Chacal class destroyer

Class overview
Chacal class destroyer
Name:	Chacal or Jaguar
Succeeded by:	Guépard
Completed:	6
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	2126 tons standard, 3098 tons full load
Length:	127m
Beam:	11.2 m
Draught:	3.65 m
Propulsion:	Geared turbines, 5 boilersgiving 55000 SHP
Speed:	35.5 knots
Complement:	8 officers, 196 men
Armament:	5x 130 mm (5.1 in) guns 2 x 37 mm /50 DCA - 3.7 cm Mod 1933 AA guns 6 x 550 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes

The Chacal-class, sometimes known as the Jaguar class, were a group of six French navy large destroyers (contre-torpilleur) built commencing 1923. Designed as larger, more capable counterparts to the Bourasque class, they set a standard for French destroyer design until the mid-1930s. All were named for wild animals: Chacal means jackal, and the other five were named for big cats.

Ships

The class saw service in the Second World War.

Ship	Pennant Numbers	Builder	Commissioned	Fate
Chacal	2; G2; 7; 9; -3; X23	AT Ch de St Nazaire Panhoet	12 June 1926	lost on 24 May 1940, being sunk off Boulogne-sur-Mer by German aircraft. The wreck lies in only 2 meters of water in position 50.47.58N, 01.35.44E
Jaguar	-1; X21	Arsenal de Lorient	24 July 1926	sunk on 23 May 1940 after being torpedoed by two German torpedo boats near Dunkerque. 13 members of the crew went down with the ship, another 23 were injured. The wreck lies in 8 meters of water in position 51.03.26N, 02.22.12E.
Léopard	7; 2; -2; X22	AT Ch de La Loire St Nazaire	10 October 1927	The ship was seized by the Royal Navy in Portsmouth on 3 July 1940, and was transferred to the Free French on 31 August. She was stranded and wrecked north of Benghazi on 27 May 1943.
Lynx	12, 15, X42	AT Ch de La Loire St Nazaire	10 October 1927	see below
Panthère	1, 5, 8, 9, 12, 11, 13, 14, X23, X43	Arsenal de Lorient	10 October 1926	see below
Tigre	3, G3, 6, 7, 11, 10, 13, X41	AC de Bretagne Nantes	1 February 1926	see below

Lynx, Panthère and Tigre were scuttled at Toulon on 27 November 1942 to prevent them being requisitioned by the Germans. The Germans later raised them: Lynx was broken up for scrap metal. Panthère and Tigre were repaired and transferred to the Italian navy. Panthère was then scuttled again at La Spezia on 9 September 1943. Tigre, the only ship of the class to survive the war, was transferred once more to the Free French on 29 October 1943, and she was decommissioned on 4 January 1954.

References

M.J Whitley, Destroyers of World War 2, 1988 Cassell Publishing ISBN 1-85409-521-8
Chacal class on uboat.net

French naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers	Béarn ^S • Joffre ^X

Battleships	Courbet • Bretagne • Dunkerque • Richelieu • Alsace ^X

Heavy cruisers	Duquesne • Suffren • Algérie ^S

Light cruisers	Duguay-Trouin • Jeanne d'Arc ^S • Émile Bertin ^S • La Galissonnière

Large destroyers	Chacal • Guépard • Aigle • Vauquelin • Fantasque • Mogador

Destroyers	Bourrasque • Adroit • Hardi • La Melpoméne

Submarines	Sirène • Circé • Redoutable • Surcouf ^S • Minerve • Aurore

Other	Commandant Teste^S (seaplane tender) — Pluton ^S (minelaying cruiser)

^S - Single ship of class • ^X - Cancelled