Name Bison Fate Sunk, 3 May 1940 Length 130 m | Namesake Bison Beam 11.5 m (37 ft 8.8 in) | |
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Class and type Guépard-class destroyer Displacement 2,436 t (2,398 long tons) (standard)
3,220 t (3,170 long tons) (full load) | ||
The French destroyer Bison was a Guépard-class destroyer (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Career
The Bison served during the Norwegian Campaign in World War II. While evacuating Allied troops at Namsos, the ship came under German attack and exploded after being struck in the forward magazine by a bomb, killing 136 members of her crew and causing the ship to sink by the bow. The 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.