The French destroyer Bison was a Guépard-class destroyer (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Bison in the early 1930s
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History | |
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France | |
Name | Bison |
Namesake | Bison |
Builder | Arsenal de Lorient |
Launched | 29 October 1928 |
Fate | Sunk, 3 May 1940 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Guépard-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 130.2 m (427 ft 2 in) |
Beam | 11.5 m (37 ft 9 in) |
Draft | 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
Speed | 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph) |
Range | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) |
Crew | 12 officers, 224 crewmen (wartime) |
Armament |
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The Bison served during the Norwegian Campaign in World War II. While evacuating Allied troops at Namsos, the ship came under German air attack and exploded after being struck in the forward magazine by a bomb, dropped by a Ju 87 from I./StG 1, killing 136 members of her crew and causing the ship to sink by the bow.
HMS Afridi came to the rescue of the surviving crew, rescuing sixty-nine of the French sailors in the water and sinking the hull of the ship. However, the Afridi soon came under air attack and sank as well, and among the dead were thirty-five of the surviving crew of the Bison. The surviving crew of the Bison, the Afridi, and the troops they evacuated were rescued by the Imperial and Griffin.
64°27′57″N 11°29′03″E / 64.4659°N 11.4841°E