https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66139 "Since the first member was constructed successfully, I'd expect its destructor to be called. Granted, I don't know the exact standard wording, but my general idea is that once a constructor call succeeds, an object starts to exist, thus it must at some point cease to exist, and then its destructor must be called. clang 3.5.0 and visual c++ (according to http://webcompiler.cloudapp.net/, without the GCC extension "(a[2]) { ... }") do call the destructor every time."