French Navy Real Photo RPPC. "Chamois" Minesweeping Sloop. Italian "FR53" c1939

"Chamois"  was a member of The Chamois class which were French minesweeping sloops (Avisos dragueur de mines ) ordered between 1935 and 1939. They were similar in design to the Elan  class , and like them classed as minesweepers, but were actually used as anti-submarine ships, convoy escorts and patrol vessels.

Although all 24 ships of the class were laid down between 1936 and 1939, only five were commissioned in time to serve in the French Navy during World War II. Of the remaining ships, four were completed by the Germans, of which three where commissioned, twelve were scrapped incomplete, and three were eventually completed after the war and served in the French Navy into the 1960s.

Chamois (A34) was laid down in November 1936 at the Arsenal de Lorient , launched on 29 April 1938, and commissioned in late 1939. She served as a convoy escort until the Fall of France in May 1940. She was scuttled at Toulon on 27 November 1942, but raised on 7 March 1943 and assigned to the Italian Regia Marina as FR53. She was seized by Germany on 9 September 1943 following the Italian armistice , but was sunk by Allied bombing at Toulon on 24 November 1943. On 7 March 1944 she was refloated and towed to Brégaillon, where she was scrapped after the end of the war.