Starboard broadside view of the French Free Force ship, the large destroyer Le Triomphant. One of ...

Starboard broadside view of the French Free Force ship, the large destroyer Le Triomphant. One of six Le Fantasque class destroyers built by AT & CH de France of Dunkirk, France, she was launched on 16 April 1934 and commissioned into the French Navy on 25 May 1936. She had a complement of 220 officers and men and was reputed to reach speeds of well over 40 knots. On 3 July 1940 she landed at Plymouth after fleeing the Vichy French government and was transferred to the French Free Force under the command of Commandant Pierre Gilly. She served in the Pacific after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, undertaking numerous escort and convoy assignments. On 24 December 1942 Le Triomphant arrived in Melbourne, taking on a crew of five Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy personnel, Lieutenant Derek Percival Scales, Liaison Officer (RANVR, appointed to RN); D/SR615 Signalman George Horace Myall (RN); 25903 (C/JX223207) Signalman William Cutt Rendall (RN, on loan to RAN); PA1104 Telegraphist Ashmead Bartlett Croft (RAN) and 26092 (D/JX222003) Coder Harry Underwood (RN, on loan to RAN). Whilst carrying out convoy duty on 2 December 1943 in the Indian Ocean with the American oil tanker Cedar Mills and the Dutch cargo ship Java, Le Triomphant was severely damaged in a cyclone and was towed to Diego Suarez, Madagascar, arriving on 19 December 1943. The repairs were completed on 8 February 1944 and she performed light duties in the area until 12 March 1944, when she departed for Port Said stopping briefly at Algiers, where she and her crew, were reviewed by the leader of the French Free Force, General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle and the Minister for the Navy, Louis Jacquinot. On 10 April 1944 Le Triomphant arrived in Boston, USA where she remained until the end of the Second World War. Scales was fluent in French language and post war had an academic career which culminated in his appointment as Chair of French Language and Literature at the Australian National University, a position he held until his retirement in 1983, after which he was appointed Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University.