The submarine S-644 Eurydice was laid down in July 1958 at the Direction des Constructions et Armes Navales (DCAN) shipyard in Cherbourg. The submarine was launched on June 19, 1960, and on September 26, 1964, the boat was commissioned into the French Navy. 
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Eridis was one of the Daphne-class diesel-electric submarines, of which 11 were built for the French Navy, all bearing the names of mythical goddesses, nymphs and dryads. Submarines of this class were also built for the navies of Spain, Portugal, South Africa and Pakistan.
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Technical information (S-644 Eurydice):
Surface displacement, t: 860.
Underwater displacement, t: 1038.
Length, m: 57.8.
Width, m: 6.8.
Draft, m: 4.6.
Speed, knots: 16 (underwater), 13.5 (surface).
Cruising range, miles: 4500 at a speed of 5 knots on the surface; 3000 at a speed of 7 knots under RDP.
12 torpedo tubes (8 in the bow, 4 in the stern).
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Early in the morning (5:00) on March 4, 1970, Eridis left the St. Tropez base with 57 people on board. At sea, the submarine had to work in cooperation with aviation to search for and simulate an attack on a potential enemy submarine, for which Eridis was constantly in contact with the Atlantic base patrol aircraft, which took off from the Nimes-Garon naval air base. The sea was calm. The aircraft saw breakers from the Eridis periscope several times when the boat was seven miles southeast of Cape Camara. In the last radiogram, the submarine commander announced that he was heading to the exercise area and began diving. At 7:13, the Atlantic loses radar contact with the submarine...
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At 7:23, following a tip from the base patrol aircraft, the PLO ship tried to re-find the lost signal. No result. Hydroacoustic search was also unsuccessful. A warning of a possible disaster was sent to Toulon. A search for the missing submarine was immediately launched. The French fleet sent everything possible to the sea: surface ships (Surcouf, Dupert, Picard, Vendée, Alert, Arago, Jean Charcot and six minesweepers) and submarines ( "Daphne" and "Doris"), airplanes and helicopters. Rescue forces were drawn from all over the Mediterranean to the suspected area of the tragedy. The special purpose vessel Robert Giraud has arrived. The Italian Navy sent four minesweepers to the search area. The US Navy rescue ship Skylark came to the rescue from Rota (Spain).
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The search forces mapped out the approximate area where the Eridis crashed, covering an area of four square miles. The location was identified where the Atlantic base patrol aircraft observed the submarine during the last communication session. Near this place, at 13:00, a large stain of diesel fuel was discovered, and a little later, debris: wedges, pieces of plywood and a punched card with the Eridis code - pitiful remains and at the same time convincing evidence of the terrible truth: the submarine was lost. An identification examination was carried out on diesel fuel taken from a slick found in the sea and samples of fuel that were used on boats of the Daphne type, it turned out that the diesel fuel has a high sulfur content and this is typical for the fuel used on the Eridis. Later, analyzing the indicators of seismographs of coastal geodetic laboratories, it was found that at 7:28 on the fourth of March they registered an explosion, and bearings overlaying the explosion zone from various seismic stations made it possible to determine the exact location where the tragedy occurred. But the submarine itself could not be found. Four days after the start of the search, the leadership of the French fleet declared the Eridis and 57 members of its crew dead.
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The public and relatives of the dead submariners demanded to find the submarine at any cost and establish the cause of its death. The French government promised to find out everything and asked the United States to provide assistance in finding Eridis. On April 10, the American rescue ship Mizar arrived in Toulon, having successfully proven itself in the search for the Thresher submarine and the hydrogen bomb lost off Palomares. In the area of the alleged crash site, a towed search module was lowered into the water from the Mizar, somewhat reminiscent of a sled - a structure welded from steel pipes, moving at a distance of 4-9 meters from the bottom. The sled was equipped with a magnetometer, a specially designed camera equipped with a lens with a field of view of 120° and two flash lamps, connected to the ship by a coaxial cable (more than 6 kilometers in length), as well as a horizontal and vertical sonar. By April 22, the Americans discovered and identified several large fragments of Eridis, scattered at depths from 600 to 1100 meters.
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On May 12, the French bathyscaphe “Archimedes” began working at the site of the submarine’s death, using data obtained using the Mizara equipment, from which many photographs were taken of the remains of the sunken submarine. Archimedes' research revealed that a large fragment of the Eridis stern section lies in the center of a crater with a diameter of 30 meters. In the photographs you can see propellers, shafts and one horizontal rudder. Around within a radius of 50 meters there are many fragments of twisted sheet metal of the light hull of the submarine, deformed ballast tanks, but most of the remains are buried under a layer of bottom sediments.
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European newspapers were full of all sorts of guesses. There was no shortage of versions! Their range was extremely wide: from possible design flaws and incorrect actions of the crew to the actions of otherworldly forces and space aliens. Some speculated that the Eridis collided with a merchant ship. The fact is that Tunisian, Argentine and Greek cargo ships passed through the area where the disaster supposedly occurred. The course of the Tunisian vessel Tabarka (literally - date, a coastal city in northwestern Tunisia) exactly intersected with the course of the submarine on March 4 at approximately 7:30. Later, "Tabarka" was put into dry dock in Marseille; large dents and fresh lining scuffs were found on the hull, below the waterline; in addition, the cargo ship's starboard side keel was damaged. French experts took samples from the edges of the scratches to identify the metal oxide with the steel components of the Eridis case and retractable devices. The results of the studies were never disclosed to the public.
I was reminded that there was this photo. We agreed that it deserves a separate post. Here he is.
A French submarine sank in the Caribbean Sea as a result of a collision with the American transport Thomson Lykes. 130 people died.
In 1942, as Allied convoys plied the Atlantic Ocean, constantly changing course to avoid encounters with German submarines, the world's largest submarine at the time, Surcouf, part of the Free French armed forces created by de Gaulle, mysteriously disappeared without a trace. with the entire crew during the passage from Bermuda to the Panama Canal.
According to official data, she sank on the night of February 18-19, 1942 after an accidental collision with the American military transport Thomson Lykes. However, the unusual history of the submarine and the strange reaction of the naval command of the Western Allies to the tragedy gave rise to rumors that its death was not accidental.
"Surcouf" left the stocks in 1929. She was conceived and designed as a raider, armed with the largest caliber guns allowed by the Five Power Treaty concluded during the 1921-1922 Washington Conference on the Limitation of Naval Arms, Pacific and Far Eastern Questions. Surcouf marked the pinnacle of experimental designs of the post-war period that sought to combine the stealth of submarines with the firepower of surface ships. The giant submarine, with a displacement of 2880 tons on the surface and 4330 tons submerged, had a huge carrying capacity, carried 22 torpedoes and could fire artillery in a semi-submerged position. Its length was 110 meters, its cruising range was 12 thousand miles. In 1932, the submarine entered service and was named Surcouf in honor of the legendary French pirate.
Robert Surcouf - "The Corsair King"
Robert Surcouf (1773-1827) was a French pirate and privateer, of Breton origin, nicknamed "The Storm of the Seas".
Surcouf was one of the few pirates who, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, managed to repeat the brilliant career of Francis Drake, who was favored by the authorities of his country in gratitude for his corsair raids.
Robert was born into a wealthy family of sailors in Saint-Malo: his great-grandfather was the famous corsair of the early 18th century, Robert Surcouf, and a close relative on his mother’s side was the corsair La Barbine. They wanted to give the boy a decent bourgeois education, but in 1788, at the age of fifteen, he signed up for the ship Aurora, which was leaving for the Indian Ocean. The captain of the Aurora, Tardive, transported slaves from Africa to the plantations of the island of Bourbon. Not far from Madagascar, the Aurora was caught in a storm and crashed, but the crew escaped. The captain was given command of the ship "Revenge", on which Surcouf became the second mate. But the captain was unsuccessful, and a year later Surcouf was hired on another slave trading ship.
At seventeen, Surcouf returned to France. Deciding that privateering was a more profitable business, he, with the help of his relatives, bought the small brig Creole and became its captain. In 1792 he again went to the Indian Ocean. When Robert Surcouf returned to the island of Bourbon (renamed Reunion in 1794), the situation in the slave trade changed - the Convention declared it illegal, but this only raised the price of slaves. The English blockade of French possessions in the Indian Ocean and the confiscation of ships were more effective. Surcouf wisely sat out on Bourbon and did not risk the brig. Under pressure from planters who needed slaves, the governor of Bourbon attacked the British and broke the blockade. Robert Surcouf also took part in the hostilities.
To obtain a privateering patent, he had to find guarantors and pay a deposit, the money for which he earned on several more flights to Africa. But the governor, wanting to demonstrate his official zeal to Paris, detained Surcouf and wanted to arrest him as a slave trader. Surcouf kidnapped the police commissioner and returned him only in exchange for a pardon order, but he was still denied a patent.
However, burdened by the restrictions imposed by privateering, in 1795 he became the captain of the pirate four-gun schooner Emilia (there is a discrepancy in the sources; some claim that the ship was called the Shy). As a result of bold and decisive actions, he captured rich booty: the English ship "Penguin" with a cargo of teak, the Dutch ships "Russell" and "Sambolass", loaded with rice, pepper, sugar and gold bullion, a caravan of three Indian ships, and finally large ship "Diana", loaded with rice. After that, he decided to return home, but on the way (in the Bay of Bengal) he captured another ship - the English twenty-six-gun cruiser Triton, which surrendered with its entire crew to the mercy of the winner. The ship carried a lot of valuable cargo. For a very substantial ransom, Surcouf released the captain of the Diana and the crew of the Triton.
The British were enraged by the actions of Surcouf, who with his actions caused colossal losses to English merchants and diverted royal warships to protect them. At Reunion, by order of Governor Malarte, all of Surcouf's prizes were confiscated on the grounds that he was not a privateer, although thanks to Surcouf the colony avoided famine. The indignant Surcouf went to France on the first ship, where he filed a complaint against the actions of the governor. While the trial was going on, Surcouf fell in love with Marie Blaise Maisonev, a beauty from a wealthy Breton shipowner family. He made his beloved promise that she would wait for him. In the meantime, the directory considered Surcouf's complaint. Contrary to expectations, she treated him favorably and in 1798 awarded him twenty-seven thousand livres from the cost of goods sold and issued a marque patent.
Surcouf left Nantes on the Clarisse, specially built as a corsair ship. The Clarissa was comparatively small, but very fast, armed with fourteen twelve-pound guns, and her crew consisted of one hundred and forty experienced sailors. However, this time there was no prey for a long time, and Surcouf ordered an attack on the first English ship encountered off the coast of Africa, despite the fact that it was large and well armed. As a result, Clarissa had to leave the battlefield, having lost her foremast, and call at Rio de Janeiro for repairs. There, a small brig was captured off the coast, which Surcouf sent as a trophy to Nantes. This time, the governor of Reunion Malarte was forced to recognize Surcouf's documents as fair. The following year, Surcouf cruised off the coast of Sumatra. He captured two English ships, then a Danish ship, a large Portuguese ship with a cargo of spices and went to the Bay of Bengal, where he captured two more ships and sent them to Reunion.
In the end, he was tracked down by the well-armed English frigate "Sibilla", but "Clarissa" managed to escape pursuit. The meeting with the Sybil took place on December 30, 1799, and on January 1, 1800, the corsair boldly captured the ship Jane in front of several large ships.
The Clarissa was badly battered by the fighting, and Surcouf went to Reunion, capturing an American ship along the way. Having handed over the prizes, he went to sea on the Confidence, and, in addition to a crew of one hundred people, the governor allocated him twenty-five of the best shooters. This time Robert went to Ceylon, where he quickly captured several English ships loaded with spices and other goods. The trophies were so great that Surcouf took a ransom from them. In addition, he captured the large English ship Kent, converted from a military frigate and suitably armed.
Monument to Surcouf in Saint-Mal
Having sold the goods and received his share, Surcouf went to France on the Confidence to ask for the hand of Marie Blaise. The wedding of the corsair, whose capital was two million francs, took place in Saint-Malo. For this celebration, Robert Surcouf received a patent for the rank of officer (at the end of 1800). But the peaceful life did not last long, soon the war began again, and Surcouf was summoned to Paris, where he became one of the first holders of the Legion of Honor. In 1802, he equipped a squadron of privateer ships, but did not go with them himself.
She did not set sail until 1806, and her arrival in the Indian Ocean was greeted with enthusiasm. The blockade practically cut off ties with Europe, and famine threatened French possessions. Surcouf single-handedly broke the blockade and provided the islands with food, capturing fourteen English ships with rice in three autumn months of 1806. The danger of famine was eliminated, and Surcouf received his share, increasing his fortune by several hundred thousand francs.
Napoleon I elevated him to baronial dignity and offered to join the civil service, but Baron Surcouf refused. Meanwhile, as a result of the Battle of Trafalgar, the British destroyed almost all French warships, and the governor ordered Surcouf to hand over his ship to the government as a military frigate, and to take more than five hundred Portuguese prisoners to France on the worn-out battleship Charles. On November 21, 1807, Surcouf went to sea, arrived in France more than a year later, and never went out to corsair fishing again.
His wife gave him two sons and three daughters. Nineteen of his ships went on pirate raids, and after peace was concluded in 1814, Surcouf turned them into merchant ships. When Napoleon I escaped from the island of Elba in 1815 and again proclaimed himself Emperor of the French, one of the first letters he received was from Baron Surcouf: “Sire! My hand and sword belong to you!”
The former corsair is appointed head of a military detachment of 4,000 people. Surprisingly, after the restoration of royal power, the baron remained a wealthy shipowner; even loyalty to Napoleon did not harm him. He died in 1827, surrounded by children and relatives, being one of the richest and most respectable shipowners in France.
But we will continue about the ship. Although it looked great on the drawings, in reality the submarine turned out to be a white elephant. (According to legend, the king of Siam gave the sacred white elephant to the courtier whom he wanted to ruin.) The former captain, Englishman Francis Boyer, who served on the Surcouf as an allied liaison officer from April to November 1941, recalled: “The submarine had a turret installation with two eight-inch guns. In theory, when approaching a target, we were supposed to stick out the muzzles of our guns and shoot while remaining under water. But it didn’t work out that way: we had serious difficulties ensuring the watertightness of the tower. To make matters worse, everything on Surcouf was non-standard: every nut, every bolt had to be specially machined. She was no good as a warship, a gigantic underwater monster.”
In 1940, Surcouf, during repairs in Brest, went to sea to avoid being captured by a German armored column approaching the port. He crossed the English Channel with one engine running. The crew did not know that the Vichy collaborator Admiral Darlan (Minister of the Navy in the Petain government, which collaborated with Hitler) sent an order to return back after the Surcouf. The submarine arrived at Devonport on 18 July.
Approximately half of the ships of the French navy remained with Admiral Darlan, and the rest went over to the side of the Free French armed forces, under the command of General Charles de Gaulle, who emigrated to England. Most of these ships submitted to the control of the Allied forces, but relations between the Allies were riddled with suspicion. Although English Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought to strengthen de Gaulle's leadership of the Free French armed forces, he also found the general stubborn and arrogant.
The US government suspected de Gaulle of sympathizing with the left and tried to nominate General Giraud, who was on the right, as an alternative leader. (The version about “sympathy for the left,” of course, is absurd and does not explain the situation: it is known that for some time after entering the war the United States maintained ties with the Vichy regime, hoping with its help to ensure its influence in North Africa and other strategically important areas, and then they began to rely on General Giraud, considering de Gaulle, with his openly stated program of protecting the national interests of France, to be an “inappropriate figure” and “an intractable partner.” It is also known that de Gaulle himself more than once put forward pressure on his Anglo-American interlocutors. the thesis about the “communist danger” and made it clear that it could restrain the development of this “danger” in France.)
There was also a split among the French officers and sailors: many of them, if not openly pro-Vichy, could not without hesitation decide which side to take in a war in which they might be ordered to open fire on their compatriots.
For two weeks relations between the English and French sailors at Devonport were quite friendly. However, on July 3, 1940, at two o'clock in the morning, having apparently received a message that the Surcouf's engines were in order and he was going to secretly leave the harbor, officer Dennis Sprague boarded the submarine with a boarding party to capture it. Then Sprague, accompanied by First Lieutenant Pat Griffiths from the British submarine Times and two armed sentries, went down to the officers' wardroom.
Having formalized the secondment of the Surcouf to the Royal Navy, Sprague allowed the French officer to go to the latrine, not suspecting that the French kept personal weapons there. Sprague received seven bullet wounds. Griffiths was shot in the back as he climbed the ladder for help. One of the sentries - Heath - was wounded by a bullet in the face, and the other - Webb - was killed on the spot. One French officer was also killed.
Later that same day, in another theater of war, the English fleet opened fire on a French squadron off the coast of Algiers and Merselle-Kébire, after the Vichy command of that French naval base rejected an English ultimatum, which proposed either military action against Germany and Italy, or disarm the ships. 1,300 French sailors died.
The message from North Africa shocked and agitated the Surcouf crew: only 14 out of 150 people agreed to stay in England and participate in the fighting. The rest disabled equipment and destroyed maps and other military documentation before being taken to a prison camp in Liverpool. The officers were sent to the Isle of Man, and only Louis Blaison remained on the submarine as first officer (he was later appointed commander).
A new crew was recruited from among the French naval sailors who had joined the Free French who were in England, and French merchant marine sailors. Blaison was given the task of training inexperienced volunteers to become qualified submariners, while every evening they listened to French radio (under Vichy control), broadcasting German propaganda calling for them to return home in order to “prevent themselves from being used as cannon fodder by the British.” .
The events in Devonport left a characteristic imprint on the further participation of Surcouf in the war. Political considerations dictated that it be manned by Free French forces and fully participate in Allied combat operations, but foreboding told the Admiralty that the submarine would become a liability.
On April 1, 1941, Surcouf left Halifax, her new home port in Nova Scotia, Canada, to join convoy HX-118. But on April 10, the order was unexpectedly changed without any explanation - “proceed at full speed to Devonport.” This hasty and complete change of plan gave rise to increased rumors in the fleet that the Surcouf had torpedoed the ships it was supposed to guard.
On May 14, the submarine was ordered to go out into the Atlantic and conduct a free search until autonomy allowed, and then head to Bermuda. The purpose of the search is to intercept enemy floating supply bases.
Archival documents from the Foreign Office (British Foreign Office) indicate that in August 1941, Surcouf triumphantly arrived at the American port of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In fact, the situation on the submarine was very difficult. More than 10 crew members were under arrest and were sent ashore for disciplinary violations. Crew morale was reported to be "deplorable".
On November 21, Commander Blazon reported from New London, Connecticut that the Surcouf collided with an American submarine during maneuvers. The impact caused leaks in the third and fourth bow ballast tanks, which cannot be repaired without dry docking. Surcouf left New London without repairing these damages, with a new English liaison officer, Roger Burney, on board.
What he saw on the Surcouf horrified him. In his first report to Admiral Max Horton, commander of the submarine force, Burney expressed doubts about the commander's competence and concerns about the morale of the crew. He noted the strong animosity between junior officers and ordinary sailors, who, although they did not show hostility towards the Allies, but often questioned the relevance and usefulness of the Free French armed forces in their military operations, especially against the French. This first report from Burney was hidden from the French by Whitehall (the seat of the British government).
In addition to Burney (to whose memory composer Benjamin Britten dedicated his War Requiem), there were two other English submariners on board Surcouf: senior telegraph operator Bernard Gough and senior signalman Harold Warner.
At the beginning of 1942, Surcouf received an order to head to the Pacific Ocean to urgently replenish the Free French forces. A powerful submarine was needed there after the Japanese defeated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. But on the way from Halifax to Saint-Pierre, the Surcouf was caught in a storm, the conning tower was damaged by wave impacts, and the gun turret jammed. The boat lost seaworthiness in strong waves; its hatches, deck superstructures and torpedo tubes were damaged. She returned to Halifax, where she unexpectedly received a new assignment - to proceed to Tahiti with a call at Bermuda. There, the commander-in-chief of the British naval forces in the area of America and the West Indies, Admiral Charles Kennedy-Purvis, at the request of the commander of the submarine forces, Admiral Max Horton, was to receive young Burney for an oral report. Before leaving Halifax, Burney was returning to the submarine with a Canadian naval officer. When they parted, Bernie told him: “You just shook the hand of a dead man.”
Surcouf left Halifax on February 1, 1942 and was supposed to arrive in Bermuda on February 4, but arrived there late, having also received new damage. This time, defects were discovered in the main propulsion system, which would take several months to eliminate.
In a top secret telegram sent to Horton and then to the Admiralty, Kennedy-Parvis wrote: “The English liaison officer on the Surcouf has given me copies of his reports... After speaking with this officer and visiting the Surcouf, I am convinced that he is in no way exaggerating an extremely unfavorable state of affairs.”
The two main reasons, he noted, were the inertia and incompetence of the crew: “Discipline is unsatisfactory, the officers have almost lost control... At present the submarine has lost its combat value... For political reasons it may be considered desirable to keep her in service, but, from my point of view "In my opinion, it should be sent to the UK and written off."
However, Surcouf personified the spirit and power of the Free French naval forces. Admiral Horton sent his report to the Admiralty and, consequently, to Winston Churchill: “The commander of the Surcouf is a sailor who knows the ship and his duties well. The condition of the crew was negatively affected by long-term idleness and anti-British propaganda in Canada. In Tahiti, when defending their land, I think “Surcouf” can bring significant benefits... The “Surcouf” has a special attitude in the French naval forces, and “Free France” will be categorically against its decommissioning.”
The report about the damage to the submarine did not convince Horton: “...even if the intermediate repairs in Bermuda turn out to be unsatisfactory, on the way to Tahiti the Surcouf will still be able to go under water using one engine...”
On February 9, Surcouf received orders to proceed to Tahiti through the Panama Canal. Burney's last report was dated February 10: “Since my previous report of January 16, 1942, the conversations and events on board that I heard and observed further strengthened my opinion that the failures on the Surcouf were caused more by the incompetence and indifference of the crew than by open disloyalty..."
On February 12, Surcouf left Bermuda and headed through the Caribbean Sea infested with German submarines. He was only able to go on the surface - Commander Blazon would not risk going under water with a faulty engine. Apart from the calculated coordinates of the supposed location of Surcouf, there is no more information about it.
On February 19, the adviser to the British consulate at Colona Port (at the entrance to the Panama Canal from the Caribbean Sea) sent a telegram via Bermuda to the Admiralty marked “Top Secret”: “The French submarine cruiser Surcouf has not arrived, I repeat, has not arrived.” The cable continued: “The USS Thomson Lykes, which departed yesterday on a northbound convoy, returned today after colliding with an unidentified vessel, which apparently sank immediately, at 10:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) February 18 at 010 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, 079 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. Transport searched at this point until 08.30 on February 19, but found neither people nor debris. The only trace is an oil slick. "Thomson Likes" suffered serious damage to the lower part of the stem."
“American authorities,” it was further reported, “have studied the report of the captain of the transport ship, and an extensive search is underway by aircraft. According to unofficial information, preliminary investigation indicates that the unidentified vessel was a patrol boat. There is still no reliable information about all the US submarines that could be in the area, but their involvement is considered unlikely.”
In the note that lay on Churchill’s desk, the following words of the telegram were crossed out: “... in the 15th naval region, the United States is clearly not informed about the route and speed of the French submarine cruiser Surcouf and cannot determine its location. The only message I transmitted to the Americans on February 17 was the mentioned encryption.”
On March 15, 1942, a closed meeting of the official commission to investigate the Thomson Lykes incident began in New Orleans. From the English side, Captain 1st Rank Garwood, a representative of the submarine forces of the British Navy in Philadelphia, was sent as an observer.
His report to the British naval command in Washington said: “None of the witnesses saw the ship with which the collision occurred. About a minute after the collision, a strong explosion was heard under the keel of the Thomson Likes. Extensive damage to the transport's stem well below the waterline suggests that the ship it crashed into was of large tonnage and sat low in the water. As ships following opposite routes, they (Surcouf and Thomson Likes) inevitably had to pass close to each other.”
According to Garwood's calculations, the Surcouf was "within 55 miles" of the point where Thomson Likes reported the collision occurred.
The commission ultimately reported only that the Thomson Lykes collided with “an unidentified vessel of unknown nationality, resulting in the complete loss of that vessel and its crew.”
While the commission was meeting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a secret memorandum to the Office of Naval Intelligence, in which he indicated that the Surcouf actually sank several hundred miles further, off St. Pierre, on March 2, 1942. Perhaps Hoover was referring to the port of Saint-Pierre in Martinique. Did the crew mutiny, as might be assumed from Gough's last message, and did he, exhausted by the Allied command, head to Martinique, deciding to sit out until the end of the war in this quiet fascist harbor?
Due to the lack of any reliable information about the fate of the submarine, various theories continue to be put forward to this day. In early 1983, a US Navy corporal who served on the USS Savannah during the war stated that his ship had been ordered to rendezvous with the British cruiser near Martinique and sink the Surcouf because it had been spotted attacking to one of the Allied ships. But, the corporal added, when they arrived at the scene, the submarine had already sunk.
Soon after the disappearance of the Surcouf, representatives of the Free French first demanded an independent investigation, then permission to attend a commission meeting in New Orleans, and finally, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the Thomson Likes ship's log. Whitehall rejected all these demands. And many months and even years later, the families of 127 French sailors and 3 English signalmen still knew nothing about the circumstances of the death of their loved ones.
If the Surcouf had to be sacrificed because its crew changed flags and defected to the pro-Nazi Vichy government, which resulted in attacks on allied ships, then, of course, all measures had to be taken to save the reputation of the Free French naval forces. . Any rumors of a riot or deliberate destruction of Surcouf by the Allies would provide invaluable propaganda material for the Nazis and Vichys. The Free French's political reputation would also suffer if one of its ships voluntarily defected to the enemy. So the official version of the death of Surcouf suited all parties. Moreover, it was necessary to adhere to this version in the future, because the national pride of the French would not allow them to agree that the warship, included in the honorary list of the Free French, betrayed de Gaulle.
Specifications:
General:
Length: 110 m
Width: 9 m
Surface displacement: 2,880 tons
Underwater displacement: 3,250 tons
Cruising range above water: 10,000 miles
Underwater range: 70 miles
Immersion depth max.:
Crew: 140 people.
Surface speed: 18 knots.
Underwater speed: 8.5 knots.
Weapons:
Guns: 2 203/50 mm
Bow torpedo tubes: 4,550 mm
Rotary torpedo tubes: 4,550 mm; 4 400 mm
Anti-aircraft installations: 2 37 mm; 2 13.2 mm
Seaplanes: 1
The naval battles of the First World War clearly showed the highest ranks of naval headquarters around the world what a formidable weapon submarines are. Before the salvos of the August cannons in 1914, the doctrine of the navy of almost every state on the planet was based on the active use of dreadnoughts - heavily armed armored ships, the pinnacle of development of the battleship as a class. According to the admirals, the mere appearance of these huge monsters in the sea, built on the principle of “all-big-gun” - “only big guns”, should have determined the outcome of any battle. However, the Battle of Jutland on May 31-June 1, 1916, when the dreadnoughts of the fleets of two warring countries - the British Grand Fleet and the German High Sea Fleet - met for the first time in battle - revealed a paradox: the dreadnoughts did not sink each other, moreover, the lion's share of the battle and losses occurred more light cruisers and destroyers of both squadrons. And dragging these voracious mastodons out of the bases into the sea turned out to be a monstrously expensive undertaking. At the same time, small, nimble submarines with small crews (for example, the German U-29 had only 35 people, while the British seven-tower (!!!) dreadnought "Agincourt" was named in honor of the British victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415) the crew included 1267 people) inflicted such significant losses on the enemy that even the most recent skeptic had to admit through clenched teeth that submarines were a formidable and dangerous force.
Of course, this opinion was completely justified. For example, the submarine U-29 of Otto Weddigen, already mentioned above, on September 22, 1914, sent three patrol British armored cruisers - Abukir, Hog and Cressy - to the bottom within one hour. On May 7, 1915, Walter Schwieger's U-20 sank the luxury ocean liner Lusitania. On June 27, 1915, the Russian submarine "Crab" - the world's first underwater minelayer - laid a mine bank near the Bosphorus, which was subsequently blown up by the Turkish gunboat "Isa-Reis". Such examples of the effective performance of submarines during the First World War significantly increased their importance in the eyes of admirals and politicians. During the Interbellum period (the time period between the First and Second World Wars), the world's leading naval powers carried out active work on the construction of strong submarine fleets, experimenting with boat hull lines, materials, power plants and weapons. Perhaps the most unusual are the British M-type underwater monitors, laid down during the First World War. The main weapons of these boats were not torpedoes, but one 305 mm gun installed directly in the wheelhouse. It was assumed that these strange boats would fire from a semi-submerged position - only the cannon barrel would stick out from under the water. However, high cost, problems with sealing and questionable efficiency did not allow the full potential of these submarines to be assessed. In the 20s, the guns were removed from them.
However, such a strange English project could not fail to find a response among shipbuilders. Inspired by the underwater monitor, in 1927 the French laid down at the Arsenal de Cherbourg shipyard three huge “sous-marin de bombardement” - “artillery bombardment submarines” of the Q5 type. Of the three, only one was completed. The artillery titan entered service under the name "Surcouf".
Surcouf, named after the legendary French privateer Robert Surcouf, was the pinnacle of post-World War I efforts to combine the stealth of a submarine with the firepower of a surface ship in a single ship. The displacement of the Surcouf was 2880 tons on the surface and 4330 tons submerged. The length of the submarine is 110 meters, the cruising range is 12 thousand miles. 
"Surcouf" at sea
"Surcouf" was intended for cruising operations on ocean communications and, in addition to the torpedo armament usual for submarines, was armed with two 203-mm guns. These guns corresponded to the armament of heavy cruisers and were located in a twin turret in front of the submarine's wheelhouse. Fire control was carried out using a mechanical computing device and an optical rangefinder with a five-meter base, which provided measurements at a range of up to 11 km. For reconnaissance and fire adjustment at long distances, the boat carried a Besson MB.411 seaplane in a sealed hangar behind the wheelhouse. The aircraft was designed specifically for Surcouf and built in two copies. Two 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and four 13.2 mm machine guns were installed on the roof of the hangar. Also, "Surcouf" carried 22 torpedoes in its belly. 
Guns of the submarine "Surcouf"
Seaplane Besson MB.411 - assembled and on board the Surcouf, as well as a view of the aircraft hangar
Just six months after the Surcouf was launched, in April 1930, the London Naval Treaty was signed, Article No. 7 of which contained restrictions on the construction of submarines - in particular, the maximum displacement on the surface was set at 2845 tons, and the caliber of artillery should not exceed 155 mm. France was allowed to keep the Surcouf in service by a separate clarification in the contract, but the construction of two other boats of this type had to be forgotten. 
Computer image of the hangar of the submarine "Surcouf"
After its construction, Surcouf was widely advertised in the French press and repeatedly visited foreign ports to demonstrate the naval power of the country. It is not surprising - the largest submarine in the world, armed with guns worthy of a heavy cruiser, an entire battery of anti-aircraft guns and carrying a hangar with an aircraft, looked very impressive, like a real masterpiece of shipbuilding of those years.
However, there were also skeptics. “...Perhaps no one could say with certainty,” wrote one of the English experts, “for what purpose it was built. True, it was considered capable of winning an artillery duel with a destroyer of that time. But if even one shell, she could no longer dive, and a high-speed destroyer would certainly get the better of her..."
Although the Surcouf looked great on the drawings, in reality the boat turned out to be much less suitable for real service than for propaganda photo shoots. It was noted that the boat has significant problems with stability: during rough seas, it sways very strongly on the surface, and when submerged, it has difficulty maintaining the roll and trim within acceptable limits. The time it took to prepare the boat for diving turned out to be prohibitively long - even in ideal conditions, it took more than two minutes to go under water, which in a critical situation could easily lead to the destruction of the boat by the enemy. Aiming guns at a target from an underwater position, which looks so good on paper, turned out to be impossible in practice - the engineers were unable to ensure the tightness of the moving joints.
The turret of the Surcouf submarine was movable, but due to its disgusting tightness, it was almost never rotated. Screenshot from the computer game "Silent Hunter"
The former captain, the Englishman Francis Boyer, who served on the Surcouf as an allied liaison officer from April to November 1941, recalled: “The submarine had a turret with two eight-inch guns. In theory, when approaching the target, we were supposed to stick out the muzzles of the guns and shoot while remaining under water. But it didn’t work out that way: we had serious difficulties ensuring water tightness; whenever we tried to rotate the artillery turret, water entered it.. What’s even worse, everything on the Surcouf was non-standard: every nut, every bolt was required. "It was no good at all as a warship, a gigantic underwater monster." 
Submarine interior
"Surcouf" met the Second World War in Jamaica, and almost immediately began preparations for returning to his homeland. He was included in the escort forces of the British convoy KJ-2, and on September 28, 1939, departed for the Old World. The ship celebrated the New Year 1940 in Cherbourg, and in May, with the beginning of the German invasion, it was sent to Brest, where it went into dry dock for repairs. The blitzkrieg developed rapidly, and by the time the German tanks approached Brest, the boat was still out of order, but thanks to the decisive actions of the captain and crew, the Surcouf managed to slip away from the enemy literally from under the nose. Despite the fact that the boat had only one engine and a faulty rudder, it was able to cross the English Channel and reach Portsmouth. The crew did not know that the collaborator Admiral Francois Darlan sent an order to return back after the Surcouf, but the dispatch was not accepted. The submarine arrived at the British port of Devonport on July 18. 
Submarine "Surcouf" in dock
After the capture of the country by Germany, the French Navy found itself in a strange situation: approximately half of the ships remained with Admiral Darlan, and the rest went over to the side of the Free French armed forces - the French army "in exile" under the command of General Charles de Gaulle, who emigrated to England.
Most of the Free French ships submitted to the control of the Allied forces, but relations between the Allies were riddled with suspicion. Although English Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought to consolidate de Gaulle's leadership of the Free French armed forces, he also found the general stubborn and arrogant. The US government suspected de Gaulle of sympathizing with the left and tried to nominate General Giraud, who was on the right, as an alternative leader.
There was also a split among the French officers and sailors: many of them, if not openly pro-Vish, could not without hesitation decide which side to take in a war in which they might be ordered to open fire on their compatriots.
For two weeks relations between the English and French sailors at Devonport were quite friendly. However, on July 3, 1940, at two o'clock in the morning, having apparently received a message that the Surcouf's engines were in order and he was going to secretly leave the harbor, officer Dennis Sprague boarded the submarine with a boarding party to capture it. Then Sprague, accompanied by First Lieutenant Pat Griffiths from the British submarine Times and two armed sentries, went down to the officers' wardroom, where he announced the secondment of Surcouf to the fleet of His Majesty King Edward VIII.
Having formalized the secondment of the Surcouf to the Royal Navy, Sprague allowed the French officer to go to the latrine, not suspecting that the French kept personal weapons there. Sprague received seven bullet wounds. Griffiths was shot in the back as he climbed the ladder for help. One of the sentries - Heath - was wounded by a bullet in the face, and the other - Webb - was killed on the spot. One French officer was also killed.
On the same day, in the Mediterranean, the English fleet opened fire on the French squadron off the coast of Algiers and Mersel-Kebir, after the Vichy command of this French naval base rejected the English ultimatum, which proposed either to begin military operations against Germany and Italy , or disarm the ships. The result of Operation Catapult - the British firing at ships anchored in the base - killed 1,297 French sailors. The massacre enraged French sailors and soldiers who had escaped German captivity. As a result, only 14 out of 150 people from the Surcouf team agreed to stay in England and participate in hostilities. The rest disabled equipment and destroyed maps and other military documentation before being taken to a prison camp in Liverpool. The officers were sent to the Isle of Man, and only Louis Blaison, who became the commander, two sailors and a British liaison officer assigned to the submarine remained on the submarine as a senior mate.
For the Surcouf, a crew of French sailors who joined de Gaulle's Free France movement and French merchant marine sailors was assembled from a pine forest. A significant part of them had previously served only on civilian ships, and even military sailors for the first time dealt with such an unusual and difficult-to-handle design as the Surcouf. The lack of training was aggravated by the difficult morale of the sailors
On the shoulders of Commander Blazon fell the task of training qualified submarine specialists from inexperienced volunteers, while every evening they listened to the French radio (under the control of the Vichys), broadcasting German propaganda calling for them to return home in order to “prevent themselves from being used by the British as cannon fodder.” " (which clearly illustrates the desire of the French to fight).
Events in Devonport and Mers el-Kebir left a characteristic imprint on the further participation of Surcouf in the war. Political considerations dictated that it be manned by Free French troops and fully participate in Allied combat operations, but a feeling told the RAF Admiralty that the submarine would become a liability.
The British Admiralty also found itself in a difficult position. On the one hand, the submarine cruiser had significant combat value and, moreover, thanks to pre-war propaganda, the French associated it with the power of their country, so it was worth using it - this would allow them to inflict damage on the Germans and their allies, while simultaneously increasing the morale of the Free Soldiers. France". On the other hand, the design flaws of the boat, the poor training of its new crew and its unreliability led to the fact that many members of the Admiralty considered releasing the Surcouf into the sea as a useless and potentially dangerous undertaking. As a result, from April 1941 to January 1942, the boat was deployed on combat missions only twice, both times without any success. The condition of the crew was deplorable; sailors often found themselves under arrest or sent ashore for inappropriate behavior and various violations. Relations between officers and lower ranks were strained and reached the point of outright hostility, with many members of the team openly expressing doubts about the usefulness of the Free French armed forces as such. 
"Surcouf" at sea
On April 1, 1941, Surcouf left Halifax, her new home port, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, to join convoy HX 118. But on April 10, the order was suddenly changed without any explanation - "proceed at full speed to Devonport." This hasty and complete change of plan gave rise to increased rumors in the fleet that the Surcouf had destroyed the ships it was supposed to guard with its cannons.
On May 14, the submarine was ordered to go out into the Atlantic and conduct a free search until autonomy allowed, and then head to Bermuda. The purpose of the search is to intercept enemy floating supply bases.
Surcouf near Halifax
On November 21, Commander Louis Blaison reported from New London, Connecticut, that Surcouf had collided with an American submarine during maneuvers. The impact caused leaks in the third and fourth bow ballast tanks, which cannot be repaired without dry docking. Surcouf left New London without repairing these damages, with a new Englishman on board: signal officer Roger Burney, senior telegraphist Bernard Gough and senior signalman Harold Warner. What Bernie saw on the Surcouf horrified him. In his first report to Admiral Max Horton, commander of the submarine force, Burney expressed doubts about the commander's competence and concerns about the morale of the crew. He noted "great animosity between junior officers and ordinary sailors" who, although not hostile to the Allies, often questioned the relevance and usefulness of the Free French armed forces in their military operations, especially against the French. This first report from Bernie was hidden from the top of the Free French. 
Livery of the Surcouf as part of the Free French fleet
On December 20, Surcouf, together with three French corvettes, took part in the operation to liberate the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago. On the way from Halifax to Saint-Pierre, the Surcouf was caught in a storm, the conning tower was damaged by waves, and the gun turret was jammed. The boat lost seaworthiness in strong waves; its hatches, deck superstructures and torpedo tubes were damaged. She returned to Halifax, where she unexpectedly received a new assignment - to proceed to Tahiti with a call at Bermuda. There, the commander-in-chief of the British naval forces in the area of America and the West Indies, Admiral Charles Kennedy-Purvis, at the request of the commander of the submarine forces, Admiral Max Horton, was to receive young Burney for an oral report. Before leaving Halifax, Burney was returning to the submarine with a Canadian naval officer. When they parted, Bernie told him: “You just shook the hand of a dead man.”
Surcouf left Halifax on February 1, 1942 and was supposed to arrive in Bermuda on February 4, but arrived there late, having also received new damage. This time, defects were discovered in the main propulsion system, which would take several months to eliminate. On the way, she was battered several times by bad weather, which caused damage to the wheelhouse, gun turret and several torpedo tubes, and some of the hatches on the deck lost their airtightness. The plane had to be left on the shore due to malfunctions even earlier. The condition of the crew never improved, and it was also incomplete. Based on the results of the transition, the British observer concluded that the cruiser was completely uncombatable. The Admiralty, however, was more inclined to believe that the extent of the damage by the boat commander was exaggerated, and this was simply sabotage stemming from a reluctance to fight. 
Submarine "Surcouf" at the base
In a top secret telegram sent to Horton and then to the Admiralty, Admiral Kennedy-Purvis wrote: “The English liaison officer on the Surcouf has given me copies of his reports. After speaking with this officer and visiting the Surcouf, I am convinced that he is in no way exaggerates an extremely unfavorable state of affairs. The two main reasons, he noted, were the inertia and incompetence of the crew: "Discipline is unsatisfactory, the officers have almost lost control. The submarine has now lost its combat value. For political reasons it may be considered desirable to keep her in service, but, in my opinion, point of view, it should have been sent to the UK and written off."
However, Surcouf personified the spirit and power of the Free French naval forces. Admiral Horton sent his report to the Admiralty and, consequently, to Winston Churchill: “The commander of the Surcouf is a sailor who knows the ship and his duties well. The condition of the crew was negatively affected by long-term idleness and anti-British propaganda in Canada. In Tahiti, while defending my land, I I think “Surcouf” can bring significant benefits... “Surcouf” has a special attitude in the French navy, and Free France will be categorically against its decommissioning.” 
View of the "Surcouf" wheelhouse
The report about the damage to the submarine did not convince Horton: “Even if the intermediate repairs in Bermuda turn out to be unsatisfactory, on the way to Tahiti the Surcouf will still be able to go under water using one engine...”
On February 9, Surcouf received orders to proceed to Tahiti through the Panama Canal. On February 12, he left Bermuda and hit the road. The route was extremely dangerous, since the boat could not follow underwater due to damage, and therefore could easily become prey to its German colleagues, who were literally swarming in this region. Burney's last report was dated February 10: "Since my previous report of January 16, 1942, the conversations and events on board that I heard and observed further strengthened my opinion that the failures on the Surcouf were caused more by the incompetence and indifference of the crew than by open disloyalty..."
On February 12, Surcouf left Bermuda and headed through the Caribbean Sea, infested with German submarines. He was only able to go on the surface - Commander Blason would not go under water with a faulty engine. Apart from the calculated coordinates of the supposed location of "Surcouf", there is no more information about it.
Sectional model of the submarine "Surcouf"
On February 19, the adviser to the British consulate at Colona Port (at the entrance to the Panama Canal from the Caribbean Sea) sent a telegram via Bermuda to the Admiralty marked “Top Secret”: “The French submarine cruiser Surcouf has not arrived, I repeat, has not arrived.” The cable continued: "The US troop transport USS Thomson Lykes, leaving yesterday with a convoy heading north, returned today after colliding with an unidentified vessel, which apparently sank immediately, at 10:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) February 18 at 10 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, 79 degrees 30 minutes west. The transport searched at this point until 08.30 on February 19, but did not find any people or debris - the only trace was an oil slick. The lower part of the stem was seriously damaged.
“American authorities,” it was further reported, “have studied the report of the captain of the transport vessel, and an extensive search by aircraft is underway. According to unofficial information, preliminary investigation indicates that the unidentified vessel was a patrol boat. There is still no reliable information about all US submarines that could be in the area, but their involvement is considered unlikely."
Thus, the message about the disappearance of the boat immediately contained a version of its death, which later became official - in the darkness of the night, the boat, the location and course of which the Americans were not warned about, collided with the Thomson Likes transport and sank with the entire crew.
The official version is quite plausible, but has many questions and ambiguities. For example, none of the Thomson Likes crew saw what exactly their ship collided with, and representatives of the Free French were not allowed into the meetings of the commission investigating the collision and were not allowed to familiarize themselves with its materials. In addition, the next huge submarine 110 meters long on the surface was clearly difficult not to notice.
In the note that lay on Churchill’s desk, the following words of the telegram were crossed out: “... in the 15th Naval Region, the United States is clearly not informed about the route and speed of the French submarine cruiser Surcouf and cannot determine its location. The only message , which I transmitted to the Americans on February 17, was the mentioned encryption."
On March 15, 1942, a closed meeting of the official commission to investigate the Thomson Lykes incident began in New Orleans. From the English side, Captain 1st Rank Harwood, a representative of the submarine forces of the British Navy in Philadelphia, was sent as an observer, whose report to the British naval command in Washington said: “None of the witnesses saw the ship with which the collision occurred. Approximately a minute after the collision, a strong explosion was heard under the keel of the Thomson Likes. Extensive damage to the transport's stem well below the waterline gives reason to believe that the ship it crashed into was of large tonnage and sat low in the water. ("Surcouf" and "Thomson Lykes") inevitably had to pass close to each other." According to Garwood's calculations, the Surcouf was within 55 miles of the point where Thomson Likes reported the collision occurred.
The commission did not make a clear conclusion that Thomas Lykes collided with Surcouf. She only stated that the transport collided with “an unidentified vessel of unknown nationality, as a result of which this vessel and its crew were completely lost.” However, subsequent studies did not cast doubt on the fact that it was “Surcouf” that died. While the commission was meeting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a secret memorandum to the Office of Naval Intelligence, in which he indicated that the Surcouf actually sank several hundred miles further - off St. Pierre - on March 2, 1942. Hoover may have been referring to the port of Saint-Pierre in Martinique. Did the crew mutiny, as might be assumed from Gough's last message, and did they, exhausted by the Allied command, head to Martinique, deciding to sit out until the end of the war in this quiet harbor?
Some believe that the sinking of the “unreliable” Surcouf was planned by the Allies in advance, but was not made public so as not to spoil relations with the Free French. In 1983, a former Marine who served on the cruiser Savannah in 1942 said that his ship received orders in mid-February to team up with a certain English cruiser, and then find and sink the Surcouf, since it was firing at allied ships. True, according to this story, when the cruisers arrived at the appointed place, the Surcouf had already sank for other reasons.
For some time, rumors circulated around the ports of the Caribbean that the Surcouf was seen at different points in the sea after the date of the official death. The veracity of this gossip has been questioned. The submarine has disappeared...
Shortly after the disappearance of the Surcouf, representatives of the Free French first demanded an independent investigation, then permission to attend a commission meeting in New Orleans, and finally the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the Thomson Lykes ship's log. Whitehall rejected all these demands. And many months and even years later, the families of 127 French sailors and 3 English signalmen still knew nothing about the circumstances of the death of their loved ones.
If the Surcouf had to be sacrificed because its crew changed flags and defected to the pro-Nazi Vichy government, which resulted in attacks on allied ships, then, of course, all measures had to be taken to save the reputation of the Free French naval forces. . Any rumors of a riot or deliberate destruction of Surcouf by the Allies would provide invaluable propaganda material for the Nazis and Vichys. The Free French's political reputation would also suffer if one of its ships voluntarily defected to the enemy. So the official version of the death of Surcouf suited all parties. It was necessary to adhere to this version in the future, because the national pride of the French would not allow them to agree that the warship, included in the honorary list of the Free French, betrayed de Gaulle.
Unlike the previous ones, the version put forward by British researcher James Rusbridger looks very significant. In the documents of the American 6th Bomber Group, he found a record that on the morning of February 19, near Panama, a large submarine was “discovered and destroyed.” Since the German archives do not record the loss of boats in that area at the indicated time, it is logical to assume that it was the Surcouf. Most likely, the boat's radio was damaged by the collision with the Thomson Lykes the day before, and it simply could not let the pilots know that they were bombing their own, and the boat ended up in the Panama area because it was the closest allied port where it was possible to land repair.
There is another unproven, but interesting version:
The captain of the Thomas Lykes, who suddenly saw an unknown submarine in front of him, who had no warning of the presence of his ships in the area and Admiral Doenitz, who knew about the huge number of submarines in the area, may well have considered it necessary to sink the unfamiliar ship with a ramming attack.
During the work of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the Thomas Lykes accident, the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, sent a secret memorandum to the US Navy Intelligence Directorate, in which he reported that the Surcouf sank off the island of Martinique on March 3, 1942, i.e. almost 2 weeks after the Thomson Lykes collided with an unknown object.
The death of "Surcouf" as imagined by the artist Roberto Lunardo. If the boat had caught fire or exploded, it would definitely have been seen from the Thomson Likes transport.
Charles de Gaulle wrote in his memoirs: “At the end of December, a threat loomed over New Caledonia. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that New Caledonia was covering Australia, the main target of the enemy’s offensive. Meanwhile, on December 22, anticipating the Japanese occupation of our islands in Oceania, Vichy appointed Admiral Deco as High Commissioner of the French possessions in the Pacific, wanting, undoubtedly, with the support of the aggressor, to return our possessions to his rule, the Admiral did not stop calling on the population of New Caledonia to revolt against the Free France. Argenlieu, who had to overcome all kinds of difficulties and endure troubles, sent me reports full of energy, but not very encouraging. As for me personally, without ceasing to express to him my confidence that he would at least be able to save the honor of France, I gave the order. send to Noumea some of the reserves that we had: command personnel, naval guns, the auxiliary cruiser Cap de Palme and, finally, Surcouf, from which we could expect effective operations in the Pacific Ocean due to its qualities as a long-range submarine actions. But, alas, on the night of February 20, at the entrance to the Panama Canal, this largest submarine in the world collided with a merchant ship and sank with its commander, Captain 2nd Rank Blason, and a crew of 130 people."
The Surcouf itself would definitely shed light on what happened, but its wreckage has not yet been found. In 1965, amateur scuba diver Lee Prettyman claimed to have found the Surcouf at the bottom of Long Island Sound, but the story quickly fizzled out within a couple of newspaper articles. To this day, alternative theories of the death of Surcouf are put forward. One of the most popular says that the Surcouf crew nevertheless committed betrayal, and that a pair of American submarines, Mackerel and Marlin, discovered it in the Long Island Sound transferring supplies and fuel to a German submarine, as a result of which the “German ", and "French" were sunk. Variations on this version include a coastal defense airship or a British destroyer instead of American submarines.
If we accept the official version of the death of the Surcouf as a result of a collision with the Thomson Likes, then its wreckage should lie at a depth of about 3000 meters (9800 feet) at a point with coordinates 10 ° 40 "N 79 ° 32" W. However, this point of the seabed has not yet been explored using underwater vehicles and the exact location of the death of the Surcouf cannot be considered established. A huge submarine with powerful artillery weapons. pride of the French Navy
P.S.: memory of "Surcouf"
Surcouf was the largest French submarine. She served in both the French Navy and the Free Navy during World War II. She was lost on the night of 18/19 February 1942 in the Caribbean Sea, possibly after a collision with an American freighter. The boat was named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf. She was the largest submarine built until she was surpassed in 1943 by the first Japanese submarine, the I-400 class.
Historical context
The Washington Naval Treaty established strict restrictions on the naval construction of the major maritime powers and the movement and armament of battleships and cruisers. However, no agreements have been made to regulate the performance of light vessels such as frigates, destroyers or submarines. In addition, to ensure the defense of the country and its colonial empire, France organized the construction of a large submarine fleet (79 units in 1939). The Surcouf submarine was supposed to be the first in the class of submarines. However, it was the only one completed.
Role in the war
The mission of the new submarine model was as follows:
- Provide communication with the French colonies.
- In cooperation with French naval squadrons, search for and destroy enemy fleets.
- Chasing enemy convoys.
Armament
The cruiser Surcouf had a two-gun turret with a 203-millimeter (8-inch) gun, the same caliber as a heavy cruiser (the main reason why she was called a "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, a Besson MB.411 observation float aircraft was on board the ship - in a hangar built at the stern of the combat tower. However, the aircraft was also used to calibrate weapons.
The boat was equipped with twelve torpedo launchers, 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, manufactured in 1924, were located in a sealed turret. Surcouf's weapon had a magazine capacity of sixty rounds and was controlled by a mechanical computer with a rangefinder of five meters (16 ft), mounted high enough to see an eleven-kilometer (6.8 mi) horizon and capable of firing within three minutes of float. By using the boat's periscopes to control the fire of its main guns, Surcouf could increase this range to sixteen kilometers (8.6 mph; 9.9 mi). The lifting platform was originally intended to lift observation decks fifteen meters (49 ft) high, but this structure was quickly abandoned due to the tilting effect.
Additional equipment
The Besson surveillance aircraft was once used to direct fire to the gun's maximum range of 26 miles (42 km). An anti-aircraft gun and machine guns were installed on top of the hangar.
Surcouf also carried a 4.5 meter (14 ft 9 in) motorboat and contained a cargo hold with provisions for holding 40 prisoners or 40 passengers. The submarine's fuel tanks were very large.
The maximum safe diving depth was eighty meters, but the Surcouf submarine could dive to 110 meters without noticeable deformation of the thick hull, with a normal operating depth of 178 meters (584 ft). The diving depth was calculated to be 491 meters (1,611 ft).
Other characteristics
The first commander was frigate captain (a rank equivalent to commander) Raymond de Belote.
The ship encountered several technical problems due to its 203 mm guns.
Due to the low altitude of the rangefinder above the water surface, the practical range was 12,000 meters (13,000 yd) with the rangefinder (16,000 meters (17,000 yd) with a periscope sight), well below the normal maximum of 26,000 meters (28,000 yd).
The submarine cruiser Surcouf was not equipped to fire at night due to the inability to track the direction of the shot in the dark.
The mounts were designed to fire 14 rounds from each gun before their capacities were overloaded.
Appearance
The submarine cruiser Surcouf was never painted olive green, as shown in numerous models and drawings. From her launch until 1932, the boat was painted the same gray as surface warships, then "Prussian" dark blue, which remained until the end of 1940, when the boat was repainted in two shades of gray, serving camouflage on the hull and turret.
The French submarine cruiser Surcouf is often depicted in 1932 boat condition, flying the flag of the Free French Navy, which was not used until 1940.
History in the context of war
Shortly after the submarine's launch, the London Naval Treaty finally placed restrictions on submarine designs. 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 2,800 tons, with guns of no more than 150 mm (6.1 in) caliber. The Surcouf submarine, which would have exceeded these limits, was specifically exempted from the rules at the insistence of the Minister of the Navy Georges Leygues, but other large submarines of this class could no longer be built.
In 1940, Surcouf was based at Cherbourg, but in May, when the Germans invaded, she was transferred to Brest after a mission in the Antilles and the Gulf of Guinea. Crewed by the frigate Captain Martin, unable to submerge and running with only one engine and a jammed rudder, the boat drifted across the English Channel and sought refuge in Plymouth.
On July 3, the British, concerned that the French fleet would be captured by the German navy following France's surrender, carried out Operation Catapult. The Royal Navy blockaded the harbors where the French warships were moored, and the British gave the French sailors an ultimatum: join the battle against Germany, sail out of reach of the Germans, or be sunk by the British. French sailors reluctantly accepted their allies' terms. However, the North African Fleet in Mers el-Kebir and ships based in Dakar (West Africa) refused. The French battleships in North Africa were eventually attacked and all but one sank at their berths.
French ships in ports in Britain and Canada also took on armed marines, sailors and soldiers, but the only serious incident occurred at Plymouth on board the HMS Surcouf on 3 July, when two Royal Navy submarine officers and a French ensign, Yves Daniel were mortally wounded, and British sailor L. S. Webb was shot by the ship's doctor.
After the defeat of France
By August 1940, the British completed the conversion of the Surcouf submarine and returned it to the French allies, giving it to the Free Navy (Forces Navales Françaises Libres, FNFL) for convoy protection. The only officer not repatriated from the original crew, frigate captain Georges Louis Blason became the new commander. Due to tensions between England and France regarding the submarine, each state made accusations that the other was spying for Vichy France. The British also claimed that the Surcouf boat attacked their ships. Later, a British officer and two sailors were sent on board to maintain communications with London. One of the real drawbacks of the boat was that it required a crew of over one hundred men, which represented three crews by conventional submarine standards. This led to the Royal Navy's reluctance to accept her again.
The submarine then went to the Canadian base in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and escorted transatlantic convoys. In April 1941 the boat was damaged by a German aircraft at Devonport.
After the Americans entered the war
On July 28, Surcouf departed for the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for three months of repairs.
After leaving the shipyard, the cruiser sailed to New London, Connecticut, possibly to receive additional training for her crew. Surcouf left New London on November 27 and returned to Halifax.
In December 1941, the ship carried French Admiral Emile Muselier to Canada, arriving in Quebec. While the admiral was in Ottawa conferring with the Canadian government, the captain of the boat was approached by New York Times reporter Ira Wolfer and asked about rumors whether it was true that the submarine would liberate Saint-Pierre and Miquelon for the Free French. Wolfer escorted the submarine to Halifax, where on December 20 they were joined by the Free French corvettes Mimosa, Aconite and Alisse, and on December 24 the fleet took control of the Free French islands without resistance.
United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull had just concluded an agreement with the Vichy government guaranteeing the neutrality of French possessions in the Western Hemisphere, and threatened to resign if United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to enter the war. Roosevelt did so, but when Charles de Gaulle refused to accept this treaty between the Americans and the Vichys, Roosevelt shelved the issue. Ira Wolfert's stories, which were very favorable to the Free French, contributed to the severance of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vichy France. The entry of the United States into the war in December 1941 automatically canceled 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 the submarine, named after the pirate Surcouf, to the Pacific theater after it was re-deployed to the Royal Navy Dockyard in Bermuda. Her move south gave rise to rumors that she intended to liberate Martinique from the Vichys in the name of Free France.
War with Japan
After the outbreak of war with Japan, the submarine's crew was ordered to sail to Sydney (Australia) via Tahiti. She departed Halifax on 2 February for Bermuda, which she left on 12 February, bound for the Panama Canal.
Submarine "Surcouf". Where did you die?
The cruiser disappeared on the night of February 18–19, 1942, approximately 80 miles (70 nautical miles or 130 km) north of Cristobal, Colon, en route to Tahiti via the Panama Canal. The US report states that the disappearance was due to an accidental collision with the US cargo ship Thompson Lykes, sailing alone from Guantanamo Bay on that very dark night. The cargo ship reported hitting an object that scraped its side and keel.
The crash killed 130 people (including four Royal Navy personnel) under the command of Captain Georges Louis Nicolas Blason. The loss of the submarine Surcouf was officially disclosed by Free French headquarters in London on April 18, 1942, and was reported by the New York Times the next day. However, it was not initially reported that the cruiser was sunk as a result of a collision with an American ship until January 1945.
Investigation
A French commission investigation concluded that the disappearance was the result of a misunderstanding. A consolidated Allied patrol patrolling the same waters on the night of 18–19 February could have attacked the submarine, believing it to be German or Japanese. This theory is supported by several facts:
- Testimony from the crew of the cargo ship Thompson Lykes, which accidentally collided with the submarine, described it as smaller than it actually was. This evidence is very often referred to in all publications on this topic.
- The damage done to the American vessel was too light for it to collide with the cruiser.
- The position of the submarine, named after Robert Surcouf, did not correspond to any position of German submarines at that time.
- The Germans recorded no submarine losses in this sector during the war.
The investigation into the incident was spontaneous and belated, while a later French investigation confirmed the theory that the sinking was due to "friendly fire".
This conclusion was supported by Rear Admiral Aufan in his book The French Navy in the Second World War, in which he states: "For reasons that do not appear to have been political, she was rammed at night in the Caribbean by the American cargo ship."
Since no one has officially checked the cruiser's wreck site, its whereabouts are unknown. If we assume that the incident with the American cargo ship actually led to the sinking of the submarine, then its wreckage should lie at a depth of three thousand meters (9,800 feet).
A monument commemorating the sinking of the submarine stands in the port of Cherbourg in Normandy, France.
Speculation and conspiracy theories
Since there is no definitive confirmation that the Thompson Lykes collided with the submarine, and its wreck site has still not been discovered, there are alternative theories about the fate of the Surcouf submarine.
Despite the predictable story that she was swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle (a fantasy zone that emerged two decades after the submarine disappeared), one of the most popular theories is that the submarine was sunk either by the American submarines USS Mackerel and Marlin, or by a coastal airship. US security. On April 14, 1942, a certain ship fired at them with torpedoes while en route from New London to Norfolk. The torpedoes missed, but the return fire had no effect. Some speculated that the attack was carried out by the Surcouf, sparking rumors that the submarine's crew had defected to the German side.
In response to the above theory, Captain Julius Grigore, Jr., who had extensively researched and written a book on the history of the Surcouf, offered a prize of one million dollars to anyone who could prove that the submarine had engaged in activities detrimental to the Allied cause. As of 2018, the prize has not been awarded, because such a craftsman has not yet been found.
James Russbridger outlined some of the theories in his book Who Sank Surcouf? He found that they were all easy to refute, except for one - the records of the 6th Heavy Bomber Group departing from Panama show that they sank a large submarine on the morning of 19 February, since no German submarines were lost in the area that day. boat, it could have been the Surcouf. The author suggested that the collision damaged the Surcouf's radio, and the damaged boat drifted towards Panama hoping for the best.
Pirate Robert Surcouf could not even imagine 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 Surcouf is part of a conspiracy by the Skull and Bones organization. The plot involved efforts by a secret society to destroy the submarine's remains before they were found in 2008. There are a lot of such speculations, because “Surcouf” is the tiger of the seven seas, and his strange disappearance was an unpleasant surprise for everyone.
Douglas Riemann's novel Strike from the Sea tells the story of Surcouf's fictional sister ship, Soufrière, which is handed over to the Royal Navy by its French crew and subsequently used for the defense of Singapore before being transferred to the Free French Navy.
The French love for submarines
The French World War II submarine fleet was one of the largest in the world at the time. It played a significant role during World War II, but had a checkered service history due to France's strange position during the war. During the conflict, almost sixty submarines, more than 3/4 of the total number, were lost.
After World War I, France had a fleet of almost forty submarines of various classes, as well as eleven former German submarines. They were largely obsolete (all had been scrapped by the 1930s) and France was interested in replacing them.
At the same time, the world's major powers were negotiating an arms limitation treaty at the 1922 Washington Naval Conference. There was talk of a complete ban on submarines, that is, of banning their use (a course favored by Great Britain). France and Italy opposed this. However, the conference placed limits on the number and size of various types of warships that countries could build. The naval submarine was limited to a displacement of one and a half tons, while the coastal submarine was limited to 600 tons, although there was no limit on the number of these vessels that could be built.
The first submarines built by France after World War I were three submarines. Originally built to a Romanian order, they were completed for the French Navy and entered service in 1921.
In 1923, the French Navy placed orders for a series of Type 2 coastal and offshore vessels. The order was placed with three different design offices, resulting in three different designs with the same technical characteristics. Known collectively as the 600 series, these were the Sirène, Ariane and Circé classes, ten boats in total. They were followed in 1926 by the 630 series, three more classes from the same bureau. These were the Argonaute, Orion and Diane classes, with another sixteen boats. In 1934 the Navy chose the Admiralty's standardized design, the six-boat Minerve class, and in 1939 the Aurore class, a larger, much improved version of the Minerve. And another 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 cruiser, superior to other navies at the time. In 1926 she built Surcouf, for many years the largest submarine ever built. However, the ship played little role in French naval strategy, and the experiment was not repeated.
Thus, in 1939, France had a fleet of 77 submarines, making it the fifth largest submarine force in the world at the time. Destroyers of the Surcouf type played a huge role in its fleet.
