Jean Barth was a French battleship of World War II. The keel of this ship was laid down in 1936, launched in March 1940, and commissioned into the ranks of the French National Marine Corps in 1949. The full displacement of the ship at the time of launch was approximately 48,900 tons, the length of the ship was 248 m, width - 35 m. The maximum speed was up to 32 knots. The onboard armament consisted, among other things, of: 8 380 mm guns in two turrets and 9 152 mm guns.
Jean Barth was the second battleship of the Richelieu class. Battleships of this type were designed and built primarily as a French response to the Italian Littorio/Vittorio Veneto class. It was less designed to counter the Kriegsmarine's Bismarck class. All the main artillery was placed in front of the unit - similar to the battleships HMS Rodney or HMS Nelson. It was also taken care of to ensure that the new French battleships were relatively well-booked. Jean Bart did not take a very active part in World War II due to the fact that at the time of the defeat of France in 1940 she was only 75% ready. However, she managed to break through from France to the port of Casablanca that year. In 1942, during the Allied landings in Morocco as part of Operation Torch, she was fired upon by the American battlecruiser Massachusetts and bombed by aircraft from the USS Ranger. As a result of these actions, she ran aground, where she remained until the end of the war. After repairs, in 1945, she returned to France, where she was completed and commissioned. In 1956, it took part in the so-called Operation Musketeer, related to the Suez Crisis. Five years later (1961), it was decommissioned.
