Guépard-class destroyer
The Guépard class consisted of six destroyers built for the French Navy during the 1920s. The class saw action in World War II, none surviving the war. was sunk during the Norwegian campaign in May 1940 by German dive bombers, while the surviving ships joined the Vichy French Navy after France surrendered to the Axis in June after losing the Battle of France. They were scuttled in November 1942 when the Germans attempted to seize the French fleet.
Design and description
The Guépard-class ships were improved versions of the preceding. They had an overall length of, a beam of, and a draft of. The ships displaced at standard load and at deep load. They had a metacentric height of and their hull was divided by a 11 transverse bulkheads into a dozen watertight compartments. Their crew consisted of 10 officers and 200 crewmen in peacetime and 102 officers and 224 enlisted men in wartime.The ships were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller using steam provided by four du Temple boilers that operated at a pressure of and a temperature of. The turbines were designed to produce which was intended give the ships a speed of. They comfortably exceeded their designed speed; the fastest of the ships,, reached a speed of from during her sea trials. The Guépards carried of fuel oil which gave them a range of at.
The main battery of the Aigle class consisted of five 40-caliber Modèle 1923 guns in single shielded mounts, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure and the fifth gun abaft the rear funnel. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of four semi-automatic Modèle 1927 guns in single mounts positioned amidships. They were equipped with 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 side abreast the forward pair of funnels, for which the ships carried a dozen depth charges.