French destroyer Épée (1938)
Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| France | |
| Name | Epée |
| Namesake | Épée |
| Ordered | 31 December 1935 |
| Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde, Bordeaux |
| Laid down | 15 October 1936 |
| Launched | 26 October 1938 |
| In service | 14 June 1940 |
| Renamed | L'Adroit, 29 March 1941 |
| Captured | 27 November 1942 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 27 November 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Le Hardi-class destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 117.2 m (384 ft 6 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 11.1 m (36 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) |
| Range | 3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 187 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament |
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The French destroyer Épée was one of a dozen Le Hardi-class destroyers built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. The ship was completed during the Battle of France in mid-1940 and her first mission was to help escort an incomplete battleship to French Morocco only days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans. After the British attack on Dakar in September, she was one of four destroyers ordered to attack British shipping, although there was only an inconclusive duel with a British destroyer. Épée helped to escort one of the battleships damaged by the British during their July Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, back to France in November. She was transferred back to French Morocco in May 1941 for convoy-escort duties that lasted until October.
When the Germans occupied Vichy France after the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and tried to seize the French fleet, Épée was one of the ships scuttled to prevent their capture. She was salvaged by the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) in 1943, but was sunk again by Allied bombers. The ship was refloated in 1945 and subsequently scrapped.