Sazan Island
France and the British agreed that the French fleet would concentrate in the Mediterranean to contain the Austro-Hungarian fleet and the "Courbet"-class ships sailed there after the war began. "Courbet" became the flagship of Admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, commander of the French Mediterranean Fleet. Lapeyrère decided immediately on a sweep into the Adriatic to surprise the Austrian vessels enforcing a blockade of Montenegro. The Anglo-French force, which included "Jean Bart", succeeded in cutting off and sinking the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser off Bar on 16 August 1914, although her accompanying destroyer managed to escape. They spent most of the rest of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until hit "Jean Bart" on 21 December with one torpedo in the wine store just in front of the forward magazine off Sazan Island. She was able to steam to Malta on her own for repairs that required three and a half months, but this forced the battleships to fall back to either Malta or Bizerte. After the French occupied the neutral Greek island of Corfu in 1916 they moved forward to Corfu and Argostoli, but their activities were very limited as many of their crews were used to man anti-submarine ships.