French submarine Surcouf
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 Surcouf | |
| Career |  - Missing imageFlag_of_Free_France_1940-1944.gif Free French Naval Forces Ensign |
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| Ordered: | December 1927 |
| Laid Down | |
| Launched | 18 October 1929 |
| Commissioned | May 1934 |
| Fate | Sunk 18 February 1942 |
| Struck | 6 December 1943 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement | 3250 tons surfaced, 4304 tons submerged, 2880 tons dead |
| Length | 110 meters (361 feet) |
| Beam | 9 meters (29.5 feet) |
| Draft | 7.25 meters (23.8 feet) |
| Propulsion | two Sulzer diesel engines, two electric motors, two screws |
| Power | 7600 hp Diesels, 3400 hp electric motors |
| Test Depth | 80 meters (250 feet) |
| Range |
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| Speed |
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| Complement | eight officers, 110 men |
| Armament |
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| Aircraft | one MB.411 float plane |
| Cargo capacity | 280 tons |
Five ships of the French Navy have borne the name Surcouf, in honor of the 18th century Saint-Malo corsair Robert Surcouf. For the modern frigate, see Surcouf.
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Early career
During the first years of World War II, Surcouf was a French submarine ordered to be built in December 1927, launched 18 October 1929, and commissioned May 1934. At the beginning of World War II, Surcouf was the largest submarine in the world. Her short wartime career is laced with controversy and conspiracy theories.
Surcouf was designed as an "underwater cruiser," intended to seek and engage in surface combat. For the first part of that mission, it carried an observation float plane in a hangar built into the after part of the conning tower; for the second part, it was armed with not only ten torpedo tubes but also a twin eight-inch gun turret forward of the conning tower. The guns were fed from a magazine holding 600 rounds and controlled by a director with a 40-foot rangefinder, mounted high enough to view a seven-mile horizon. In theory, the observation plane could direct fire out to the guns' fifteen-mile maximum range. Antiaircraft cannon and machineguns were mounted on the top of the hangar.
Surcouf also carried a 16-foot motorboat, and contained a cargo compartment with fitting to restrain 40 prisoners. The submarine's fuel tanks were very large; enough fuel for a 10,000-nautical-mile range and supplies for 90-day patrols could be carried.
In 1940, Surcouf was homeported in Cherbourg, but in June, when the Germans invaded, was undergoing refit in Brest, France. With only one engine functioning and with a jammed rudder, she limped across the English Channel and sought refuge in Portsmouth. On 3 July, the British carried out Operation Catapult -- concerned that the French would deliver their fleet to the Kriegsmarine when they surrendered, the Royal Navy blockaded numerous harbors in which French ships were anchored and ordered them to surrender to the British. Most yielded willingly, with two notable exceptions: the North African fleet, which condemned the British "treachery" and suffered hundreds of casualties when the British opened fire, and Surcouf. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. The acrimony between the British and French caused by these actions escalated when the British attempted to repatriate the captured French sailors. The British hospital ship that was carrying them back to France was sunk by the Germans, so the French blamed the British for the deaths.
Career in the Free French Naval Forces
By August 1940, the British completed Surcouf's refit and turned her over to the Free French Naval Forces (Forces Navales Françaises Libres, FNFL) for convoy patrol. The only officer remaining from the original crew, Louis Blaison, became the new commander. Because of the British-French tensions with regard to the submarine, accusations were made by each side that the other was spying for Vichy France; the British added that Surcouf was sinking British ships. A British officer and two sailors were put on board for "liaison" purposes.
In December 1941, Surcouf carried the Free French Admiral Emile-Henri Muselier to Canada, putting in to Quebec City. While the Admiral was in Ottawa, conferring with the Canadian government, Surcouf's captain was approached by famous New York Times reporter Ira Wolfert and questioned about the rumors that the submarine would liberate Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (an archipelago some 30 kilometers off the southeastern shore of Newfoundland). It is highly unlikely that the captain, as some sensational stories have it, kidnapped the reporter, smuggled him to the submarine in the trunk of a car, and imprisoned him aboard, but he did accompany the submarine to Halifax, Nova Scotia where, on 20 December, they joined the Free French corvettes Mimosa, Aconit, and Alysse, and on 24 December handily captured the islands.
United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who had just concluded an agreement with the Vichy government for the neutrality of French possessions in the Western hemisphere, threatened to resign unless President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt demanded a restoration of the status quo. Roosevelt did so, but when Charles de Gaulle refused, he dropped the matter. Ira Wolfert's stories, very favorable to the Free French (and bearing no sign of kidnapping or other duress), helped swing American popular opinion away from Vichy.
However, it is rumored — entirely without supporting evidence — that on 1 January 1942, an American destroyer was sent to Saint-Pierre to restore it to Vichy control and was fired upon by Surcouf, killing one or two American sailors. Obviously, the incident would have been hushed up. It is documented, however, that in that month, the Free French decided to send Surcouf to the Pacific theater of war, and she put in to Bermuda for resupply. Her movement south triggered rumors that she was going to liberate Martinique.
On 18 February 1942, Surcouf was lost with all hands. At the time, her loss was the greatest single submarine casualty ever. The investigation commission eventually stated that the Surcouf had been sunk by US planes in the morning of the 18th in "friendly fire", though the official report stated that she left Bermuda on 12 February and was accidentally rammed and sunk by the American freighter Thompson Lykes near the Panama canal (both vessels were running at night with no lights, due to the menace of German U-boats).
Legend
Like so much else about Surcouf, there are alternate stories of her end. Disregarding the predictable ones about her being swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, one of the most popular is that she was caught in Long Island Sound refueling a German U-boat, and both submarines were sunk, either by the American submarines Mackerel (SS-204) and Marlin (SS-205) or a US Coast Guard blimp.
Many stories add that much of the gold from the French Treasury was in Surcouf's large cargo compartment, and that the wreck was found and entered in 1967 by Jacques Cousteau. Obviously he, too, was persuaded to remain silent.
Aircraft
The MB.410 and MB.411 were observation aircraft, designed to be carried by Surcouf. They were low-wing monoplanes with a single central float and two small stabilizing floats, that could easily be disassambled for stowage. One MB.410 and two MB.411s were built; one MB.411 was carried on board.
- Crew: 1-2
- Engines: one 130kW Salmson 9Nd
- Wing Span: 12 meters
- Length: 8.25 meters
- Height: 2.85 meters
- Wing Area: 22 square meters
- Weight: 760 kilograms empty, 1140 kilograms loaded
- Speed: 185 km/h
- Range: 345 kilometers
See also
External Links
- Surcouf submarine (http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ships/html/sh_088700_surcouf.htm)de:Surcouf (Schiff)