MN Bearn - Guide 390 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

The statement that she never launched an aircraft in anger is wrong! The pilots hated her and every time they took off they were very angry!

on one hand, she never did launch aircraft in anger, however, for a pre-WW1 hull, managing to survive into the 1960s is still nothing less then impressive.

"And four above-water Torpedo Tubes": Delivering that line in such a deadpan manner is truly impressive.

😒 *"Ah, **_Bearn..._** we knew we'd have to get to her eventually."* 😮‍💨 Talk about damning with faint praise! 😹🤣😂

3:26 "Captain, we have been hit" "It's alright, the coal will protect us"

I think this may be the only guide where my immediate reaction to seeing the ship was "oh no".

To quote a certain analyst of Elbonian weapons: "The French copy nobody, and nobody copies the French."

Took years for Bearn to win the Patreon vote!!

Finally, a carrier that makes HMS _Eagle_ look like a capable and efficient fleet unit by comparison!

Get ready to feel the Bearn

The ship that makes the Ranger look really good. Poor girl

0:52 The photo of Bearn's construction looks like a map from an early 2000's game with a background so low detail, it's almost like an impenetrable fog. ^^

On paper her long life means that France always had at least one aircraft carrier all the way to the Clemenceau-class. It's a Schrödinger ship - France has aircraft carrier, but at the same time France doesn't have any.

My great grandad served on it in the 30´s. We still have some tissue belonging to one of her plane.

The thing to remember about early developments like this - is that no one knew what they were doing with these things yet. It was from these early designs that they learned what to do and as importantly - what not to do, as well. .

She took the role of aircraft CARRIER to heart. That's all she ever did, just carry the aircraft around XD.

The fact that Bearn even survived WWII is remarkable.

My grandfather served aboard the USAT J. T. McDaniel, which is the ship that the Bearn collided with. Thirty-something US troops were killed in the incident and the McDaniel was so badly damaged that it had to limp back to Philadelphia out of convoy for repairs.

The handsome bird is a Potez 52, the added five designates that it had a hook for use on this carrier. It was made out of fabric and plywood and seated six and two pilots. A great engineer, Henri Potez designed all the planes for his factories in Les Mureaux from 1930 to 1955. This plane's direct designer was Louis Coroller, a discreet and cheerful man and great burner of archives.

Thanks Drach, you solved an ancient mystery for me. When in high school in around 1975, I learned of the existence a a French carrier stationed in the French Indies during the war. This was a "WTF?" moment for me. Historical research in the libraries in Mobile, Ala. was mostly focused on the American Civil War and I gave up looking further. I forgot about it until just now. Many thanks!

It was a ship that looked...nice. Then you start hearing about her features and it is a hard swipe left.

This ship is such a meme, that even in World of Warships the most common build for it is a meme build involving interceptors, which is extremely rare to see

Drach and Bearn… this ought to be good!

@Drachinifel Wow, you just hit 300 Drydocks & your closing in on having made 400 ship guides. Not to mention all the special videos that have been done. And your about to become a father or you already are a father. Either way, I'm sure that it's really excellent and exciting for you!!! I would like to just congratulate you & your wife, & thank you for all the great videos that you have produced. You have taught me so much stuff that I didn't know previously & a lot of the stuff you have covered have really been things that my mind had been curious about but never sought to have answered. Like navigation during the age of sail & the manufacturing of the sea clock. And the HMS Revenge pulling off the "first stealth Battleship attack!" Even though most of the time you have pictures & video when you can, I'm usually more content to just listen to you tell a story. Like for example, the "Just Nuisance AB" video. Which brought back a lot of the memories of my younger years & some of the animals we had. Chevis, a black Labrador Retriever that we had that was an incredibly smart dog. Imagine a dog so smart & spoiled that I was sitting & eating Oreo cookies. I'd, of course, dip them in milk for a min before eating. When Chevis came up to beg for one, I just handed him one without dipping it in the milk. And he wouldn't eat it. He took it from me & looked at me all sad & set it on the floor! And, of course, I gave in & dipped one in milk & gave it to him & he was happy as can be. The one I didn't dip just sat there on the floor. It was hilarious. You could talk to him like a person & he definitely understood. Him & my step-dad, Billy were digging a water line when my Mom noticed that one of his nails on his paw was cracked & bleeding. She said "C'mon Chevis let's go soak that in some Epsom Salts. They went inside & Mom put water in a large bowl with some Epsom Salts, put it on the floor & told Chevis "C'mon & put your paw in here." And he walks over & put his paw in it. And I mean he knew he was waiting for her to do that. No complaints, no having to coax him to do it or anything like that. I've got several other stories about Chevis but I'll spare you, this time. Looking forward to your next videos! As well as getting to hear about Baby Drach & whether ya'll get a daughter or a son! Hoping you and wifey have a great summer, if summer is the same time there as here. Oh, and if you rub your wife's belly with coconut oil it helps her to NOT develop stretch marks. And if she wants to breast feed but also wants to work or be away from the child during the day, it's usually better to rent the milk express machines from the hospital cuz they are a lot stronger and just work better than the small ones available for sale. AND, I know the grocery store has "disposable diapers" like in unbelievable quantities. But cloth diapers help A LOT and keep them from getting diaper rash. And a baby with diaper rash is NOT a happy & quiet baby, so do your ears & there bottom a favor. Not sure if the UK has diaper services but if not you can buy & wash yourself. Hoping ya'll have a great time becoming new parents. And more importantly want to wish ya'll a happy & safe delivery as well. I'll be praying 🙏 for the 3 of you!!!

I think she’s a nice looking ship love the glazed section very art deco!

Serious question - when do you sleep? Multiple videos per week, research, travel, and a Drachlet. Incredible.

Imagine doing a torpedo attack run in an *aircraft carrier.* Surely an aircraft carrier has better things to do than launch torpedoes at the enemy fleet?

In the prologue of ‘To Have and Have Not’ ( Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall), the port of Martinique is shown in a drawing. The drawing does a show an aircraft carrier, presumably the Bearn

Something about "polishing a turd", or "spending good money after bad", comes to mind.

One wonders why the French armed forces - all branches - were so oddly equipped with ships, aircraft, tanks etc. that zigged while everybody else, zagged. From the 1860’s until perhaps the 1970’s they marched to their own tune. Only in then did they seem to return to design sanity. A characteristic of the national personality at the time, perhaps? Or something else? Perhaps a deeper exploration of this on the subjects and period the channel covers, please?

Spectacularly French! It never gets better than this.

considering the way he talks about it when it comes up in drydock questions, I was expecting this to be longer, to be honest

Been around since the channel dash...500k very cool that many people care about naval history. Great work over the years 👍👍

Been waiting years for this to make it to the top of the list.

Boy. The Bearn is a good example of how not to build a carrier. But it did lead the way to build better French carriers.

Drach's favorite thing to dunk on.

This ship had a long career after many retrofits. I wonder how those in charge decided to keep throwing good money at this vessel? Cost versus benefit is not an easy calculation to make on a future conflict in the inter war years. Thank you Dratch❤

Retaining the coal bunkers on an oil fired ship because they thought it'd provide more protection... That is one of the most ridiculous ideas I've ever heard.

CV or vapeur de cheval is NOT a metric horsepower. It is a value for taxation. For instance Citroen 2 CV has more than 9 horses powering its proceeding on roads or across fields.

I feel that the current Russian carrier pilots would be envious of such a fine ship 🙂

I literally went 'I wonder if Drach has a video on Bearn?' two days ago! 😊

Time to see just how bad this thing was.

It has been a long time coming, but we got there.

I've been looking forward to this.

Is it the only aircraft carrier to ever have torpedo tubes?

Thank you.

Omg it's here!

I've been waiting for this one for a few years

"....having never deployed an aircraft in anger." Well golly, I've heard of some hard luck ships but that sort of takes the cake aside from not being sunk.

I find it hysterical that they kept the coal bunkers as "cross-your-fingers" armor, when they switched to oil as fuel.

No pix of Bearn's last mission before France's surrender, picking up aircraft in Canada? Interesting pix of French sailors, in uniform, helping wheel SBCs down a country road. Then the SBCs and Curtis Hawks, moldering away on a hillside in Martinique.

Poor Bearn It could have been worse Drach, someone might have asked for more information on the French pre Dreadnoughts 😀

Go easy on Her guys.

Thanks Drach

Thanks drachif

ive been waiting years for this: and...she floated, so she wroked as a ship, until she didnt

I am suffering third degree Bearns…sorry.🤣

Long awaited indeed! Some of us had been waiting since before there were drysock episodes!

An unusually pretty conversion.

So...the French put torpedo tubes on an aircraft carrier, designed probably the worst elevators ever put on a carrier, had coal bunkers on an oil fired ship for...dubious reasons...and the thing was so slow that a particularly motivated canoer could probably catch her. I do wonder if Joffre would have actually been an improvement from Bearn or just a even bigger loose collection of perplexing design decisions this ship was.

I can't wait for them to make a new port so you can give us a visit! In San Luis, Arizona!

I still remember the "for the crime.of being `Bearn`... "

I recommend you do a video on the Aconit (formerly HMS Aconite) was one of the nine Flower-class corvettes. And one on Canadas only aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, the Magi

I have to stop watching these videos in the wee hours of the morning. I read the name as Mr. Bean. Then, after watching the video, I'm thinking that maybe I wasn't so far off after all.

Less threatening than the Kamchatka. WOW.

Why not change to 5 minutes Drachipedia. 😂. Thanks for sharing your hard work

How I see the Bearn happening: French Engineer: So, we kept the Coaling spaces, and plan on retaining coal within them as a type of life vest for the ship. French Captain: But, isn't coal Dust explosive? Any round entering that space would blow out half the hull! French Engineer: Drag that man out of here! He must be a German spy! French Captain struggling : You will kill us all! After things clear out, the engineer smiles, sending a message to Der Fueher: "The mission is a success, the Bearn will never pose a threat to us."

My grandfather was in the USN in WWII. He actually interacted with crew of the Bearn. They played soccer, or "football" as the Europeans call it. My grandfather's crew were playing the game according to American football rules which involved a great deal of tackling. The French protested, but my grandfather's crew "didn't understand".

Bearn is "if youre gonna suck, at least look good while doing so" in ship form

Finally! Been waiting for this one!

Thanks!

The Floating Baguette

i thought Drach would open the video with the line from the SMS Nassau guide "this ship makes me angry, really angry "

Would have been interesting if she's bumped into Graf Spee in 39

31 secondes and 67 likes... 😂 Well let s watch another great video from Drach. Drachinifel has 2 types of videos, great and f.. great 😂

1:47 beautiful Hanriot aircraft!

Plus, the coal onboard could be used to refuel her escorts underway . . . The entire 12 torpedo tube arrangement should have been kept, they would have been an excellent close-in defense system

When Kaga says I'm not the Slowest Carrier

So happy I voted for this one, it’s been a punch line on this channel for ages and it was fun to hear her story. Bearn still managed to be more of an aircraft carrier than Graf Zeppelin-cry some more, Wehraboos!

I was engrossed in a project with RU-vid playing sort of in the background, looked up at the TV and initially read "Mr. Bean". Looking at the ship within that second or two of confusion I thought that maybe it was a nickname.

At least she's faster than the Langley. If France had followed up with purpose built carriers, we'd probably think fondly of the Bearn. There. I said something positive about the Bearn.

If they gave her a full set of turbines got rid of the casemate guns got rid of the clam shell hanger doors she probably would have made a pretty decent carrier for the French navy.. She would probably would carry properly under 40 aircraft depending on what type..

And now they have got their De Gaulle. A piece of homework well done. 👍🇵🇱🇨🇵♍

She still fared better than most Japanese ships in WWII. Most of those histories end with some variant of, "...and lost with all hands."

Is the Bearn the only carrier that had triple expansion engines (excepting the CVE's).

At last, the bearn video.

I first read it as Mr Bean ;)

This 1st try at an aircraft Carrier by the French May not have been great but Neither was the Uk's Royal Navys but both Learned lessons From it. The Royal Navy had one of the bigest budgets in the World so France with limited budget had a good 1st Try and beat Germany and Italy to operate a Carrier.

Coal Armor... never underestimate the abilty of the French to turn a boat into a hotel.

Well, there goes my position on Bearn. First Dr Clarke tears her a new one, then Drach does likewise. I can no longer live under the delusions of her capabilities. 😅

For some reason, I'd thought this had already been covered.

Bearn looks like her plans were drawn with a crayon on a lunchroom napkin.

FINALLY

All credit to MN for giving their terrible mistakes many decades benifit of doubt. 😅

So did Bearn have coal bunkers right until the end then?

The Aircraft Carrier wll now commence her torpedo run ...

In the movie "The Avengers" there was a supercarrier with double-decker flight decks, which of course I thought was cool. As it turns out there's a history to this idea, the Japanese navy tried it once before abandoning it, maybe rightly, and might make an interesting episode. Has any navy reconsidered the concept since then?

I've always wondered what the story was on Bearn. Sad story, grateful for the information. Is it just a coincidence that it was posted on the anniversary of the Glorious First of June?

“Look, MN, you have been dithering around making Bearn into an aircraft carrier for years. Crap or get off the pot.” “ … can we do both?”