L'Adroit

History: The French destroyer L’Adroit was the lead ship of her class of destroyers built for the French Navy during the 1920s. L’Adroit ("the skilful one") was built at A C de France at Dunkirk. She was laid down on 26 May 1925, launched on 1 April 1927 and completed 1 July 1929. She was in action during the first months of World War II, and with the invasion of France and the Low Countries and was involved with the evacuation of the British and French forces from Dunkirk.

On 21 May 1940 she was critically damaged in an attack by German He 111 bombers. Captain Henri Dupin de Saint-Cyr beached the ship near the commune Malo-Les-Bains. Sitting on the beach, the wreck later suffered an explosion in the forward magazine, which created a huge gap between bridge and bow. All crewmembers survived.

Class: The L'Adroit class destroyer was a group of fourteen French Navy destroyers (torpilleur) laid down in 1925-26 and commissioned from 1928 to 1931. They were the successors to the Bourrasque class, with the same armament, but being slightly heavier overall

Nationality: France is one of Europe’s largest countries. It is bordered by six countries other nations: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the southeast and Spain to the southwest. The United Kingdom borders France via the English Channel. The country is considered to be the gateway to Europe as there are several large international airports (two of these can be found in Paris), ferry terminals and the French rail service.

In 486, Frankish tribes unified under Merovingian kingship. In 843, Western Francia was established from the division of the Carolingian Empire. In 1789, the French monarchy was overthrown, and in 1792, the First French Republic was founded. In 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established.