Heller 81077 French Battleship Jean Bart

Jean Bart is a French battleship from the Second World War. The keel for this unit was laid in 1936, it was launched in March 1940, and it was commissioned for service in the French Marine Nationale in 1949. The full displacement of the ship at the time of launching was approx. 48,900 tons, 248 m long and 35 m wide. The maximum speed was up to 32 knots. The on-board armament consisted, among other things, of: 8 380 mm guns in two turrets, and 9 152 mm guns.

Jean Bart was the second battleship in the Richelieu-class. The battleships of this type were designed and built primarily as a French response to the Italian Littorio / Vittorio Veneto class. It was designed to a lesser extent to counter the Kriegsmarine of the Bismarck class. All main artillery was placed in front of the unit - similar to the battleships HMS Rodney or HMS Nelson. The relatively good armor of the new French battleships was also taken care of. Jean Bart did not take a very active part in World War II, due to the fact that at the time of France's defeat in 1940, it was only 75% complete. However, he managed to break through from France to the port of Casablanca this year. In 1942, during the landing of the Allied forces in Morocco as part of Operation Torch, it was fired upon by the USS Massachusetts and bombed by planes from the USS Ranger. As a result of these actions, he ran aground, where he remained until the end of the war. After renovation, in 1945 he returned to France, where it was completed and put into service. In 1956 he took part in the so-called Operation Musketeer related to the Suez crisis. Five years later (1961), he was decommissioned.