French destroyer Chacal

The Chacal was a large destroyer ("contre-torpilleur") of the French Navy which served during the Second World War.

History
Chacal was launched in 1924 and commissioned in 1925. Her initial deployment was in the Mediterranean, but in 1932, she departed Casablanca for Brest and joined the Atlantic fleet; after being refitted from 1933 to 1935, Chacal commenced patrols to the north of Spain. When World War II started in September 1939, Chacal was at the Denmark Strait and patrolled the area to prevent U-boat attacks, and from September 26, she acted as an escort on the British convoy route of Quebec-Southampton. After the unsuccessful pursuit of Graf Spee, Deutschland and Scharnhorst, Chacal returned to her ASW duties, contributing with HMS Salmon to the sinking of U-36 off the Kola Peninsula on December 4; after being damaged by two torpedoes of Salmon and left afloat all afternoon, U-36 was depth charged by Chacal.

Chacal participated in the transport of gold bullion of the Banque de France from Brest to Quebec, operating in that duty until March 1940, when she returned to Brest; Chacal was there when Germany invaded France in early May. After combat with German aircraft and surface units, Chacal and her sister ship Léopard departed Brest on 18 May for operations in the evacuation of Dunkerque, steaming at full speed to Dunkerque and arriving on 20 May, transporting personnel and technical materiel to Cherbourg the next day. In the night of 21-22 May, Chacal and Léopard transported demolition charges to Dunkerque for use in destroying the military installations there; due to the imminent German advance, after completing offloading in Calais, Chacal and Léopard reached Boulogne for another transport mission (this time to Cherbourg), arriving in the early morning of 23 May.

On 24 May, while still were moored at Boulogne, Chacal and Léopard was attacked by German bombers; badly damaged, Chacal started to sink and the crew abandoned the ship. Finally, Chacal rolled over on her port side and sank by the stern eight minutes after being bombed. Of the 194 crewman of Chacal, 178 were rescued by the trawler Messidor. Badly damaged Léopard escaped to Cherbourg, under constant attack by German aircraft.

In 1970s, several parts of Chacal´s rusted hull were recovered and used in the steel industry. Today, the wreck lies on a depth of only three metres beneath the surface in the entrance of Boulogne harbour. The former control tower is visible with a section of the hull underwater, the remaining superstructure was dismantled and salvaged.