I did a bug report on Clemenceau and got this response:
Universal guns - in proper enclosed turret mounts.
Regarding catapults - the information has not been confirmed by monographs.
Not a bug.
This is wrong as Clemenceau is currently using the 100mm mounts from Jean Bart while she should be using the pre-war 100mm/45 guns in Mle 1937 mounts, as per John Jordan and the links provided in the report. I question if the Bug Reporting Manager #1 has taken a look at the blueprints or not.
Im aware, that a remodel of a ship is a bigger process than a tank or plane but for the sake of historical accuracy and sources that are available for free (more or less),
From what I’m getting at from this is that they can’t confirm whether she had catapults or not from the plans they used because the aft is not drawn up. Yet the hanger is labeled as Hangar d’hydravions (seaplane hangar) in the schematic and if the builders really didn’t plan on putting the catapults they would’ve repurposed the hanger for something else.
Keep in mind that this is dated May 1939, so the schematic of the catapult arrangement existed well after construction began in January 1939, in addition to the general sketches drawn before that.
Even if their premise that the catapults were later removed to save weight was correct, I find it extremely strange that they insist on sticking to a very narrow interpretation of the “latest” version of the design. I believe @굴러온 mentioned at some point that Soyuz in-game was modeled using a mix of 1938 and 1939 versions of the hull. Surely, if Gaijin were able to model a ship using a combination of 1938 and 1939 plans, would it be too much to ask for Clemenceau to be modeled with her catapults in a slightly earlier version of her configuration?
Well, i did and this bug report got closed with no real explanaition aside from:
Universal guns - in proper enclosed turret mounts.
Regarding catapults - the information has not been confirmed by monographs.
Not a bug.
The Richelieu and Jean Bart were already heavier than expected when they were built, but the French still kept their seaplanes. The only time the French removed the seaplanes from their battleships was during the renovation of the Richelieu and Jean Bart, and this was not because the ships were too heavy, but rather to make space for adding a large number of anti-aircraft guns, which made them even heavier than they were when they were built. So the weight argument makes absolutely no sense, as it never forced the French to remove these elements.
Furthermore, the layout of the anti-aircraft defenses and superstructure that Gaijn currently uses on the Clemenceau corresponds 99% to the 1938 plan, which also shows the presence of the seaplane hangar. And the following plans from 1939 clearly show the catapults at the rear of the ship as well as the seaplane hangar. Another plan from 1939 even shows details of the catapult power supply and the fuel supply for the seaplanes.
Construction of the Clemenceau began in January 1939, and these plans from May 1939 clearly show the French decision to install these elements on the ship. It is almost impossible that after this date, an event could have caused this installation to be canceled, given that everything had just been recalculated and validated and that no official source indicates otherwise.
Seriously, does Gaijn really think that the French would have bothered to draw up plans detailing the locations of fire extinguishers next to the catapults if they weren’t sure about their installation on the ship? These are no longer research and development plans, but plans that finalize the details for the construction and layout of the ship.
And these are official plans, not dubious deductions by so-called experts who have written a monograph. What’s more, the monograph by John Jordan and Robert Dumas indicates that the ship did indeed retain the seaplanes and their installations.
Hear hear. The weight argument makes no sense. The French Navy even widened the aircraft hangar on the Clemenceau since the wing secondaries got moved further fore. Not exactly the sign of something they don’t plan to use.
Frankly the idea that they would just give up on onboard aircraft just because it would put them a bit overweight is ludicrous. Onboard seaplanes at the time were far too critical for situational awareness to just give them up for no valid reason. They only started getting removed and replaced when radar became more common.
And it’s not like being overweight by a few hundred tonnes is something that you can tell just from looking at it, otherwise both the Littorio-class and Bismarck-class would’ve been called out right away with their thousands of tonnes above the 35,000 tonnage limits. I doubt the slight excess of Clemenceau caused the French Navy much worry.
