Probably the most on-point example of a sudden devaluation (rather than the gradual adjustment typical of countries with floating currencies) is the UK leaving the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 [1]. If you want to judge how that went, I'd note that the UK has done noticeably better than the Euro area post-crisis [2]. Exchange-rate flexibility probably had something to do with that.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday [2] http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecac...