The Béarn-Class Heavy Carrier was a warship designed to change the art of war in space forever. The reason was she was to be completed on a modified design. Desperate to stem the invasion at whatever cost, the French government dug deep to find ways to accomplish the defense of France even if that meant enlisting this outdated and outclassed system crewed by personnel with neither the aircraft or tactics to meet the demand. They came out with the idea of a complete transformation of the unfinished ship, named Project 171. The Normandie class consisted of five dreadnought battleships ordered for the French Navy in 1912–1913. Like most French ships, it saw very little service during the war. These were the eight 6.1 in (150 mm) /55 Mod 21 guns in casemates, inherited from the battleship and thought for ship-to-ship naval defense. Just before the war, additional light AA guns were added. Their exhausts were truncated into a single funnel on the starboard side of the flight deck and stacked down to it was a large vented chamber to mix cooler air with the boiler exhaust. However as shown by the blueprints, there were still an angled bulkhead over the machinery, which seemed relatively thick, possibly also 80 mm. The hangars had nominal widths of 19.5 m (64 ft), but equipment and ready-use weapon storage racks reduced the effective width to 15 meters. She was to be converted to the Avondale shipyard. She was to be an experimental ship, and was slated Béarn started active service in 1928-29, testing airplane handling, take off and landings, and training a generation of airmen. This section includes over 21.000 Allied Warships and over 11.000 Allied Commanders of WWII, from the US Navy, Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Australian Navy, The Polish Navy and others. However later another attempt was made later with the modernization of French ships as an issue of tight negotiations between the Americans and the French Naval Mission in the United States of Vice Admiral Fennard.The French demanded a lot of equipment despite USN reluctance to modernize ships that were already obsolescent. Both hangars were subdivided into four sections by The ship's main-gun armament consisted of eight 50-Her anti-aircraft defense was provided by six 50-caliber Range data for the pair of mechanical Modèle 1923B If she was fitted with geared turbines and new boilers for 60,000 metric horsepower (44,000 kW), the designers estimated that the carrier would have a speed of 23.4 knots (43.3 km/h; 26.9 mph), although installation of bulges would cost over a knot (22.3 knots (41.3 km/h; 25.7 mph)) and increase displacement by about 500 t (492 long tons). Class Béarn: ID 458 Nationality Iris Libre: Classification Aircraft Carrier: Béarn. Signup for our newsletter to get notified about sales and new products. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. The ships would have had a crew of 44 officers and 1,160 enlisted men when serving as a flagship. Since the model is optimized for 1/1800th scale, it is not ideal to print larger versions due to a lack of detail. It comprised Normandie, the lead ship, Flandre, Gascogne, Languedoc, and Béarn. Diplomatic relations of Vichy-France were broken with the British and icy with the Americans to this point.The Bearn was kept under theoretical Vuchy control, remaining immobilized in the West Indies until July 1943. She also had six 76 mm (3.0 in) AA guns and eight more modern 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns. Material presented throughout this website is for historical and entertainment value only and should not to be construed as usable for hardware restoration, maintenance, or general operation.

- Aircraft / Offshore Support By the end of 1938, France realized that Bearn was a flop and ordered two Joffre class carriers to replace Bearn. In March 1936, a Potez 56E took off from Béarn, the first time a twin-engined aircraft had ever operated from an aircraft carrier. She sailed from Halifax on June 16, 1940 to France, but was re-routed to the West Indies on June 20, 1940 as the Germans now controlled the coast as well.The Bearn sailed to Martinique, Fort de France (French Caribean) arriving May 27 where she met the cruiser Emile Bertin. Béarn was a French aircraft carrier. On October 1, 1946 she was paid off and mothballed until December 9, 1948. So as war approached in September 1939, the lumbering Bearn remained France’s lone carrier, now missing … The Joffre class, 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. Her sister-ships, the four unfinished battleships of the Normandie class would be scrapped and materials recycled into the light cruisers of the Primauguet class and further constructions.Conversion work started in August 1923, on plans at first derived from the conversion of HMS Argus, and lasted until May 1927 after many modifications. Planes landed, and stored in open air. So as war approached in September 1939, the lumbering Bearn remained France’s lone carrier, now missing both her fighter and reconnaissance squadrons.