French destroyer Maillé-Brézé (D627)

French destroyer Maillé-Brézé (D627), Nantes.

Maillé-Brézé is a T 47-class destroyer (escorteur d’escadre) of the French Navy. She was built by Arsenal de Lorient in Lorient, commissioned on 4 May 1957 and named after the French admiral Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé (1619–1646).

On 2 March 1962, Maillé-Brézé, along with another four destroyers, landed fresh troops at Algiers to fight the OAS upsurge. Assisted by her sister ship Surcouf, she was about to shell the OAS-held quarter of Bab-el-Oued when a counter-order called the operation off. The destroyers instead took battle stations close to the shore as a deterrent.

In 1988 she was decommissioned and became a museum ship in Nantes. She has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since October 1991.

On 21 February 2016, director Christopher Nolan announced plans to feature the ship in his then upcoming World War II film Dunkirk. In the film, she portrayed two British destroyers – sister ships HMS Vivacious and HMS Vanquisher – by simultaneously carrying the D36 pennant number of Vivacious on her port side and Vanquisher’s pennant D54 on her starboard side.

Installed power: 63,000 shp (47,000 kW)

Propulsion: 4 boilers, 2 shafts, Geared steam turbines

Speed: 34 kn (63 km/h)

Range: 5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 18 kn (33 km/h)

Armament:

6 × 127 mm (5 in) guns (3 twin turrets)
6 × 57 mm (2.2 in) guns (3 twin turrets)
4 × 20 mm (0.79 in) guns (4 × 1)
12 × 550 mm (22 in) torpedo tubes (4 × 3)

Read more: History of shipbuilding with Oliver Davis ...