Fench port-avions Bearn

IIRC the Bearn was transporting Brewster Buffaloes for Belgium and Curtiss SBC Helldivers. Does anyone know what became of the aircraft?


"In June 1940, the Fench port-avions Bearn], along with the cruiser Emile Bertain (Jeanne d'Arc put into Guadaloupe) had put into Fort-de-France, Martinigue when France fell. A very pro-Vichy colony, the ships, remained there until the colony finally joined the Allies in 1943, after the Torch invasion and the German-Italain takeover of Vichy France. Bearn sailed, under a new Free Fernch Captain, from Martinique to the USA for an extensive refit where she was refitted as an aircraft transport. She was joined in the US by her new permanent Captain, Capitaine de Fregate Henri Lamy, a Free French officer that had been fighting the Germans since 1940.

On 7 March 1945, Bearn, carrying 88 aircraft as well as parts and material left , left New York to join Convoy CU-61 (45 ships), sailing from the USA East Coast to Europe.Bearn was the lead ship in column 6 of nine, putting her to the immediate starboard of the convoy commodore. On 13 March, in the mid-Atlantic, NE of the Azores, she suffered a steering casualty, and suddly veered into hard turn to port. Passing the starboard quarter of the commodore's ship, she struck the next ship astern of her in column 5, theSS J. C. McAndrew (1940; 7,997 GRT), carrying 1,974 US Rmy troops, besides her crew. Bearn was steaming at the convoy speed of 14 knots when she struck the McAndrew about 30 degrees off McAndrew's starboard bow. Both ships were badly damaged forward. McAndrew had 68 officers and men killed, while Bearn suffered 4 killed. Both ships had to put into Ponta Delgada, Azores for temporary repairs, Bearn remaining from 17 to 22 March, then she sailed for Casablanca where she unloaded her cargo and underwent more permanent repairs. After they were complete, she sailed for Gibraltar in July.

Sources
"Le Bearn et le Commandant Teste" by Jean Moulin, Lucien Morareau, et Claude Picard, Marines Editions
"Warship International", 1995, No 4 (Question Section) and 1996, No 4 (Answer Section)
"Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1941"

 

I'm not certain whether the aircrafts were reorientated to France or more likeky returned to the U.S. Here is a picture of the BEARN after it left New York.

 

I forgot to add that it was carrying Curtiss H-75s too.

 

I was wondering if they were offloaded in Fort-de-France, Martinique and used by the Vichy forces there?

 

I will have to check, but I doubt it. They were Belgian property, so I suspect they were returned to the sender = the U.S. probably still on board the Bearn when it sailed to New York.

 

What about the H-75s and Helldivers?

 

Well I know that some H-75s were delivered to France, but not enough. The question if those were the ones meant for the Belgians I don't know.

 

..there is some info on the 23 H-75s that were off-loaded in Fort de France (French West Indies) in Lionel Persyn's new Curtiss H-75 tome. The Hawks were taken off the ships (the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc also transported a number of H-75s to the islands) some still crated and were simply stocked in the open air - there is a picture in the book of the Hawks arrayed alongside the Buffalos and Helldivers covered in protective paste and with wood piles underneath the fuselages ready to be lit should the order come through to destroy them..There wasn't a suitable runway on the island to fly them off. Although the US asked for the aircraft back, the French Vichy forces on the island eventually destroyed them during May 1942..some crated machines weren't however lost and a number were transported back to North Africa in 1944..


HTH

Neil

 

All right, so they were abandonned, what a waste. Good thing some could be fixed and send to North Africa. You have your answer Falkenberg! Thanks Neil,

 

Thanks Neil. I would love to hear what happened to the ones sent to North Africa.

 

As far as I have read they were for France.

 

They were. They took part in combats too, I know a couple of Curtiss crashplaces in France as well

 

This is what I have found so far about the aircraft being transported.

44x SBC4 Helldiver
15x Curtiss H-75A4
6x Brewster B-339 Buffalo (Belgian)
25x Stinson 105 Voyager
Additionally 6 more H-75s crated up on the cruiser Jeanne D'Arc.

 

Not a small little strike force if you think about it .

 

The accident that happened is also one of the tragedies that occured during the war that most never hear about.