In the late 1930s, France ordered 18 ships of the British Flower class type, 6 of those to be build in French shipyards. After the
Invasion of France, those incomplete ships were captured by the Germans and four of them were continued  under German control.

PA-4 (ex Poignard ) was never commissioned in Kriegsmarine services. It was sunk as a block ship at Nants in august 1944, raised and scrapped in 1946.