She was a French 1772tW torpedo boat of Le Hardi class.
This was a class of 12 ships but the last ones were never completed due do french defeat in June 1940.
Most entered service without real trials and encountered quite a few technical misfortune.
As many ships from pre-war conception, they lacked anti submarine and anti aircraft armament (only one depth charge rack on some, and no dual purpose main guns).
However these drawbacks would have probably been cured if time had not missed so mutch.
None were lost in combat but all those that were afloat were scuttled on Nov 27th 1942 when Germany Invaded Toulon. Italian navy tried to recover and repair some but this failed.
L'Ep�e entered service just before German invasion of1940. She mainly performed escort duties before and after the armistice. In the night of 24/25 Sept 1940, together with three other torpedo boats she went on a demonstration patrol near Gibraltar as a retaliation to Royal Navy's attack on Dakar. They briefly engaged a RN with no result (her main guns quickly met technical problems...).
Scuttled at Toulon on Nov 27th 1942, she was salved by the Italian who renamed her FR33 but the german seized her in Sep 1943 after Italy's capitulation.
Germans considered her as too damaged, she went back in French hands but damaged by allied bombings (1944) she was sold to demolition.
The model is made of wood and plastic sheets. It shows the ship as it was when scuttled in late 1942.
My doc was the book of Charles Salou "Les Torpilleurs d'escadre du type Le Hardi 1938-1943" Collection Navires&Histoire des marines du monde N�1 (I've seen it reviewed on this website)
Hope you like it
