French aircraft carrier Béarn Béarn was a aircraft carrier which served with the " Marine nationale " ( French Navy ) in World War II and beyond . " Béarn " was commissioned in 1927 and was the only aircraft carrier produced by France until after World War II , and the only ship of its class built . She was to be an experimental ship and should have been replaced in the 1930s by two new ships of the " Joffre " class . She was generally comparable to other early carriers developed by the major navies of the world . However , France did not produce a further replacement and as naval aviation lagged in France , " Béarn " continued to serve past her time of obsolescence . In 1939 , she ended her career as an experimental ship but after the defeat of France in June 1940 she was docked at Martinique where she remained for the next four years . Eventually she was sent to the United States for a refit which ended in March 1945 , allowing her to serve briefly before the end of the war as an aircraft transport . Her career ended in 1967 when she was finally dismantled . Over the course of her long career , Béarn never launched her aircraft in combat . She was named after the historic French province of Béarn . Design . " Béarn " was originally designed as a ; she was laid down at the " Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée " shipyard in La Seyne on 10 January 1914 . The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 interrupted work , which was halted for the duration of the conflict . By that time , work on " Béarn " had not significantly progressed : her hull was only 8 – 10 percent complete and her engines were only 25 percent finished . Her boilers were 17 percent assembled , and her turrets were at 20 percent completed . The incomplete hull was launched in April 1920 to clear the slipway , though the Navy had not yet decided what to do with it . On 18 April 1922 , the Navy determined that " Béarn " was to be completed as an aircraft carrier . Her four sisters , which were at further stages of completion , were instead broken up for scrap . Much of the material from breaking up these ships was used to complete " Béarn " and several cruisers also ordered in 1922 . Conversion work began in August 1923 , and lasted until May 1927 . " Béarn " was long between perpendiculars and long overall . She had a beam of and a draft of . Her standard displacement was , which at full load increased to . She was equipped with two sets of steam turbines that drove the inner pair of propeller shafts , with steam supplied by six Normand du Temple water - tube boilers . A pair of reciprocating engines powered the outer shafts ; " Béarn " s propulsion system enabled her to steam at a top speed of . She carried of fuel oil . At a cruising speed of , the ship could steam for . She had a crew of 875 officers and men . " Béarn " s primary weapon was her complement of aircraft , which numbered 40 planes . The ship ' s aviation facilities consisted of a long flight deck , three electrically - powered elevators , and a single long hangar . Below the hangar , there were aircraft maintenance facilities and storage for spare parts . " Béarn " stored up to of aviation gasoline and of oil , which was protected by inert gas . The ship ' s gun armament comprised eight / 55 Mod 21 guns in casemates for defense against surface attack , and six anti - aircraft ( AA ) guns , eight AA guns , and sixteen machine guns . In 1944 – 1945 , she was refitted in the United States and equipped with a new anti - aircraft battery that consisted of four 5 " / 38 dual - purpose guns in single mounts , twenty - four Bofors 40 mm guns in six quadruple mounts , and twenty - six Oerlikon 20 mm guns in individual mountings . Service history . Before the decision to convert " Béarn " into an aircraft carrier was made , the French Navy decided to construct a mocked - up flight deck on the unfinished hull after it was launched in April 1920 . The aviator Paul Teste conducted a series of landing experiments on the temporary flight deck that concluded in October . These experiments convinced the Navy to convert " Béarn " as a semi - experimental ship , which should be replaced by purpose - built aircraft carriers as soon as was practicable . The , ordered in the late 1930s , were nevertheless not completed . In the late 1920s , André Jubelin , a future admiral and pioneer of the French naval air force , served aboard the ship . In March 1936 , a Potez 565 took off from " Béarn " , the first time a twin - engined aircraft had ever operated from an aircraft carrier . At the French declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 , " Béarn " was assigned to the " Force de Raid " , under the command of Admiral Gensoul , along with the battleships " Dunkerque " and " Strasbourg " , three light cruiser s , and eight destroyer s . A month later , the carrier was tasked with hunting down the German cruiser " Admiral Graf Spee " , as part of an immense effort to destroy the commerce raider . During the German invasion of France in 1940 , " Béarn " was ordered to Toulon , to load French gold bullion for transfer overseas . On 25 May , " Béarn " met up with the light cruiser s and at an Atlantic rendezvous , and the flotilla successfully carried Bank of France bullion reserves to Halifax , Canada . " Béarn " then went to the U . S . East Coast to load new aircraft which had been ordered from American manufacturers , including twenty - seven Curtiss H - 75 s , forty - four SBC Helldiver s , twenty - five Stinson 105 s , and also six Brewster Buffalo es intended for the Belgian Air Component . Before these aircraft could reach their destination , the armistice with Germany was signed , and " Béarn " instead sought harbor in Martinique , her crew showing little inclination to join the British in their continued fight against the Nazis . She was one of a number of French ships that were effectively interned at Martinique — at U . S . insistence — to prevent their use by Germany . The carrier ' s aircraft were unloaded ashore , where a significant number of them were destroyed either by exposure to the elements or scavenging . On 14 May 1942 , the United States pressured Martinique to demilitarize the ship due to the pro - Vichy leanings of her crew . On 30 June 1943 , the ship was handed over to the Free French Naval Forces , along with " Jeanne d ' Arc " and " Émile Bertin " , which had also been interned in the Caribbean . " Béarn " remained in Martinique until 1944 sent to the United States for a major refit . The modernization , which lasted until March 1945 , upgraded her anti - aircraft armament and optimized her for her role as an aircraft transport . This role was continued after the war , as part of the French attempt to recover their possessions in Indochina . " Béarn " arrived in Indochina in mid - October 1945 , as part of a major French effort to reassert control over the colony . Among the forces committed to the region were the battleship " Richelieu " , the cruisers " Gloire " and " Suffren " , and several smaller warships . In December 1945 , " Béarn " transported fourteen LCAs and six LCVP s from Singapore to Vietnam , and contributed a shore party to man them in the " Dinassaut s " . After returning from Indochina , the ship was used as a barracks ship for submarine s based in Toulon . " Béarn " remained in this duty until she was sold on 31 May 1967 to shipbreakers in Italy , where she was subsequently dismantled . Over the course of her long career , " Béarn " never launched her aircraft in combat .