Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "The Caribbean in WW2 - Oil, Sugar and the French" video.

  1. The history of the carrier Bearn in WW2 may be of interest .In June 1940 she transported part of the French Gold reserves to the US, then "Béarn began loading aircraft ordered from American manufacturers on 3 June, including 15 new Curtiss H-75A-4 fighters, 25 Stinson 105 utility aircraft, and 6 Brewster Buffalo fighters intended for the Belgian Air Component. Sold as surplus by the US Navy, 44 Curtiss SBC Helldiver biplane dive bombers arrived on 15 June and were loaded that day. The carrier and Jeanne d'Arc departed the next morning, bound for Brest. The ships did not hear the French High Command's order to divert to Fort-de-France, on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies, broadcast on 18 June, but did hear the repeat message on the 20th, after Brest had already been occupied by the Germans. They arrived at Fort-de-France on 27 June and became one of a dozen or so French ships that were effectively interned at Martinique—at U.S. insistence—to prevent their use by Germany. The carrier's aircraft were unloaded ashore on 19 July and the 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns aboard the fighters were removed to be used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of the French ships; Béarn received a dozen of the weapons.[3 The Vichy Government ordered that the ships in the Antilles be sabotaged on 5 May, but Robert procrastinated following the order, despite reiterations on 12 and 19 May. That day the carrier was run aground near the entrance to the port; one compartment flooded when the hull was pierced by wreckage. On 15 June, Béarn was reduced to special reserve. Robert ordered her propulsion machinery compartments flooded on 3 July as a further act of sabotage, but this likely would have caused her to capsize so the turbines and boilers were filled half-full of seawater. When her aircraft were surveyed in June, 27 Stinsons and 10 Curtis Hawks were still serviceable for service in North Africa. The French Antilles joined the Free French when the destroyer Le Terrible arrived in Martinique on 14 July.[43] Béarn was refloated on 8 September, after she had been pillaged of equipment by the other units based in Martinique, although one dynamo and a steering motor were refurbished to facilitate her tow to Puerto Rico that began on 27 September and ended three days later when she arrived at Ensenada Honda. The next several months were spent refurbishing her propulsion machinery and electrical equipment. The carrier began post-refit trials on 17 November, but they were unsuccessful as she had to be towed back to the dockyard. After repairs and further testing, Béarn steamed to the Todd Shipyards facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving on 3 December.[44] Given her age and limitations, the French did not wish to begin a long and costly conversion into an escort carrier, but settled for a faster and cheaper conversion into an aircraft transport. Shortages of materials, skilled labor and the difficulties of working with French equipment caused the conversion to take much longer than expected. By May virtually all of the propulsion and auxiliary machinery had been removed to be overhauled with the shipyard expecting all of the work to be completed by 1 September 1944. The Marine Nationale did not believe that estimate; its concerns were borne out when a more realistic estimate of 15 December was made on 20 June. Even that date was missed by several weeks as work finally ceased on 30 December.[45] One of the major changes made during the conversion was that her original armament and fire-control equipment was replaced by four 38-caliber 5-inch (127 mm) Mk 37 dual-purpose guns in single mounts where the 155 mm guns had formerly been, twenty-four 1.1-inch (28 mm) guns in six quadruple mounts, one each at the bow and stern and the remaining guns in sponsons on the side of the hull, and twenty-six 20-millimeter (0.8 in) Oerlikon guns in individual mountings. Four Mk 51 directors were added to control the 5- and 1.1-inch guns and SA-2 early-warning and SF surface-search radars were installed on the island. Béarn stowed 300 rounds per gun for the 5-inch guns, 2,210 for each 1.1-inch gun and 8,862 rounds for each Oerlikon. Other changes included the removal of the middle elevator, the addition of a 17-metric-ton (16.7-long-ton) crane on the port side of the flight deck and the replacement of her diesel generators by a pair of 300-kW General Motors generators. The protective coal was removed and the coal bunkers were converted into oil tanks, which increased her fuel capacity to 4,500 t (4,429 long tons).[46] The ship departed New Orleans on 30 December, bound for Portsmouth, Virginia, where she was docked on 8–19 January 1945 to fix issues that arose on the voyage. On 24 February Béarn conducted speed trials and reached 17.93 knots (33.21 km/h; 20.63 mph). She spent the next month working up and was declared ready on 26 February. Béarn had to wait for the arrival of 230 additional crewmen before she could steam to New York City to pick up her cargo on 3 March. This included 148 American soldiers and sailors, 88 aircraft and 85 cases of material that totalled 455 t (448 long tons). Twenty-six North American P-51 Mustang fighters and three Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers were stowed inside the hangar with fourteen P-51s and forty-one Republic P-47 Thunderbolts on the flight deck. The ship also embarked a four-man US Navy liaison detachment.[47] Béarn steamed from New York on 7 March as part of Convoy CU 61. Early on the morning of 13 March, the transport briefly lost power during heavy weather and collided with the troop ship USAT J. W. McAndrew. The impact killed 68 soldiers and 1 Naval Armed Guardsman aboard the troop ship and Béarn had 1 crewman missing, 3 killed and 7 wounded. Both ships suffered hull damage and the transport had her starboard forward guns disabled. They both sailed to Ponta Delgada, Azores, for emergency repairs and arrived there on the 22nd. Béarn received permanent repairs at Casablanca from 15 March to 18 July. Despite this, she required further repairs which she received at Gibraltar on 22–30 July. After sailing to Oran on 31 July, the ship loaded 535 personnel, 400 t (390 long tons) of material and part of a damaged Breguet 730 flying boat bound for Toulon, where she arrived on 3 August. She then loaded 1,378 men of the 13e Demi-Brigade de la Légion Etrangère (13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion), 280 airmen and 275 vehicles that she ferried to Algiers on the 9th and then transported 174 legionnaires to Oran four days later. Béarn was refitted there from 13 August to 9 September.[48]
    2