How the MN Bearn could have been improved for aircraft transport.

That's what she did in OTL WW2 for a few months. After the Fall of France left her rotting at anchor in Martinique for almost 4 years and then finally being refitted in early 1945 by the U.S.

But what if the pro-Vichy governor of Martinique and the involved French Naval commanders had been more unsettled by Operation Torch and Case Anton and became pro Allied earlier? Perhaps this could have led to the idled French ships being put at the disposal of the Allies by the beginning of 1943.

No doubt this can be debated until the cows come home but let's assume for the purpose of this engineering design study that the U.S. Navy gets their hands on the Bearn in January 1943. What to do with her?

7a93d0be43dde4487d3fb1a7c9f1e65e.jpg



She's too slow to serve as a fleet carrier with the USN. Her small slow inefficient elevators and and poor engine design also made her less than ideal. Plus her range is inadequate for the Pacific. She could have been used as an escort carrier in the Atlantic. But she would have been much more expensive to operate and maintain than the custom built CVEs that were already starting to appear in numbers by 1943.

What the Bearn did have is room. She could've have carried more airplanes as an aircraft transport than the CVEs could have thereby freeing up at least two CVEs for combat duties. If the USN had acquired the Bearn almost 2 years earlier would they have modified her more extensively to optimise her for airplane transporting?
 
Last edited:
The more extensive modifications would include the same ones as in OTL. Stripping out all the existing armaments and adding a more up to date and extensive AA fit. But more could be done to optimise the Bearn for aircraft transporting.

Strip as much of the armour from the flight deck and hull as is practical. Remove it all if possible. How many thousands of tons would that lighten the ship? All the armour is above the waterline and higher so it offers no protection from torpedoes. And removing top weight should improve stability.

The flight deck elevators would be closed permanently. They won't be used. The forward 40 feet of the flight deck is sloped downward making it unsuitable for aircraft stowage. Build a false deck or platform on top of the forward sloped part to level it out and widen it slightly to increase the available deck space.

The 30 foot length of narrow and downward sloped flight deck at the stern will be removed. This opens the deck area just aft of the hangar. This new open area will be used for a loading platform. The rear wall of the hangar will be removed to allow loading and unloading of the hangar deck from the rear loading platform. The ship's crane will be relocated to the stern of the flight deck to load and unload aircraft to and from the flight deck and loading platform. Of course once on the decks the planes can be manhandled into their stowage spots and tied down.

On the Bearn there was a second storage deck below the hangar deck that was used for aircraft parts and repair shops. I'm not sure of the dimensions of those compartments. Whether or not they could be used for aircraft stowage. If so that deck could be accessed by the bottom section of the centre elevator shaft. The centre elevator would be refitted to move between the hangar deck and the lower deck only.

More radical than removing the armour plating and maybe no more or less practical is this proposed engine fix for the Bearn. This would involve dismantling and removing the two steam engines. These drove the outer propellers. The outer propellers and their shafts would also be removed.

How well would a 5 thousand ton lighter Bearn run on her two steam turbines only? I think there would be an increase in her economical cruising speed. The vibration problem caused by the original poor propeller placement is solved as well.

The space opened up by the removal of the steam piston engines can be used for additional tankage for fuel oil. This increase in range is useful for aircraft transport duties in the Pacific.

I'm certain the maritime design and naval experts on this forum will have a much better idea on what is practical or feasible about my redesign and modifications. It would be fun to know what is possible and what isn't.
 
Last edited:
The question is why bother. By 1943 you have the capacity to convert new merchant hulls to aircraft transports a lot cheaper and faster than the Bearn. You can build at least one or two more CVEs with the effort, and those not only transport aircraft but than can be used to fly them off. With the Bearn you have an example of "you can buff and buff, but you still can't make shit shine." Working on her only made sense in two ways: if you have shipyard space and workers that for some reason can't be used for something else useful, and doing this to throw a bone to the Free French. Honestly just giving the Free French a CVE or CVL to replace that turkey would accomplish goal number two and salve Gallic pride in that their acquisition could be hunting U-Boats and actually fighting instead of being a merchant ship with a naval designation.
 
what @Zeng He said. Bearn was indeed used in that role in 1946 Indochine Incidentally OTL the Bearn hull survived as a poontoon in Toulon harbor until 1967, long enough to see the Clemenceau class !!
 
Last edited:
If you can get hold of her early enough Bearn's best service to the allies would IMVHO be as another fleet aircraft maintenance ship. an additional unicorn basically.
 
The question is why bother. By 1943 you have the capacity to convert new merchant hulls to aircraft transports a lot cheaper and faster than the Bearn. You can build at least one or two more CVEs with the effort, and those not only transport aircraft but than can be used to fly them off. With the Bearn you have an example of "you can buff and buff, but you still can't make shit shine." Working on her only made sense in two ways: if you have shipyard space and workers that for some reason can't be used for something else useful, and doing this to throw a bone to the Free French. Honestly just giving the Free French a CVE or CVL to replace that turkey would accomplish goal number two and salve Gallic pride in that their acquisition could be hunting U-Boats and actually fighting instead of being a merchant ship with a naval designation.

That's the key point. If it could be done easily and cheaply then yes. But if it would be too expensive and time consuming than the other options you mention make more sense. I don't know enough about ship design and ship building to be certain. It's good to hear other peoples' analysis of my concept.
 
Why don't you look at what was done to her OTL? She was upgraded in the US in 1944 and 1945 to serve as an aircraft transport.

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/forty-years-of-bearn-frances-first-flat-top/

Thanks for the link. It's very informative. It does parallel much of what I was suggesting. But in OTL they didn't try removing the steam piston engines and outer props and shafts. Or stripping out all the armour plating to greatly lighten the ship.
 
If you can get hold of her early enough Bearn's best service to the allies would IMVHO be as another fleet aircraft maintenance ship. an additional unicorn basically.

That's sounds like a good practical idea that wouldn't require extensive and expensive modifications to the Bearn. Though the existing elevators would be too small to bring USN airplanes below to be worked on in the hangar deck at night or during inclement weather. But at least one elevator could be replaced with a larger one. One working elevator being all you need for that kind of duty. The Bearn already had repair and maintenance shops. Upgrade the AA suite and she's ready to go to one of those Pacific islands or anchorages to repair and overhaul the numerous airplanes in service.
 
Everything depends on when the Americans can get their hands on her. Remember, nobody knows how long the war is going to last and look at the level of effort the US went to in bringing back some of the battleships heavily damaged at Pearl Harbor. USS West Virginia did not rejoin the fleet until September 1944 for example.

Let's say Martinique decides to declare for Free France after PH is bombed because the officials there decide that since the US now in the war, the writing is on the wall, especially in the Western Hemisphere. In that situation I think Bearn will very quickly find herself in an East Coast shipyard getting a full blown overhaul so she can be used as an actual carrier. Over the course of 1942, the work will take on added urgency as USN and RN carriers of all types are sunk and mission killed at a frightening pace over the next 12 months.

In another scenario where Martinique decides to declare for Free France after OP TORCH, then she probably goes to US yard for overhaul as a transport like she did OTL but unlike OTL, the work is finished in time for her to actually complete a few missions.
 
Top