History
of the Ship
The construction of the Jean-De-Vienne
began in December 1931 at Arsenal Lorient and the new building was
launched July 31, 1935. After his tests, he was admitted to active
service in April 1937 and joined the Mediterranean Wing to Toulon.
The following years will allow the ship and her crew to complete
their training during missions in the Mediterranean. At the outbreak
of the conflict, the ship is anchored in the port of Toulon. He
will carry out escorts of convoys and a very special mission: the
transport of the Gold of the Bank of France: in the night of 13
to 14 November 1939, in the company of the Cruiser "Marseillaise"
and the battleship "Lorraine", he transfer Gold Bank of
France loaded Toulon to Halifax to put it safe. This squadron had
taken for the occasion, the denomination of "Force Z".
After a passage to the shipyards
for work in January 1940, the Jean-De-Vienne, always accompanied
by the Cruiser "Marseillaise", will be used, in March,
like troop carrier: he will assure the transfer of regiments of
Legionnaires or Skirmishers of North Africa, to the metropolis.
Surprised in Algiers by the
Armistice, the Jean-De-Vienne will join the port of Toulon where
he will be disarmed in December 1940, then rearmed in March 1941.
But the lack of oil, will condemn French ships to inaction and missions
are rare and short-lived.
On November 27, 1942, after
the invasion of the free zone by the Germans, Jean-De-Vienne will
be scuttled in the roadstead of Toulon, with the French Fleet.
The Italians will flog it
in January 1943, but after the Armistice signed between the Italians
and the Allies, the Germans seize the Jean-De-Vienne in September
1943. But several times damaged in the port of Toulon by the bombings
Alias, he lies, after a final attack on November 24, 1943, with
a strong inclination along its platform. It is in this state that
it will be generously returned to the French by the Germans in May
1944 .... It will be definitively demolished in 1948.
