Note: I am fully aware I probably butchered the pronunciation. I make a point of checking pronunciation guides when it comes to foreign ships, but oftentimes, these can be as problematic as they are helpful. In this case, I saw two differing styles. Either 'Bee-arn' or 'Bay-arn'. The latter was a bit more common, so I ran with it. Knowing my luck, it probably is something like 'Burn'.

@Brock_Landers

3 ай бұрын

😂😂😂 Bud you do your best, I am almost always correcting other channels when they're trying to pronounce German ship and officer names, but I can't even begin to tell you about French pronunciations. I am American as well, so I can't twist my tongue like they do...😂😂😂 Great history lesson though. I always enjoy your videos.

@RayyMusik

3 ай бұрын

Bay-arn is a good approximation. The é sound doesn‘t exist in English. You could pronounce the r less rhotic, but you are no way the greatest foreign name butcher on KZread. :)

@pickeljarsforhillary102

3 ай бұрын

It's french...who cares how its pronounced.

@patolt1628

3 ай бұрын

@@pickeljarsforhillary102Hard to write a more stupid comment ...

@pickeljarsforhillary102

3 ай бұрын

@@patolt1628 Yet you successfully managed to do it with yours Great job there Patty.

That floatplane at 15:23 is a japanese E13A "Jake" used by the french in the first years of the Indochina war

@user-sq5uo8oh3g

3 ай бұрын

The background looks like Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

Love the fact that the photo shows an amphibious aircraft that doesn’t need an aircraft carrier.

That ship got a very sad story

@Ah01

3 ай бұрын

Long, althought not very shining courier. 😂

@greycatturtle7132

3 ай бұрын

@@Ah01 yea

When researching the maritime history you can stumble on the cases when the ships with outstanding careers, such as USS Enterprise and HMS Warspite met the unceremonious end at the scrapyard. You usually feel shame. And then there is this poor ship where i feel pity that she wasn't scrapped earlier then she was just to put her out of her misery.

It's also worth noting that not only did Bearn see the first takeoff of a twin engine aircraft from a carrier, Bearn was also the first carrier equipped with monoplane fighters in the form of the Gourdou-Leseurre GL.22 and later Dewoitine D1 Ter

Bearn might have been a terrible carrier with rather horrible luck, but she managed to outlast many other contemporaries.

Rarely looked at ship. Thanks for doing this.

HMS Eagle: ✅️ Kaga: ✅️ Bearn: ❌️

@tommatt2ski

3 ай бұрын

The Russian carrier makes Bearn look like a Nimitz class carrier! Russia carrier for 1st place for the WORST EVER carrier !

Really great photos in this, thanks for posting!

She was really a cheese and wine cellar disguised as a carrier. Those sneaky french!

Thank you these videos of yours are very informative

Love your videos!!

Yeah, everyone's first carrier was perfect. Considering the French are the only other nation to field a nuclear carrier othe than the U.S. I would say she accomplished her mission as an experimental carrier. All of the first carriers from every nation accomplished their mission of learningwhat to do and what not to do..

@edkrach8891

3 ай бұрын

All of the first carriers were experimental. Noo one at that time had any idea how to design and build a proper carrier. Many were conversions of existing ships.

Also Bearn in Martinique was mentioned in the Bogart Movie "to have and to have not"

@jamessimms415

2 ай бұрын

If one looks @ the very start of ‘To Have And Have Not’, there’s a drawing showing the aircraft carrier in the harbor.

very interesting,very rare type of story well done.

Great video Skynea! I really like Bearn, she is my favorite French warship. A shame she couldn't be modernized.

@edkrach8891

3 ай бұрын

It wouldn't have been worth the time or money to do any major modernization.

@straswa

3 ай бұрын

@@edkrach8891 you have a point there

Extremely interesting. UI'd heard of this carrier, but knew very little of her.

I think she might have been useful if she was put into the role similar to USS Wolverine that way her speed won’t be much of an issue.

@hardcasekara6409

3 ай бұрын

That's might have been what would have possibly happened to her, or she would have been scrapped had the Jofree Class been completed.

@edkrach8891

3 ай бұрын

Don't forget the Sable.

Thanks for descriptions. A mess of a ship.

One has to wonder about those ridiculous elevators. Were the aircraft the French used able to fold their wings? Why was all that deck space wasted?

This video goes a long way in satisfying my curiosity about this ship

Just the thought of the French building any ships, even an aircraft carrier is mind blowing 🤣 I wonder if there is any video/film of this ship in action

Having been built during one world war., surviving another- and still in service until the late 60s (albeit in not so glorious of roles) isn't a bad deal for such a mess of a ship. There have been plenty of "better" ships that have let far more mundane and shorter lives.

A curious feature of Bearn is that the hull contained coal bunkers full of coal though the ship as completed burned nothing but oil. They were retained from the original coal burning design as a form of additional armour. Not the best use of hull space for a serious warship. Even if the ship had been better the French never developed or purchased the aircraft needed to provide a viable air group. Aircraft carriers are only as good as the aircraft they deploy. How on Earth did they plan to use the torpedo tubes?

@Ah01

3 ай бұрын

The brits did not come up with any state of the art carrier planes either, but the americans bailed them out on that.

@user-sq5uo8oh3g

3 ай бұрын

@@Ah01 Most of our carrier aircraft were either second rate or just unsuitable for deck operation like the Seafire. The FAA wanted all carrier aircraft to have at least a two man crew but the USN showed that single seat fighters were a better bet. The FAA did however show that the magnificent Corsair was suitable for carrier operations after the USN had relegated it to ground operation. The RN invented the mirror landing sight,the angled deck and the steam catapult so they contribution to carrier operation was outstanding. The USN showed us how to use carriers as vessels of war and we honour them for it.

@Ah01

3 ай бұрын

@@user-sq5uo8oh3g I agree, but even with mentioned british innovations Corsair remained, as a carrier fighter, an aircraft less forgiving than Hellcat, while outclassing the latter on many other respects.

@jamesbugbee9026

3 ай бұрын

​@@user-sq5uo8oh3g Add the armored deck (vs kamikazes: 'Sweepers, man yer brooms.')

Yea no carrier based French (origin) plane models "ring a bell" that I'm familiar with...

Imagine a cv on the jean bart or richeliu build oof super sonic cv

They should have at least converted her into a museum.

@mahbriggs

3 ай бұрын

Upon launch! That was about all she was good for!

@Ah01

3 ай бұрын

Museum of eternal french naval incompetence?

@jamessimms415

2 ай бұрын

Like Britain, France lost most of her Colonies ; as well as being broke. In the case of France, no one wanted to remember losing Algeria, French IndoChina, or the rest of her former Empire.

It seems such a waste that the French didn't or couldn't put in the necessary changes that would have made this ship actually useful. A sad fate for what could have been a vessel used for the purpose intended.

Meanwhile in world of warships...

Does it seem like the French had someone in power that was interested in developing their carrier capability. Later it seems a very interested in carriers

In all honesty she probable could have been more useful as a battleship. Cause she could have been scuttled as a shore battery

La France still managed to complete more Carriers then Italy Germany and the Soviet Union combined granted this is a low Bar

The bow-on view is, well......very French. Like the re-WW armored cruisers

Why bother scuttling?

Germany caused 2 world wars and ended up the richest country in Europe.

Merde!!

Bearn should've absolutely have been modernized with new turbines and boilers. Of course, French aircraft kind of fell behind after WWI, along with their navy, but the French never really were a world powerhouse...

@tomdolan9761

3 ай бұрын

Who was going to spare the yard space or fund the modernization?

@hardcasekara6409

3 ай бұрын

I mean to be fair France got handicapped hard due to the devastation during the First World War not helped either by the declining world economy, which caused tons of unrest in the country. They had a good navy, all things considered, since they made some lovely looking battleships during the 30s and 40s.

@tomdolan9761

3 ай бұрын

It seems to me that by the time France learned to build impressive battleships, cruisers and destroyers it wasn’t enough to effectively project power at sea because the era of the carrier started. Same for the Italians

@hardcasekara6409

3 ай бұрын

@tomdolan9761 Adding to this post second world war, their colonial empire, along with that of Britain, began to slowly collapse, which meant both needed downsize their navy a shadow of their former self. Worse yet as fewer people are joining the navy, that means that there are fewer people to man these warships.

@Ah01

3 ай бұрын

No new boilers would have given Bearn a decent speed. The hull had such a bad lenght-beam - ratio.

I think this was a very biased instalment. Apart from the torpedoes, nothing else sounded silly even if some of the innovations were not a success. As a post WW1 experiment the ship probably satisfied all that was required; provided experience in air operations, fleet doctrine etc. The USN would base their operations around the carrier so if the French ships sailed off without her, it’s unfair to blame the carrier for taking time to rejoin. I think she served her country well, for a long time and during a difficult period. ❤

There is not one good point in her favor at all.

@jamesbugbee9026

3 ай бұрын

Pardon, she could operate a/c.

I’m here because of girls und panzer and Azur lane

Escort carrier. Better then nothing. And the convoys didn't have any for a long time. The French fleet was almost a complete waste of a navy.

@jamessimms415

2 ай бұрын

Even the very first Escort Carriers were better than this