View source for Aininian battleship Bonaventure (73)

[[Category:Ainin]][[Category:Aininian Navy ships]]{{DISPLAYTITLE|Aininian battleship ''Bonaventure'' (73)}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image= [[File:Battleship Richelieu.jpg|300px]]
| Ship caption= ''Bonaventure'' in the harbour of [[Port Harold]], [[Concordia]], in 1978
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header= 
| Ship country= {{flag|Ainin}}
| Ship flag= [[File:Anavy.png|70px]]
| Ship name= ''Bonaventure''
| Ship namesake= General [[Henri Bonaventure]], [[Aininian Revolution]] hero
| Ship ordered= 18 September 1933
| Ship builder= [[Aininian Southern Yards]]
| Ship laid down= 8 June 1936
| Ship launched= 2 May 1939
| Ship commissioned= 2 February 1940
| Ship decommissioned= 2 May 1983
| Ship struck= 19 August 1990
| Ship honours=[[Second Great War]]
* [[Battle of Ainin|Home Islands]] x 1
* [[West Nautaryan Campaign|West Notasia]] x 1
* East Namor Sea x 1
* Chorea x 1
[[Notasian Desert War|Pacification of Notasia]]
* [[Red Wednesday|St. Martin]] x 1
* Mont-Samuel x 1
[[Nautaryan Revolution|Notasian War of Independence]]
* Iberville x 1
* Damienville x 1
[[Concordian War]]
* Defence of Concordia x 1
* [[Battle of the Nautaryan Sea|Notasian Sea]] x 1
* [[Operation Endgame|Western Campaign]] x 1
| Ship status= {{wp|Museum ship}} in [[Iberville]]
| Ship notes= Last battleship to be retired in the Aininian Navy
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header =
| Header caption =
| Ship class = [[Marlane-la-Prairie-class|''Marlane-la-Prairie''-class]] battleship
| Ship type =
| Ship tonnage =
| Ship displacement = 35,000 tons
| Ship tons burthen =
| Ship length = 253.2 m
| Ship beam = 33 m
| Ship height =
| Ship draught = 9.8 m
| Ship draft =
| Ship depth =
| Ship propulsion = 195,000 hp
| Ship sail plan =
| Ship speed = 30 knots
| Ship range = 8,700 km
| Ship complement = 1,850 crew<br>180 [[Aininian Naval Fusiliers Corps|Naval Fusiliers]]
| Ship crew =
| Ship sensors = '''Second Great War:'''<br>Mk. 3 Radar<br>'''Concordian War:'''<br>"Ark" C12 PESA radar<br>{{wp|Chaff}} launchers<br>{{wp|Sonar decoy}} emitter<br>Temporary flare launchers
| Ship EW = CWA-2(3) electronic countermeasures suite
| Ship armament = 8 x 356mm Mk. 21 naval gun<br>
9 × 152 mm Mk. 30 light naval gun<br>
10 x 100 mm anti-aircraft artillery <small>(removed in 1955)</small><br>
10 x 100 mm naval gun <small>(after 1955)</small><br>
48 x 40 mm anti-aircraft artillery <small>(removed by 1966)</small><br>
60 x 20 mm anti-aircraft artillery <small>(reduced to 20 by 1962)</small><br>
22 x {{wp|SS.12/AS.12|FMS-2}} anti-ship/aircraft missile launchers <small>(after 1962)</small>
| Ship armour = Belt: 330 mm <br> Decks: An average of 90 mm<br /> Turrets: 450 mm
| Ship aircraft = 4 x {{wp|Vought OS2U Kingfisher|SAE B22}} flying boats <small>(until 1949)</small><br>
2 x {{wp|Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon|ACHS-11}} anti-submarine helicopters <small>(after 1966)</small>
| Ship aircraft facilities = Aircraft catapult (removed 1951) and hangar
| Ship notes =
}}
|}
'''''Bonaventure''''' is an [[Aininian Navy]] [[Marlane-la-Prairie-class|''Marlane-la-Prairie''-class]] {{wp|battleship}}, and the last Aininian battleship to be retired. Along with its sisters ships [[Aininian battleship Marlane-la-Prairie (69)|''Marlane-la-Prairie'']], [[Aininian battleship Péladreau (70)|''Péladreau'']], [[Aininian battleship Jean des Bois (71)|''Jean des Bois'']] and [[Aininian battleship Descieux (72)|''Descieux'']], it provided the Aininian Navy with its most potent firepower platform, on the hull of one of the largest warships in history. It was originally designed as a {{wp|flagship}} for major fleet engagements, but found itself engaged mostly in {{wp|naval gunfire support}} as it grew increasingly obsolescent for its originally intended task due to the rise of the {{wp|aircraft carrier}}-focused postwar navy.

Ordered in 1931 by the [[Aininian Navy]] Supreme Command in response to the perceived threat of [[Chorea|Chorean]] naval supremacy in the Great Esquarian Ocean, the ''Bonaventure'' was designed with heavy firepower. Its large size and lack of aft main guns made it a very unconventional design at the time. After the [[Second Great War (Esquarium)|Second Great War]] broke out in 1939, the battleship was assigned to escort merchant ships to deter action by the combatants. The [[Huimont incident|''Huimont'' incident]] in 1941 led to Ainin's entry into the war, and the ''Bonaventure'' was assigned to the [[Aininian Home Fleet]] and engaged in several major confrontations with the Chorean Navy. It was reassigned to the [[Aininian Southern Fleet]] in 1943, when it provided fire support while Aininian troops invaded the collaborationist [[Sultanate of West Nautarya (1908-1943)|Sultanate of West Nautarya]] in order to curb the oil supply to Chorea in the [[West Nautaryan Campaign]]. For the rest of the war, it played minor support roles in small-scale landings, and ended the war patrolling the East Namor Sea.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, the ''Bonaventure'' went through extensive refits, removing many of the 1930s-era equipment and replacing them with modern electronics and {{wp|cruise missile|cruise missiles}}. It engaged in several international tours but was not involved in any armed conflicts. In 1965, after the [[Nautaryan Revolution]], it provided fire support to the defenders of [[Desert Bay]] from attacking revolutionaries. The city and the peninsula of [[Concordia]] were retained by Ainin after the brief conflict, but {{wp|irredentism|irredentist}} elements in the First Nautaryan Republic resolved to invade Concordia in 1969, crossing the [[Radisson Line]] separating Aininian Concordia and Nautarya. The ship provided fire support during the [[Forest Evacuation]], when over 2,000 soldiers of the local garrison were evacuated by small boat after Concordia fell to an overwhelming Nautaryan surprise attack. Over the course of the next year, the ship was part of a major task force that destroyed the Nautaryan Navy in the [[Battle of the Nautaryan Sea]] and then continued providing fire support in many battles, including landings at Port-Harold and Desert Bay.

The ''Bonaventure'' was retired in 1983, due to the increasingly old ship's rapidly rising maintenance costs that the Aininian government could ill-afford in the aftermath of the [[Recession of 1980]]. The decision was controversial and marked the final end of the battleship era for Ainin.

== History ==
=== Concept and early career ===
''Bonaventure'' was born out of discussions at the [[Aininian Navy]] Supreme Command in 1930 and 31 as the [[Chorea|Chorean]] Navy increased in size and technology significantly and its irredentist claims over [[Namor]] became of major concern to Ainin. The [[Marlane-la-Prairie-class|''Marlane-la-Prairie''-class]] battleship was created to match the strongest Chorean battleships in terms of firepower and provided a major weapon for use in achieving victory in a "decisive naval battle" advocated by many of the leading naval officers of the time. Ordered in 1933, the ship was built over the next years and was commissioned in February of 1940, just as the war in Namor was escalating and Aininian-Chorean relations collapsed after a string of warship attacks against neutral Aininian shipping.

[[File:IJN torpedo boat CHIDORI in 1934.jpg|300px|thumb|left|A Chorean torpedo boat similar to the one that damaged ''Bonaventure'' in 1942]]
=== Second Great War ===
On 21 September 1941, a Chorean {{wp|submarine}} sunk the destroyer [[Aininian destroyer Huimont (427)|''Huimont'']] with all hands in the [[Forestia Incident]] that finally tipped the scales in the [[National Assembly of Ainin]] towards the pro-war side. The battleship was assigned to the [[Aininian Home Fleet|Home Fleet]]'s Northern Sea Squadron, where it hunted for Chorean ships and submarines for most of the winter of 1942. It sunk an {{wp|auxiliary cruiser}} and a small barge in February in quick engagements, and was involved in tracking a Chorean battlecruiser that sunk several Allied merchant convoys during the past season. In March of 1942, a Chorean torpedo boat, [[Chorean torpedo boat No. 3411|''No. 3411'']], scored a hit on the ''Bonaventure'' after it erred too close to the Namorese coast. No casualties were reported onboard, but the ship had to go to port for repairs to a boiler room for a month.

During this time, the ''Bonaventure'' missed the major [[Battle of the Western Approaches]], in which the Home Fleet won a major victory against a Chorean force attempting to head west towards the Central Ocean. The battle, as well as two smaller engagements later in the year during the [[Action of 8 June]] and the [[Battle of the Strait of Peitoa]], in which battleships performed very ineffectively against {{wp|carrier air wing|carrier air groups}}. The major [[Battle of the Daniel Trench]] in October 1942 sealed the fate of battleships and battlecruisers in Ainin's naval doctrine, and by January 1943, ''Bonaventure'' had been relegated to air defence duties in the Home Islands. She miraculously ended 1942 without any significant damage and no casualties amongst her crew, even as two of her sister ships and four other battleships and battlecruisers were sunk or severely damaged during the year.

[[File:Croiseur de bataille Strasbourg 03-07-1940.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The ''Bonaventure'' participating in the [[Battle of the Strait of Peitoa]]]]
On February 6, 1943, the [[Parliament of Ainin]] declared war on the [[Sultanate of West Nautarya (1908-1943)|Sultanate of West Nautarya]] due to its continued sale of petroleum products to Chorea and its harbouring of enemy spies and saboteurs. The ''Bonaventure'' was transferred to the [[Aininian Southern Fleet|Southern Fleet]], where she became the flagship of Admiral [[Jean-Pierre Desjardins]] and led a large armada in bombarding shore targets in the country and blockading it to prevent further Chorean supplies from passing through. The Sultanate surrendered on October 22, 1943, and was annexed by the Aininian Republic as the territorial collectivity of Lesser Notasia (later [[West Notasia]]).

The ''Bonaventure'' spent the rest of the war as an air defence and convoy-hunting platform. With the advent of carrier warfare and an end to the golden era of battleships, she played no further role in any of the decisive naval battles of the war. In 1944, while serving as a floating anti-aircraft platform off [[Hibourg]], [[Ponant]], she came under attack by a Chorean submarine, [[Chorean submarine No. 221|''No. 221'']], but the torpedoes all missed and the submarine was sunk by the warship's 100mm anti-aircraft fire. This was the only submarine to be sunk by a battleship in recorded history.

=== Modernisation and refit ===
After the end of the Second Great War, the ''Bonaventure'' was sent to [[Saint-Martin]], capital of the Aininian province of [[East Notasia]], in response to {{wp|bread riots}} that developed over the fall of 1945 due to a bad harvest and the continued use of wartime powers to expropriate farmers' crops for use in Metropolitan Ainin. These riots, fuelled by a sense of injustice and mistreatment, soon escalated into a full-blown rebellion in the shantytowns of Saint-Martin by January 1946. After clashes with the [[Aininian Army]] left several dozen dead, the provincial army commander ordered the ''Bonaventure'' to shell the restless neighbourhoods on 23 January 1946, now known as [[Red Wednesday]]. The warship's high-explosive shells were very effective against the armed gunmen, but also caused immense collateral damage and fuelled fires that ravaged the straw, paper and mud houses of the city's districts, killing over 2,500, largely poor black citizens, by 28 January when the flames were brought under control.

The heavy-handed acts sent outrage through the province and by February 8, 21 of the province's 67 prefectures were under control of armed rebels of the [[Nautaryan Liberation Front]] (NLF) and 13 more, including the capital, saw gunfights between rebels and police forces backed by soldiers. In the resulting [[Notasian Desert War]], the ''Bonaventure'' continued providing fire support to Aininian and colonial troops as they retook the cities from the rebels. The NLF surrendered on May 9, 1948, after a prolonged rebellion that caused immense destruction in East Notasia and over 44,000 deaths.

The ''Bonaventure'' went on several international goodwill cruises during the late 1940s and early 50s, and went into dry-dock in 1952 for an extensive upgrade that saw the removal of a lot of SGW-era equipment and the installation of modern electronics and more potent weapons systems. Constant revision of the design by the Navy and politicians led to the ship being stuck in port until 1958, when works were finally complete on a new radar and fire director and a complete overhaul of the ship's armaments. The ship was equipped with early cruise missiles in 1962 and had its electronics entirely upgraded in 1966 and 1967.

In 1965, a wave of youth anger in both East and West Notasia emerged and spread "like wildfire". Protesters filled the streets in all but 11 of the 107 prefectures in Aininian Notasia. On 2 May 1965, a gunman attacked the [[Independence Day (Ainin)|Independence Day]] parade with an automatic rifle, killing 5 soldiers and causing a massive city-wide manhunt for the killer and a curfew to be declared. The protesters, mostly peaceful so far, refused to obey the curfew and clashed with riot police into the night. The protesters across the two Aininian regions stormed into armouries and government offices, taking them over. On 1 June 1965, protest leader [[Bashir Rawleh]] declared independence from Ainin and the protesters took up arms against Aininian forces. By October of the year, government forces only held the major coastal cities and the interior was under the firm control of the rebels.

On 9 December 1965, a group of 150 rebels sneaked past the Aininian lines into [[Iberville]] and broke into the [[Iberville Arsenal]], hoping to cause major damage to the Aininian military forces by destroying the supply lines into the city. Expecting little resistance, they instead found the ''Bonaventure'' docked in port. The warship's crew used its heavy anti-aircraft guns to rout the attackers. After a three-minute battle, 62 attackers were dead and the rest captured, at the cost of a tugboat accidentally sunk by ricocheting artillery shells with no casualties onboard.

[[File:Richelieu 2.jpg|350px|thumb|left|The ''Bonaventure'' off [[Fort-Henri]] shortly after the town's liberation]]
The battleship then shelled enemy positions in Damienville to prevent the local garrison, besieged and cut off, from being overrun, and thwarted several attempts by rebel torpedo boats to attack it. However, it was in vain as the next day, the city's garrison surrendered. The ship's deployment in Nautarya ended in December when the Aininian government signed a peace treaty with the Nautaryans. [[Iberville]] and [[Concordia]] remained in Aininian hands, while the rest of the Nautaryas became the Republic of Nautarya.

=== Concordian War ===
The tenuous peace reached after the [[Nautaryan Revolution]] did not last. The Nautaryan government referred to Concordia and Iberville as the "lost provinces" and maintained an {{wp|Irredentism|irredentist}} policy that advocated reunification of the "last vestiges of Aininian imperialism" with Nautarya. On 7 March 1969, Nautaryan troops crossed into Concordia and garrisons in the territory quickly fell in rapid succession.

=== Retirement ===

== Description ==
[[File:Richelieu (cuirassé de 1939) Plage arrière.tif|200px|thumb|left|The aft anti-aircraft armaments on the ''Bonaventure'' as they appeared in 1944]]
== Commanders ==
Capt. [[Samuel Enstate]] 1940-1943 <br>
Lt. (Acting Capt.) Alexander Johnson Lewis 1943-1945 <br>
Capt. Henri Matiz 1945-1946 <br>
Capt. Marc de Finistère 1946-1952 <br>
Capt. Frédéric Cézanne 1952-1966 <br>
Capt. Markus Alessandro 1966-1970 <br>
Lt. (Acting Capt.) Vincent Clément 1970 <br>
Capt. Markus Alessandro 1970-1973 <br>
Capt. Georges Phillippe Ras 1973-1979 <br>
Capt. Luc Sayd 1979-1983

== Proposals for Recommissioning ==
The retirement of the ''Bonaventure'', the most potent naval artillery platform in the Aininian arsenal, has been controversial. Many of its defenders point to the fact that there lacks an adequate platform for shore bombardment in the Aininian Navy, while critics point out that cruise missiles have replaced naval artillery as the main fire support weapon, and that a renovated ''Bonaventure'' would be financially crippling. A report by the [[University of Tourres]] estimated that the cost of recommissioning, refurbishing and modernising the warship would be in the billions and that maintenance would cause a recommissioned ''Bonaventure'' to cost more than the operation of an entire carrier battle group within a decade. The {{wp|far-right politics|far-right}} [[National Alliance]] has made it a key policy component to recommission the ''Bonaventure'' and controversially plans on using it to patrol the [[Nautaryan Sea]] in order to intercept the [[Illegal immigration to Ainin|illegal immigrants]] coming from Nautasia. 

Recommissioning the ship has occasionally resurfaced as a political issue, but nothing has ever come out of it. A 2013 survey showed that over 65% of Aininians believe that battleships were no longer relevant in the 21st century and that less than 10% of people support recommissioning the ship.