French destroyer Tornade

Tornade was a Bourrasque-class destroyer (torpilleur d'escadre) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.

After France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 during World War II, Tornade served with the navy of Vichy France. She was at Oran, French Algeria, when the Allies invaded French North Africa in Operation Torch in November 1942. Resisting the invasion, she was badly damaged off Oran on 8 November 1942 by gunfire by the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Aurora (12) and destroyer HMS Calpe (L71) and was beached to avoid sinking.

Design and description
The Bourrasque class had an overall length of 105.6 m, a beam of 9.7 m, and a draft of 3.5 m. The ships displaced 1320 t at (standard) load and 1825 t at deep load. They were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three du Temple boilers. The turbines were designed to produce 31000 PS, which would propel the ship at 33 kn. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3000 nmi at 15 kn.

The main armament of the Bourrasque-class ships consisted of four Canon de 130 mm Modèle 1919 guns in shielded single mounts, one superfiring pair each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of a single Canon de 75 mm Modèle 1924 gun. The ships carried two triple mounts of 550 mm torpedo tubes amidships. A pair of depth charge chutes were built into their stern that housed a total of sixteen 200 kg depth charges.