Hawaii, then Los Angeles (while participating in the Operation Magic Carpet), where later was decided to send her to New Orleans to be refitted for the Atlantic/European Front, but that its another topic...