Submarine "Surcouf" was the largest French submarine. She served both in the French Navy and in the free naval forces during World War II. She was lost on the night of February 18-19, 1942 in the Caribbean, possibly after a collision with an American cargo ship. The boat was named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf. It was the largest submarine built until in 1943 the first Japanese submarine of class I-400 surpassed it.
Historical context
The Washington Naval Agreement imposed severe restrictions on the naval construction of major naval powers, as well as the movement and armament of battleships and cruisers. However, no agreements were made to regulate the characteristics of light vessels such as frigates, destroyers or submarines. In addition, in order to protect the country and its colonial empire, France organized the construction of a large submarine fleet (79 units in 1939). The submarine "Surkuf" was to become the first in the class of submarines. However, she was the only one finished.
Role in the war
The mission of the new submarine model was as follows:
- Provide communication with the French colonies.
- In cooperation with the French naval squadrons, search and destroy enemy fleets.
- Pursuit of enemy convoys.
Armament
The cruiser "Surkuf" had a turret with two guns with a 203-millimeter (8-inch) gun, the same caliber as the heavy cruiser (the main reason why it was called "cruiser sous marin" - "cruising submarine ") With 600 rounds.
The submarine was designed as an "underwater heavy cruiser", designed to search and participate in surface combat. For reconnaissance purposes, the Besson MB.411 observation float aircraft was located on board the vessel, in a hangar built at the stern of the battle tower. However, the aircraft was also used to calibrate weapons.
The boat was equipped with twelve torpedo launch vehicles, eight 550 mm (22 in) torpedo tubes and four four hundred millimeter (16 in) torpedo tubes in addition to twelve spare torpedoes. The 203 mm / 50 guns of the 1924 model were located in an airtight tower. The guns of the Sürkuf boat had a magazine capacity of sixty rounds and was controlled by a mechanical computing device with a range finder of five meters (16 feet) set high enough to view the horizon for eleven kilometers (6.8 miles) and capable of firing within three minutes after surfacing. Using the periscopes of the boat to control the fire of the main guns, the Surkuf could increase this range to sixteen kilometers (8.6 miles per hour; 9.9 miles). Initially, the lifting platform was to raise observation platforms fifteen meters (49 feet) high, but this structure was quickly abandoned due to the roll effect.
Additional equipment
The Besson observation plane was once used to direct fire at a maximum range of guns of 26 miles (42 km). An anti-aircraft gun and machine guns were mounted on top of the hangar.
The Sürkuf submarine also carried a motor boat 4.5 meters (14 ft 9 in) long and contained a cargo compartment with facilities for holding 40 prisoners or 40 passengers. Submarine fuel tanks were very large.
The maximum safe immersion depth was eighty meters, but the Surkuf submarine could sink up to 110 meters without noticeable deformation of the thick hull with a normal working depth of 178 meters (584 feet). The diving depth was rated at 491 meters (1,611 feet).
Other characteristics
The first commander was the captain of the frigate (rank equivalent to the commander) Raymond de Belot.
The vessel encountered several technical problems due to the 203 mm guns.
Due to the small height of the rangefinder above the surface of the water, the practical firing range was 12,000 meters (13,000 yards) with a rangefinder (16,000 meters (17,000 yards) with a periscope), which is significantly lower than the normal maximum of 26,000 meters (28,000 yards).
The submarine "Surkuf" was not equipped for firing at night due to the inability to track the direction of the shot in the dark.
The mounts were designed to fire 14 shots from each gun before their powers were overloaded.
Appearance
Underwater cruiser "Surkuf" has never been painted in olive green, as shown in numerous models and drawings. From the moment it was launched into water until 1932, the boat was painted in the same gray color as surface warships, then in the “Prussian” navy blue, which remained until the end of 1940, when the boat was repainted in two shades of gray, which served camouflage on the body and the mounted tower.
The French submarine "Surcouf" is often portrayed in the state of a boat in 1932, where the flag of the Free French Navy stands, which was not used until 1940.
History in the context of war
Shortly after the launch of the submarine, the London Naval Treaty finally imposed restrictions on the design of submarines. Among other things, each signatory (including France) was allowed to have no more than three large submarines, the standard displacement of which would not exceed 2800 tons, with cannons of a caliber of not more than 150 mm (6.1 inches). The Surkuf submarine, which would exceed these limits, was specifically exempted from the rules at the insistence of the Minister of the Navy, Georges Leig, but other large submarines of this class could no longer be built.
In 1940, Surkuf was based in Cherbourg, but in May, when the Germans invaded, he was transported to Brest after a mission to the Antilles and the Gulf of Guinea. In a team with the frigate Captain Martin, unable to submerge and working with only one engine and jammed steering wheel, the boat drifted across the English Channel and sought refuge in Plymouth.
On July 3, the British, worried that the French fleet would be captured by the German navy after the surrender of France, carried out Operation Catapult. The Royal Navy blocked the harbors where the French warships stood, and the British delivered an ultimatum to the French sailors: join the battle against Germany, sail away to a place inaccessible to the Germans or be flooded by the British. The French sailors reluctantly accepted the terms of their allies. However, the North African fleet in Mers al-Kebir and ships based in Dakar (West Africa) were refused. The French battleships in North Africa were eventually attacked, and all but one drowned at their moorings.
French ships in the ports of Britain and Canada also took aboard armed marines, sailors, and soldiers, but the only serious incident occurred in Plymouth aboard the Surcouf ship on July 3, when two Royal Navy submarine officers and French warrant officer Yves Daniel were mortally wounded, and the British sailor L.S. Webb was shot dead by an airborne doctor.
After the defeat of France
By August 1940, the British had completed the re-equipment of the Sürkuf submarine and returned it to the French allies, leasing it to the Forces Navales Françaises Libres (FNFL) to guard the convoys. The only officer not repatriated from the original crew, frigate captain Georges Louis Blayson became the new commander. Due to tensions between England and France regarding the submarine, each state has charged that the other side is spying for Vichy France. The British also claimed that the Surkuf boat attacked their ships. Later, a British officer and two sailors were sent aboard to maintain contact with London. One of the real flaws of the boat was that it needed a team of more than a hundred people, which represented three teams by the standards of conventional submarines. This led to the reluctance of the Royal Navy to accept it again.
Then, the submarine sailed to a Canadian base in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and escorted transatlantic convoys. In April 1941, the boat was damaged by a German aircraft in Devonport.
After the entry of Americans into the war
On July 28, Surcuf went to the US Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a three-month repair.
After leaving the shipyard, the cruiser went to New London, Connecticut, possibly to receive additional training for his crew. The Surfuf left New London on November 27 and returned to Halifax.
In December 1941, the ship brought the French Admiral Emile Museum to Canada, arriving in Quebec. While the admiral was in Ottawa, conferring with the Canadian government, The New York Times reporter Ira Wolfer turned to the captain of the boat and asked about rumors whether the submarine would free Saint Pierre and Miquelon for Free France. Wolfer escorted the submarine to Halifax, where on December 20 they were joined by the Free France corvettes Mimosa, Aconite and Alissa, and on December 24 the fleet took control of the islands of Free France without resistance.
At that time, United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull had just concluded an agreement with the Vichy government to guarantee the neutrality of French possessions in the western hemisphere, and threatened to resign if United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to go to war. Roosevelt did just that, but when Charles de Gaulle refused to accept the agreement between the Americans and the Vichy, Roosevelt put the matter in the dark. The stories of Ira Wolfert, which are very favorable for Free France, helped to break off diplomatic relations between the USA and Vichy France. The US entry into the war in December 1941 automatically annulled the agreement, but the United States did not break off diplomatic relations with the Vichy government until November 1942.
In January 1942, the "free French" decided to send a submarine named after the pirate Surcouf to the Pacific theater of operations after she again went to the Royal Military Shipyard in Bermuda. Her southward movement sparked rumors that she was about to free Martinique from the Vichy in the name of Free France.
War with japan
After the outbreak of war with Japan, the submarine team was ordered to leave for Sydney (Australia) via Tahiti. She left Halifax on February 2 for Bermuda, which she left on February 12, heading for the Panama Canal.
Submarine "Surkuf". Where did you die?
The cruiser disappeared on the night of February 18-19, 1942, about 80 miles (70 nautical miles or 130 km) north of Cristobal, Colon, en route to Tahiti via the Panama Canal. The American report says the disappearance was due to an accidental collision with the Thompson Likes, an American cargo ship sailing alone from Guantanamo Bay on that very dark night. A cargo ship reported a collision with a certain object that scratched its side and keel.
The crash killed 130 people (including four Royal Navy personnel) under the command of Captain Georges Louis Nicolas Blayson. The loss of the Subcircuit was officially disclosed by the headquarters of Free France in London on April 18, 1942, and the New York Times reported this the next day. However, initially it was not reported that the cruiser was sunk as a result of a collision with an American ship, until January 1945.
Investigation
An investigation by the French commission concluded that the disappearance was the result of a misunderstanding. The consolidated Allied patrol, patrolling the same waters on the night of February 18-19, could attack the submarine, considering it German or Japanese. This theory is supported by several facts:
- The testimony of the crew of the Thompson Likes, accidentally colliding with a submarine, described it being smaller than it actually was. This evidence is often referred to in all publications on the subject.
- The damage to the American ship was too weak to collide with the cruiser.
- The position of the submarine, named after Robert Surkuf, did not correspond to any position of the German submarines at that time.
- The Germans did not record losses of submarines in this sector during the war.
The investigation of the incident was spontaneous and belated, while a later French investigation confirmed the version according to which the flooding was due to "friendly fire".
This conclusion was supported by Rear Admiral Aufan in his book The French Navy in World War II, in which he states: "For reasons that apparently did not have a political character, it was rammed by the American Caribbean at night. cargo ship. "
Since no one has officially verified the cruiser’s crash site, its whereabouts are unknown. If we assume that the incident with the American cargo ship really led to the flooding of the submarine, then its wreckage should lie at a depth of three thousand meters (9800 feet).
The monument in memory of the death of the submarine rises in the port of Cherbourg in Normandy, France.
Speculation and conspiracy theories
Since there is no definitive confirmation that the Thompson Likes collided with the submarine, and its crash site has not yet been discovered, there are alternative theories about the fate of the Surkuf submarine.
Despite the predictable story that it was swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle (a fantastic zone that arose two decades after the disappearance of the submarine), one of the most popular theories says that the submarine was sunk by either USS Mackerel and Marlin submarines, or a coastal airship US guard. April 14, 1942 a certain ship fired at them with torpedoes on the way from New London to Norfolk. Torpedoes passed by, but the return fire did not produce a result. Some suggested that the attack was carried out by Surkuf, which sparked rumors that the submarine team had switched to the German side.
In response to the above theory, Captain Julius Grigore, Jr., who thoroughly researched and wrote a book about the history of Surkuf, offered a one million dollar prize to anyone who could prove that the submarine was involved in activities detrimental to the allied cause. As of 2018, the prize was never awarded, because such a craftsman has not yet been found.
James Russbridgeer outlined some theories in his book, Who Sank Surfuf? He found that it was easy to refute them all, except for one - the records of the 6th group of heavy bombers flying out of Panama show that they sank a large submarine on the morning of February 19. Since that day no German submarines were lost in the area boats, it could have been “Surfuf." The author suggested that the collision damaged the Surfuf radio, and the damaged boat drifted toward Panama in the hope of the best.
The pirate Robert Surcuf could not have imagined that a ship would be named in his honor, which would be destined to give rise to such legends.
In Christina Kling's novel Circle of Bones, the fictional story of the loss of Surkuf is part of the Skull and Bones conspiracy. The conspiracy was linked to an attempt by a secret society to destroy the remains of a submarine before they were found in 2008. There are a lot of such speculations, because the “Surkuf” is a tiger of the seven seas, and its strange disappearance was an unpleasant surprise for everyone.
Douglas Riemann’s novel, Strike from the Sea, tells of a fictional sister ship, Surcouf, named Soufriere, which was handed over to the Royal Navy by the French crew and subsequently used to defend Singapore, after which it was handed over to the Free French Navy.
French love for submarines
The French submarine fleet of World War II was one of the largest in the world at that time. He played a significant role during World War II, but had a difficult service history due to France's strange position during the war. During the conflict, nearly sixty submarines, more than 3/4 of the total, were lost.
After World War I, France had a fleet of nearly forty submarines of various classes, as well as eleven former German submarines. They were mostly outdated (all were recycled by the 1930s), and France was interested in replacing them.
At the same time, major world powers were negotiating an arms limitation treaty at the 1922 Washington Naval Conference. There was talk of a complete ban on submarines, that is, on the prohibition of their use (course approved by the UK). France and Italy opposed this. However, the conference imposed restrictions on the number and size of various types of warships that countries could build. The submarine was limited to a tonne and a half tonnage, while the coastal submarine was limited to 600 tons, although there were no restrictions on the number of these ships that could be built.
The first submarines built by France after World War I were three submarines. Originally built by Romanian order, they were completed for the French fleet and commissioned in 1921.
In 1923, the French Navy placed orders for a series of coastal and marine vessels of type 2. The order was placed in three different design bureaus, which led to the creation of three different designs with the same technical characteristics. Known by the common name of the 600th series, these were the classes Sirène, Ariane and Circé, only ten boats. In 1926, they were followed by a series of 630, three more classes from the same bureau. These were the classes Argonaute, Orion and Diane, another sixteen boats. In 1934, the Navy chose the standardized Admiralty design, the Minerve class of six boats, and in 1939 the Aurore class, a larger, significantly improved version of the Minerve. And a vessel with a more expanded design was ordered, but not built due to the defeat of France in 1940 and the subsequent armistice.
A few words in conclusion
France boldly experimented with the concept of a submarine, the best in comparison with other fleets of that time. In 1926, she built Surcouf, for many years the largest submarine ever built. However, the ship played a small role in the French naval strategy, and the experiment did not repeat.
Thus, in 1939, France had a fleet of 77 submarines, which made it the fifth largest submarine in the world at that time. A huge role in its fleet was played by destroyers such as "Surkuf".