French destroyer Le Flibustier
{{Short description|French Le Hardi-class destroyer}}
{{About|the ship renamed Bison in 1941|other ships named Bison|French destroyer Bison}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Hardi-2.jpg |Ship caption=Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=France |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|France|naval}} |Ship name=Le Flibustier |Ship namesake=Filibuster |Ship ordered=24 May 1937 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=11 March 1938 |Ship launched=19 December 1939 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship commissioned=1 June 1940 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed=Bison, 1 April 1941 |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship captured=27 November 1942 |Ship fate=Sunk, 1944, and scrapped |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class={{sclass|Le Hardi|destroyer}} |Ship displacement=*{{Cvt|1772|LT|t|0|lk=on|disp=flip}} (standard )
|Ship length={{Convert|117.2|m|ftin|abbr=on}} (o/a) |Ship beam={{Convert|11.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship draft={{Convert|3.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship power=*{{convert|58000|PS|kW shp|lk=on|abbr=on|0}} |Ship propulsion=*2 × Shafts
|Ship speed= {{Convert|37|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= {{Convert|3100|nmi|lk=in}} at {{Convert|10|kn}} |Ship complement=187 officers and enlisted men |Ship armament=* 3 × twin Canon de 130 mm Modèle 1932 and 1935 guns
}} |
The French destroyer Le Flibustier was one of a dozen {{sclass|Le Hardi|destroyer}}s built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. Still incomplete when the French signed an armistice to end the Battle of France, material shortages prevented her completion and she was placed in reserve. The ship was renamed Bison in early 1941. When the Germans occupied Vichy France after the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and tried to seize the French fleet intact, the destroyer was one of the few ships not scuttled to prevent their capture. She was turned over to the {{lang|it|Regia Marina}} (Royal Italian Navy) in 1943, but was seized by the Germans after the Italian armistice in September. The ship was salvaged in 1945 and later scrapped.
Design and description
The Le Hardi class was designed to escort the fast battleships of the {{sclass|Dunkerque|battleship|4}} and to counter the large destroyers of the Italian {{sclass2|Navigatori|destroyer|5}} and Japanese {{sclass|Fubuki|destroyer|4}}es.Jordan & Moulin, pp. 180–181 The ships had an overall length of {{convert|117.2|m|ftin|sp=us}}, a beam of {{convert|11.1|m|ftin|sp=us}},Chesneau, p. 270 and a draft of {{convert|3.8|m|ftin|sp=us}}. The ships displaced {{convert|1772|LT|t|0|lk=on|disp=flip|sp=us}} at standard and {{cvt|2577|t|LT|sp=us}} at deep load. They were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four Sural-Penhöet forced-circulation boilers. The turbines were designed to produce {{convert|58000|PS|kW shp|lk=on|sp=us|0}}, which was intended to give the ships a maximum speed of {{convert|37|kn|lk=in}}. Le Hardi, the only ship of the class to run sea trials, comfortably exceeded that speed during her trials on 6 November 1939, reaching a maximum speed of {{convert|39.1|kn}} from {{convert|60450|PS|kW shp|sp=us|0}}. The ships carried {{convert|470|t|LT|0|sp=us}} of fuel oil which gave them a range of {{convert|3100|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|10|kn}}. The crew consisted of 10 officers and 177 enlisted men.Jordan & Moulin, pp. 180–186, 190
The main armament of the Le Hardi-class ships consisted of six Canon de 130 mm Modèle 1932 guns in three twin mounts, one forward and a superfiring pair aft of the superstructure. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of one twin mount for Canon de 37 mm Modèle 1925 guns and two twin Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun AA machine gun mounts. The ships carried one triple and two twin sets of {{convert|550|mm|in|adj=on|sp=us|1}} torpedo tubes, all above-water. A pair of chutes were built into the stern that housed a dozen {{convert|200|kg|sp=us|adj=on}} depth charges.Jordan & Moulin, pp. 186–190
Construction and career
Ordered on 24 May 1937, Le Flibuster was built by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at their shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer. She was laid down on 11 March 1938 and launched on 19 December 1939. The ship remained at Toulon after the French surrendered on 22 June 1940 and began her trials the following day, although she still lacked her armament. She was then reduced to reserve. On 1 April 1941, Le Flibuster was renamed Bison to commemorate the large destroyer of that name that was sunk during the Norwegian Campaign of 1940.Jordan & Moulin, pp. 182, 231, 236–237
File:Scuttled Le Hardi class NH 110745.tiff, {{ship|French destroyer|Le Hardi||2}}, and Bison]]
Unlike most of the ships in Toulon, Bison was undamaged when the Germans attempted to capture the French ships there on 27 November 1942 because she was still in reserve and did not have any crew assigned to scuttle her. The Italians rejected a German request to complete her and redesignated her as FR35. After the Italian armistice in September, she was used as a smoke-generator hulk by the Germans. She was first damaged during an Allied air raid in early 1944 and then by a collision with a German submarine on 25 June. The ship sank in the commercial port of Brégaillon-Toulon; she was refloated the following year and scrapped.Jordan & Moulin, p. 249; Whitley, p. 52
Notes
{{Reflist|30em}}
References
- {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1980|isbn=0-85177-146-7}}
- {{cite book|last1=Jordan|first1=John|last2=Moulin|first2=Jean|title=French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadre & Contre-Torpilleurs 1922–1956|year=2015|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=978-1-84832-198-4 |name-list-style=amp}}
- {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1988|isbn=0-87021-326-1|location=Annapolis, Maryland|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}
{{Le Hardi class destroyer}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Flibustier}}
Category:Le Hardi-class destroyers
Category:Naval ships of France captured by Italy during World War II