Chacal (ship, 1924)
The Chacal during a turning maneuver
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The Chacal (German: Jackal ) was a major destroyer of the Chacal class for the French Navy . Although the ship was neither launched nor put into service for the first time, she is considered the type ship of her class. The Chacal was wrecked on May 24, 1940 off Boulogne-sur-Mer by German Heinkel He 111 bombers and artillery and declared a total loss.
Machine system
The drive system of the Chacal consisted of five steam boilers and two steam turbines . These drove the two screws via two drive shafts. The machines performed 55,000 WPS . This enabled a speed of 35.5 kn (about 66 km / h) to be achieved.
Armament
The main artillery of the Chacal consisted of five cannons 13.0 cm L / 40 Model 1919 in single installation. This cannon could fire a 34.85 kilogram grenade over a maximum distance of 18,900 m.
As anti-aircraft armament, the Chacal had four 7.5 cm anti-aircraft guns of the 1924 model in individual installation when it was commissioned. These were located on the left and right amidships. Since the Chacal class top-heavy was, in 1932, both guns were against machine guns of the type mm 13.2 / 76 Hotchkiss M1929 replaced. These were mounted in two twin mounts. For 1939 it was planned to expand the flak with 3.7 cm L / 60 model 1925 guns. This conversion was no longer implemented on the Chacal .
As a torpedo armament, the Chacal had six torpedo tubes in two groups of three for the torpedo Mle 1919D. In addition, the ship had two water bombers at the tail for 20 Guiraud-Mle-1922-200 kg depth charges and amidships left and right two each depth charge launchers for 12-Guiraud Mle-1922-100 kg depth charges. The launchers on the left and right were removed in 1932 due to their unfavorable positioning. The space was supposed to be used for Ginocchio towed torpedoes. The project was discontinued in 1938.
Whereabouts
On May 22, 1940, the Chacal was again subject to the 2nd Great Destroyer Division (French 2ème division de contre-torpeilleurs) (DCT). It was used to bring demolition squads to French ports in order not to let the advancing Wehrmacht fall into the hands of intact facilities. Together with her sister ship Léopard and eight smaller destroyers, the Chacal intervened with her artillery in the ground fighting near Boulogne-sur-Mer. German Heinkel He 111 bombers and artillery damaged the ship so badly that it threatened to sink and ran aground on the beach between Ambleteuse and Wimereux . The commander of the Chacal , Capitaine De Fregate Jean Emile Noel Estienne, was seriously wounded. The wreck was declared a total loss and was not lifted by the Germans either. It is still at position 50 ° 47 ′ 58 ″ N , 1 ° 35 ′ 44 ″ E just two meters below the surface .
literature
- Jean Moulin: Les contre-torpilleurs type Guépard 1928–1942 . Marines Éditions 2010, ISBN 2-357-43049-4 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Technology, classes, types . Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .
- John Jordan, Jean Moulin: French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadre & Contre-Torpilleurs 1922–1956 . Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley ISBN 978-1-84832-198-4 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ 130 mm / 40 (5.1 ") Model 1919 gun data on navweaps.com. Accessed October 22, 2019. (English)
- ↑ French torpedoes torpedo data on navweaps.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.