The ''Bourrasque'' class
[also known as ''Simoun'' class from the first ship completed] was a group of twelve
French Navy destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s (''torpilleur'') laid down in 1923 and in service from 1926 to 1950. Along with the heavier , they were part of a plan to modernise the French fleet after the
First World War. The ''Bourrasque''s were smaller and slower than the ''Chacal''s, but were nonetheless comparable with the British
W class. The class saw varied service in the
Second World War, in five different navies, on both sides. These ships were named after types of wind.
The design was used as the basis for the two s built for the
Polish Navy during the late 1920s.
Design and description
The ''Bourrasque'' class 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) load 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 three
du Temple boiler
Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, an ...
s. The turbines were designed to produce , which would propel the ship at . The ships carried enough
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 ...
to give them a range of at .
[Jordan & Moulin, p. 41]
The main armament of the ''Bourrasque''-class ships consisted of four
Canon de Modèle 1919 guns in
shielded single mounts, one
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 each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their
anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of a single
Canon de Modèle 1924 gun. The ships carried two triple mounts of
torpedo tubes
amidships. A pair of
depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...
chutes were built into their
stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
that housed a total of sixteen depth charges.
[
]
Ships
Service
Four ships of the class - ''Bourrasque'', ''Cyclone'', ''Orage'' and ''Sirocco'' - were lost in 1940; ''Orage'' on 23 May, sunk by German bombers; ''Bourasque'' by German mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
s and artillery fire on 30 May while evacuating troops from Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.[Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...]
harbour on 3 July 1940 during Operation Catapult. Both were eventually transferred to the Free French. Somewhat circuitously, ''Ouragan'' was first transferred to the Free Polish Navy. Both survived the war.
''Tornade'' and ''Tramontaine'' were lost in the same engagement off Oran
Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...
on 8 November 1942, against allied units protecting Operation Torch
Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
. ''Typhon'' was scuttled in Oran harbour to stop her being acquired by the Allies.
''Simoun'' and ''Tempête'', based at Casablanca, joined the Allies in November 1942. They may have joined the battleship in engaging the Allied 'Covering Group', a taskforce based on the battleship .
''Trombe'' was the only ship of the class to be scuttled at Toulon in November 1942 alongside much of the French Navy. She was later raised, commissioned into the Italian Navy as ''FR31'', and then re-transferred to the Free French on 28 October 1943. This destroyer was crippled (constructive total loss) by a fascist Italian MTM explosive motorboat on 17 April 1945 in the Gulf of Genoa.
Notes
References
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External links
''Bourrasque'' class on uboat.net"Mistral" : Un nom, une histoire
{{WWII French ships
Destroyer classes
World War II destroyers of France
Ship classes of the French Navy