She spent the rest of the war providing cover for the Otranto Barrage that blockaded the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea and sometimes served as a flagship.

After the war, she and her sister ship France participated in the occupation of Constantinople and were then sent to the Black Sea in 1919 to support Allied troops in the Southern Russia Intervention.

By 1909, the French Navy was convinced of the superiority of the all-big-gun battleship like HMS Dreadnought over the mixed-calibre designs like the Danton class which had preceded the Courbets.

The following year, the new Minister of the Navy, Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, selected a design that was comparable to the foreign dreadnoughts then under construction, to be built as part of the 1906 Naval Programme.

The Courbet-class ships carried enough coal and fuel oil to give them a range of 4,200 nautical miles (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Raymond Poincaré, President of the French Republic, boarded France on 16 July for a state visit to Saint Petersburg, Russia.

After encountering the battlecruisers of the German I Scouting Group in the Baltic Sea en route, the ships arrived at Kronstadt on 20 July.

They were met off Valencia, Spain, on the 6th by Courbet and the semi-dreadnoughts Condorcet and Vergniaud because Jean Bart was having problems with her 305 mm ammunition and France had yet to load any.

Before the two groups got very far apart, several Austro-Hungarian ships were spotted on 16 August and the Allied fleet was successful in cutting off and sinking the protected cruiser Zenta off Antivari, although the torpedo boat SMS Ulan managed to escape.

On 1 September the 1st Naval Army briefly bombarded Austro-Hungarian coastal fortifications defending the Bay of Cattaro to discharge the unfired shells remaining in the guns after sinking Zenta.

Boué de Lapeyrère transferred his flag to Jean Bart's newly arrived sister Paris on 11 September.

The ship took on 400 tonnes (390 long tons) of water, but was able to reach the Greek island of Cephalonia where temporary repairs were made.

At the beginning of 1917, the French began to use the Greek island of Corfu as well, but growing shortages of coal severely limited the battleships' ability to go to sea.

[13] The situation was so bad that Vice-Admiral Gabriel Darrieus wrote in 1917: The military capabilities of the Armée Navale, which has already been badly affected by the shortages of personnel and constant changes in the general staff, need to be maintained by frequent exercises, and although from March to June we were able to follow a normal pattern, the coal crisis is currently preventing any manoeuvres or gunnery training, even for the ships returning from repairs.

Jean Bart's captain was able to restore order aboard his ship the following day and mustered a landing party to patrol the city.

The sailors mingled with a pro-Bolshevik demonstration and the mixed group was challenged by a company of Greek infantry which opened fire.

Delegates from the other mutinous crews were not allowed aboard and the mutiny collapsed when Amet agreed to meet their main demand to take the ships home.

In June 1923, the 1st Battle Division, including Jean Bart, was cruising off the coast of North Africa when Courbet had a boiler-room fire.

[18] The modernisation was completed on 29 September 1931 and Jean Bart recommissioned on 1 October as the flagship of the 2nd Battle Division commanded by Rear Admiral (contre-amiral) Hervé.

Her machinery trials lasted until 13 February 1932 and she then made port visits to Bizerte, Crete, Egypt, French Lebanon, Corfu, and Greece in April and May.

Rear Admiral Jean-Pierre Esteva relieved Hervé on 1 August and the ship was refitted from 10 October to 24 November in Toulon after which she spent five days in Ajaccio, Corsica.