Why France bought Japanese Destroyers in WWI?

In this interpretation, France's wartime destroyer shortage exposed damage to its naval-industrial base caused by how Jeune École ideas had been applied.

The spread of firearms is explained through training demands: increasingly powerful bows and crossbows became harder to use in large numbers.

As cruisers took on more independent global patrol and imperial policing, destroyers filled a widening need for smaller escort and screening vessels.

France had capable prewar destroyer designs, but its three-ship programme left one hull unfinished until well after the war.

The M89 programme envisaged nine fleet destroyers with 140 mm guns and eight torpedo tubes, but France could not create the capacity to build them in time.

Predictions about a dominant new technology can guide investment, but national security still requires verified capabilities and a fallback.

France took over the newly completed Mendoza-class destroyers in 1914, with Opiniâtre and Téméraire entering French service that September and November.

Japanese naval arsenals and commercial yards produced France's class of 12 destroyers in less than a year.

The Japanese-built destroyers combined British-pattern Type 41 guns with Japanese hull design and triple-expansion machinery, reaching 29 knots on a displacement under 700 tons.

France gained useful Japanese destroyers, but accepted another navy's design and could exercise little oversight across the dispersed yards.

British yards could develop destroyers against new performance requirements while producing ships in quantity; France depended on imports using an older generation of machinery.

A French destroyer begun in 1914 did not enter service until 1923, contrasting sharply with the urgent order for twelve Japanese ships.

Royal Navy support did not make French shipbuilding optional because national forces also signalled commitment and status within the alliance.

France's escort and anti-submarine commitments make the initial order of 12 ships look surprisingly small, although no settled explanation for the limit is given.