2024 - The original drawings for the Mogador would have been one of my first as the Mogador has always been one of my favourite destroyers. The original design of the Mogador had four twin 5.5" mountings. These were a difficult weapon for destroyers (something the Germans found later with their 5.9" armed Z class ships). The shells were to heavy for continual fire as crew fatigue became very bad as the ships were lively in anything except a flat calm. The low angle 5.5" were useless for anti-aircraft work. So why were they fitted? Because the 130mm/5.1" dual purpose weapons were not available to France when these ships were being designed. It is my magic wand that spurs on the development of the 5.1" so that the weapon works as it should and is available for the previous Le Fantasque class and these ships as well. The other major change I give the ships is to swap out the awkward wing mounted twin and triple torpedo tubes for two inline quadruple sets. Now when going in to launch torpedoes, they can fire their full complement of eight tubes, to either side, where only five tubes could have been fired with the wing mounts. The ship would then have had to turn around to fire the other side, what could be a recipe for disaster. One thing I have not touched on, so far, is the availability of the 21.7" torpedo replacements for those that get fired during combat. There is no French armoury left available to produce replacements. When the ships are put in for their major refits in 1943, at any Allied refit base, they could have their French 21.7" tubes replaced with quadruple or even quintuple 21" sets. Both would be available through either US or UK versions. It is not a problem for the cruisers and above, their torpedoes get removed, it is the destroyers and below with sets of torpedoes that need the change.
While described as Large Destroyers (contre-torpilleur) by the French, these ships in essence were unarmoured light cruisers. The ships were as big as many of the light cruisers still in use around the world. Armed with 4 twin 5.1" the ships were excellent Anti-aircraft escorts and made a contrast to the British AA cruiser designs. Built as escorts for the modern battleships and to act as leader to 3 Le Fantasque class ships, these were the pinnacle of French destroyer design. The later Le Hardi class ships were smaller and more like a typical destroyer of the late 1930's.
During their careers the ships continually added and subtracted weapons that impacted on the speed of the ships as they became heavier. Even at the very end of their careers the ships could still make 38 knots at full load, a tribute to these ships builders and designers. The two classes overlapped during building with the last of the Le Fantasque class being completed with the first of the Mogador class. Only two Mogador were originally built, with a repeat order for four ships being made in 1940. Those four ships would have had virtually no work done on them before the Armistice cancelled them.
The 1943 refit was mainly about electronic aids. Sea search and air search Radar suddenly sprouted from all the masts. AA predictors for the 40mm were added. The main gun directors also got new radar assistance for both sea and air targeting. Asdic was fitted, but because this was added so late the ships were fitted with two hedgehog mortar units, one on either side of the bridge, as their primary anti-submarine weapon. The depth charge chutes and other paraphernalia were not fitted. This was as much to keep additional weight down as to stick with the most modern weaponry. 1943-45, neither ship fired its hedgehog unit at an enemy submarine.
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