The Vauquelin class was a group of six large destroyers () built for the French Navy () in the early 1930s. Entering service in 1933–1934, the sister ships spent most of their careers in the Mediterranean. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, they helped to enforce the non-intervention agreement. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, all of the Vauquelins were assigned to the High Sea Forces ( (FHM)) which was tasked to escort French convoys and support the other commands as needed. Three of the sisters briefly deployed to Scotland in early 1940 to support the Allied forces in the Norwegian Campaign and was lost to an accidental explosion. The others returned to the Mediterranean in time to participate in Operation Vado, a bombardment of Italian coastal facilities after Italy entered the war in June. The Vichy French reformed the FHM after the French surrender in late June. After the Allies invaded French Lebanon and Syria in June 1941, was ordered to ferry ammunition there. Sunk en route, the ship was replaced by her sister which successfully delivered the ammunition and then attempted to transport reinforcements and supplies to Lebanon. The four surviving ships were scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. They were not successfully salvaged during the war and their wrecks were broken up well after the war. Design and description Like their predecessors, the s of the Vauquelin class were designed as fleet scouts, intended to fight their way through the enemy's screen. The design was virtually identical to the preceding s, although the stern was reshaped to improve minelaying and the torpedo armament was revised. To reduce topweight, the use of electric welding for non-strength parts of the hull and superstructure was increased as was the use of duralumin for internal partitions and parts of the superstructure. This improved their metacentric height at deep load to and made them much more stable than the Aigles. The Vauquelins were considered to be good seaboats, although the small rudder, carried over from the earlier ships, made them not very maneuverable. In service the use of duralumin was much criticized as it was corrosion prone and required much maintenance. The Vauquelin-class ships had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . The ships displaced at standard and at deep load. Their hull was subdivided