Between the world wars, the French navy was building ships that were considered to be over the top in relation to their equivalents of other powers. The French chose to build ‘super-destroyers’, such as the Le Fantasque, a class of destroyer that is still the world’s fastest. So it was only natural that the proud parents of enlisted men and boys not only hung their pictures on the wall, but also put up beautifully coloured photographs of the remarkable vessel that took their sons to foreign shores.