were replaced in the Northern Command. Jaguar was badly damaged during a collision with a British destroyer in January 1940 and her repairs were not completed until early May. When the Germans invaded France on 10 May 1940, Panthère was being refitted at Toulon and her sisters were still escorting convoys. Jaguar, Léopard and Chacal were assigned to the Northern Command on 22 May to support Allied forces on the French coast. Jaguar was sunk the next day off Dunkirk and Chacal on the evening of 23/24 May near Boulogne by German bombers. Léopard remained in the area and bombarded advancing German forces near the northern French coast. After the surrender of France, she was seized by the British in July and turned over to the Free French the following month. Léopard escorted convoys in the Western Approaches in 1940–41 before beginning a year-long conversion into an escort destroyer. She helped to sink the in July 1942 before helping to liberate the island of La Réunion in November. The ship ran aground near Benghazi just a few weeks after being transferred to the Mediterranean in mid-1943. Salvage attempts failed and her wreck was abandoned after it broke in half. In July 1940, Lynx and Tigre were present when the British attacked the French ships at Mers-el-Kébir, but managed to escape without damage. After they reaching Toulon, the sisters were placed in reserve, together with Panthère, as the oldest contre-torpilleurs in service and stripped of their light anti-aircraft armament. On 27 November 1942, Lynx was scuttled when the Germans attempted to capture the French ships at Toulon, but Panthère and Tigre were captured virtually intact. They were turned over to the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) who renamed them FR 22 and FR 23, respectively, when they recommissioned them in early 1943. They were being used as transports when Italy surrendered in September; FR 22 (Panthère) was scuttled by the Italians, but FR 23 (Tigre) managed to escape and join the Allies. Tigre resumed her former name and was given to the Free French the following month, but she needed extensive repairs that lasted until early 1944. The ship returned to convoy work for a few months before beginning a more extensive reconstruction that lasted until early 1945. She was then assigned to the Flank Force that protected Allied forces in the Tyrrhenian Sea from German forces in Northern Italy for