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?
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?
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?
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?
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