Jaguar

History

The French destroyer Jaguar was a Jaguar-class destroyer (contre-torpilleur) built for the French Navy during the 1920s. She spent most of her pre-World War II career as a flagship for various destroyer units. The ship was assigned convoy escort duties in the Atlantic after the start of the World War II in September 1939 until she was badly damaged during a collision in January 1940. Five months later, after her repairs were completed, she was committed to the English Channel after the Battle of France began in May 1940. Jaguar was torpedoed by German E-boats on 23 May and had to beach herself; her wreck was written off as unrepairable.

Design

Alongside the Projet 1920 torpilleurs d’escadre, another type of design was also drawn up – a contre-torpilleur (destroyer hunter). These ships were designed explicitly for the purpose of countering the Italian esploratori leggeri, and the initial design was much larger than the standard fleet destroyer – a 1,780-tonne ship with five 100mm guns and a higher top speed of 35.5 knots. As with the Projet 1920, the inferiority of the 100mm gun compared to the weapons used by their foreign counterparts lead to the contre-torpilleur being re-designed to use the same 130mm/40 Mle 1919 as the Bourrasque-class. The estimated displacement growth for the move to 130mm guns lead to the design becoming a 2,360-tonner, and at full load the ships were about 3,000 tonnes.

The new draft for the contre-torpilleur project, as of April 1921, called for a design output of 50,000 shp, in order to maintain the targeted top speed of 35.5 knits (versus 38,000 shp from the 1920 design), with the target for cruising range remaining the same as well (3,000 nm at 15 knots). The price of the high speed was high – five boilers operating at 18 kg/cm²/216°C and two turbine groups, which took up half the length of the ship and over a third of its displacement. Most of the ships were able to attain near their design speed on their trials (around 34.5 knots), however this was at a load only slightly greater than their normal tonnage, and with power overload. At full load and normal power their top speed was considerably less, closer to 30 knots.

Their main armament utilized the same 130mm/40 Mle 1919 as the Bourrasque-class, albeit with a fifth gun amidships (although this gun was not fed directly by a magazine, and only had 30 ready rounds available before it would have to cease action). Although a powerful gun firing a heavier projectile than any other naval rifle in service aboard foreign destroyers, rate of fire and effective range (4-5 rpm and about 12,000 meters) were rather low and limited their effectiveness. Additionally, the ships had too much topweight and thus the planned Mle 1923B fire control computer could not be installed – instead a simple Mle 1919 Aviso calculator was used in conjunction with a 3-meter coincidence rangefinder until later in their career. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by two 75mm/50 Mle 1924, and two 8mm machine guns. Fire control was limited to on-mount sights.

Torpedo armament was identical to the Bourrasque-class, and consisted of two Schneider Mle 1920T 550mm triple torpedo mounts, equipped with 550mm Mle 1919D torpedoes (6,000 meters at 35 knots). Fire control utilized the same rangefinder as the main guns.

Overall, the Jaguar-class was a landmark in destroyer design, on being the largest and most powerful ships of their type when commissioned. However, much of their strength existed only on paper, as their top speed was considerably less than advertised, the main armament not as powerful as the caliber suggested, and the ships suffered from serious stability issues that hampered their operations (gunnery in particular). The Marine Nationale sought to address these issues in their future ships.