![]() Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor
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History | |
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Name | Casque |
Namesake | Helmet |
Ordered | 4 May 1936 |
Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer |
Laid down | 30 November 1936 |
Launched | 2 November 1938 |
In service | 20 June 1940 |
Captured | 27 November 1942 |
Fate | Scuttled, 27 November 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and 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 Casque 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 only days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans. 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 Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) attempted to salvage her in 1943, but the effort was abandoned the following year. The ship was refloated in 1948 and scrapped.