- Yes
- Yes, as a premium or event ship
- No
About La Combattante and its interest in War Thunder :
In an effort to bring Premium or event ships to the future French tech tree, I would like to highlight another known ship of the FNFL, the Hunt class “La Combattante”, which became famous for several missions before and during Operation Overlord.
History :
La Combattante was a Hunt type III class destroyer originally named HMS Haldon. Built in 1941, it was given to the FNFL as soon as it was out of the Glasgow dockyards in april 1942. After training in Scapa Flow for a while, it made its first sorty in March 1943, as an escort ship. It rescued 70 sailors from a Liberty ship which sank after hitting a mine, then it would later save a couple Australian and US downed pilot. Its first known action happened on May 12th and 13th, 1944, when it intercepted with the British Frigate HMS Rowley E-boats. La Combattante itself opened fire on the S-141 and sank it. One of the sailors of this e-boat who died that night was the unfortunate Klaus Dönitz, the last son of admiral Dönitz, who was exceptionally on board to celebrate his birthday. Struck by a seizure at the beginning of the attack, he drowned after falling from the sinking boat.
Its most important operations occured during and after D-Day, as La Combattante shelled the French coast during Operation Overlord. It shelled the city of Courseulle-sur-Mer, firing over 400 102mm shells. It even beached itself by accident at one point, earning an amused morsed message from HMS Venus saying : “I am happy that a French be the first to touch the ground of France”. A few weeks later, it brought the most important Frenchmen of Free France, including General De Gaulle to French soil, and continued escorting several convoys after that.
La Combattante met an unfortunate end on February 23, 1945, when it hit a mine in the North sea and sank with the loss of 68 sailors. 117 crewmen survived.
Specifications :
DIMENSIONS
Length : 85.3m
Total width : 9.60m
Draught : 3.73m
Standard displacement : 1050T
ENGINE
type : 2 sets Parsons geared steam turbines, 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Max speed : 27 knots
ARMAMENT :
2 x 2 102/45 QF MkXVI canons
5 x 40/39 QF Mk VIII AA canons (4 in 1 turret, 1 alone)
3 x 1 - 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV
1 x 3 - 533mm torpedo tubes
2 x Depth charge ramps (70 depth charges)
PHOTOS
Spoiler
Sources :
Spoiler
https://grieme.org/epaves/manche2/22-base/manche-est/l/68-combattante.html
HMS Haldon, escort destroyer
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/france/fr_es_la_combattante.htm
Le torpilleur La Combattante - Fondation de la France Libre
La Combattante
Edited November 4, 2020 by Arghail
