Jeanne d'Arc
Contents
Description
The Jeanne d'Arc-class, Jeanne d'Arc, 1944 is a rank III French light cruiser with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "La Royale".
General info
Survivability and armour
Despite of having several good things going for her, the ship is still relatively easy to sink by a higher caliber munitions.
Compared to the other ships in the BR, she has the highest crew count (in fact, she has a higher crew count than a ships in much higher BRs, such as HMS York or IJN Furutaka), a good number of sections, ammunition store relatively deep below the waterline in the armored boxes and engines that just barely stick above the waterline.
Where she her survivability suffers the most are three areas: Firstly, manoeuvrability - before unlocking the Rudder modification it's best to spot enemy torpedoes before they enter the torpedo detection distance (base 80 meters, top 100 meters) as even some of the slowest torpedoes will be challenging to avoid. Similarly the incoming fire is best avoided by using hard cover (islands, icebergs, etc.) rather than trying to maneuver the cruiser away from the path of the shells. Secondly - her large profile makes for an easy target, in particular for enemy torpedoes, though gun fire will have an easy time connecting on target as well.
Finally, the biggest issue with her survivability is the crew distribution. Quite unusually for a cruiser vast majority of her crew is located in basically just 3 locations. Hit below the aft turrets destroying two compartments there can easily knock down over 160 crew members. Destroying just one of them (e.g. with a SAP shell) will knock down around 80 crew (~10% of the entire crew). The single largest crew compartment is right in the middle of the superstructure - it's not only the largest one in size, but also the largest one in crew count and oftentimes the first one to be destroyed in a broadside battle. Finally there are two compartments below the forward turrets, not as populated nor as large as in the rear but still an easy targets.
This vulnerability make the ship very often die just by running out of crew, rather than ammo-racking or sinking, giving an impression that she has a much lower crew count than she does in reality.
Mobility
Her mobility is comparable to RN Etna, which is in a lower end among low-BR cruisers. But unlike most of peers she has a very large profile making it important to take extra caution when it comes to preemptive positioning. Also note that her Complete rudder's turning time before upgrades is 5.28s (compared to 5.1s on Etna, 5.13s on IJN Kako and 5.39s on USS Trenton) making it beneficial to invest in Ship Control crew skill.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 60 | 34 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 51 | 29 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Other than the essential Damage Control Division and Fire Division the ship highly benefits from 155 mm M1924 SAP, Rudder Replacement and Primary Armament Targeting. In tier IV it could be argued that Engine Maintenance is the most beneficial of the three available modifications, as the ammo racks are relatively difficult to hit on the ship.
Armament
Primary armament
The primary armament is very potent when it comes to sustained firepower, especially when using the ready-to-use ammo. Its high caliber can easily deal with enemy destroyers and be a real threat to the cruisers. It's not uncommon to one-shot enemy destroyers with these guns.
Where she will struggle is when fighting enemy heavy cruisers in up-tiers, such as USS Portland, as the guns simply lack penetration to deal with the armor.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| M1924 HE | HE | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
| M1924 HE-BF | HE | 87 | 78 | 64 | 53 | 45 | 34 |
| M1924 SAP | SAPBC | 142 | 126 | 104 | 87 | 73 | 55 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| M1924 HE | HE | 864 | 59 | 0 | 0.1 | 6.16 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| M1924 HE-BF | HE | 870 | 56.5 | 0.015 | 7 | 2.9 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| M1924 SAP | SAPBC | 870 | 56.5 | 0.01 | 7 | 3.67 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
Four 75mm guns with two flanking main superstructure and two between funnels make for a relatively poor long-range anti-air, but occasional lucky shots can still provide some degree of defence.
Having a low number of guns with a relatively long reload rate makes them unsuitable for defense against coastal vessels - anti-aircraft armament should be used instead.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 100 m | 1,000 m | 2,000 m | 3,000 m | 4,000 m | 5,000 m | ||
| OEA Mle 1925 | HE | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| HE-TF OEA Mle 1925 | HE-TF | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| OEA Mle 1925 | HE | 850 | 5.93 | 0 | 0.1 | 450 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| HE-TF OEA Mle 1925 | HE-TF | 850 | 5.93 | 0 | 0.1 | 450 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Anti-aircraft armament
The armament of ten Bofors 40 mm certainly makes for a highlight on this ship. AI will use these guns to engage targets at a considerable distance, making it easy to scare off enemy bombers and torpedo boats alike. When under manual control the high muzzle velocity, rate of fire and guns being spread all across the ship makes it exceptionally easy to take down enemy targets.
The supplement of no less than twenty 20 mm guns engaging targets from 2 km makes for one of the most threatening targets to the enemy bombers in that BR.
Usage in battles
Jeanne d'Arc would be best summed-up as a glass cannon. It's able to quickly and efficiently deal with any unarmored or poorly armored target, while it's exceptional anti-air armament (lacking only HE-VT shells) provides a respectable threat to both: airplanes and coastal vessels alike.
Where she struggles the most are an armored targets - 155 mm SAP shells simply lack penetration to deal with the heavier targets in up-tiers. Furthermore, a more knowledgable enemies can use the unarmored crew compartments against the ship, leading to a relatively quick sinking if the incoming fire isn't addressed.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Very high sustained damage, made exceptional when the first stage ammunition is available
- Great anti-air defense for its BR
Cons:
- Crew concentrated in easy to hit locations makes for a poor survivability
- Mediocre mobility
- Poor turret traverse speed and low rate of fire once the first stage ammunition is expelled
- Does not have an access to AP shell, will struggle against more well-armoured opponents
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| France light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Duguay-Trouin-class | Duguay-Trouin · Primauguet |
| Jeanne d'Arc* | |
| Emile Bertin* | |
| * Unique ship | |
