Several ships later sailed for French West Africa where Le Hardi played a minor role in the Battle of Dakar in September.

A preliminary design, displacing about 1,400 tonnes (1,400 long tons) and armed with two twin-gun 130-millimetre (5.1 in) turrets, was developed the following year, but was too small to accommodate the propulsion machinery necessary to achieve the intended speed.

As the detailed design was prepared over the next two years, the Le Hardis were enlarged and given extra guns to counter the large destroyers of the Italian Navigatori and Japanese Fubuki classes.

The turbines were designed to produce 58,000 metric horsepower (42,659 kW; 57,207 shp) intended to give the ships a speed of 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph).

The Le Hardi class carried 470 t (463 long tons) of fuel oil which gave them a range of 3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[4] The main armament of the Le Hardi-class ships consisted of six 45-caliber Canon de 130 mm Modèle 1932 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one forward and a superfiring pair aft of the superstructure.

[7] The Modèle 1932 guns had a rate of fire of 10–15 rounds per minute although the rammer was underpowered and often caused jams in the loading system.

[8] The primary anti-aircraft (AA) armament of the Le Hardi-class ships was intended to consist of a twin-gun mount for 70-caliber Canon de 37 mm (1.5 in) Modèle 1935 guns.

Development of the automatic weapon was still in progress when the ships were completed in 1939–1940 and a twin-gun mount for 50-caliber Canon de 37 mm Modèle 1933 guns on the aft superstructure was installed instead.

The ships were also fitted with two twin Hotchkiss 13.2 mm (0.52 in) Modèle 1929 anti-aircraft machine gun mounts abreast the bridge.

The other side of the stern was used for the handling gear for a towed Ginocchio captive anti-submarine torpedo, but this was removed before they were completed.

[10] The fire-control system of the Le Hardi class as designed was identical to that of the larger Mogador-class contre-torpilleurs with a director equipped with a five-metre (16 ft 5 in) OPL Modèle PC.1936 stereoscopic rangefinder built around the base of the foremast above the bridge.

The director sent the range to the post central artillerie where it was fed into a Modèle 1929 electro-mechanical computer which calculated the firing solution and transmitted it to the turrets.

In addition the Browning machine guns were transferred to newly built platforms on the sides of the superfiring turret aft.

This was the role of the Le Hardi class and the staff wanted to evaluate how the four ships scheduled to be laid down in mid-1939 could be modified to accommodate the DP guns.

On 28 April Darlan decided on modified Le Hardis with either the originally specified hull or the proposed larger version, depending on how advanced the design work was.

The next four ships began their acceptance trials between March and May 1940 and all entered service in June with the Germans advancing on the naval bases in Brittany.

[18] Le Hardi entered service on 2 June 1940 and escorted an ocean liner to Casablanca, French Morocco, before sailing to Brest.

The first mission of Épée and Mameluk was to rendezvous with Le Hardi to help escort the incomplete battleship Jean Bart to Casablanca a few days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans on 22 June.

[22] Work resumed on the two ships in February 1941, but construction on ZF7 was abandoned in June and some material was incorporated in ZF6 which was renamed ZF2 on 26 August.

Work on that ship was terminated in July 1943 before she was launched and she was demolished when the Germans abandoned the area after Operation Dragoon in August 1944.

Le Hardi, Épée, Mameluk, Lansquenet and Fleuret helped to escort the battleship Provence, which had been damaged by the British during their July attack on Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, to Toulon in November 1940.

[25] All of the ships were captured by the Germans after the Italian armistice in September, but they only made an effort to repair or complete Lansquenet which they renamed as TA34, reusing the designation of a torpedo boat that had been transferred to Croatia in 1944.