MN Jean Bart - "Who Needs to be Complete to Fight?"

[@billfoglietta1878]

The shell from the USS Massachusetts that hit the Jean Bart is on display on the deck of the Massachusetts in Fall River MA

[@ropeburnsrussell]

This channel continues to improve. I'm glad I stuck around.

[@fredericlepeltier3435]

The dock where she was built which was dug for her is the same dock where the Oasis class cruise ships (symphony of the seas and her sisters) are built today. While her deck armor was pierced by Massachusetts 16", her belt armor was not. One shell actually bounced back to the bottom of the harbor. The plan for her refit as an AA battlecruiser was actually a US idea to get more AA platforms for CV escort in the pacific. After the surrender of the italian fleet the idea to use the Italians Litorrio class for the same purpose floated before the same lack of standard spares stopped the project.

[@checkyoursix5623]

Served on USS Springfield (CLG-7) when she tied up across the pier from Jean Bart in Toulon in 1962 or 1963. What a beauty.

[@alephalon7849]

The many what-if designs for Jean Bart are interesting. Especially the proposed conversion to a carrier.

[@Tundraviper41]

It's kind of a cool fact that the Richelieu class was the heaviest class of ship built by the French navy. Even to this day, they still hold that title.

[@BHuang92]

Even the nuclear carrier Charles de Gaulle is second only to the Richelieu-class in terms of displacement!

[@Tundraviper41]

​@BHuang92 true fact!

[@ScarScream]

The new French nuclear powered aircraft carrier will be the biggest French and European ship ever, it's supposed to be ready around 2035-38. It will be about the size of a Nimitz class or just a little bigger. Its rumored name is "Le Richelieu" 😉

[@Brendan200]

​@@ScarScreamthe new carrier the French are planning is around 75000 to 80000 tons not the size of a nimitz

[@robbielee2148]

Had to watch as this was the one capital ship I knew nothing about. I must have been impressed as I subscribed after watching _ thx well done. I'd love to see a detailed examination of HMS Unicorn, especially her use in Korea as a troop transport, hospital ship & later the only ACC ever used for shore bombardment. Just a thought but not enough detailed info out there on this ship.

[@robbielee2148]

PS, as for Unicorn I am totally biased as I just completed a scratch built model of her 😊

[@TEHSTONEDPUMPKIN]

The most beautiful battleship ever built in my opinion.

[@robbielee2148]

Many would agree the all forward main battery was the peak of battleship design, especially the French with their quad turret or more specifically side by side doubles.

[@joewalker2152]

Nice, these two sisters were indeed beautiful ships. Si vis pacem, para bellum

[@jackdaniel7465]

Very beautiful battleship!!!

[@m.streicher8286]

France was responsible for some of the ugliest pre-dreadnoughts, by the 30's they were making really beautiful ships.

[@AmericanThunder]

I always thought most of the british ships were ugly, the french ships, ugly, half of japan's ships, ugly, while the Americans, germans and italians had some damn nice looking vessels. Honorable mention goes to japanese Yamato class of course, very nice looking. Remember kids, it's not just how well you kill stuff that counts, it's how good you look doing it too.

[@robbielee2148]

​@@AmericanThunder I always thought the most attractive thing about American ships was their amount of AA guns. As for the British, HMS Hood had absolutely the nicest lines of any warship ever. Your moniker shows your bias FWIW, much like the dude who publishes under the New jersey channel claiming Iowa class was the best looking 😉

[@AmericanThunder]

@@robbielee2148 well some people like ugly women too. To each their own

[@andreaspersson5639]

Now, now, be fair to the british: stealing french ships is what the royal navy *does*, since basically the royal navy has been a thing. XD

[@robbielee2148]

That maybe true but pretty sure they were capturing Spanish ships long b4 the French Navy almost became a thing. Add Dutch, Portuguese and whatever else was around, cause you know we British are not biased 😊

[@VersusARCH]

@@robbielee2148 Except the Dutch knew how to respond in king ([cough] Royal Charles).

[@robbielee2148]

@@VersusARCH I visited Holland in the 1960s, wonderful people & a beautiful country. Most striking from what I remember was the tulips, fields and fields of them. Let's hope the world someday can grow more flowers instead of amassing weapons of war.

[@jeffsr8300]

To the winner go the spoils

[@davidharner5865]

'victor'

[@BHuang92]

There were other battleship battles in which the US engaged during WW2 but none were as modern as the Jean Bart so that is nothing to scoff about!

[@propman3523]

Great post!

[@DardanellesBy108]

I was going to write, “Wasn’t the HMS Vanguard the last battleship completed?” But after listening to the whole video this was certainly the last battleship “completed”. Good grief! Seems like a waste of resources. Thanks for the video. I found it interesting.

[@patrickgriffitt6551]

As it were the Prince of Wales wasn't completely battle ready at Denmark Straight.

[@dutchman7216]

Thank you that was interesting. Do you have anything on Uss Washington BB-56?

[@restoration7676]

هذه السفينة التي دمرها جول جمّال؟

[@EuroScot2023]

To a great extent she ended up being a 'vanity project'. One of many in Gaullist France. By 1945, it was obvious that the Battleship was an obsolete species in the face of naval airpower. The only serious use of the remaining battleships after WWII was by the USA and then it was simply as glorified and very expensive monitors.

[@holdfast453]

15” shell is fraction of the cost of a missile. Battleship’s main calibre is a weapon capable of precise strikes within 20 km. It’s armour is beyond comparison with contemporary warships where there isn’t any. France left NATO, retained a baker’s dozen of significant overseas territories, and remained a massive presence in sub-Saharan Africa and its coastal capitals like Dakar for example (within a battleships effective firing range). French battleships had to go due to the Suez fiasco of 1956. Since then only the USA with its overwhelming hegemony could employ battleships against inferior enemies around the world, and has retained them to this day.

[@EuroScot2023]

@@holdfast453 I'd be interested to hear which battleships the USA has retained? I'm sure the US Navy would be interested to know as well.

[@holdfast453]

@@EuroScot2023 Iowa’s are still seaworthy and fire those 16” guns to impress the paying tourists, Mighty Mo was recommissioned for the Vietnam and Iraq fiascos many years after de Gaul and MN Jean Bart.

[@grandadmiralzaarin4962]

I didn't know they'd planned to redo her armaments as an AA BB. Interesting.

[@CorePathway]

That would be the most useful variant; dual purpose guns > 6” guns on a BB. I’d suggest the original form should have had 2x8” triple vs 3x6” triple secondary armament.

[@christopher-ke9nj]

Does it help to be ready, well, yes, try being inept

[@nofrackingzone7479]

The Jean Bart is indicative of the French performance through out WWII.

[@JakobGottlich]

To be fair here , while Jean Bart proved she didn't need to be complete to fight , she might have done a bigger and better job of it had she been finished .

[@m.streicher8286]

God I wish big Atlanta happened

[@DavidJones-me7yr]

They could have sold her to a anime company and created the Space Battleship Jean Bart?

[@hectilliusthelegionary8496]

Asterix and a battleship?

[@robertchautardjensen6846]

MN Jean Bart was not the last battleship built, that honour goes to HMS Vanguard.

[@jamesricker3997]

She was the last completed.

[@stephenrichards339]

A good looking ship

[@kristelvidhi5038]

Imagine if Richelieu faught Jean Bart.

[@holdfast453]

It looks like she put up quite a fight against the American invaders

[@minhthunguyendang9900]

5:22 MN Jean Bart in 1945.

[@henkbarnard1553]

`She bravely ran away

[@bkjeong4302]

It’s honestly a disgrace that Massachusetts gets a lot of prestige for fighting an incomplete and stationary ship and still not actually being the one to put her down. Also, why even complete Jean Bart?

[@skyneahistory2306]

National prestige, probably. ‘tis why I made note that scrapping her was arguably the best use of limited French resources.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@skyneahistory2306 The entire WWII generation of battleships were, at least in hindsight, a major case of “why?”, but Jean Bart was a case where you didn’t even need hindsight to figure that out.

[@joebanville7510]

Much of the Big Mamie’s prestige came from more then this battle, she was the first US battleship to fire 16 inch guns in battle and the last to fire them in WW2, she was involved in a lot of action in the Pacific. As for the disgrace, she didn’t need to put her down, she knocked her out of action, there was no need to destroy her, especially when the Free French may find a use for her once they captured it. I think the true disgrace was the French attacking the US who were trying to liberate them from the Germans that invaded and took over their colonies and homeland.

[@erichammond9308]

I think people have unrealistic expectations of what constitutes accurate fire from battleship main guns. The only reasons Massachusetts didn't sink or destroy Jean Bart were 1) Jean Bart's magazines were empty, and 2) a dud shell - one shell went all of the way in and exploded in the main magazine, which had it been full would have completely obliterated the Jean Bart (much like a Japanese bomb did to the USS Arizona). The second hit went through the armored deck and glanced off the inside of the belt, then out the bottom, and buried itself in the mud below. Had that hit exploded as timed it would have fatally blown up at the bottom of the Jean Bart's hull likely breaking Jean Bart's back. Also, there were two very near misses and another hit on the superstructure - a total of 3 hits (2 potentially fatal) and 2 near misses out of 18 shells fired at a range of 13 nautical miles is actually darn good gunnery for any battleship, even against a stationary target. By comparison the Bismarck fired 5 salvos (40 shells) and only managed to hit hood twice at a range of 9 nautical miles while underway, and that was considered excellent gunnery for a battleship.

[@jamesricker3997]

If the Jean Bart's magazines had been full she would have done a Hood