The Branlebas class was a class of ten destroyers built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Eight of the ships survived the First World War and were scrapped afterwards.
Construction and design The Branlebas-class was a development of the previous , and was the final evolution of the 300-tonne type which the French had built since 1899 with their first destroyer class, the . Like all the 300-tonne destroyers, the Branlebas-class ships had a turtledeck forecastle with a flying deck, raised above the hull, aft.Campbell 1979, pp. 326–327.
They were long between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a maximum draught of .The Engineer 21 August 1908, p. 192. Displacement was .Couhat 1974, p. 92. Two coal-fired Normand or Du Temple boilers fed steam at to two 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, rated at , and driving two propeller shafts, giving a design speed of . Speeds reached during sea trials ranged from for to for . The ships had a range of at .Couhat 1974, pp. 92, 94.
A belt of armour was fitted to protect the ship's boilers and machinery.Couhat 1974, p. 94. The class was built with the standard gun armament for the 300-tonne destroyers, with a single forward, backed up by six guns, while two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes were carried, with one amidships and one right aft. The ships had a complement of 4 officers and 56 men.
The Branlebas class were considered good sea-boats, with reliable machinery.Campbell 1979, p. 323.Couhat 1974, pp. 80–81, 92. By the time the class was built, however, they were outclassed by contemporary British and German destroyers, such as the and the German being larger (and more heavily armed. (French destroyer size had been kept small owing to the influence of the Jeune École, which favoured the construction of large numbers of small ships.)
Losses
Branlebas was sunk by a German mine on 30 September 1915 near Nieuwpoort, Belgium. Étendard was sunk by German torpedoboat A39 on 25 April 1917 in the North Sea.
Ships
Ship Builder Laid down Launched FateRoberts 2021, pp. 382–383.NormandNovember 19058 October 1907Sunk by mine 30 September 1915 Dyle et Bacalan, BordeauxDecember 190520 March 1908Sank 25 April 1917NormandNovember 190512 December 1907Stricken 29 September 1925Dyle et Bacalan, BordeauxDecember 19054 May 1908Stricken 27 May 1925Chantiers de Penhoët, RouenNovember 190521 December 1907Stricken 14 May 1921Rochefort DockyardMay 190510 September 1908Stricken 13 February 1932De La Brosse et Fouché, NantesJune 19064 April 1908Stricken 27 May 1921Rochefort DockyardMay 19053 July 1909Stricken 3 May 1926De La Brosse et Fouché, NantesJune 19065 February 1908Stricken 10 May 1920Chantiers de Penhoët, RouenNovember 190523 September 1908Stricken 3 May 1926
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