page_title: French destroyer Maillé Brézé (1931)
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: French destroyer Maillé Brézé (1931) / Construction and career / World War II
caption_attribution_description: The French destroyer Maillé-Brézé on fire and sinking in Greenock, Scotland
context_page_description: Maillé Brézé was one of six Vauquelin-class destroyers built for the French Navy during the 1930s. The ship entered service in 1933 and spent most of her career in the Mediterranean, sometimes as a flagship. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she was one of the ships that 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 which was tasked to escort French convoys and support the other commands as needed. Maillé Brézé accordingly spent most of the next six months on escort duties. She played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign before she was lost in an accidental explosion in April 1940. Most of her crew survived the incident; her wreck was not salvaged until 1954 and was subsequently scrapped.
context_section_description: On 27 August, in anticipation of war with Nazi Germany, the French Navy planned to reorganize the Mediterranean Squadron into the FHM of three squadrons. When France declared war on 3 September, the reorganization was ordered and the 3rd Light Squadron, which included the 5th and 9th Scout Divisions with all of the Vauquelin-class ships, was assigned to the 3rd Squadron which was transferred to Oran, French Algeria, on 3 September. The 9th Scout Division with Maillé Brézé, Kersaint and Cassard was assigned to escort duties until April 1940. In mid-October 1939 Maillé Brézé and Vauquelin escorted the heavy cruisers Algérie and Dupleix to Dakar, French West Africa, and then escorted a convoy back home. On 22 December Maillé Brézé, Kersaint and the large destroyers Albatros, Vauban and Bison rendezvoused with Force Z, the battleship Lorraine and the light cruisers Jean de Vienne and Marseillaise, which was escorting four cargo ships loaded with American aircraft to Casablanca, French Morocco. Together with the large destroyers Vautour and Albatros, Maillé Brézé rendezvoused with the heavy cruisers Foch and Dupleix on 13 February 1940 as they escorted three more freighters loaded with American aircraft to Casablanca. The following month, Maillé Brézé was briefly one of the escorts for Algérie and the battleship French battleship Bretagne as they ferried 2,379 bars of gold to Halifax, Canada.
  On 5 April the 5th Scout Division with Maillé Brézé, Tartu and Le Chevalier Paul was assigned to Force Z in anticipation of an Allied invasion of Norway; their mission was to escort convoys between Scotland and Norway. The German invasion on 9 April preempted the Allies and Tartu did not begin her escort duties until mid-April when she covered Convoy FP-1 transporting the 5th Demi-Brigade of Mountain Infantry (5ᵉ Demi-Brigade de Chasseurs alpins) to participate in the Namsos Campaign on 19 April; the German submarine U-46 unsuccessfully attacked Maillé Brézé with one torpedo and was unsuccessfully depth charged by her.
  On 30 April 1940, at 14:15, as Maillé Brézé was anchored at the Tail of the Bank, Firth of Clyde off Greenock, Scotland, a torpedo tube malfunctioned while undergoing maintenance and launched an armed torpedo onto the deck which struck the aft end of the forecastle. The detonation set fire to the fuel tanks and the forward magazine, which however did not explode. At 15:15, the crew abandoned ship due to the danger of explosion, except for numerous sailors trapped in the mess hall. Around 16:30, a few sailors returned to the ship to flood the aft magazine, and by 19:30 the fire was controlled by the Greenock firemen. By that time, Maillé Brézé was so low in the water that she began sinking before she could be towed, and she went down with those still trapped in the forward part. The accident killed 37 and wounded 47 crewmen. Although the ship was well off the main shipping channel when she sank, by 1953 the Ministry of Transport was concerned about unstable ammunition and leakage of her remaining fuel oil and requested that the Admiralty assess the feasibility of raising the wreck. After cutting away most of her superstructure to reduce the weight of the silt-filled ship, her hull was first lifted on the night of 3/4 August 1954. After grounding her on a nearby beach where 40 long tons (41 t) of ammunition and 500 long tons (508 t) were removed, the ship was refloated and towed to Port Glasgow on 15 September where she was broken up.
caption: Maillé Brézé on fire and sinking, 30 April 1940
exif: {}