La COMBATTANTE destroyer 1942

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a destroyer under yard No 695 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Glasgow for the Royal Navy;
16 January 1942 laid down as HMS HALDON.
27 April 1942 launched as HMS HALDON (L19). One of the Hunt III Class.
Displacement 1,060 tons standard, 1,435 tons full load, dim. 85.3 x 10.16 x 3.51 (draught)
Powered by 2 Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp., speed 27 knots.
Range 2,360 mile by a speed of 20 knots.
Armament: 4 x QF 4 inch in Mark XVI on twin mounts Mk XIX. 4 QF 2 under MK VIII on quad mount MK VII. 2 x 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk III, 2 tubes for 21 inch (533 mm) torpedoes., 110 depth charges, 4 throwers, 3 racks.
Crew 188.
30 December 1942 completed.

01 December 1943 she was acquired by the Free French Navy
15 December commissioned and renamed La COMBATTANTE.

La COMBATTANTE ("The Combatant") was a destroyer of the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL). A British-built Hunt-class destroyer, she was offered to the Free French in 1942.

Laid down as HMS HALDEN, she was damaged in a bombing in the night of 14 March 1941. She was offered to the FNFL in 1942, and renamed L COMBATTANTE.

L COMBATTANTE made her first sortie in 23 March 1943, escorting a convoy in the English Channel. She rescued 68 sailors from the liberty ship STELL TRAVELLER, after it had struck a mine.

On 29 May 1943, she rescued British and Australian aircrews; in September 1943, she rescued two British airmen.

In the night of 25–26 April 1944, L COMBATTANTE and the frigate HMS ROWLEY intercepted a group of German E-boats; L COMBATTANTE managed to sink S-147 and damage another ship. In the night of 12– 13 May, L COMBATTANTE destroyed S-141, killing Klaus Dönitz, Admiral Dönitz's son in the process.

During the night of 27–28 May L COMBATTANTE met motor torpedo boats MTB-732 and MTB-739; the two groups mistakenly engaged each other, and MTB-732 was sunk.

Under commandant André Patou, L COMBATTANTE took part in Operation Neptune, providing close fire support to the landing parties during the Battle of Normandy off Courseulles-sur-Mer. She stayed 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) off the beach, in 4 metres (13 ft) deep waters, as she shelled shore batteries; at one point she ran aground, and HMS VENUS morsed "I am happy that a French be the first to touch the ground of France". L COMBATTANTE destroyed several shore batteries, until troops started landing on the beach. She then returned to Portsmouth, escorting a landing ship dock.

On 25 June 1944 L COMBATTANTE rescued two downed US pilots.

L COMBATTANTE kept escorting convoys in the Channel between France and England until 14 July 1944, when she was ordered to the King's Stairs of Portsmouth harbour; awaiting the ship's arrival were General Charles de Gaulle, Generals Béthouart and Koenig, Admiral d'Argenlieu, Gaston Palewski, Pierre Viénot, Pierre Billotte, François Coulet, Pierre de Chevigné, Geoffroy de