Surcouf (N N 3)

The "Surcouf" (N N 3) was a French submarine ordered to be built in December 1927, launched 18 October 1929, and commissioned May 1934. At the beginning of World War II, "Surcouf" was the largest submarine in the world. Her short wartime career was marked with controversy and conspiracy theories.

Early career

The Washington Naval Treaty had placed strict limits on naval construction by the major naval powers, but submarines had been omitted. The French Navy attempted to take advantage of this by building three "corsair submarines", of which "Surcouf" was the first (and only one).

"Surcouf" was designed as an "underwater cruiser", intended to seek and engage in surface combat. For reconnaissance, she carried an observation float plane in a hangar built abaft of the conning tower; for combat, she was armed with 12 torpedo tubes and twin 203mm/50 Modèle 1924 guns in a watertight turret forward of the conning tower. The guns were fed from a magazine holding 60 rounds and controlled by a director with a 5-metre rangefinder, mounted high enough to view a seven-mile (11 km) horizon. In theory, the Besson MB.411 observation plane could direct fire out to the guns' fifteen-mile (24 km) maximum range. Anti-aircraft cannon and machine guns were mounted on the top of the hangar.

"Surcouf" also carried a 5-metre motorboat, and contained a cargo compartment with fittings to restrain 40 prisoners. The submarine's fuel tanks were very large; enough fuel for a convert|10000|nmi|km|-4|sing=on range and supplies for 90-day patrols could be carried.

World War II

In 1940, "Surcouf" was based in Cherbourg, but in June, when the Germans invaded, she was being refitted in Brest. With only one engine functioning and with a jammed rudder, she limped across the English Channel and sought refuge in Plymouth. On 3 July, the British, concerned that the French Fleet would be taken over by the German Kriegsmarine when the French surrendered, executed Operation Catapult. The Royal Navy blockaded the harbours where French warships were anchored and delivered an ultimatum: re-join the fight against Germany, be put out of reach of the Germans or scuttle the ships. Most accepted willingly, with two notable exceptions: the North African fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and the ships based at Dakar (see battle of Dakar). These condemned the British "treachery" and (in the former instance) suffered hundreds of casualties when the British opened fire. "Surcouf" also resisted and in capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. The acrimony between the British and French caused by these actions escalated when the British attempted to repatriate the captured French sailors: the British hospital ship that was carrying them back to France was sunk by the Germans, and many of the French blamed the British for the deaths.

Free French Naval Forces

By August 1940, the British completed "Surcouf"'s refit and turned her over to the Free French Navy ("Forces Navales Françaises Libres", FNFL) for convoy patrol. The only officer not repatriated from the original crew, Louis Blaison, became the new commander. Because of the British-French tensions with regard to the submarine, accusations were made by each side that the other was spying for Vichy France; the British also claimed that "Surcouf" was attacking British ships. Later, a British officer and two sailors were put on board for "liaison" purposes. One real drawback of this ship was that it required a crew of 110-130 men, which represented three crews of more conventional submarines. This led the Royal Navy to be reluctant to her recommissioning.

In December 1941, "Surcouf" carried the Free French Admiral Émile Muselier to Canada, putting in to Quebec City. While the Admiral was in Ottawa, conferring with the Canadian government, "Surcouf"'s captain was approached by New York Times reporter Ira Wolfert and questioned about the rumours that the submarine would liberate Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (a French archipelago some 30 kilometres south of Newfoundland) for Free France from Vichy control. It was rumoured, but never confirmed, that "Surcouf's" captain kidnapped Wolfert, smuggled him to the submarine in the trunk of a car, and imprisoned him aboard. However, Wolfert did accompany the submarine to Halifax, Nova Scotia where, on 20 December, they joined the Free French corvettes "Mimosa", "Aconit", and "Alysse", and on 24 December took control of the islands for Free France without resistance.

United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who had just concluded an agreement with the Vichy government for the neutrality of French possessions in the Western hemisphere, threatened to resign unless President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt demanded a restoration of the status quo. Roosevelt did so, but when Charles de Gaulle refused, he dropped the matter. Ira Wolfert's stories, very favourable to the Free French (and bearing no sign of kidnapping or other duress), helped swing American popular opinion away from Vichy.

Another rumour associated with this event is that, on 1 January 1942, Roosevelt did send an American destroyer to Saint-Pierre to restore it to Vichy control. "Surcouf" allegedly fired on the destroyer, killing one or two American sailors. No documentation supports this rumour, and significant circumstantial evidence contradicts it. Fact|date=March 2008 It is documented that later that January the Free French decided to send "Surcouf" to the Pacific theatre of war after she resupplied at Bermuda. Her movement south triggered rumours that she was going to liberate Martinique for the Free French from Vichy.

On 18 February 1942, "Surcouf" was lost with all hands. An official joint U.S. and Free French report stated that she left Bermuda on 12 February and was accidentally rammed and sunk by the American freighter "Thompson Lykes" off the north coast of Panama near the Panama canal. The report states that the accident was due to both vessels running at night with no lights because of the menace of German U-boats. A later French investigation commission stated that the "Surcouf" had been sunk by US planes in the morning of the 18th in a "friendly fire" accident in the same area.

Legend

Like so much else about "Surcouf", there are alternate stories of her end. Disregarding the predictable ones about her being swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, one of the most popular is that she was caught in Long Island Sound refuelling a German U-boat, and both submarines were sunk, either by the American submarines USS|Mackerel|SS-204|6 and USS|Marlin|SS-205|6, or a United States Coast Guard blimp.

Many stories add that much of the gold from the French Treasury was in "Surcouf"'s large cargo compartment, and that the wreck was found and entered in 1967 by Jacques Cousteau.

urcouf in Fiction

Douglas Reeman's novel "Strike From the Sea", published in 1978, features a fictional sister ship of the "Surcouf", named "Soufriere" (ISBN 0688033199).

ee also

* Japanese I-400 class submarine
* HM Submarine X1
* Submarine aircraft carrier
* HMS M2

References

* James Rusbridger, "Who sank Surcouf?: The truth about the disappearance of the pride of the French navy" (1991, Century, London) ISBN 0712639756

External links

* [http://perso.orange.fr/sous-marin.france/NN3.htm NN3 Specs] fr icon
* [http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/FrenchSubmarineSurcoufthe.html Surcouf and M.B.411]
* [http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/02fonds-collections/banquedocuments/planbato/planbato/fichebato/fichbato.php?id=472 Plans de bateaux: Notice du SURCOUF 1929] — plans of "Surcouf" fr icon