Before the Battle of France, France's naval power was also the second largest naval power in Europe after Britain. No one expected that the French Army would collapse to this point, lose to the Germans in a month, and in order not to let the French warships fall into the hands of the British, the British launched a tough mode of warfare, so that the entire French navy disappeared from the earth. France before World War II, also designed a special super destroyer, at that time the world's navies did not pay attention to destroyers, France's super destroyer in the speed of the first, coupled with huge tonnage, itself can be used as a natural enemy of German U-boats, unfortunately history did not give it such an opportunity.
The emergence of the Utopian-class destroyer is France's exploration of a new generation of high-speed destroyers, and the speed of the Utopian-class can reach up to 45 knots, which has set a new world record. The Mogador-class destroyers are a follow-up to the Utopian class, and although it was the largest tonnage destroyer of World War II, it is difficult for us to impress more deeply. Construction began in 1931 on the famous Dunkirk-class battleships, and the following year construction began on the first ship of the Mogador-class destroyers designed to work with the Dunkirk-class.
The imaginary enemy of the French was the Italian destroyer, with a record displacement of 4,000 tons, the entire battleship was riveted, and the superstructure used a large amount of aluminum alloy, ensuring the strength of the hull at the same time, so that the tonnage was not too large, so that it could travel faster on the water. In the harsh North Atlantic, the Mogador class can travel at a high speed of 34 knots in class IV sea conditions. Its power configuration, with a new high-pressure boiler, four boilers can provide 92,000 horsepower for the battleship, making it enough to maneuver with small Italian warships. Its standard speed is 39 knots, but when tested, the horsepower was too high, and it ran at a high speed of more than 43 knots.
In terms of armament configuration, the Mogador class uses 8 138 mm naval guns, but the firing speed is much lower than the target level, and the French Navy wanted to achieve a firing speed of 10 shells per minute, but in fact it can only achieve about four rounds per minute. At that time, it had entered the era of aircraft carriers, and the Mogador class was also equipped with anti-aircraft weapons, as well as anti-submarine weapons, and on the whole, the Mogador class was still quite powerful.
Two Mogador-class destroyers were produced during World War II, and they became important members of the French destroyer raid fleet, which were attacked by the British after France's surrender, and then the Germans tried to forcibly take control of the French fleet, and the two ships sank themselves.
What if it wasn't the right time to be born? This was the fate of most of the battleships of the French fleet in World War II. What do you think?