![]() L'Indomptable at sea circa 1939
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History | |
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Name | L'Indomptable |
Ordered | 18 August 1931 |
Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer |
Laid down | 25 January 1932 |
Launched | 7 December 1933 |
Completed | 10 February 1936 |
Commissioned | 15 November 1935 |
In service | 15 April 1936 |
Fate | Scuttled, 27 November 1942 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Le Fantasque-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 132.4 m (434 ft 5 in) |
Beam | 12 m (39 ft 4 in) |
Draft | 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
Speed | 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) (designed) |
Range | 2,900 nmi (5,400 km; 3,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement | 11 officers, 254 sailors (wartime) |
Armament |
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L'Indomptable ("The indomitable one") was one of six Le Fantasque-class large destroyers (contre-torpilleur, "Torpedo-boat destroyer") built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) during the 1930s. The ship entered service in 1935 and participated in the Second World War. When war was declared in September 1939, all of the Le Fantasques were assigned to the Force de Raid (Raiding Force) which was tasked to hunt down German commerce raiders and blockade runners. L'Indomptable made one sortie into the Skaggerak in April 1940 and was then transferred to French Algeria in late April 1940 in case Italy decided to enter the war. She screened French cruisers several times as they unsuccessfully hunted for Italian ships after Italy declared war in June.
The ship was assigned to the Vichy French High Sea Forces (Forces de haute mer) when it was formed after the French surrender in June. L'Indomptable was scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. Heavily damaged during Allied air raids, the ship was not salvaged during the war; her bow was raised in mid-1945 and used to replace the bow of one of her sister ships. Her wreck was broken up in 1950.