French destroyer Mameluk should not be confused with French destroyer Mameluck.
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 Italian: [[Regia Marina]] (Royal Italian Navy) unsuccessfully attempted to salvage her in 1943. The ship was refloated in 1947 and subsequently scrapped.
The Le Hardi class was designed to escort the fast battleships of the and to counter the large destroyers of the Italian and Japanese es.[1] The ships had an overall length of 117.2m (384.5feet), a beam of 11.1m (36.4feet),[2] and a draft of 3.8m (12.5feet). The ships displaced 1772LT at standard and at deep load. They were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four Sural-Penhöet forced-circulation boilers. The turbines were designed to produce 58000PS, which was intended to give the ships a maximum speed of 37kn. Le Hardi, the only ship of the class to run sea trials, comfortably exceeded that speed during her trials on 6 November 1939, reaching a maximum speed of from 60450sp=usNaNsp=us. The ships carried 4700NaN0 of fuel oil which gave them a range of 3100nmi at . The crew consisted of 10 officers and 177 enlisted men.[3]
The main armament of the Le Hardi-class ships consisted of six Canon de Modèle 1932 guns in three twin mounts, one forward and a superfiring pair aft of the superstructure. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of one twin mount for Canon de 37mm Modèle 1925 guns on the aft superstructure and two twin Hotchkiss 13.2mm AA machine gun mounts on the roof of the shell hoists for the forward 130 mm mount. The ships carried one triple and two twin sets of 550mm torpedo tubes; the aft mount could traverse to both sides, but the forward mounts were positioned one on each broadside. A pair of chutes were built into the stern that housed a dozen 200kg (400lb) depth charges.[4]
By April 1941 Mameluk had received a pair of single mounts for Browning 13.2-millimeter AA machine guns on the quarterdeck. Later that year or in early 1942 the Brownings were repositioned on platforms on the sides of the superfiring turret aft, the twin Hotchkiss machine guns were transferred to the quarterdeck, and a pair of single mounts for 25mm Hotchkiss AA guns were installed in the former location of the Hotchkiss guns in front of the bridge.[5]
Ordered on 4 May 1936, Mameluk was laid down by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire at their shipyard in Nantes on 1 January 1937. She was launched on 18 February 1939 and entered service on 17 June 1940. Two days later the ship, together with her sisters and, helped to escort the incomplete battleship from Saint-Nazaire to Casablanca, French Morocco, where they arrived three days later. The following months saw five of the Le Hardi-class ships ordered to Oran to escort the battleship ; Mameluk arrived there on 5 November. Departing that day, they arrived at Toulon three days later after which she was placed in reserve.[6]
The ship was transferred to Morocco for convoy escort duties on 8 May 1941 and returned to Toulon on 23 October. On 1 November the 10th DT (French: division de torpilleurs), consisting of Mameluk, L'Adroit (the renamed Épée) and Le Hardi, was assigned to the French: [[Forces de haute mer]] (High Seas Forces). When the Germans attempted to capture the French ships in Toulon on 27 November 1942, Mameluk was scuttled by her crew. The Italians attempted to salvage her, but the ship was damaged by a bomb during the Allied bombing raid on 4 February 1944; sunk on 6 August 1944 by the 47th BW.[7] She was finally refloated in 1947 and scrapped.[8]