French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadres and Contre-Torpilleurs, 1922-1956

Like its highly successful predecessors, French Battleships and French Cruisers, this beautifully presented book blends technical and historical analysis to produce the only comprehensive study of French destroyers in the English language. Between the world wars, France produced some of the largest and fastest destroyers in the world. Known as Contre-Torpilleurs, these striking and innovative super-destroyers and the more conventional Torpilleurs d’Escadre are the focus of this book. The first part of the book covers the design of these ships, pairing the text with detailed data tables, specially-drawn plans and schemas, and photographs of the ships. The second half details the eventful careers of these ships and contains contemporary photographs and maps commissioned specifically for this book.