French destroyer Fougueux

Fougueux was ordered on 3 May 1927 as part of the 1926 Naval Program^[6] and laid down on 21 September by Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne at its shipyard in Nantes. The ship was launched on 4 August 1928 and completed on 15 June 1930.^[7] She was based at Toulon and assigned to the 11th Torpedo Division (11^e Division de torpilleurs) of the Torpedo Flotilla (Flotille de torpilleurs) of the 1st Squadron as of 1 October. Fougueux was transferred to the 2nd Squadron based at Brest on 27 July 1935 and assigned to the newly formed 2nd Torpedo Division on 1 October. The ship was detached to French Morocco in late 1935. Albert Lebrun, President of France, inaugurated the new building of the Naval Academy (École Navale) in Brest and reviewed the 2nd Squadron on 30 May 1936, including Fougueux and five of her sister ships. The 2nd Squadron was renamed as the Atlantic Squadron on 15 August and the ship remained assigned to the 2nd Torpedo Division. Fougueux and her sister Frondeur were enforcing the non-intervention agreement during the Spanish Civil War on 9 August 1938 when they were attacked by four bombers of the Spanish Republican Air Force, but the bombs fell wide of the ships.^[8]

Fougueux and most of the other destroyers were assigned convoy escort missions when the war began in September 1939. Most of them were uneventful, but the ship dropped depth charges on a periscope sighting without result on 14 January 1940. She made an unsuccessful attack on the German submarine U-44 after the submarine had sunk the freighter SS Alsacien on 24 January. On 29 March 1940, the ship's ASDIC set detected a submarine and Fougueux attacked the contact with depth charges, but it was almost certainly a sunken wreck.^[9] Fougueux and three other destroyers bombarded German troops around Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland in the Netherlands on 16–17 May. The ship supported French troops defending Boulogne-sur-Mer against German troops as they approached the port on 23–24 May.^[10] She was hit by a bomb on the morning of 24 May and had to withdraw to Cherbourg for repairs. Fougueux and Frondeur escorted the incomplete battleship Richelieu from Brest to Casablanca, French Morocco, from 18 to 20 June.^[11]

The ship was still in Casablanca when Armistice with Germany went into effect on 25 June. Convoys between Casablanca and Metropolitan France began in August and Fougueux was one of the ships tasked with escorting them. After the British attack on Dakar in September, Fougueux and Frondeur, together with the destroyers Épée and Fleuret were ordered to attack British shipping in the Strait of Gibraltar in retaliation as the Vichy French government began a policy of limited cooperation with the Axis powers. They encountered only an unidentified British destroyer and all of Épée's guns malfunctioned after firing a total of only 14 rounds while Fleuret's fire-control director broke down entirely. The ships continued onward to Oran, French Algeria. Fougueux was refitted in Algiers, French Algeria, from 23 November to 18 March 1941. On 8 April Fougueux responded to a distress call broadcast by the banana boat SS Fort de France as she was being boarded by sailors from the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Bulolo. Fort de France was retaken four days later.^[12][13] On 6 February 1942, Fougueux was transferred to Oran, and then helped to escort the damaged battleship Dunkerque from Mers el-Kebir, French Algeria, to Toulon on 19–20 February.^[14] The destroyer returned to Oran afterward and began a major refit there. Still assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Division, the destroyers at Casablanca were placed under the newly formed 2nd Light Squadron (2^e escadre légère) on 18 April. Fougueux arrived back at Casablanca on 21 August.^[15]

As Operation Torch began before dawn on 8 November, the Americans launched an amphibious landing east of Fedala, French Morocco. The 2nd Light Squadron was ordered to raise steam and attack the enemy off Fedala at 0630. Visibility was poor as the early morning haze blanketed the area and it decreased over the course of the day as smoke from burning oil storage tanks and smoke screens laid by French ships worsened. The squadron had exited the harbor by 0815 and was steaming for Fedala at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Fougueux and Frondeur were in the rear of the formation. Rear Admiral Gervais de Lafond was commanding the squadron and he ordered it to reverse course around 0840, upon spotting the heavy cruiser Augusta, and hoping to lure it within range of the immobile battleship Jean Bart and coast-defense guns. Fougueux missed the signal and continued to lead Frondeur towards Fedala. Augusta opened fire at Fougueux at a range of 19,000 yards (17,000 m) at 0843. Around 0848 the destroyer was strafed by Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters, killing one of the navigators, the helmsman and several signalmen. One shell from Augusta near missed the ship at 0850, its splinters causing minor flooding damage. Commander Louis Sticca, Fougueux's captain, realized that his division was alone and he reversed course at 0852, not realizing that his ships were the furthest west and closest to the American ships.^[16]

Task Group 34.1, consisting of the battleship Massachusetts and her consorts, the heavy cruisers Tuscaloosa and Wichita, had finally been alerted to the French sortie and were rapidly approaching the 2nd Destroyer Division by 0900. The battleship spotted the French destroyers at 0916 and opened fire at a range of 19,400 yards (17,700 m). The French replied two minutes later, but neither side scored any hits before the American ships reversed course at 0935. Five minutes later a shell struck Fougueux's bow, crushing it up to the quarterdeck and setting the ship on fire. The ship had fired only 120 main-gun rounds thus far. Heavy flooding prompted Sticca to quickly order his crew to abandon ship. Frondeur attempted to go to her sister's aid, but she was hit by an 8-inch (203 mm) shell from Tuscaloosa at 0946. Informed that Fougueux did not need assistance, Frondeur sheered off and steamed to rendezvous with the ships of the 5th Destroyer Division.^[17]

Fougueux blew up and sank at 1000;^[18] a total of 14 men had been killed.^[19] The aviso La Grandière exited the harbor at 1006 and attempted to rescue Fougueux's survivors, but she was engaged by Tuscaloosa as soon as she was spotted by the American heavy cruiser. The sloop La Gracieuse managed to do so around 1200. La Grandière made another attempt around 1330, but exchanged shots with Augusta around that time.^[20]

• Holtham, Tony (May 2022). "HMS Bulolo". Marine News Supplement: Warships. 76 (5): S283 – S299. ISSN 0966-6958.
• Jordan, John & Dumas, Robert (2009). French Battleships: 1922–1956. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-416-8.
• Jordan, John & Moulin, Jean (2015). French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadre & Contre-Torpilleurs 1922–1956. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-198-4.
• O'Hara, Vincent P. (2015). Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-61251-922-7.
• Roberts, John (1980). "France". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 255–279. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.