French destroyer Lynx

Lynx, named after the eponymous feline, was ordered on 26 February 1923 from Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire. She was laid down at their Saint-Nazaire shipyard on 14 January 1924, launched on 25 February 1925, completed on 18 October 1927 and entered service on 15 November. Completion was delayed by problems with her propulsion machinery and late deliveries by sub-contractors. The ship was assigned to the 4th Light Division (DL) (4e division légère) of the 2nd Squadron (2e Escadre) based at Brest upon completion, together with her sister ships Léopard and Jaguar. On 3 July 1928, Lynx participated in a naval review by Gaston Doumergue, President of France, off Le Havre. The four depth charge throwers were removed in 1932. The next year, the ship was present when the fleet was reviewed by the new President of France, Albert Lebrun, in Cherbourg on 20 July 1933. About two years later, the 75-millimeter guns were replaced by four twin mounts for 13.2-millimeter (0.5 in) anti-aircraft machineguns. The ship was assigned to the 11th DL of the Torpedo Training School (Ecole d'application du lancement à la mer) at Toulon in 1935 as the Chacals were regarded as obsolete.^[5]

When the war started in September 1939, Lynx belonged to the 4th Large Destroyer Division (4e division de contre-torpilleurs) with her sisters Panthère and Tigre. She was assigned to the Western Command (Forces maritimes de l'Ouest) for convoy escort duties from October to May 1940 where she guarded convoys traveling between Gibraltar and Brest as well as Casablanca, French Morocco, and Le Verdon-sur-Mer. In January 1940, the ship had a British Type 123 ASDIC installed; several months later Lynx had two depth-charge throwers reinstalled, No. 3 gun removed, and her depth charge stowage reduced to a dozen 200 kg and eight 100 kg depth charges to improve her stability. She was transferred to Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, on 27 May and she was still there on 25 June after France surrendered.^[6] The ship managed to escape the harbor during the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July and together with her sister Tigre briefly engaged the destroyer HMS Wrestler. The sisters then depth charged the submarine HMS Proteus^[7] as the French ships headed for Toulon, where they arrived the following day.^[8] As the oldest contre-torpilleurs in French service, Lynx and her sisters were reduced to reserve and stripped of their light anti-aircraft armament. On 27 November 1942, Lynx was scuttled at Toulon with the rest of the French fleet to prevent her capture by the Germans. She was refloated on 23 January 1944 and beached at the adjacent port of Brégaillon. The wreck was raised in 1948 and broken up.^[9]

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• 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.
• 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.