Richelieu and New Jersey: A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words 

French Battleship lover here. Thank you for this very nice picture that appeared in my reference book on the Richelieu Class. I will always lament the fact that all our battleships were simply sent to the breakers with only a rifle remaining. That the USS New Jersey is preserved by your association is a feat beyond praise. Thank you, thank you for your efforts in keeping her afloat. This is so precious and meaningful that words won't be enough.

Thanks for the little gem about the removal of ships' bells before going into combat - I was confused by the number of bells from lost ships that are on display in various museums, thinking "Which poor deck hand had the job of dragging the bell into a lifeboat in the final moments of a ship's life".

As 35,000 tons designed battleships the Richelieu's were well-protected, well-armed, and fast. The French got a lot of the balance of speed/protection/firepower right. I like them. And like post WW1 French ships, they also look good.

Notice that those are the "barges" with the hard tops. One will be the Captain's Gig. Another will be the Officer's Launch. Boats for the crew will be the 40' open top versions.

My guess would be New Jersey with one of the KGVs in the Pacific in 1945, or HMS Vanguard during the early Cold War.

I think that out of all the topics (Ryan going in small spaces not included, those are my favourite) i love this one the most. A picture is indeed worth 1000 words.

Richelieu and Jean Bart are both heavily underrated ships. Bismarck level firepower, with better armor, and more range. On 2/3rds the displacement. Edit: 4/5ths the displacement by the end of the war. And less range than Bismarck. But the Armor/Firepower and overall design statements still stand. (As well as equivalent speed)

The size of the ships... The smallest of those two covers almost two and a half football pitches. The new WW2 battleships will probably forever be the most impressive warships built.

I watched Iron Giant today, and the Battleship in the movie had the number 62 on it. That's right, she is the New Jersey. (Technically both of them are, since both battleships have the number 62 on them.)

Richelieu looks pretty from the front but New Jersey defiantly looks good from the back. Awesome vid! Love it when guys talk about other battleships along with our star New Jersey.

Love these videos! Ryan’s knowledge of the ship and the various eras in which she served *really* comes through in moments like this.

These videos are some of my absolute favorites. They're not just great for people who READ about a change and would like to see it, but for people who SEE a change and would like to read about it. You can also see so much more in these photographs than you can in most of the early digitized scans which is really great.

Great video Ryan, nice job with the history of the New Jersey.

Wow, a thing; Wow another new thing. This makes for a surprisingly interesting video, thanks. My guess for the other ship, HMS Vanguard.

Another great video from the battleship. Thanks

Awesome video love the pictures in this one. Thanks Ryan

I can be wrong, but I thought the barrel which replaced the damaged gun on Richelieu came of the battle ship Jean Bart which was also in North Africa but was not yet competed

i would be interested to know about your life. How did you become a curator? what is a curator? what is your connection to this part of history. loved your support of the USS Texas, that taught me something. I'm Navy through and through ... USS Inchon LPH-12 (she's in Davy Jones locker now). Was on the USS Texas for first time when i was eight (8) years old and also on the day before i joined the Navy, Sunday June 2nd, 1968. Had a friend from my very small town (Silsbee, TX) that was on the USS New Jersey, his name was Bill McGinty and i think he was a Gunners Mate, maybe 2nd class. Saw the USS New Jersey from across the river while in Philadelphia, killed me that i didn't have time to board, but did get piped aboard the USS Iowa in San Pedro a few years back. So appreciate your work! Hoping your happy and keep up this outstanding work!

The 380mm Mark I AP shells for RICHELIEU were made by the Crucible Steel Company of America, which was the best naval AP projectile manufacturer in the world at this time. While the shape and weight of the 380mm AP shells were matched to the existing French shells, the insides of the projectiles were very similar in design, metallurgy, filler, and fuzing to the US Navy 14" Mark 16 MOD 8 AP projectile, also made by Crucible, the one used at the US Naval Proving Ground to test US armor to be installed aboard ships.

In the book "British, French, and Dutch Battleships of World War II" by William H. Garzke, Jr. Roberto Dulin, Jr. and Tomas G. Webb. It states that the missing gun you mentioned was damaged when a defective shell exploded while she was engaging HMS Barham and Resolution on the 24th of September 1940 at Dakar. This, and another damaged gun, were replaced by taking guns from the Jean Bart as she had been severely damaged at Casablanca. Also, her guns were rebored from 380mm to 381mm so she could use British shells of that calibre.

Also the USN used guns from Jean Bart to replace damage on Richelieu. They did not and could not have manufactured a totally unique gun barrel in a reasonable time. Not to mention that the French gun was made differently. B

1) In the RN, a canvas structure like on the bow was known as a "dodger" 2) The blue paint of MS21 chalked and faded badly in Pacific weather and sunlight, becoming lighter than the sea and highlighting the ship 3) I checked and this is the BB62's radar suite over the years BB-62 New Jersey Years Forward Aft May 1943 - May 1945 SK SG (Also SG on forward FC tower) - SG was known to have blind spots, hence 2 sets June 1945 - February 1952 SK-2, SG SP April 1952 - August 1954 SPS-6, SPS-10 SP December 1954 - deactivation in 1957 SPS-6, SPS-10 SPS-8A HF Reactivation in 1967 - deactivation in 1968 SPS-6, SPS-10 Reactivation in 1982 - deactivation in 1990 SPS-49 4) 4) IIRC, USS Washington, in the night battle off Guadalcanal, had her after turret set the float planes on fire with the first salvo, then blew the flaming wreckage over the side with the second. An elegant solution!

It is mindblowingly astonishing how much information you can get from a single picture. WOW

Photos of recently completed or modified on the East Coast had their pictures taken from nice steady, sloe=w blimps

Not sure if totally related, but on Sept 8 1943, Eisenhower publicly announced surrender of Italy. I noticed the Sept 7 picture you have was originally marked as Confidential; the ships CO could well have put special colors out without worry of the public wondering what was going on because the ship was not technically in port.

I would hazard a guess that it was Japanese battleship Nagato in Tokyo Bay in late 1945.

Should be Nagato as the flagship of the occupation fleet. There's video and photos. The holiday they're celebrating in the photos is likely labor day. The bloomers on the 5" are still on the ship in January of '45. There's a photo of her refueling a DD

What a gorgeous ship! "Oooh!" - my sentiments exactly. Best curator anywhere.

On the uniforms: My grandfather (WWII, army, Europe) told me that most of his unit either were not issued or were not encouraged to purchase dress uniforms except for maybe one set. There was not much point as there was no break between training and deployment. Plus, there was a war on and the shortage of materials that causes. It seems likely to me that the sailors in white are the guys who enlisted prior to the war and blue are new guys. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of the navy can say if this is plausible.

This is a really fun series (this is the second I've found). I'd love to learn more about the historian/curatorial(?)) parts of the job. Digging into the past through primary and secondary sources and whatnot. Great content, thanks!

I like these “picture” videos. Thx!!

Love these pictures, somebody really cool probly sent em in!

It's Labor Day week 1943 by date on picture. Sailors in whites have shore liberty, blue will remain on board. Big flags are for holiday pictures. Dress whites also for pictures -glamor shots for publicity.

I absolutely love richelieu and jean bart, my favorite battleships every made

As for the other foreign BB, I am going to go with HMS Howe as an educated guess. New Jersey was at Okinawa for a while, and HMS Howe was in TF.57 providing offshore support for the US landings at Okinawa. Could also be HMS King George V, although she was with TF.57, she became part of TF.37 and sailed with the other 3 Iowas, being Iowa herself, Missouri and Wisconsin, and attacked the industrial works at Hitachi, New Jersey wasnt present at that operation though. When King George V moved onto Okinawa, she was screening the 4 british fast attack carriers, and wasnt immediately present with the US fleet as far as I can work out.

I was going to suggest a British battleship, in a photo with the New Jersey. King George the 5th? The Duke of York? Maybe the Rodney? I thought it wasn't unusual during WW2 for British warships to get maintenance work in the U.S. ports.

Both fantastic ships so modern looking for their time

Great video

Alex has taught me, what a great ship Richelieu was. I always found it a classical French beauty like a young French woman in a light white summer dress.

Presumably the photo includes one of the four King George V-class battleships that were in the British Pacific Fleet. I don't think (?) New Jersey was part of the US/British fleet that bombarded Japan itself, but the BPF and New Jersey were both present for Okinawa along with...you know...an insane number of other ships.

...a lot of firepower in this picture...! 👍👍👍

Richelieu is such a fantastic looking ship

Both are beautiful ships.

The Battleship New Jersey and the Battleship Richelieu, 2 great ships. I think the New Jersey was seen in a photo with the German/Turkish Battleship Goeben; New Jersey may have been in a photo with the British Vanguard as well

Thanks for using one of my submissions! 🤙👍

Blue uniforms are the Special Sea and Anchor Detail, who will be in Working Uniform of the Day.

Richelieu is certainly a good looking ship !

i like this format

Those guys in their Service Dress Blues are most likely new Sailors to the ship. SDBs are always authorized for wear, especially when travelling. If they came from Great Lakes, they would've been wearing SDBs. The ship's force sailors are in SDWs because that would be the uniform of the day. But as I said, SDBs are always authorized for wear (as of 2014, when I got out of the Navy).

Richelieu is the ship I use the most in World of Warships Blitz, although I’ve been using HMS Hood recently since I was in London for a couple of weeks in August.

Frankly if the Richelieu had been completed sooner and it joined the Free French sooner then definitely nice to have in the Mediterranean heck if Richelieu had been with the Free French and completed in time, she might have been with the Hood at the Denmark Strait and with her all forward 15" battery, she could score damaging hits on Bismarck which might be enough to prevent the Hood being sunk

Just a quick point… the US did not manufacture a 15 inch barrel for Richelieu. All four 380mm barrels from Jean Bart were shipped to the US from shipyards in the UK. Three replaced the three damaged guns on Richelieu and one was sent to the proving grounds (Virginia I think) for tests on the ammunition. We DID manufacture custom 380mm (technically 14.96 inch) ammunition and powder bags at the Crucible plant specifically for those guns. Jean Bart received eight brand new guns post war.

Hi there. You wouldnt mean a photo in Tokyo Bay, together with Nagato? Greetings from Germany and keep up the good work.

Re: The comment of flight proficiency, while I am not up on the WWII standard, during the 1966-1970 time frame when I was an Aviator on active duty, it was 4 hours per month. There were a few years during my active service when toward the end of a fiscal year, if we were not deployed, that was all we could get. We usually dropped back to very short flights in the area, about 1 hour, so in that 4 hour allotment we stretched it out to 1 flight a week with a take off and landing. Then after 1 October we would go back to our normal 10-12 flight hours. When deployed, we would be up over 100 hours a month, pushing toward 150 as we would get one 4-5 hour patrol per day. (We only had enough crews to cover a 20 hour cycle so on some days we actually had two patrols).

From my experience, The photos were "PROBABLY" taken from a Navy Blimp, as they were relatively slow but also very stable, so were excellent photographic platforms. In 1943 there were a LOT of them around. BTW, September 7th was a Tuesday. The day before, Monday the 6yh, was Labor Day.

Looking at the historic naval pictures website it looks like shortly after this image was taken the "bullnose" twin gun tub was added as an image from Oct 12, 1943 shows it in place.

Very interesting to learn how the designs were refined as experience was gained against the Third Reich and Imperial Japan. I wonder if there was some sort of VIP activity which brought out dress whites and dress blues. I am recalling higher level Changes of Command, Secretary of Defense, etc. visits when I was in the US Army (1968-1971).

While still working up. No bow tub and still fully open bridge.

Richeliu goes something like "rice" but you add an H so it's "rishe" and "lieu" which you read kinda like "lie" and "ou" like in aeiou (the vowel song). Together it's "rishe-lie-ou" and you have to put accent on the last "e" a bit.

Did you know that they are using powerful water cutting jets to open the torpedo blisters on Texas to get access so that foam in the blisters can be removed.

I think I saw a company of Marines standing next to the #1 Turret on the starboard side in the first picture. Didn't they man the 5" guns? Great pictures by the way.

It would be cool if you could take the first picture in this video and compare it to a similar view from later after the citadel is enclosed, to show the additions and differences.

One idea for the entire crew to be topside and in Whites and a few in Blues, is that she is having some type of all hands event such as Change of Command or command inspection prior to deployment. It could also be that she is recieving her Admiral prior to deployment and Navy docturm would be to turn out crew for his arrival. Seeing as there are a few sailors in blues, it stands that they may be sideboys for arriving Admirals and dignitaries and needed to render arms. Just a thought from a old crusty Master Chief.

I'm guessing IJN Nagato. There's a video about that ship which features an Iowa class in the foreground. Couldn't make out the hull number though.

I love the pics of the mk 37 gun directors more shows how the USN had developed AA gun coordination by 1944

One of Richelieu's guns is on display in my city. It's visible from a bridge but you have to work at the navy yard to go up close.

FWIW, September 6th is Labor Day in 1943. Could be pictures were taken on the 6th and developed on the 7th. That could explain the holiday banner.

7 September Flag may be commemorating the Siege of Goliad circa 1846, it could be the anniversary of the maiden voyage of Lusitania, too. But, 07EP43, being a Tuesday, the Navy League may have a dinner and dance organized and the ship is about to go on Liberty for that occasion.

Maybe the USS New Jersey and the IJN Nagato while anchored in Tokyo Harbor at the end of WWII? I think I remember a picture of USS New Jersey in a Janes Fighting Ships of WWII Encyclopedia from the late 1960s/1970s that my step-dad gave me when I was back in Junior-HS?

I wonder why the gun barrel plugs or caps arent on the 16inch barrels.. I know you are saying its likely this picture is during or after the shake down cruise, but I assumed that if the guns arent being fired. Then those are over the barrel ends to keep any spray or debris out. any insight Ryan?

That first picture showed the range finders still mounted to turret one.

The other foreign BB New Jersey is pictured with is the IJN Nagato after WWII.

The first photo is showing the forward port quarter

Ensign appears to be flying from a small gaff which would be an appropriate place and out of the way of the aviation equipment and gun tubs aft.

I would say the IJN Nagato is probably the other foreign battleship

When looking at the total mass of the battleship, it's hard to imagine that the presence of the bells would add any significant topweight (though a pound is a pound). I can imagine what it would be like to be the poor guys who were told to get them down and haul them ashore.

Perhaps sailing with HMS Vanguard? Also, am curious as to whether the first photo is reversed/negative as the caption says starboard quarter yet it appears clearly to be looking to her from off her PORT quarter. Or am I missing/mixing something up?

9/7/43 was the day after Labor Day. The date on the photo could be off a day - that would explain the ship wearing Holiday Colors. The ensign is flying from the gaff (main mast) probably because the crane is in use (for boats perhaps) and the aft flagstaff is folded out of the way... you see that in a lot of WWII battleship photos when the ship is moored or at anchor. Sailors in white are wearing Working White, and probably part of the duty section. Sailors in blue might be taking part in a uniform inspection in anticipation of the uniform change in October and/or having a complete sea bag for deployment. Just my semi-educated guesses.

15:00 What's that thing with three notches on it just to the port side of the forward funnel? A range finder?

Hey there there’s a documentary about the Battleship New Jersey during the Korean War 1952 called Floating Fortress. Did you ever see it?

Nice retro Navy enlisted working uniform shirt your wearing.

Before Operation Catapult and the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, the British gave the Admiral Darlan the option of placing the fleet in inactive British custody or removing it to one of their ports in the French West Indies, where they would be far from any attempts by the Germans and Italians to seize control of the second-largest group of capital ships in Europe behind the Royal Navy. They chose to ignore that option and ended up scuttling the fleet at Toulon to prevent a joint German/Italian attempt at seizing them after the start of Operation Torch (Case Anton), and getting pounded with great loss of life at Mers-el-Kébir. Interestingly, the French admiral at Mers-el-Kébir (Gensoul) didn’t tell the Vichy government he had been given the option of removing the fleet to the French West Indies, and Darlan’s orders to Gensoul had contemplated the option of removing the fleet to US waters if any foreign government tried to seize it. Of course, in the end, the remaining fleet at Casablanca (including the very incomplete Jean Bart) was pummeled during Operation Torch - all of which could have been avoided if Darlan and especially Gensoul hadn’t been such idiots.

just a guess, from a shutterbug, but the date might indicate date developed, not date taken, which might match with the holiday flags flying for Labor Day, which was September 6.

Pls talk also about Littorio Class!

My guess for the other battleship photographed alongside an Iowa class: the Turkish Yavuz, ex German Goeben.

Loved the video, but please fix the constant reconnect disconnect hardware issue on your computer!

Marvelous to see. It appears that some crew are in whites but others are wearing blue.

Richelieu is beside NJ You can tell by the sternish funnel that streches for a bit the bow reminds me of titanic but shorter

Mid Morning on Sunday. Those in white are on Liberty that day, the ones in blue are on duty. Religious services just ending on the bow and maybe a choir farther aft. Interesting that if the max of three float planes are on the ship, sooooo who's plane was it?

There was a picture of an Iowa with the HMS Anson, I believe. I mention it because I am not sure which Iowa it is. However, I know there is a picture of a Japanese battleship with the New Jersey a couple of months after the end of the war. I'm not going to mention the name but detectives and deduce the name from this: An older battleship with 16" guns. Had a sister that blew up in harbor during the war. Was expended as a target at Operation Crossroads in 1946. Which ship??

Am I missing something or isn’t that first pic the bow port quarter?

Col Beausabre, that was BB South Dakota that blew her flaming float plane off the stern with her second salvo. After the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the USN flew off the float planes before nightfall if battle was anticipated.

The first picture was taken on a Tuesday. If it had been taken on a Sunday that could explain the Holiday ensign. It was the day after Labor Day, so that is a possible explanation. As most of the crew are in whites and given the date, I would assume that was the uniform of the day. I'm not familiar with the dress and undress white uniform during WWII. It doesn't look like anybody has a neckerchief so I think that is undress whites. In the second picture you can see the neckerchiefs, which would make that a dress white uniform. The only sailors in blues are the guys in ranks on the port side outboard of No. 1 turret and the ones milling about on the bow. It is possible that they have just reported aboard, are detaching, or are part of a special detail that require dress blues. Dress blues were authorized for wear when traveling, regardless of the time of year. Some things like funeral details often call for dress blues.

The holiday flags might be out for Labor Day which was the 6th of September 1943, the day before the first photo was taken.

Richelieu.... the "modèle Sport" of Battleships !

We frequently allowed the BMs on the anchor detail to wear something other than whites because of the dirt and mud which might fly up from the anchor chain as it is deployed.

What is that sticking out of the barrel of number 3 gun (? port gun of) number 1 turret?

How is that referred to as the "Starboard Quarter" when it appears to be the port side primarily displayed?

Do you think the first picture could actually be September 1944 near Papua - with a couple of typos to the card, "Fapua", and the year being wrong? The attire would make more sense as there were a lot of admirals meeting between action in the Philippines and preparing Palau, maybe using Guinea as base of operations in safer waters?

There is a photo of new jersey with nagato. Is that the one? Really good option for one of these videos