page_title: French aircraft carrier Béarn
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: French aircraft carrier Béarn / Career / World War II
caption_attribution_description: The French aircraft carrier Béarn in the 1940s.
context_page_description: Béarn was an aircraft carrier converted from an incomplete Normandie-class battleship for the Marine Nationale during the 1920s. Entering service in 1928, the French intended to use her to develop tactics and techniques for carrier aviation. The only aircraft carrier France produced until after World War II, the ship played a minor role in the war, training in home waters and conducting pilot training.
  In late May 1940 Béarn ferried gold to purchase aircraft from the United States, but she was diverted to Martinique in the French West Indies when the French armistice with Germany was signed in June. Under pressure from the United States, which was worried about the Germans taking control of her if she returned to France, the carrier remained there for the next four years. To alleviate their concerns the local commander in the Antilles agreed to have her immobilized in mid-1942. The Vichy French government ordered him to sabotage the ship in May 1943 and he ultimately complied by having Béarn run aground.
context_section_description: The day after the French declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939, Béarn received orders to fly off her aircraft. On 5 October, the carrier was nominally assigned to Force L, together with the battleship Dunkerque and three light cruisers, which was tasked with searching the West Indies for the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. In reality the carrier remained in Brest, conducting anti-aircraft exercises and beginning the process of being modified to serve as a tanker for Breguet 521 Bizerte and Laté.523 flying boats. Although the modifications principally consisted of an addition of a 12-meter (39 ft 4 in) boom to support a refuelling hose, the work lasted from October to April 1940. While docked at Laninon on 23 March, two crewmen were severely injured when blasting work nearby on a new slipway caused the front of the carrier to be struck by numerous pieces of rubble.
  Béarn was ordered to Toulon on 13 April to begin deck landing training for Escadrilles AB1 and 2S3. The former was equipped with V-156Fs and the latter had PL.101s, but was supposed to convert to LN.411s in May. The ship arrived on 18 April and began training with the pilots of AB1 five days later. Training continued until the German invasion of France on 10 May when AB1 was ordered north. The carrier returned to Toulon the following day to off-load the equipment of both squadrons and was ordered to prepare for a mission of long duration beginning on 18 May. That day, Béarn's crew loaded 3,880 cases of the Bank of France's gold bullion weighing 147 metric tons (145 long tons) and valued at 9,241,000,000 francs. The gold was intended to pay for armaments purchased from the United States under its Cash and carry law. The carrier was escorted through the Mediterranean and to the Atlantic coast of Morocco by the destroyers Tramontane, Tornade, and Typhon as well as maritime patrol aircraft. After a brief stopover in Casablanca to refuel on 21 May, her escort was reinforced with a pair of Bougainville-class avisos until the 25th when Béarn rendezvoused with the light cruisers Jeanne d'Arc and Émile Bertin west of Madeira, which were transporting bullion themselves, and took over the escort mission. The flotilla arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 1 June.
caption: Béarn before her conversion into an aircraft transport
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