Le Hardi-class destroyer

Le Hardi-class destroyer
Class overview
Name	Le Hardi class
Operators	French Navy  Regia Marina
Preceded by	L'Adroit class
Succeeded by	T 47 class
Planned	12
Completed	7
Lost	8
Scrapped	4
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,800 t (1,772 long tons) (standard) 2,577 t (2,536 long tons) (deep load)
Length	117.2 m (384 ft 6 in) (o/a)
Beam	11.1 m (36 ft 5 in)
Draught	3.8 m (12 ft 6 in)
Installed power	4 forced-circulation boilers 58,000 PS (43,000 kW; 57,000 shp)
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed	37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph)
Range	3,100 nmi (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	187 officers and enlisted men
Armament	3 × twin 130 mm (5.1 in) guns 1 × twin 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 2 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) anti-aircraft machineguns 1 × triple + 2 × twin 550 mm (21.7 in) torpedo tubes 8 or 12 depth charges; 1 or 2 × chutes
Armour	Gun turrets: 20 mm (0.8 in)

The Le Hardi class consisted of twelve destroyers (French: torpilleurs d'escadre, lit. 'squadron destroyers') built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) during the late 1930s. Only seven ships were ultimately completed while construction of the remaining five ships was interrupted by the French defeat in the Battle of France in May–June 1940 and were never finished. The seven ships that were seaworthy sailed for French North Africa to prevent their capture by the advancing Germans. Several ships later sailed for French West Africa where Le Hardi played a minor role in the Battle of Dakar in September. The Germans captured two ships that were still under construction and attempted to finish them both before abandoning the effort in 1943.

The Vichy French reformed the High Sea Forces (Forces de haute mer (FHM)) after the French surrender in late June. After most of the sister ships returned to France in November, three of them were assigned to the FHM and the others were placed in reserve. The seven completed ships were scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. The Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) salvaged most of them during 1943 and towed three of them to Italy for repairs. All of the ships were captured by the Germans after the Italian armistice in September, but they made little effort to finish the repairs. They did attempt to complete Lansquenet, but were unsuccessful before the end of the war. The three ships in Italy were scuttled in April 1945 to prevent their capture by the Allies; the remaining ships in Toulon were either sunk by Allied bombers or scuttled by the Germans after Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, in August 1944. All of the ships were salvaged for scrap or broken up on the slipway after the war except for L'Opiniâtre which was launched after the war and used for testing before she was scrapped in 1971. Lansquenet was refloated and towed back to Toulon in 1946 and was still incomplete when she was scrapped in 1958.