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
Jeanne d'Arc (named after Joan of Arc) was designed as a replacement of the aging 1899 armored cruiser of the same name that served as the training ship for French navy since 1912. Seeing the ship's age becoming an issue Ministry of Navy asked for a replacement, but the order wasn't placed until 1928, thus French used Edgar Quinet as an interim solution. Finally on 14 February 1930 Jeanne d'Arc went down the slipway at Saint-Nazaire Penhoët shipyard, becoming the new training ship of the French Navy. She was a one-off ship dedicated training ship serving until 6 July 1964, when the name was taken over by La Résolue, which itself was eventually supplemented by Léopard-class that serve as a training ships to this day.
Ship was designed around the guns known from Duguay-Trouin and large superstructure amidship for accommodation and facilities for the cadets. Machinery was shared with the Pluton minelayer, but also included a small auxiliary boiler on a port side of the ship allowing to maintain heating and other essential functions without firing up the main boilers. Ship also featured an unusually powerful generators: 200kW turbo-generators and two 120kW diesel generators were designed to facilitate an unusually large crew compliment. In sea trials she achieved a maximum speed of 27.86 knots (51.6 km/h), but suffered from vibrations specifically at 13.5 knots and 15 knots, making it difficult to use optical rangefinders at these speeds.
Hull was divided by 16 watertight bulkheads, features a double bottom and additional empty spaces around magazines, diesel tanks, between boiler rooms and fuel bunkers. Certain key bulkheads were reinforced and magazines had 20 mm armor to the sides, while conning tower was protected by two-layered armor, 15 mm each.
Facilities below the forward superstructure included one unusual facility - a large lecture hall able to accommodate 156 midshipmen and instructors that used as a theatre, cinema or a dance hall on a visits to the distant ports in a numerous French overseas territories. Ship also included an extensive medical facilities, including consulting room and isolation ward in order to accommodate for the visits in tropics where a large crew compliment of an inexperienced officers could catch tropical diseases.
Gun turrets were significantly enlarged compared to these on Duguay-Trouin to allow for the groups of the officer cadets to observe the loading and firing of the guns. Similarly the gun control systems were exceptional for the treaty cruisers and regularly updated to keep up with the state-of-the-art equipment. At the core of the fire control system was the Mle 1923 fire control computer stored below decks, after the 1933 refit the fire control computer was replaced my Mle 1930 and all of the main guns could be remotely fired from the director control tower and the conning tower. As a backup measure the turret III could take control of the remaining turrets and using a 5-meter coincidence rangefinder provide an emergency fire control, sending range and bearing data as well as coordinate firing of all the main guns.
Ship featured an Mle 1926S torpedo tubes (with the launchers and associated facilities shared with the Duguay-Trouin-class) armed with six Mle 1923D torpedoes (in case of war) or two Mle 1924M exercise torpedoes (in case of training exercises). In 1938 a small depth-charge launcher was installed on the quarterdeck able to launch 35 kg charges (used, among others, on Le Triomphant destroyers). Torpedo tubes were later dismantled to make space for additional cadets as the tensions raised in late 1930s.
Vessel included aviation facilities for two CAMS 37 seaplanes, specifically an unarmed variant 37-11 designed to carry a pilot, trainee and two passengers. In 1938 airplanes were replaced by Loire 130. The biggest issue was a lack of the catapults, forcing planes to be deployed by crane and making airborne operations impossible during the rough waters. Aviation facilities were later dismantled.
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 | |
