French destroyer Le Triomphant

Le Triomphant in San Diego harbor, 26 April 1941
History
France
Name	Le Triomphant
Namesake	"The triumphant one"
Ordered	22 May 1931
Builder	Ateliers et Chantiers de France, Dunkerque
Laid down	28 August 1931
Launched	16 April 1934
Completed	25 May 1936
Commissioned	31 December 1935
In service	24 July 1936
Reclassified	As a light cruiser, 28 September 1943
Fate	Sold for scrap, December 1957
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Le Fantasque-class destroyer
Displacement	2,569 t (2,528 long tons) (standard) 3,417 t (3,363 long tons) (deep load)
Length	132.4 m (434 ft 5 in)
Beam	12 m (39 ft 4 in)
Draft	4.5 m (14 ft 9 in)
Installed power	4 water-tube boilers 74,000 PS (54,000 kW; 73,000 shp)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines
Speed	37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) (designed)
Range	2,700–2,900 nmi (5,000–5,400 km; 3,100–3,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	11 officers, 254 sailors (wartime)
Armament	5 × single 138.6 mm (5.5 in) guns 2 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 2 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) AA machine guns 3 × triple 550 mm (21.7 in) torpedo tubes 2 × chutes for 28 depth charges 40 × mines

Le Triomphant ("The triumphant one") was one of six Le Fantasque-class large destroyers (contre-torpilleur, "Torpedo-boat destroyer") built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) during the 1930s. The ship entered service in 1935 and participated in the Second World War. When war was declared in September 1939, all of the Le Fantasques were assigned to the Force de Raid which was tasked to hunt down German commerce raiders and blockade runners. Le Triomphant and two of her sister ships were based in Dakar, French West Africa, to patrol the Central Atlantic for several months in late 1939. They returned to Metropolitan France before the end of the year and were transferred to French Algeria in late April 1940 in case Italy decided to enter the war. Le Triomphant played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign in late April and was under repair when the Germans invaded France in May. She sailed to Britain to avoid capture in June.

The ship was seized by the British in early July and was transferred to the Free French in August. After a refit, Le Triomphant began escorting convoys before the end of 1940 and was transferred to the Pacific Ocean in mid-1941. Later that year, she received orders to return to the Mediterranean in December, but they were cancelled when the Pacific War began on 8 December. Aside from a refit that lasted 10 months, the ship was on convoy escort duties until late 1943. Ordered again to return to the Mediterranean, Le Triomphant was badly damaged by a typhoon in the Indian Ocean and had to be sent to the United States for permanent repairs and modernization that lasted until mid-1945.

The ship was sent to French Indochina after the Japanese surrender in September to provide support for the French forces there. After returning to Metropolitan France in mid-1946, she was intermittently active until late 1949. Le Triomphant was placed in reserve at that time and was sold for scrap in 1957.