French destroyer Aigle
The French destroyer Aigle was the lead ship of her class of destroyers built for the French Navy during the 1930s.
Design and description
The Aigle-class ships were designed as improved versions of the preceding s. They had an overall length of, a beam of, and a draft of. The ships displaced at standard and at deep load. They were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by four du Temple boilers. The turbines were designed to produce, which would propel the ships at. During her sea trials on 18 May 1932, Aigles Parsons turbines provided and she reached for a single hour. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at. Their crew consisted of 10 officers and 198 crewmen in peacetime and 10 officers and 217 enlisted men in wartime.The main armament of the Aigle-class ships consisted of five Modèle 1927 guns in single shielded mounts, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure and the fifth gun abaft the aft funnel. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of four Modèle 1927 guns in single mounts positioned amidships. The ships carried two rotating triple mounts for torpedo tubes, one mount between the two pairs of funnels as well as another aft of the rear funnel. A pair of depth charge chutes were built into their stern; these housed a total of sixteen depth charges, with eight more in reserve. They were also fitted with four depth-charge throwers, two on each broadside abreast the forward pair of funnels, for which the ships carried a dozen depth charges.
Service
During World War II, Aigle was engaged in operations to transport gold bars several times. In November 1939, she escorted Force 'Z' ships until they reached the Atlantic. In March–April 1940, Aigle provided cover and later escorted the ships of Force 'X' back. Besides that, Aigle was regularly deployed to escort convoys with troops, heading from the North African ports to Marseille. The last combat operation in which the large destroyer participated was a raid on Genoa on the night of 13/14 June 1940, as part of Operation Vado, where she had to fend off the attacks of Italian torpedo boats.After France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 during World War II, Aigle served with the navy of Vichy France. She was among the ships of the French fleet scuttled at Toulon, France, on 27 November 1942. Later refloated, she was sunk a second time at Toulon by United States Army Air Forces bombers on 24 November 1943. Her wreck later was again salvaged and scrapped.