''Mameluk'' was one of a dozen s built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. The ship was completed during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

in mid-1940 and her first mission was to help escort an incomplete

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

French Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prote ...

only days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans in June. She then helped to escort one of the battleships damaged by the British during their July

attack on Mers-el-Kébir The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (Battle of Mers-el-Kébir) on 3 July 1940, during the Second World War, was a British naval attack on neutral French Navy ships at the naval base at Mers El Kébir, near Oran, on the coast of French Algeria. The atta ...

French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...

, back to France in November. ''Mameluk'' returned to Morocco in early 1941 for convoy-escort duties and then was transferred back to France in late 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 ships scuttled to prevent their capture. The (Royal Italian Navy) unsuccessfully attempted to salvage her in 1943. The ship was refloated in 1947 and subsequently

scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

Design and description

The ''Le Hardi'' class was designed to escort the fast

s of the and to counter the large destroyers of the Italian and Japanese es. The ships had an overall length of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of , and a draft of . The ships displaced at standard and at deep load. They were powered by two geared

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four Sural-Penhöet

forced-circulation boiler A forced circulation boiler is a boiler where a pump is used to circulate water inside the boiler. This differs from a natural circulation boiler which relies on current density to circulate water inside the boiler. In some forced circulation boile ...

s. The turbines were designed to produce , which was intended to give the ships a maximum speed of . ''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 from . The ships carried of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

which gave them a range of at . The crew consisted of 10 officers and 177 enlisted men. The main armament of the ''Le Hardi''-class ships consisted of six Canon de Modèle 1932 guns in three twin mounts, one forward and a

superfiring Superfiring armament is a naval military building technique in which two (or more) turrets are located in a line, one behind the other, with the second turret located above ("super") the one in front so that the second turret can fire over the ...

pair aft of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of one twin mount for Canon de Modèle 1925 guns on the aft superstructure and two twin Hotchkiss AA machine gun mounts on the roof of the shell hoists for the forward 130 mm mount. The ships carried one triple and two twin sets of torpedo tubes; the aft mount could traverse to both sides, but the forward mounts were positioned one on each

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

. A pair of chutes were built into the stern that housed a dozen depth charges.

Modifications

By April 1941 ''Mameluk'' had received a pair of single mounts for Browning 13.2-millimeter AA machine guns on the

quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...

. Later that year or in early 1942 the Brownings were repositioned on platforms on the sides of the superfiring turret aft, the twin Hotchkiss machine guns were transferred to the quarterdeck, and a pair of single mounts for Hotchkiss AA guns were installed in the former location of the Hotchkiss guns in front of the bridge.

Construction and career

Ordered on 4 May 1936, ''Mameluk'' was laid down by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire at their

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

on 1 January 1937. She was launched on 18 February 1939 and entered service on 17 June 1940. Two days later the ship, together with her sisters and , helped to escort the incomplete battleship from

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

, where they arrived three days later. The following months saw five of the ''Le Hardi''-class ships ordered to Oran to escort the battleship ; ''Mameluk'' arrived there on 5 November. Departing that day, they arrived at Toulon three days later after which she was placed in reserve. The ship was transferred to Morocco for convoy escort duties on 8 May 1941 and returned to Toulon on 23 October. On 1 November the 10th DT (), consisting of ''Mameluk'', ''L'Adroit'' (the renamed ''Épée'') and ''Le Hardi'', was assigned to the (High Seas Forces). When the Germans attempted to capture the French ships in Toulon on 27 November 1942, ''Mameluk'' was scuttled by her crew. The Italians attempted to salvage her, but the ship was damaged by a bomb during the Allied bombing raid on 4 February 1944; sunk on 6 August 1944 by the 47th BW. She was finally refloated in 1947 and scrapped.Jordan & Moulin, pp. 237, 240, 248; Whitley, p. 52

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mameluk Le Hardi-class destroyers Naval ships of France captured by Italy during World War II 1939 ships World War II warships scuttled at Toulon Maritime incidents in November 1942