French destroyer Bison (1928)

Destroyer of the French Navy

The French destroyer Bison was a Guépard-class destroyer (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.

Construction and career

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.

The British destroyer HMS Afridi came to the aid of the surviving crew, rescuing sixty-nine of the French sailors in the water and sinking the hull of the ship. However, Afridi soon came under air attack and sank as well, and among the dead were thirty-five of the surviving crew of Bison. The surviving crews from Bison, Afridi, and the troops they had evacuated were rescued by the destroyers Imperial, Griffin and Grenade.

Notes

References

• Jordan, John & Moulin, Jean (2015). French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadre & Contre-Torpilleurs 1922–1956. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-198-4.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Sturton, Ian (1980). "Japan". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 167–217. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

External links

• Media related to Bison (ship, 1928) at Wikimedia Commons

64°27′57″N 11°29′03″E / 64.4659°N 11.4841°E / 64.4659; 11.4841