page_title: French battleship Jean Bart (1940)
section_title: Post war active service
hierarchical_section_title: French battleship Jean Bart (1940) / Service history / Post war active service
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: [ onbekend ] Beschrijving&#160;: Kwestie Suezkanaal. Slagschip "Jean Bart" van de Franse marine Datum&#160;: 3 augustus 1956 Locatie&#160;: Frankrijk, Suez Trefwoorden&#160;: kanalen, marine, schepen Persoonsnaam&#160;: Jean Bart Fotograaf&#160;: Behrens, Herbert / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Glasnegatief Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.09 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 907-9214
context_page_description: Jean Bart was a French fast battleship, the second and final member of the Richelieu class. Built as a response to the Italian Littorio class, the Richelieus were based on their immediate predecessors of the Dunkerque class with the same unconventional arrangement that grouped their main battery forward in two quadruple gun turrets. They were scaled up to accommodate a much more powerful main battery of eight 380 mm guns, with increased armor to protect them from guns of the same caliber. Jean Bart was laid down in 1936 and was launched in 1940, following the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The ship was not complete by the time Germany won the Battle of France, and Jean Bart was rushed to Casablanca to escape advancing German troops. She had only one of her main turrets installed, along with a handful of anti-aircraft guns.
  While in Casablanca, the French attempted to prepare the ship for action as much as was possible in light of limited infrastructure and the necessary parts to complete the vessel. Her anti-aircraft armament was slowly strengthened as guns became available and a search radar was fitted in 1942.
context_section_description: Jean Bart participated in training exercises with the fleet off the coast of North Africa in May and June 1950. She spent the next several months in Brest, and in early 1951 resumed initial training. She went to Le Havre in May to have a degaussing system installed, followed by further training cruises and tests to determine fuel consumption in June. By 7 July, she had returned to the fitting-out quay in Brest for additional work. The ship's main and secondary batteries were by now operational, and her propulsion system was complete, though she still lacked her anti-aircraft battery and fire control equipment. Beginning in November the shipyard embarked on the next phase modernization program, which included the installation of the anti-aircraft guns, modifying the 152 mm turrets to convert them to dual-purpose guns, and the fitting of fire control equipment. The new anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve 100 mm guns in twin mounts and twenty-eight 57 mm (2.2 in) guns. At the same time, her main battery turrets were deactivated for preservation while work continued on the ship.
  Work on the ship's anti-aircraft battery proceeded very slowly. The 100 mm guns were installed by mid-1952, but the directors for the 100 mm guns were not installed until May 1953, permitting test firings of the guns in July. The tests revealed the need for extensive modifications to the systems that were finally complete in October 1954. The 57 mm guns were even more delayed, with the guns not ready for tests until September 1955, though their optical directors were not fitted until August 1956. The period of work between 1951 and 1956 was interrupted by numerous sea trials to evaluate the vessel as each new type of equipment was installed. By the time work on the ship was completed, she had been fitted with a variety of radar sets, including a DRBV 11 air/surface search radar, a DRBV 20 air search radar, and a DRBV 30 navigational radar. Fire control radars included a DRBC 10A set for the main battery, six ACAE sets for the heavy anti-aircraft battery and five DRBC 30B sets for the light anti-aircraft guns. Her normal displacement had risen to 43,052 t (42,372 long tons), with full-load displacement at 49,196 t (48,419 long tons). With the greater weight of the ship, draft increased to 10.9 m (36 ft).
  She was finally pronounced complete on 1 May 1955, and that month she embarked President René Coty for a visit to Denmark, escorted by the destroyer Surcouf. After returning from the cruise, which also included a visit to Oslo, Norway, she left in July to represent France at a celebration in New York of the 175th anniversary of the landing of French soldiers led by the Comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolutionary War. She thereafter conducted a series of training cruises off the coast of Brittany in August and September before transferring to the Mediterranean in October. She arrived in Toulon on 17 October, and four days later, Jean Bart replaced Richelieu as the flagship of the training squadron. The ship spent late 1955 and early 1956 in port and conducting gunnery training in Les Salins d'Hyères. In June 1956, Jean Bart went on a tour of French North Africa. As tensions with Egypt over the control of the Suez Canal flared in 1956, the decision was made on 8 July to deploy the ship to Egypt. Jean Bart's superfiring turret was reactivated in August and on 7 September, she conducted shooting practice with the turret in company with the cruiser Georges Leygues off the coast of North Africa.
  She thereafter deployed with the French Naval Intervention Force during the Suez Crisis, Operation Mousquetaire, though with only her superfiring turret in operation. During the operations off the canal zone, she carried a complement of 1,280 officers and men, despite the fact that her projected wartime crew amounted to 2,220. This meant that only half of her anti-aircraft guns could be manned. The ship departed Toulon on 26 October and steamed first to Algiers, French Algeria, where from 29 to 31 October, the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment and Comma
caption: Jean Bart passing through the Suez Canal in 1956
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